Navigating an interdisciplinary, multilingual project during the pandemic: teamwork is key

Project Team members (Source: author)

Written by: Bronwen Webster

Whilst working as a research assistant for Dr Briony Jones in November 2019, I joined a project team exploring the search for victims of enforced disappearance in Colombia and El Salvador, specifically the legal frameworks and search mechanisms available for families and friends as they search for their disappeared loved ones. The team consisted of researchers from search organisations in Colombia and El Salvador, namely Dejustica and Pro Búsqueda, the practice-oriented research institute swisspeace and the universities of Lausanne and Warwick. The project was funded by the Swiss Network for International Studies (SNIS). Considering the global scope of the project, it was managed by a remarkably small team of ten members. Five of them were working in Dejustica and Pro Búsqueda and played a vital part in the project by conducting the interviews of eleven different relatives and civil society actors in Colombia and El Salvador. Assessing these interviews alongside the legal frameworks and the actors involved in the search formed the basis of the project’s analysis.

Although the project team managed to meet a few times in person, it relied to a great degree on online collaboration from the start due to its international scope. As such, not much seemed to change when the world first plunged into lockdown back in March 2020. Whilst technology would always be necessary for a global project, the pandemic made online video calls even more essential. However, the ease with which the team worked together makes it easy to overlook the challenge of pulling-off an interdisciplinary, multilingual project, spanning organisations, time zones and languages, not forgetting the small issue of a global pandemic. So, what exactly made the project tick?

Throughout my time working with the team, I have noticed that the willingness of team members to learn from one another is crucial to the project’s success. Being part of an interdisciplinary project requires that you step out of your comfort zone, that being the discipline in which you are trained, and learn about a topic from a new and different angle. The range of disciplines within the project was diverse, spanning from practitioners and academics who were psychologists to traditionally trained lawyers and to political scientists. This allowed the team to analyse the experiences of the families and friends of the disappeared through three main paradigms: the legal, the psychosocial and the political. Regular communication, as a whole and in break-out groups, was not just a requirement but a necessity. It enabled the team to draw out how exactly these paradigms overlapped and combined to produce a lived experience for the victims of enforced disappearance. This was coupled with an open approach, which provided each team member the space and guidance they needed to understand such a complex topic. Personally, coming from a political science background, I found the team’s constant willingness to explain the legal frameworks at play really encouraged me to cultivate my own ideas, and feel at ease in communicating them.

When lockdown hit, we were lucky to have already been working together for a year, so the online environment did not faze us. In fact, not only did the team seamlessly continue in its work, but the regular meetings became a much-needed point of familiarity during the uncertainty of those first lockdown days. This enabled meetings to feel fluid and allowed for spontaneity within meetings as we brainstormed ideas. This is crucial when analysing a difficult and emotional topic through not just one, but three distinctly different disciplines.

The importance of cultivating this interdisciplinarity has become increasingly apparent to me as I have been helping to write the last of the three resulting papers. The paper explores the intersection between the legal and social definitions of what it means to be a ‘victim’ of enforced disappearance. Six members of the team have helped to write the paper, which is based on the methodological guidance of Mina, a Swiss-based academic specialising in psychology, and Lisa, a Swiss-based lawyer, who coordinates the whole project. I wrote the introduction, delving into the sociological definitions of the victim’s identity: Alejandro, a Colombian lawyer, and Ana, a Swiss-based lawyer, complemented this with outlines of the legal developments in both countries. Pamela, a Salvadorian psychologist, and Mina then analysed the interviews of the victims. Following this, Mina and Lisa edited the paper as a whole. All of our work on the paper took place through online conversations to explore the legal concepts and perceptions that victims had referred to across the disciplines, languages, and local contexts. Co-drafting a document on Google Drive meant that each of us could edit and see the edits of others in real-time, allowing us to work simultaneously on the paper and streamline our arguments. This short description provides a snapshot of the workings of an interdisciplinary project in reality.

