https://thesis.eur.nl/col/5016/ List of Publications en https://thesis.eur.nl/pub/15348/ Fri, 13 Dec 2013 00:00:01 GMT <div>Owusu, Vida</div> Girl’s education has emerged as a key intervention area for governments, NGOs and all concerned stakeholders. Despite these concerns and attention given to ensure equality in education, more needs to be done to completely get all girls of school going age in-to school and retain them. In Ghana, there has been efforts by government and other stakeholders to ensure that all children get education especially the girl-child. However, in the face of these interventions, regional inequalities in the country in terms of re-sources has left some parts poorer than others and this has led to in into inequalities in education as well, considering the impact that poverty has on education. In the face these, it is also recognised that as girls grow older and progress, it be-comes extremely difficult for them to stay in school and complete. This research attempts to make visible reasons that prevents girls from staying in school in order to complete at least their basic education in the northern region of Ghana. This was done by exploring the nuances in the social structure by particularly interrogating the family as a unit that may hinder or advance the efforts of girls retention, this research brings to the fore how gender relations inter-acts with deep rooted and entrenched social norms and practices coupled with male dominated decision making and how it affects the retention of girls in school. The research findings points out how gendered social norms and practices in the form of ascribed roles coupled with long standing male dominated decision making in sharing of children’s responsibilities. This leads girls on ‘precarious’ journey called kayayo to support their education and its effects on their retention in school. https://thesis.eur.nl/pub/15356/ Fri, 13 Dec 2013 00:00:01 GMT <div>Nakabonge, Bwete Maggie</div> This paper seeks to understand the relationship between aid and AIDS in Mozambique’s aided response towards the HIV/AIDS struggle and in assessing to what extent aid impacts on the country’s HIV/AIDS policies. Mozambique’s HIV/AIDS policy document is its guiding document with guid-ing principles towards the country’s fight of the disease yet it is met with many challenges. First it is barely implemented at country level, second there is little control of the actors by the coordinating body, third donors still prefer vertical funding although they support the general budget which when analysed de-creases financial resources towards direct policy implementation and fourth the policy lacks a valuation making it hard to evaluate to which extent expenditures correspond to priorities in financial terms. 96% of aid to fight HIV/AIDS comes from external sources which questions the country’s sustainability of the HIV/AIDS response. And with increased focus on “Ownership”, Mozambique has few options but to scale up its aid and improve on aid effec-tiveness while bringing all its actors on board for an effective coordination and policy implementation. https://thesis.eur.nl/pub/15337/ Fri, 13 Dec 2013 00:00:01 GMT <div>Han, Raphaela</div> Instead of the usual top-down approach of the hegemonic peace-building paradigm, this research paper employs the bottom-up approach. This is done in order to analyze the role of the forced migrants in peacebuilding process. The internal conflict in Burma during the past decades has created a wave of displaced people, many of who became forced migrants into neighboring countries. Thailand, in particular, is home to a large portion of these forced migrants, in both camps and urban settings. Such migrants, moreover, are oftentimes vilified and/or victimized. As the forced migrant population lives in exile, the hegemonic peace-building schemes often fail to acknowledge their role in the peace processes in their home country. With limited financial and civic resources, these mi-grants often face the hardship of daily living. This struggle then becomes their foremost priority. Consequently, their transnational participation in peace processes is often neglected. However, peace processes, at their root, aim to create a societal expectation for peaceful conflict resolution and a stabilization of society by reintegrating the affected parties into civilian life. With this in mind, this qualitative research examines the capacity of the Burmese forced migrants in Thailand. Emphasis is placed on the transnational role and the influence of the migrants’ collective agency in peace-building processes. The paper examines two more points: what kinds of opportunities are currently available to support migrants’ peace-building initiatives at home; and, what kinds of challenges are present to deter their possible contribution to peace-building in their home country. https://thesis.eur.nl/pub/15419/ Fri, 13 Dec 2013 00:00:01 GMT <div>Dominguez, Laura</div> Gender has come to be understood as a key consideration in most development interventions. However, the concept of gender has largely become equat-ed with women only. This has significant effects for how programs are designed and on associated outcomes. In order to promote more comprehensive and nuanced conceptualizations of gender, it