Please join us in congratulating LERRN researchers, Dr. Amanda Klassen and Dr. Rachel McNally, who were awarded Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) degrees in Political Science at last week’s convocation ceremony.

Amanda’s dissertation, titled, “A Feminist Approach to the Study of Norm Implementation in the Global Refugee Regime”, uses a feminist geopolitical approach to examine the emergence and local implementation of global norms relating to the protection of refugee women and girls. Her work helps to explain power dynamics at different spaces, scales, and timeframes by drawing on non-Western perspectives and decentering the state.

Rachel’s dissertation, titled, “Advocating for Admission: United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees Diplomacy on Behalf of Refugees with Disabilities, 1951-2011”, draws on archival documents to examine how UNHCR strategically and persistently advocated for the resettlement of refugees with disabilities from 1951 to 2011. She was also awarded the Senate Medal for Outstanding Academic Achievement.

Both thesis projects were supervised by Dr. James Milner, Project Director of LERRN.

Beyond their academic achievements, Amanda and Rachel have both made invaluable contributions to LERRN. Over the years, they have supported numerous LERRN research, training and knowledge mobilization initiatives – the publication of LERRN’s Working Papers Series, conducted and published research studies, and taken on leadership roles in LERRN’s Cross-Cultural Fieldwork Training course. Their work has left an enduring impact on the project, and we look forward to following their continued contributions to research, policy, and practice in the years ahead.

Reflecting on their time with LERRN, Rachel and Amanda shared:

Rachel will be beginning a new position as the Research Coordinator for , a SSHRC-funded Partnership Grant at the University of Ottawa.

As they embark on new roles and opportunities, we wish them continued success in all their future endeavors.

Congratulations, Amanda and Rachel!

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Amanda Klassen, LERRN Project Officer and PhD Candidate in Political Science at ĐÓ°ÉÔ­´´ University, has published From Vulnerability to Empowerment: Critical Reflections on Canada’s Engagement with Refugee Policy in , the open-access, peer-reviewed journal published by MDPI. The full article is available for download here:

Abstract

The making and implementation of global policy are prominent areas of activity for the global refugee regime, with a specific focus on policy relating to the categories of vulnerable refugees. Recent collective efforts globally have highlighted the importance of meaningfully including refugees themselves; and a discursive shift away from the language of vulnerability towards that of empowerment in policy making, and humanitarian assistance. Despite this, efforts to implement these commitments have largely been unsuccessful, raising questions about how refugees are engaged in these processes, and in what ways the label of vulnerable continues to influence the making and implementation of global refugee policy. Using the case of Canada’s engagement with the global refugee regime, and with refugee women in particular, this article argues that the continued framing of refugee women as vulnerable has impeded progress, and that for transformative policy to be realized, refugee women must be seen as actors with capacity to participate, and must be included in all processes of policy making, implementation and evaluation. A feminist geopolitical framework is presented as a way to decenter states and institutions in favor of centering the individual embodied experiences of refugee women in global refugee policy making. By doing so, empowerment can be realized in policy and practice.

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Over the last two decades, millions of people around the globe have been forcefully displaced from their homes. With the COVID-19 pandemic adding further complications, ĐÓ°ÉÔ­´´ PhD students at LERRN are acting to help. Read about the work of LERRN Student Researchers Deo Mwapinga, Amanda Klassen, and Rachel McNally here:

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In the second of a series of webinars on the ethics of forced migration research co-hosted by the Local Engagement Refugee Research Network (LERRN) and the , our panel of speakers reflected on the theme of building research relationships and setting the agenda. The panel featured Dr. Alice Nah, Senior Lecturer at the Department of Politics at the University of York, UK and one of the founding members of the Asia Pacific Refugee Rights Network, as well as Mark Okello Oyat, Director of the Dadaab Response Association. During the webinar, Dr. Oroub El-Abed joined the panel, bringing her experience as Regional Research Coordinator for LERRN in Jordan and Lebanon, and as Lead Researcher in Jordan for the Centre for Lebanese Studies.

The panel began by reflecting on the importance of questions on research partnerships and agenda-setting. Moderator Susan McGrath, reflecting on the experiences of the RRN and the challenges of sustaining a research network, highlighted the , entitled . Alice Nah, who started her work on displacement as an advocate and activist,  discussed how institutional incentive structures can take academics away from relevant research by emphasizing theoretical contributions to academic disciplines over relevance, practical impact, or solutions to the problems displaced communities face. That can make it challenging for academics to do reciprocal and impactful research.