Finally, what stood out most for me was the team’s warm and welcoming attitude. This attitude lies at the heart of the project’s success as a multi- and interdisciplinary project. Each team member not only brought something uniquely valuable to the table but was encouraged to actively develop their ideas across the disciplines; it is precisely this collage of different disciplines that has led to such rich analyses and conclusions.

Author’s Bio:

Bronwen Webster completed her Masters in International Development at the University of Warwick in September 2020, during which time she became involved in the SNIS project whilst working as a research assistant for Dr Briony Jones. She also holds a Bachelors from the University of Warwick in German and English.

Links to project pages:

WICID

Swiss Network for International Studies

swisspeace

Dejustica’s “virtual museum”, which the project helped bring to life.

Mouzayian Khalil : 25 May 2021 11:10 |  Tags: Columbia Coronavirus Pandemic El-Salvador Interdisciplinary Research Multilingual Projects Victim Search |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Vaccine Nationalism’s Impact on Developing Countries

Written by Dana Justus

(FrankyDeMeyer / iStockphoto)

Vaccine nationalism, meaning that higher-income countries are buying up disproportionate amounts of vaccine doses for their own populations, has been a concern since the first COVID-19 vaccines entered clinical trial phases in mid-2020. Multilateral solidarity seems to have given way to competitive behaviour in light of what a recent RAND survey called the ‘arms race’ towards global vaccination. This will affect not only poorer regions, but also the global economy with expected losses of trillions (USD) in global GDP. While this behaviour might seem like a logical consequence of self-protection, there is a need for closer examination. For example, Germany alone has ordered at least 323 million doses from six different vaccines for a population of 83 million. The EU seems to find themselves in the middle of a fight of political wills by promoting global value chains and calling for global cooperation. At the same time, they are threatening vaccine manufacturers over ambiguous contractual obligations favouring EU citizens in a row that could threaten vaccine distribution.

Global immunity is seen as the primary means to end the worst of the COVID-19 pandemic and has substantial implications for global health governance. Yet, it would be a misconception to argue that the approval of several vaccines for rollout is equivalent to a cure-all solution. In addition to limited access for developing countries, there are problems of logistics and storage, not to forget widespread hesitancy to get vaccinated due to misinformation. Beyond humanitarian reasons to promote vaccines for all, the phrase “no-one is safe until everyone is safe” is more than just a campaign slogan for COVAX. The pandemic has shown by now that global cooperation is a necessary means for global recovery. More so, the crisis presents the international community with the opportunity to strengthen fragile health systems holistically. The pandemic has already complicated access to health care services around the world, resulting in setbacks for childhood immunisations in 70 developing countries. Additionally, treatments for non-communicable diseases and routine surgeries have become hard to come by with millions of patients affected worldwide.

Continued delays to the global vaccine rollout will result in substantial economic shocks and developing countries will likely see the worst of these effects. Prolonged exposure to physical distancing measures and public disinvestments will not only affect global supply chains but are already inhibiting progress on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Food insecurity was already rising before the emergence of this virus while continued restrictions and resulting threats to people’s livelihoods are active threats to food systems and efforts to alleviate global hunger. This adds to the problem of infrastructure. India and South Africa have high production capacities (India is home to the largest producer of vaccines worldwide), but also have high exposure and mortality rates, while the poor and rural populations are difficult to reach. The situation in India today is highly problematic; as the country is experiencing new daily totals of over 300,000 infections, immunisation efforts are seriously constrained by the struggling health system. Chile, on the other hand, has been impressively fast to vaccinate its mostly rural population but cases are rising nonetheless, resulting in significant problems for health services and political stability. Middle-income countries may find themselves in the difficult position of being neither too rich, nor too poor for receiving vaccines in the short term, especially problematic considering they are more susceptible to economic shocks than some high-income countries. Competition between buyers – in addition to companies’ manufacturing problems – are actively constraining public health campaigns for widespread rollouts, while resulting issues for health services are likely to induce setbacks for building back societies.

