Goodbye to the 2020/ 2021 academic year. It is nice to have put to bed yet another academic year, especially as this academic year has been one like no other. For the first time in the history of the world, the majority of our human interactions in academia took place via our computers for a whole year. The good news though is that the easing of lockdown means that we may actually get to meet face to face in September 2021. I am looking forward to meeting up again without the aid of my laptop.
Trying to deliver on our international commitments when travel and face to face meetings have been largely banned for over a year has not been a trivial task. However, network members have really worked very hard to connect with collaborators during this term. It is amazing to see the lengths researchers have gone to in order to achieve impact for their work. This term, the UCL Relief Centre delivered a series of in-person and online events focused on energy access for Lebanese populations. These hugely successful events really addressed one of the core impediments to global prosperity – denied access to an energy source. Like the UCL Relief Centre, our researchers and research lead the world in many areas and so I am really pleased to see Dr Corisande Fenwick being appointed to lead the British Academy sponsored Society for Libyan Studies, a well-deserved and timely honour, in recognition of all her work within the region.
While the pandemic has undoubtedly upended our lives, it has also brought forth multiple opportunities to carry out high impact research across the globe; such as research by the Overdue project to map the lack of access to sanitation facilities, especially as they relate to the current pandemic. The African and Middle East region needs this kind of research in a world of unequal access to life saving vaccines and medicines. The need for talented researchers to lead research in the region is fairly acute and so I am really happy to introduce the African Research Excellence Fund (AREF) to those of you who do not know AREF. AREF is focused on training exceptional researchers on the African continent to compete for grants and thus control the research narrative in their countries. An impactful fund led by Professor Tumani Corrah KBE who also serves as the fund’s Director.
Please get in touch with Elinor Kruse, Senior Partnership Manager (Africa and Middle East) if you have any regional enquiries.
Network news
Corisande Fenwick appointed Director of the Society for Libyan Studies Workshop Grant
Corisande Fenwick (UCL Institute of Archaeology, pictured) has been elected Director of the Society for Libyan Studies, the leading institution for North African studies in the social sciences and humanities in the UK. The Society for Libyan Studies is a British International Research Institute, sponsored by the British Academy, which since 1969 has fostered links between British and North African scholars in a wide range of fields, including archaeology, history, geography, the natural sciences and linguistics. Corisande is a leading scholar in North African archaeology and has worked extensively in the region. Her research focuses on empire and everyday life in Islamic and late antique North Africa; her recent books include Early Islamic Africa (Bloomsbury) and the co-edited volumes The Oxford Handbook of Islamic Archaeology (OUP). She currently co-directs four fieldwork projects with colleagues in Morocco (the UNESCO site of Volubilis and Wadi Draa) and in Tunisia (Bulla Regia, Medjerda Valley).
UCL IEDE Awarded BritishCouncil Researcher Links Climate Challenge Workshop Grant
Dr Rokia Raslan (UCL IEDE) has been awarded a Researcher Links Climate Challenge (RLCC) grant with the American University in Cairo (AUC). The grant supports workshops that bring together Early Career Researchers from the UK and partner countries to develop innovative solutions to developmental challenges caused by climate change. The UCL/AUC workshop focuses on the Climate Resilience of Micro, Small and Medium Industries (MSM) in Egypt. MSMs in Egypt are a gateway to employment and community development and are part of the essential global supply chains. The workshops will fund 4 UK-Egypt teams to develop strategies to mitigate the impacts of climate change in MSMs and establish a UK-Egypt network in adaptation for warmer climates through future-fit retrofit. Wider benefits include empowering employers to progress decent work and social justice agendas. The virtual workshops will be held in June 2021. For more information and to view project outcomes please visit https://cresmi.org/.
The RELIEF Centre Convenes in Lebanon for the First Citizens' Assembly in the Middle East
The RELIEF Centre convened the first Citizens’ Assembly (CA) in the Middle East in October 2020. It took place in Hamra in Beirut, making key decisions on how to reduce energy demand while increasing energy supply from sustainable sources. Results will be incorporated into ongoing Lebanese energy projects and plans. A toolkit will also be created to inform other CAs in the Arab world.
The RELIEF Centre Publishes their First Lebanon Neighbourhood Profile after Collaboration with “Citizen Scientists”
UN-Habitat and the RELIEF Centre have collaborated to create a Neighbourhood Profile (NP) for Hamra in Beirut. The project involves members of the socioeconomically diverse local community, known as citizen scientists, and maps interlinked social, economic, and built environment challenges. The citizen scientists are now leading on the implementation of interventions addressing the specific findings from the NP.