For Mark Okello Oyat, who lives in an encampment, this conversation is personal because researchers usually come from outside of the camp with their own research agenda and set of questions, which limits the participation of refugees themselves. It is important to empower refugees to tell their own stories and to conduct their own research on topics that they consider to be important. An alternative approach, like the one taken by LERRN, has provided researchers  from Dadaab a platform to  publish their research on refugee education as LERRN Working Papers. These papers examine topics that have been neglected in previous research and global discussions, such as Mark’s paper on the issue of corporal punishment in refugee schools. Mark emphasized that refugees who are empowered to be independent researchers are then able to connect with scholars around the world.

The panelists criticized how refugees are sometimes brought into research partnerships as subordinate research partners. Oroub El-Abed asked “What is the role of refugee researchers being involved? Is it just getting them to do the work or are we really empowering them?” The speakers advocated for involving refugees and local researchers from the beginning of conceptualizing the problems and asking the questions they see as important in their communities, rather than recruiting refugees to implement existing projects.

Mark suggested that research cannot only be about knowledge production, but needs to have a purpose. The evidence collected in research is an important foundation of advocacy for policymakers to lobby for changes in policy and practice. Oroub suggested that research can be part of standing against the authoritarian oppression of refugees and disturbing states involved in that oppression. Making space for refugees in research can involve theatre, exhibitions, or documentaries in addition to traditional written research publications. Alice also emphasized the importance of making the research relevant in different forums, including within scholarly, practitioner, and refugee communities. Well-respected institutions and scholars in the North can also lend legitimacy to the research findings of refugees and local researchers, and stand with them in solidarity when there are potential risks for speaking up.

The discussion raised important questions about trust, power, and resources. Unfortunately, some recent scholarship has not connected with long-standing conversations on these debates. Without reflecting on these questions, we risk reproducing power asymmetries, inequalities, and problematic policy paradigms. Alice questioned how some ever-present issues get onto research agendas in the first place and asked “Who has the power to turn something into something worthy of investigation, worthy of investment?” As explained in a recent open-access article by LERRN researchers (), localizing knowledge production will require transferring power – including power to set the research agenda – to researchers in the South. One of the key features of the LERRN partnership is that the research agenda is set by working groups in East Africa and the Middle East. One thing we have learned during the pandemic is that virtual spaces open up possibilities for more inclusive and global conversations.

Stay tuned for future webinars in the series in 2022!

This report was prepared by: Rachel McNally, LERRN Knowledge Mobilization and Translation Officer; Amanda Klassen, LERRN Project Officer; and Kail Schlachter, LERRN Project Writer.

The LERRN-RRN Webinar Series on Ethics in Forced Migration Research is coordinated by Rachel McNally, LERRN Knowledge Mobilization and Translation Officer. For further information or ideas please contact us here.

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From the 27^th to the 29^th of October 2021, LERRN participated in two sessions at the annual conference of the . Project Director James Milner also participated in the closing plenary – – where he highlighted the value of virtual spaces for facilitating conversations among refugees, scholars, and civil society members across borders. In case you missed the conference, here are some key takeaways.

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By Amanda Klassen

March 8th, 2020 marks the 55th year that International Women’s Day (IWD) has been celebrated around the world. This year the IWD theme is #EachforEqual, an equal world is an enabled world which highlights the difference that individuals can make. IWD is an opportunity to celebrate the many amazing accomplishments of women around the world but is also a time to reflect on the continued challenges that women face in their day to day lives due to prevailing gender inequality. Achieving gender equality across all sectors and issue areas is crucial for improving economies and communities around the world. [1]  

While the themes of IWD tend to be applied to reaching “gender parity” in an economic sense, they also highlight the need for achieving equality as a mechanism for improving circumstances for women living in specific vulnerable contexts. In many societies around the world women face discrimination and violence in their every day lives, this becomes even more pronounced in times of displacement. At present, there are over 70 million people who have been forcibly displaced around the world, and this number continues to grow. Women make up fifty percent of refugee, stateless and internally displaced populations, but are largely the most vulnerable in these situations. [2]  One of the most prevalent issues in any displacement setting is the high levels of sexual and gender-based violence that are often linked to cultural barriers, lack of access to safe reporting and legal mechanisms, and to situational factors such as over-crowding, lack of privacy, unsafe shelters and inadequate WASH facilities. [3] Achieving women’s equality would help to mitigate some of these challenges and ensure that better protection mechanisms can be put into place by giving women access to decision making forums. 