Middle-and lower-income countries not adequately recovering from the pandemic will lead to hundreds of billions in GDP losses for rich countries. Such numbers suggest significant economic incentives for affected nations to commit to equitable vaccinations. In the wordsof the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC), ‘a US$ 27.2 billion investment on the part of advanced economies – the current funding shortfall […] – is capable of generating returns as high as 166x the investment’. Thus far, COVAX is set out to distribute 1.8-2 billion doses to 92 lower-income countries. Despite these promising numbers experts claim that COVAX is insufficient, ‘wholly unequipped’ to meet the 70% target for global immunisation. Moreover, World Bank assessments of countries’ vaccination readiness show dramatic shortfalls when it comes to safety systems (68%), trained staff (30%), and social engagement strategies (27%) which are necessary to meet vaccine hesitancy.

Consequently, there is a clear need and opportunity to strengthen public health beyond borders, to invest in human capital and facilitate access to medical tools. Such efforts could build widespread resilience in those regions which are still most susceptible to public health emergencies. Research shows that this is not “just” a humanitarian mission or an ethical motivation; there are significant economic incentives for rich countries to open themselves up to equitable vaccine distribution. Calling on leaders to share unused vaccine doses is a start, but achieving global targets will nonetheless require a more widespread response to expand capacities in poorer regions in order to avoid gaps in time and prevent likely new mutations. If this pandemic has shown us something, it is that there is a clear discrepancy between economically-motivated and public-good policy-making. Given the unequal speed of vaccine rollouts and rapidly rising case rates in countries like Chile, Germany and India in spite of access to high quantities of vaccines, it should become clear that domestic immunisation is not the singular solution for recovery. It is time for global leaders to re-invest in existing global governance mechanisms as it has become obvious that this crisis is truly global – and thus requires a global solution to build capacities beyond national borders.

You can help by calling on pharma companies to donate more of their doses for free. Sign Amnesty International’s petition here.

Read more on COVAX rollout here.

Dana Justus is a Postgraduate student of International Security at Warwick and a volunteer research assistant for WICID. Her key research interests are global health, security, and development. She is currently working on her dissertation discussing how global health governance is framed in security and human rights-based discourse.

Mouzayian Khalil : 11 May 2021 10:36 |  Tags: Covax Covid 19 Global Health Governance Vaccine Nationalism |  Comments (1) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Data and Displacement: Collaborative Research at a Time of Uncertainty

(Data and Displacement project website)

Data and Displacement: Collaborative Research at a Time of Uncertainty

Written By: Olufunto Abimbola,Abubakar Adam,Oláyínká Àkànle,Modesta Alozie,Silvia De Michelis,Ewajesu Opeyemi Okewumi,Olufunke Fayehun,Prithvi Hirani,Briony Jones,Kuyang Logo,Hajja Kaka Alhaji Mai,Leben Moro,João Porto de Albuquerque,Vicki Squire,Dallal Stevens,Grant Tregonning,Rob Trigwell,Stephanie Whitehead

Data and Displacement is a UK Arts and Humanities Research Council and FCDO (UK Foreign and Commonwealth Development Office) funded project, working with partners in Nigeria and South Sudan. It provides crucial insights into the impacts of data-driven development on internally displaced communities in conflict situations. The project currently faces uncertainty, due to news that the UK government has decided to cut overseas development aid (ODA) funded projects. While many projects have already been informed of the considerable cuts that they face, others such as Data and Displacement await further news. Despite this, the research remains pressing. Data and Displacement considers how people ‘falling through the cracks’ of protection can be further excluded through the generation and use of large-scale data. The research provides urgent new insights into the ways that humanitarian organisations can work with local partners and with Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) themselves in order to improve knowledge about displacement-related vulnerabilities. This is crucial in order to ensure the effective distribution and use of development aid for vulnerable groups in situations of conflict.