The RELIEF Centre Course on Sustainable Energy Access for Communities
The RELIEF Centre held a free online course on Sustainable Energy Access for Communities in May, In collaboration with the Centre for Lebanese Studies. The three-week course explored the meaning of energy access and how to overcome its challenges, to provide safe and clean energy for communities worldwide.
International Clinical Observational Study to Develop a COVID-19 Risk Score
MRC CTU at UCL (the Institute of Clinical Trials and Methodology) has partnered with CISPOC (Centro de Investigação e Treino em Saúde da Polana Caniço), Mozambique in ICOS(NCT04385251), an international observational study of adult outpatients with SARS-CoV-2; 30 of the 300 expected have been enrolled in just a few weeks. Clinical, virological and biomarker data from the 7000+ enrolled, is being used to develop a COVID-19 risk score. The lead researcher of this study is Sarah Pett (pictured). More information about the study can be found here.
Forced to Flee: Major Exhibition at the Imperial War Museum
Tackling the Sanitation Taboo Across Cities in Africa
The OVERDUE project, investigating sanitation inequalities in Freetown, Beira & Mwanza was launched in July 2020. The project is funded by GCRF and led by Adriana Allen, Professor of Development Planning and Urban Sustainability at the Bartlett Development Planning Unit. To raise awareness of the sanitation problems in various communities, the Overdue Project organised a number of Sanitation Festivals and questioned how the COVID-19 pandemic could be a turning point to further sanitation justice, to support safe sanitation for all and cause the authorities to provide sanitation services as needed. The Sierra Leone Urban Research Center organised a Sanitation walk in Freetown on World Toilet Day, 19 November 2020. The tour was joined by Municipal Authorities, NGOs, Community groups, manual and mechanical pit emptiers, and waste management companies celebrating all the women and men, boys and girls who maintain safe sanitation facilities and chains.
Africa Research Excellence Fund
More and more Africans are achieving PhDs and clinical qualifications that are seeding their research careers. Few, however, have access to the postdoctoral mentoring, skills training and advanced research networks needed to unlock the research funding that is necessary to become research leaders. This is where AREF steps in. AREF’s vision Is to help build a research community of inspired African researchers who deliver world class life saving research to all. AREF’s ambitions are rooted in the strong conviction that Africa’s health research agenda and priorities should be defined by Africans. In five years, through targeted programmes AREF has nurtured almost 300 African scientists from 30 African countries; some of whom are winning their own international competitive research funds and are publishing their research in peer reviewed journals. AREF was founded by Professor Tumani Corrah KBE (pictured), who serves as AREF’s Director. To learn more please visit: www.africaresearchexcellencefund.org.uk.
Regional (Africa and The Middle East) Steering Group
We would like to invite your expressions of interest to become a member of the Africa & Middle East Network Steering Group. This new committee will be made up of a small number of dedicated colleagues from across UCL and will support the Global Engagement team and Pro-Vice-Provost in the strategic development of our regional network priorities. Please consult the full Terms of Reference for the Group before submitting your application. This regional steering group will provide continuity to the office of the Pro-Vice Provost for Africa and The Middle East. Further information on the networks past activities may be found here. Please submit your expressions of interest as an email to elinor.kruse@ucl.ac.uk, detailing your name, department and one paragraph about your research interests or interest in the region. Expressions of interest received by Friday 11th June will be prioritised.
Regional Network Meeting
Please join us at the next Africa & Middle East Regional Network Meeting which will take place on Tuesday 29th June, 11am – 12.30pm BST. The meeting will take place virtually and will be open to external participants too.
Please contact Anna Brown if you have any agenda items you wish to submit. We always welcome short presentations on the fantastic work from within our network, especially if you can report on the impact of your research.
Funding calls
Teaching Fund Initiative – Awards
We are pleased to announce the three successful applicants to this year’s Teaching Fund Initiative.
Due to Covid travel restrictions the call focussed on projects that could, at least in part, be delivered virtually and we were positively surprised by the submissions’ creativity and ingenuity given such difficult conditions.
Dr Christophe Declercq from the Centre for Translation Studies, CMII, will be leading on
“Decolonising Risk Communication: Enhancing Translation Training in Sierra Leone to Protect Endangered Languages” in partnership with Fourah Bay College in Sierra Leone; Dr Julia Wesely and Dr Colin Marx (DPU) will be curating the adaptation of a Doctoral Training Course "Co-producing Doctoral Urban Research in the Global South” in partnership with Cape Town University and Ardhi University; and Dr Julius Mugwagwa and Dr Carla Washbourne (STeAPP) will be delivering training towards “Capacity Strengthening for Science System Actors (C3SA)” with the University of Rwanda.