One of the many ways that humanitarian organizations such as the seeks to address gender inequality and protection is through the use of gender mainstreaming policies and approaches. The argues that gender equality programming in humanitarian situations has been proven to increase access to services for women, increase participation and agency in decision making, and to decrease incidences of sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV). [4] Yet, in many cases, these kinds of policies are difficult to implement properly in humanitarian settings. 

Some critics of gender mainstreaming policies argue that Western conceptualizations of gender equality and gender mainstreaming often operate under assumptions of the third world “other”. In emergency and humanitarian contexts power and structural inequalities are reinforced as Western aid agencies bestow equality upon the oppressed other. [5] To support this argument, evidence from humanitarian contexts such as Cambodia have demonstrated that Western approaches to gender mainstreaming are not effective. The most successful initiatives will take cultural context and norms into consideration, and engage with local religious leaders and community organizations to find appropriate solutions.[6]  Michau et al. (2015) argue that programs which attempt to reach only one group of people, or that do not include community-based groups will likely run into challenges, and that it is necessary to tackle issues broadly. This can be done using programming that is holistic in its approach so as to both offer support for those who have been victims of SGBV, but also to address the structural inequalities that perpetuate SGBV. [7] Thus, while it is imperative to incorporate gender-sensitive policies and programming into humanitarian and refugee contexts, it is also necessary to ensure that they are culturally and contextually responsive to ensure success. While the most important goals are to eliminate SGBV and to lead to gender equality; the mechanisms for achieving this goal involve ensuring that women are empowered, and equally able to express their agency and participate in decision making processes. 

The theme of IWD 2020 asks us to consider how an equal world will be an enabled world; how women’s equality can lead to empowerment, protection, and a better future for all; and how individuals have the power to make the most difference. In the case of humanitarian emergencies, ensuring the input of refugee women is crucial for achieving equality and empowerment. The distinct way that refugee women interact with the multitude of power structures in urban, camp and other displacement settings make them uniquely qualified to understand what appropriate solutions are, and how success is measured. [8] Giving the voices of refugee women equal time in decision making forums will lead to better success of humanitarian programming, and to finding long-lasting and durable solutions for their plight. 

Bartolomei, Linda, and Eileen Pittaway. “Refugee Women and Girls: Key to The Global Compact on Refugees; Notes on Project Methodology: Reciprocal Research through Community Consultation,” 2018. 

DFID. “Bangladesh Sexual and Gender Based Violence Assessment,” no. November (2017): 3–6. https://www.hrw.org/news/2017/09/28/myanmar-global-appeal-un-action. 

Eisenbruch, Maurice. “Violence Against Women in Cambodia: Towards a Culturally Responsive Theory of Change.” Culture, Medicine and Psychiatry 42, no. 2 (2018): 350–70. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11013-017-9564-5. 

Karen Women’s Organization. “Salt in the Wound,” 2013. https://www.burmapartnership.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/290995511-Salt-in-the-Wound-Full-Report-English-Version-FINAL-for-Website.pdf. 

Michau, Lori, Jessica Horn, Amy Bank, Mallika Dutt, and Cathy Zimmerman. “Prevention of Violence against Women and Girls: Lessons from Practice.” The Lancet 385, no. 9978 (2015): 1672–84. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(14)61797-9. 

Olivius, Elisabeth. “Constructing Humanitarian Selves and Refugee Others.” International Feminist Journal of Politics 18, no. 2 (2016): 270–90. https://doi.org/10.1080/14616742.2015.1094245. 

“Sites of Repression and Resistance: Political Space in Refugee Camps in Thailand.” Critical Asian Studies 49, no. 3 (2017): 289–307. https://doi.org/10.1080/14672715.2017.1333268. 

Strategic Executive Group. “2019 Joint Response Plan for Rohingya Humanitarian Crisis,” 2019. 

Thackeray, David. “The Theme of International Women’s Day 2020, Explained.” World Economic Forum, 2020. https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2020/03/international-womens-day-2020-theme-each-for-equal/. 

UNHCR. “Figures at a Glance.” Statistical Yearbooks, 2020. http://www.unhcr.org/figures-at-a-glance.html. 

Women’s Refugee Commission. “”We Need to Write Our Own Names”: Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment in the Rohingya Humanitarian Response in Cox’s Bazar,” 2019. 

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