Data and Displacement brings together a multi-disciplinary team of researchers from University of Warwick (UK), University of Ibadan (Nigeria), University of Juba (South Sudan) and the International Organisation for Migration. As a research team, we remain fully committed to continuing our important work and to building equitable partnerships and advancing impactful interdisciplinary research. We are currently conducting fieldwork in northern Nigeria and South Sudan and are also fully committed to meeting the promises that we have made to the project’s research participants. The various partners involved in this project have come together on the basis of the mutual trust that has been built up over time; trust that we remain committed to protecting and enhancing further. In light of this, and given the uncertainties we are currently facing, we have decided to write a blog together in order to highlight the various pressures the current situation puts on us all, both individually and collectively, as well as to emphasise the damaging nature of the ODA cuts.

The importance of projects such as Data and Displacement

Diversity in research really matters. This is a diverse team, and a great team. It has very good representation in each country where the research takes place; it involves a genuine practitioner-researcher partnership where practitioners are included as investigators; it has gender balance (12 women and 6 men) and impressive disciplinary range. The combination of that diversity with the equitable approach to leadership that has been engaged in this project has had very positive results. Everyone brings with them very different experiences, reflecting diverse academic backgrounds (in computer science, data science, ethics, geography, international relations, law, political science and sociology) and geographical contexts (Nigeria, South Sudan, and the United Kingdom), engaging in open discussion and collective reflection about the relevance of these for the design and implementation of the research. This sort of open discussion is what will ultimately lead to the production of knowledge that is able to positively impact the lives of the poorest and most disadvantaged, critically informing the practice of those who make decisions based on data and IDPs. Multi-disciplinary and context-sensitive research of this kind is rare, and its loss would be strongly felt across academic and practitioner communities.

A particular strength of the project lies in its work in differing conflict contexts. This provides a platform for understanding how research is carried out in the different places, plus it helps to shed a light on the specific challenges of doing research in the most fragile and volatile of research contexts. As the project implementation progresses, it has become clear that the same plans and the same actions will not necessarily work in the same way for both northern Nigeria and South Sudan, hence the team has had to think of creative ways to engage with each context. This has created team learning in all directions, and we have realised that remaining flexible and understanding the challenges of each context is one of the most important aspects of successfully delivering research across the different sites.

Partnerships such as those developed by the Data and Displacement project are very important, especially for partners from less resourced countries. Oftentimes, data is produced about people in these countries, without many people from the country itself playing a significant role in the production of the data, especially in the more technical aspects of this process. To an extent, this partnership can address the inequality, by reflecting the ideas and opinions of persons from countries that usually get left out from the production and management of data. The project embeds mutual learning and the exchange of expertise within the research process, and this is valuable for all of us involved.

The Data and Displacement project, in itself, is a unique project given the cutting-edge ideas it is developing and the very innovative and strategic partnership it is building. We are proud of the partnership, which we view as excellent in all respects. It is not only technically sound but also broad-based and inclusive. Every project partner contributes different capacities, enthusiasm, perspectives and positive insights, which we are confident will ultimately advance ground-breaking conclusions and interventions. It is clear that the project is an example of best practice in the way that it is forging its research partnership, because it brings together a range of approaches and develops these in terms that build from the strengths of the team. Importantly, it also supports a group of early career researchers, who have opportunities to explore new ideas, undertake training, gain intellectual support and deepen their networks through working as part of the interdisciplinary collaboration.

Key values and strengths at risk of being undermined

The value of partnerships such as Data and Displacement is that we all learn together and from each other; we work together to find new ways of thinking about things and new ways of doing things. Such partnerships provide opportunities to exchange information, pass on expertise and carry out valuable joint works. Nevertheless, we also face significant challenges as a team. For example, some of us cannot consistently access the internet, our electricity is rationed and there are blackouts that interrupt our participation in the research process. Even as researchers familiar with such contexts, we have to learn new ways of manoeuvring the situation we find ourselves in, while all the time deepening understanding of the wider research team and the different contexts whereby the research is undertaken. In this situation, the flexibility of the research team as a whole is of paramount importance.