Funding sources post ODA
Following the discussions during our last Regional Network Meeting in March regarding the recent ODA cuts which have had such a strong impact on many of our colleagues’ research in Africa, we have collated a simple list of funding sources for work in LMICs. This list, which consists of trusts, foundations and similar funders, is not exhaustive and does not intend to provide 1-1 alternatives to large-scale public funding. It is intended to act as a helpful starting point as there may be occasional calls or grants which will be suitable for your research. Some portals require registrations which your department may hold or wish to subscribe to. Further UCL resources can be found here.
Osuteye, E., Koroma, B., Macarthy, J. M., Kamara, S. F., & Conteh, A. (2020). Fighting COVID-19 in Freetown, Sierra Leone: the critical role of community organisations in a growing pandemic, Open Health, 1(1), 51-63. This brief study demonstrates that the resourcefulness, strength and value of community organisations in Freetown cannot be overlooked in the fight against COVID-19. Local initiatives are empowering residents and providing an avenue of collective learning. https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1515/openhe-2020-0005/html
Woodcraft, Saffron, Osuteye, Emmanuel, Ndezi, Tim and Makoba, Festo B. (2020). ‘Pathways to the ‘Good Life’. Co-producing Prosperity Research in Informal Settlements in Tanzania’, Urban Planning 5 (3):288-302.Based on new work with communities in three settlements in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, this article contributes valuable empirical insights into the capability of local communities to shape and influence urban policy-making.https://doi.org/10.17645/up.v5i3.3177
Padan, Yael (2020). ‘Researching Architecture and Urban Inequality: Towards Engaged Ethics’, Architecture & Culture, Vol. 8 Nos. 3+4. This paper questions whether ethical principles are universal or specific, whether shared values can be arrived at, and how they affect the possibility of knowledge co-production and its potential to generate pathways to urban equality. https://doi.org/10.1080/20507828.2020.1792109
Panman, A., 2021. How effective are informal property rights in cities? Reexamining the relationship between informality and housing quality in Dar es Salaam. Oxford Development Studies, pp.1-15. The Global South is urbanising rapidly, and in many places, outside the legally prescribed framework for property ownership. This paper contributes new insight by evaluating the institutions that underpin the majority of transactions in a case study city. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/13600818.2020.1869927
Fiddian-Qasmiyeh, E. (2020) Responding to Precarity in Baddawi Camp in the Era of Covid-19, Journal of Palestine Studies, 49 (4): 27–35. This article establishes that the vulnerabilities faced by the residents of Beddawi camp (Palestinians, Syrians, Iraqis, Kurds and Lebanese) are caused by political failures that have deep historical roots and repercussions which will continue to be palpably felt in both the near and distant future. More information available on resources and blog.
Other publications from our network:
Gumbonzvanda, N., Gumbonzvanda, F. and Burgess, R., 2021. Decolonising the ‘safe space’ as an African innovation: the Nhanga as quiet activism to improve women’s health and wellbeing. Critical Public Health, pp.1-13. This paper explores how, in current times, where the world is full of antagonistic forms of collective activism and organising, love, care, and quiet engagement based on the discovery of shared histories and truths could provide a healing tonic for us all. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/09581596.2020.1866169
Elias, L., Singh, A., Burgess, R.A. 2021. In search of ‘community’: a critical review of community mental health services for women in African settings, Health Policy and Planning, 36 (2), p. 205–217, This article highlights how, in the face of limited human resources for health in the African region, putting local communities at the forefront of effective service planning and delivery is essential.https://doi.org/10.1093/heapol/czaa140
Abd el-Gawad, H., Garnett, A., and C. Price (2021), ‘Repositioning EA: Guest Editorial’, Egyptian Archaeology 58: pp. 4-6. This article explores how Egyptian Archaeology magazine can play a role in the Egypt Exploration Society’s unpacking of its colonial practices, confront its legacies, and initiate a long overdue, honest and healing dialogue with Egyptian and Sudanese communities. https://www.ees.ac.uk/Handlers/Download.ashx?IDMF=3e9aee72-8137-47ed-a83e-adee41f50609
Burgess, R.A., Jeske, N., Rasool, S., Ahmad, A. and Kydd, A., 2021. Exploring the impact of a complex intervention for women with depression in contexts of adversity: A pilot feasibility study of COURRAGE-plus in South Africa. The findings of this article support the need for larger trials to investigate collective narrative storytelling as community-based interventions for populations experiencing adversity and mental distress. The International Journal of Social Psychiatry https://doi.org/10.1177/00207640211010203
The RELIEF Centre Publishes their First Lebanon Neighbourhood Profile after Collaboration with “Citizen Scientists”
The
International Clinical Observational Study to Develop a COVID-19 Risk Score
Forced to Flee: Major Exhibition at the Imperial War Museum
Tackling the Sanitation Taboo Across Cities in Africa
Africa Research Excellence Fund
Teaching Fund Initiative – Awards
