Research Council of Norway, grant on "Armed Conflict and Maternal Health in Sub-Saharan Africa",
2014-2016, (Lead PI: Gudrun Østby PRIO, Norway)
This project aims to increase our knowledge about how armed conflict impacts maternal health, which is crucial for formulating humanitarian policies to improve women’s health after conflict. We use disaggregated conflict data to investigate local effects of civil war on health indicators. This allows us to assess various measures of maternal health, account for contextual factors, and consider potential diffusion effects of poor maternal health into neighboring regions. Finally, we study the determinants of maternal health in post-conflict societies to identify the most effective intervention strategies. Attempting to ameliorate conflict-related biases in health data, we combine statistical analysis of secondary data from sources such as the Demographic Health Surveys with qualitative analysis through fieldwork. While many studies focus exclusively on direct effects of interventions, like the provision of obstetrical care, an innovation of this project is to also address political, socioeconomic, and cultural factors.
Mid-Career Fellowship, 2012-2013, British Academy, PI (£98,484)
The goal of the fellowship is to develop the research findings emerged from the fieldwork in Liberia into a manuscript and disseminate the research to non-academic audiences. Beyond academic publications, the dissemination strategies included talks to the local community, organization of workshops where practitioners and representatives of NGOs were invited, presentation of findings to academic audiences from different disciplines, and dissemination of briefs to international NGOs such as Kvinna til Kvinna a leading Swedish NGO in peacebuilding and gender equality, Global Action to Prevent War (United Nations), and SIPRI USA. Some of the findings in the research have spilled into a new book proposal on the policy implications of UN SC 1325 which is under consideration with Routledge.
ESRC Research Grant: RES-000-22-4306: "A Country of their Own: Women’s Organisations and Peacebuilding", PI (£ 43,300)
This grant funded fieldwork in Liberia in April and June 2011. The project used semi-structured interviews in Liberia to analyse patterns of interaction in between local women's organisations and the UN. It gathered relevant information both from representatives from women's organisation as well as external participants in peacebuilding, such as UN officials and non-governmental organisations. The research project has documented: (1) Significant variations in local capacity of women’s organizations that create better prospects for peacebuilding projects. (2) Limited local-external interaction. While UN and INGOs are more active in areas where local society is more vibrant and organized, they do not fully engage with local actors, especially women’s organizations. (3) The limited interaction between the UN missions and women’s organizations leads to mistrust from both sides, weakening the effect of peacebuilding policies. The project has generated research outputs in process of publication, presentations at international conferences and invited workshop, and has fostered international collaborations among academic researchers.
BISA – C-SAP Teaching Award for Excellence in Teaching International Studies for 2010/2011