Data and Displacement is committed to minimising the impacts of unequal or heavily-skewed power relations, particularly where some of our partners have limited resources and face additional challenges in undertaking research in fragile contexts. However, there is always a risk that partnerships such as ours become exploitative ventures, where those of us from less resourced countries became producers of raw data and those of us from resourced countries use the data to produce knowledge with little more than an occasional thanks to the raw data producers. This risk has become even greater where COVID-19 has perpetuated unequal power relations on a global scale, rendering those of us in more fragile contexts needing additional time and support to contribute to the research process.

The central values of the Data and Displacement partnership are collective learning, the sharing of ideas and epistemic equality. We seek to develop a comprehensive and inclusive project, where each partner’s contribution is equal and valued. We have worked to dismantle power-relations, asymmetries and dichotomies that should not exist in knowledge co-production between the UK and the world. We have done this by avoiding an extractive approach to knowledge production and through ensuring the effective integration of the team through the project design and work packages.

We still have work to do, but feel that success is assured if this team spirit continues. We can achieve excellent outcomes so long as the partnership is sustained. However, the contexts within which we work raise particular challenges, as noted above. Our team has consistently engaged in the challenges involved in working together with positivity, purpose and open minds. This is a collective strength, which also represents a significant investment that renders secure and sustained research funding absolutely essential. After investing so much time in developing the partnership, we hope to see a future funding environment whereby those of us in the Global South can invite those of us from the Global North to act as Co-Investigators, rather than vice versa. This was precisely the direction of travel of the programme by which we were funded and of the raft of ODA projects facing the recent cuts. We still hold out hope that the funding environment will be underpinned by foresight and will become more equitable, rather than less so, over time.

The impact of uncertainty

For those of us outside the UK, uncertainty around our funding makes it hard to plan. This is in addition to the additional uncertainties that we face due to COVID-19. Facing the prospect of cuts is really disappointing for us as partners from less resourced countries, who have fewer options to carry out funded research. Our project aims to expose issues around the ethics of doing research, yet if the funding is terminated this important work will not proceed impacting both our incomes and careers. This leaves some of us worrying each day. The cuts are a major shock, as they create huge concerns around how much effort, positive energy and enthusiasm we should commit in the short, medium and long term given our uncertain future as members of the project team. However, we hope for the best and somehow feel that it will be okay; that reason will prevail on the need not to cut our project’s funds.

Those of us who are early career researchers suddenly face exceptional precarity. The Data and Displacement team currently includes seven early career researchers, offering valuable opportunities for us to take part in a large interdisciplinary research team, develop existing and new research skills, and to learn from experienced colleagues. With the negative effects of COVID-19 on the higher education job market it is not an easy time to be facing uncertainty over whether or not our positions will continue. The entire team benefits hugely from the energy and insights of our early career researchers, whom the project remains committed to supporting.

For those of us in the UK managing other projects already effected by these cuts, we have found ourselves treading a fine line between being transparent and not wanting to worry people. Trying to shield partners from what we have been fearing might come, but which we are determined to avoid, has been hard. Worse still has been dread at the thought of what would happen to those employed by our partners if the funding dropped away, knowing that jobs in those countries are less easy to come by and recognising the extreme stress this has placed on partners. They aren’t just partners, they are people: our colleagues and friends. It is people that these cuts affect, whether it is those carrying out the research or those benefiting from it. Added to that of course is the huge disappointment at the missed opportunities in research that the ODA cuts represent and the irreconcilable damage this is doing to our future ability to form partnerships. We feel ashamed that the British government has taken this decision.

About the Project:

Data and Displacement addresses the practical and ethical questions arising from the increase of data-driven practices of humanitarian protection. It undertakes the urgent task of assessing the production and use of large-scale data, focusing on the impact these have on internally displaced persons (IDPs) in two conflict situations: northern Nigeria and South Sudan. The project advances understanding of the operational and ethical challenges of data-driven humanitarian targeting, while also contributing practical and methodological insights surrounding digital humanitarianism and participatory research. The project involves a large team of researchers from Nigeria, South Sudan and the UK, the full details of which can be found here.

Mouzayian Khalil : 27 Apr 2021 13:18 |  Tags: Migration Collaborative Research Data And Displacement Oda Cuts |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem