Babylon

Research Areas - GAIC

The GAIC Network addresses the nexus of health care with (i) ICT and technological innovation, (ii) changing global demographics, and (iii) mobility of people through migration. An understanding of the agency, representation and leadership of women is relevant in all of these research areas, approached from an inclusive and rigorous analysis of societal representations in contemporary, historically informed and post-colonial paradigms. Special emphasis is given to those most vulnerable in society, post conflict and unstable settings. The objective is to strengthen the possibilities of creating societal change by generating new ideas through exchange.

The following research projects have been developed by GAIC and are supported by PhD, masters and bachelor research projects.

Increased Mobility of Vulnerable People

Increased Mobility of Vulnerable People: Human Trafficking and Care Needs in Africa

In this research program on Human Trafficking, Sinai Trafficking was coined and described on the basis of explorative work by Van Reisen, Estefanos & Rijken (2012, 2014) and defined in terms of Human Trafficking in Van Reisen & Rijken (2015). It identifies increased access to ICT as a starting point for new forms of migration and trafficking. This is changing the lifes of migrants, but also impacts on the modus operandi of smuggling and trafficking networks.

This research introduces the term 'Sinai Trafficking' and defines it in the framework of Trafficking in Human Beings. It also introduces a new concept, called the Trafficking Cycle. Current research examines the evolution of Sinai Trafficking examined in terms of its geograhpic scope on the basis of new and recent interviews. What is the occurrence of Sinai Trafficking in Sinai, has it diminished in Sinai and if so what is the reason for this? Has Sinai Trafficking been expanding to other countries and can this be linked to the original Trafficking of Human Beings in Sinai? What is the relationship between the Trafficking and the refugee challenge of Mediterranean Sea Refugees? What is the situation of minors in this group of migrants? What are the needs of the victims of trafficking and how can they be better assisted in structural ways to build a meaningful life? How can ICT play a role to address those needs, organize community protection and strengthen global diaspora ties?

This research project is carried out by Prof. Mirjam van Reisen (coordinator) and Dr. Conny Rijken, in collaboration with Europe External Policy Advisors (EEPA) with support from ICCO/KiA and EMW.

Reading:

Sinai Trafficking: Origin and Definition of a New Form of Human Trafficking

The Human Trafficking Cycle: Sinai and Beyond

Cost-benefit analysis of Cash Transfer Programs and ...

Cost-benefit analysis of Cash Transfer Programs and Post Trauma Services for Economic Empowerment of Women in Uganda

This research focuses on the cost effectiveness of interventions initiated to strengthen the potential and capacity of female survivors of violence in Uganda. The three interventions which this study investigates are cash transfers, trauma-related health and psycho-social support, and support through radio and social media. Interest on effectiveness of the three interventions is due to the recognition that violent conflict especially in Northern Uganda did not only lead to destruction of people's livelihoods but also left survivors psychologically traumatised. The challenge is that the social protection programmes initiated by the Government of Uganda do not address psycho-social effects of violence despite evidence that psycho-social support is important in economic empowerment of people affected by violent conflict. Because the relationship between cash transfers, trauma treatment and economic integration in post conflict societies remains unclear, the objective of this research is to determine the cost-effectiveness of 'pure' social protection programmes (cash transfers) with social protection programmes that are complementary to other social policies: post trauma health and psycho-social support and radio support. The research question is: what is the relationship between cash transfers, the use of health services, and radio/social media targeted programmes with economic development?

 

The research design incorporates qualitative and quantitative methods. Data will initially be collected through in-depth interviews and story collection. This will be then be analysed to prepare questionnaires for subsequent data collection. In-depth interviews including stories generated will be analysed by use of the Barrett method. Focus group meetings will be held with respondents to discuss the findings and aid in interpretation of the findings.

Evidence generated will provide insight to policy actors on appropriate policies and combination of interventions that would be cost efficient in attaining economic empowerment and inclusion of women in post conflict contexts. To enhance uptake of the findings, key messages will be disseminated through radios talk shows and during a workshop with policy makers in Uganda.

Consortium Members: Prof. Mirjam Van Reisen, Tilburg University - Coordinator; Ruth Ojiambo Ochieng, Isis-Women's International Cross Cultural Exchange (Isis-WICCE); Prof. Eugene Kinyala, Makerere University, College of Health Sciences; Prof. Pamela Mbabazi K., Mbarara University of Science and Technology.

Reading:

Women's Leadership in Peace-Building. Conflict, Community and Care

ICT Innovation and Health Care in Africa

ICT Innovation and Health Care in Africa

This research project identifies the potential of ICT innovation as a driver for decentralization of health care and organizing universal access for health care in low income and post conflict settings. The Ebola crisis has demonstrated that the need for structural health care access needs to be addressed with much greater urgency. Crisis driven solutions are unethical, expensive and pose a threat to global health. The ICT solutions are providing new abilities to give access to health care, improve diagnostics and expand possibilities for effective treatment. The fact that data science − analyzing data-sourcing and data-repositories by means of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) − provides new empirical areas for academic understanding. The advance in data diagnostics and international collaboration with communication network providers, be it satellite or mobile, and with data repositories derived from health related devices, from i- and e-Health, and from the internet, can help the development of solutions in the future. Resilience is a precondition for successful interventions to prevent crises such as Ebola from spiraling. More attention in research is needed to identify how community perspectives inform and enhance meaningful interventions. How do interventions relate to the empowerment of local communities and support women as leaders in families, communities and beyond? How do ICT stimulate the transformation of collective action into 'connective action'? There is a need to enhance understanding of the contribution of technology to developments in the field of access to health care and its embedding in context, culture and governance.

This research area is coordinated by Prof. Mirjam van Reisen and Prof. Gerard van Oostmerssen. A submission has been completed with a consortium of the following partners: Kenya Medical Research Institute, Kenyatta University, Africa Medical Research Foundation, Philips, SES and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Science.

Changing Demographics

Changing Demographics: Decentralized Health Care for the Elderly in African and Europe

The research project on Decentralized Health Care for the Elderly is studies change in society and its access to health care, from the perspective of global changes in demographics and technology. The aim of the research is to help ensure access to health care in low-income and rural communities and post-conflict areas as well as vulnerable people such as the elderly. A vision on global health care requires an understanding of a healthy global community. Ideas about 'care' are changing as a result of social and political pressure. International exchanges provide engagement with totally new care contexts, leading to reflection and new insights that may translate into new knowledge and policies. As such exchange can contribute to transformation of care, both locally and globally. Mobility and migration provide opportunities for learning and the development of new ideas that may impact on policy agendas.

This research project is coordinated by Prof. Mirjam van Reisen and carried out with elderly care providers in Europe and in Africa, including Zorgcombinatie Marga Klompé, Stichting Suwa Nawa and Cordaid.

Comprehensive Approach to Migration and Care

Comprehensive Approach to Migration and Care

Migration policies split migrants in different categories, attaching different opportunities and restrictions to them through such categorizations. Studying needs of migrants demonstrate that such needs go far beyond and across such established demarcations. The needs for belonging, identity, and inclusion transcend the classical categories. Policies that focus unilaterally on addressing needs for care within the boundaries of the legal definitions that provide the basis for categorization may fail as the reality of the migrants is informed by other parameters. ICT and connectivity have profoundly impacted on the information, exchange and images that drive mobility and migration decisions. Demographics and ageing are important new characteristics for many migrant communities. Equally so are the importance attributed by members of migrants’ communities to exchange of newly acquired skills and professions with which migrant communities may hope to contribute to improve health care in their countries of origin.

The classical push and pull theories are an illustration of a paradigm underpinning migration policy that leads to a top down informed migrants’ care system that does not evoke agency and responsibility of the migrant networks and communities. Migrants are treated as objects of policy and study, and rarely are migrants included as agents. Yet the restrictive measures themselves may become a facilitator of migration, as is shown in the drivers of smuggling and migration. A pertinent agenda for research emerges from these observations with central questions posed on the possibilities for a research and action agenda that is driven by migrant communities, providing a comprehensive migration approach, which identifies what restrictions on migration are unhelpful to facilitate increased circularity of migrants and which identifies new forms of exchange, leadership building and professionalization of care and elderly care by involving migrants capacities in countries of origin.

The Dutch Ghanaian diaspora organization Recogin has approached GAIC with a proposal to pilot such an approach in Ghana.

This research area is coordinated by Prof. Mirjam van Reisen and Antony Anga-yo Otieno (PhD) and supported by Recogin, VOSAW, Stichting Maatwerk bij Terugkeer.