is key to understand the process by which an organization translates its understanding of gender from an idea to actual practice, including how this interacts with understandings of other key concepts, such as youth, that are utilized and addressed in an intervention. This paper examines how these two concepts play out in a gender-transformative teen pregnancy prevention program called Gender Matters, implemented in Austin, Texas, United States, by the large international women’s health organization, EngenderHealth. The concepts were explored and compared through three main sets of data: organizational documents and the Gender Matters curriculum, interviews with staff, and workshop observations. Findings were then framed within the broader literature on gender, masculinities, and youth in development. Additional areas explored include consideration of the gender-transformative nature of the program, the new concept of gender synchronization, and the influence of donors on understandings of the key concepts. The overarching purpose of the study was to examine the case of one organization that utilizes a comprehensive understanding of gender in its programming and to learn what implications this may have for the broader field of gender and development practice. https://thesis.eur.nl/pub/15415/ Fri, 13 Dec 2013 00:00:01 GMT <div>Tran Phuong Ha</div> Introduced to Vietnam in 1980s, microfinance has been acknowledged by Vietnam Government for its important role in fighting poverty. It was assumed that, once the women could earn and contribute frequent income to the family, they would gain a higher status in the family in terms of decision-making pow-er and control over their lives. Therefore, microfinance providers, putting their focus on women and targeting the poorest of the poor, have employed women’s empowerment to their objectives besides the poverty alleviation goal. Thus, this paper is concerned with the impacts of microfinance on the gender division of labour as well as women’s economic, social and political empowerment, using the dimensions and different paradigms in the linkage between microfinance and women’s empowerment which were developed by Linda Mayoux. It analyses whether economic improvements resulted from micro-finance loans could help to challenge and transform the gender relation within the household. In addition, it studies women’s participation in household decision-making, the gender division of labour and its re-enforcement by patriarchy associated in a specific context in order to reflect the factors that affect women’s social and political empowerment by microfinance. https://thesis.eur.nl/pub/15353/ Fri, 13 Dec 2013 00:00:01 GMT <div>Belay, Yeshiwas Degu</div> Against the backdrop of improvements in politico-legal framework for protecting and promoting “Nations, Nationalities and Peoples” of Ethiopia, at least rhetorically, this study examines the Kemant people’s quest for recognition as a manifestation of contemporary struggles for social justice in multicultural society. They remain unrecognised and henceforth denied the opportunity to exercise rights enshrined in the constitution, including the right to self-determination. So crucial is their dependence of official recognition that, their very existence as distinct group depends, political participation and representation at the federal and regional levels of the government are severely undermined. This may affect the process of implementing ethnic based federalism, and consequently building a “peaceful” democratic and “developmental state”. Given the fact that ‘the demand for recognition that national groups struggle for can be changed or renegotiated in the course of the movement’ (Tully, 2004:93), Kemant’s demand for recognition remains far from explicated. This research brings out their demands for recognition informed by contemporary recognition theories developed by Charles Taylor, Axel Honneth and Nancy Fraser and analyses in light with the prevailing political and legal grounds in Ethiopia. A key finding of this study has shown that recognition demands are multiple and interrelated, but don’t necessarily supplant each other. https://thesis.eur.nl/pub/15308/ Fri, 13 Dec 2013 00:00:01 GMT <div>Barragan, Eliana Alicia</div> The main objective of the study is to discursively analyze how the official dis-course prevents the establishment of gender equality through the production of meaning. I argue that the official discourse of the Bolivarian Project con-structs gender relations that maintain a gendered hierarchy, preventing true gender equality. The theoretical framework that I apply is a social construction and postmodern feminist perspective, as well as Connell’s (1990) theory of the state as a gender regime. Critical Discourse Analysis is used as the methodolo-gy, along with some aspects of Feminist Discourse Analysis, to study the oral speeches performed by Hugo Chavez, the former President of Venezuela. Through the application of a detailed analysis table, several contradictory dis-courses are revealed. There is confusion within the official discourse about what gender equality truly means. Through these discourses, a gendered society is maintained. In effect, the production of gender equality meanings through the official discourse blocks the full transformation that is needed to achieve a comprehensive gender approach to developments. https://thesis.eur.nl/pub/15311/ Fri, 13 Dec 2013 00:00:01 GMT <div>Ayeyo, Kennedy</div> The study explores water and sanitation governance, management and practice issues in rural primary schools, Arua District. The issues and practices reflect and determine and shape children’s access to safe water and sanitation. The study reflects on the role of school stakeholders such as: the SMCs, the PTA, the School Administration; the central government, the local government and the CSOs in ‘good’ school-WaSH governance. The study used qualitative approaches. It thus adapted techniques such as; in-depth-interviews, document reviews and non-participant observations (for facility study). The study received views on water and sanitation governance issues from an array of stakeholders during a regional WaSH sector review and capacity development workshop conducted by UWASnet. The research findings show that government commitment and the will to embrace school-WaSH services delivery is improving. At community level, key governance aspects (‘software issues’) noted included; formation of water-user committees and payment of user-fees, maintenance of facilities, sensitisation on ownership among others. This showed a shift and improvement from the previously dominant focus was on infrastructure or hardware. However, much of the literature is either on water sanitation and very few treat the two concepts co-currently. Community participation in school-based water facility management was rather low, shown by poor facility safety, protection and maintenance. The study found out that, pupils’ participation in school-WaSH is increasing through child-led SHC; this is significant in shaping children’ WaSH behaviour and management practices. The findings also show that, there is increasing in-vestment in latrines and a few in water facilities. The district local governments’ capacity to deliver WaSH services is inhibited by sole reliance on central government funding. The district funds less than 15% of its budget. The funding remains inadequate and often delayed. The district also lacks adequate staffing particularly at lower local governments. There are different reporting lines on community WaSH issues: one health, second education and third by community development departments, yet some issues remain cross-cutting. The CSOs are making significant contribution to the school-WaSH sub sector and have strengthened their working relations with the local government through joint coordination meetings, field monitoring visits and cross-learning. https://thesis.eur.nl/pub/15310/ Fri, 13 Dec 2013 00:00:01 GMT <div>Nyame, Joyce</div> This research explored the ways physical disability impacts the lives of men, their immediate circle of family and friends and the Ghanaian society. The study sought to address the equalization of rights/opportunities and recognition to ‘others’ outside the ‘normal’ stipulated life where men are expected to be ‘masculine’ by possessing a body type with access to certain opportunities like work/employment to facilitate their stipulated masculine duties as providers. And women are expected to be caregivers who receive the provision from these men. Thus, men without most of these prescribed features tend to be tagged ‘women’ and vice versa. Through interviews with men with disability, it is suggested that a man isn’t a superior category (group) over a woman but an “empty overflowing” (Scott 1986, Lorber 1994) category with different multidimensional sub sections. Focusing on a hegemonic (binary) framework; that tends to ignore existing intersectional factors like class, etc. is likely to maintain the possible inequalities within each category. Thus, the need for reconstruction of certain dominant gender (masculine) norms that have been normalised over time; especially in relation to men with physical disability. https://thesis.eur.nl/pub/15341/ Fri, 13 Dec 2013 00:00:01 GMT <div>Munzerere, Thomas Cosmas</div> Good land governance is increasingly gaining prominence among scholars and practitioners. In Tanzania that may be seen from the both the land policy and Land Act 1999 that require good governance principles as guidelines for land administration. Unfortunately however, there have been signs of escalation of weak land governance rather than good land governance despite the laws in place. Using the FAO good land governance framework the study argues that weaknesses in land law, information and leadership can all be seen as obstacles to good governance in the urban land sector in Mbeya. This work found that establishment of good land governance was blocked by weaknesses in land laws, inaccessibility of information and examples of a lack of clear leadership in land management, in the context of urban Mbeya. By using documentary analysis, interviews, cases studies and reviewing relevant literature, the study explored these impediments to good land governance in an urban area of Tanzania, and sought to make some modest recommendations. https://thesis.eur.nl/pub/15373/ Fri, 13 Dec 2013 00:00:01 GMT <div>Raghubanshi, Mimu</div> Single women (widows) are one of the discriminated and marginalized groups in Nepalese Hindu society. Micro-credit program adopted by Non-governmental organization and cooperative are making an attempt to empower single women economically as well as socially. This research paper assesses ‘the change’ bring on the status of ‘non-bankable poor widows’ in terms of their income, well-being, participation and decision making capabilities, having given an access to finance. It also explores the issue of social inclusiveness and over-indebtedness in this microfinance program. https://thesis.eur.nl/pub/15375/ Fri, 13 Dec 2013 00:00:01 GMT <div>Gurung, Pragya</div> During the decade long conflict in Nepal (1996-2006), 1360 peoples were enforcedly disappeared by both parties to the conflict (International Committee of the Red Cross, 2013). But even after seven years of the signing of the Comprehensive Peace Accord, Truth and Reconciliation Commission has not been formed due to the disagreement among the political parties and the victims’ families associations on issues like amnesty and forced reconciliation. Nepal in its current political context is in need of reconciliation, healing and truth telling for the nation to move forward without marginalizing the conflict victims and their families. In this research paper I will explore the struggles / complexities and possibilities in achieving reconciliation in post conflict Nepal. I will examine the state responses for reconciliation and how do the victims’ families associations perceive it. In this paper I will also study the broader demands of the victims’ families individually and victims’ families associations. For the purpose of the study reconciliation is analyzed through the micro level and macro level model given by Susan Dwyer. In Nepal the formation of the truth and reconciliation commission is in an impasse due to focus on prosecution versus amnesty debate. The findings suggest that the priority demands of victims’ families are not in coherence with the victims’ families associations. The victims’ families’ priority demand is knowing the truth and delivery of socioeconomic demands as justice where as the victims’ families associations priority demand is knowing the truth and prosecution as justice .I argue that the prosecution of the perpetrators will not guarantee the long term healing and reconciliation of the victims’ families if their socio-economic needs are not met. My conclusion in this paper is in the current context of Nepal, the state needs to reassess the focus on the social and economic justice to the victims and their family members which will pave a way for reconciliation. https://thesis.eur.nl/pub/15332/ Fri, 13 Dec 2013 00:00:01 GMT <div>Hadi, Mohammad</div> The Afghan state has historically been ethno-centric, promoting ethnic hegemony by suppressing and diminishing the ethnic-linguistic and cultural diversity inherent in the very fabric of Afghan society. This suppression has been a central component of the state-building project for over a century. Attempts have been made to merge and integrate diverse ethnic, linguistic, cultural, and social structures into an overarching Afghan identity largely reflecting the tribal characteristics of the Pashtuns. Such an approach to state-building has generated multidimensional grievances, horizontal inequalities and exclusions over the course of time. These complex historical grievances have underwritten and perpetuated the conflict between a mono-ethnic state and a multi-ethnic society. The current Afghan Peace and Reintegration Program is doomed to fail as it fails to recognise key aspects of what drives the conflict. Firstly, it does not address the historical and structural causes of the conflict. Secondly, it fails to acknowledge the complexity of the current conflict by focusing on one specific actor in the conflict - the Taliban. Finally, it fails to appreciate and reconcile different factional ideologies with conflicting political projects for Afghanistan. Peace between the state and the current insurgency will not herald the end of the conflict in Afghanistan. The resolution of the conflict requires a fundamental revisit of state's structure, institutions and identity. Until such time as the Afghan state fully reflects and represents all of its citizens in all their diversity, conflict will prevail. https://thesis.eur.nl/pub/15376/ Fri, 13 Dec 2013 00:00:01 GMT <div>Namubiru Mukasa, Sylvia</div> This study analyses the child’s best interest principle as applied in intercountry adoptions and legal guardianship decision made in contemporary Uganda. The international human rights regime particularly the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) elaborately delineates how children should be treated in particular situations to ensure that decisions or initiatives undertaken promote, rather than inhibit, their best interest. Uganda is a state party to the CRC and as such under an obligation to implement the convention. The role of courts of law in inter-country adoptions is of particular interest in this study. Firstly, as it is the courts of law that evaluate and assess the circumstances under which adoptions are made. In Uganda they are the competent authority within the meaning of the Hague convention on ICA. Secondly, courts of law, besides domestic legislations, use other subsidiary laws, international human rights law inclusive, as well as their inherent discretion in adjudication of cases. In other words the courts of law are highly empowered to promote and protect the BIP of children in ICA, more than any administrative organ in Uganda Be that as it may, the study reveals that child’s best interest principle in its broad sense receives peripheral attention in court decisions on adoption matters. Instead physical and financial related welfare and other considerations take a centre stage. The results of this have been injurious to the rights of the children because it has produced an environment that has allowed clandestine activities associated with child trafficking to flourish within the context of ICA in Uganda. This paper contends that courts of law are an indispensable organ in the dispensation of justice and thus shouldn’t overlook critical issues like the child’s best interest in taking critical decisions as in adoption of children. They have the duty to protect, and fulfil the children rights within the ICA settings. Adoption is a lifelong undertaking, implying that a flawed adoption process portends irreversible damage to the child’s wellbeing, survival and development. https://thesis.eur.nl/pub/15371/ Fri, 13 Dec 2013 00:00:01 GMT <div>Enriquez Lavitoria, Marie Hazel</div> When TNCs’ investment in developing countries causes the displacement of people from their land, how do human rights advocates respond? In answering the question, this paper investigates the potential of strategic human rights litigation in seeking transnational remedies within the emerging business and human rights framework. This research shows that tensions between business and human rights arise because global economic market reforms have weakened the power of developing countries to fulfil human rights obligations. I maintain that UN’s response to the tension by adopting the Guiding Principles has recognized the power of TNCs but still sustained that human rights obliga-tions remain with the States. As exemplified in the case of Koh Kong sugar plantation, I argue that the use of legal and non-legal means is an epitome of human rights NGOs’ continuous efforts to explore means and mechanisms to challenge, and eventually change the system that constrains the enjoyment of human rights. Strategic human right litigation posits that while the system hinders the enjoyment of rights and limit’s the remedies to be availed of, it depends upon the right-holders to claim and to work for the realization of their rights. https://thesis.eur.nl/pub/15369/ Fri, 13 Dec 2013 00:00:01 GMT <div>Lontiong - Cisnero, Maria Roda</div> This research paper reflects on activisms 2010+ through the Internet blackout in the United States (US) and black Tuesday in the Philippines. There is a growing concern that digital media environment are trivializing activism in the form of clicktivisms and slacktivisms. Protests can be a click away, not all protests however qualify as trangressive contention. Drawing from a social paradigm that seeks out robust processes and mechanisms, this research paper examines two successful online protests. It looks into the Internet blackout in the US against the controversial copyright infringement bills called SOPA-PIPA. It also examines black Tuesday in the Philippines against the Cyber Crime Prevention Act. Using a non-linear and multi-level case analysis, the study draws out evidence of dynamic pathways shaping particular features of contention. By doing so, the inquiry finds proof that Internet blackout and black Tuesday involved complex and robust processes that lead to (1) actor constitution; (2) polarization; and (3) scale shift. Further, this paper provides a sketch of the contested global to local policy landscape on Internet governance vs sovereignty and fundamental freedoms. https://thesis.eur.nl/pub/15307/ Fri, 13 Dec 2013 00:00:01 GMT <div>Gaybor Tobar, Jacqueline</div> This paper explores a political process of enforceability of rights led by the Kichwa indigenous people of Sarayaku over the Ecuadorian state. Ecuador is a country that self-defines as plurinational and intercultural and one that has claimed to give an important place to nature by incorporating the indigenous notion of buen vivir in its Constitution. Nevertheless, the findings of this study show that this legal recognition is not reflected in reality. Ecuador is the scene of a number of conflicts that arise from opposing views: one dominant view is rooted in the pursuit of development through oil extraction, and “the other” view focuses on the defense of indigenous territories and nature. By exploring the Sarayaku struggle for the defence of their territory, this study analyses the importance of spiritual and cosmological dimensions in indigenous resistance processes. The paper will reaffirm the sacred connection between territory, non-human and human beings in an effort to explain different knowledge systems that underlie the indigenous struggle. The Sarayaku people represents an international emblematic political and legal precedent—one in which, on the basis of recognizing their worldview and knowledge sys-tems, the highest tribunal of the Americas, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, ruled in their favour. https://thesis.eur.nl/pub/15306/ Fri, 13 Dec 2013 00:00:01 GMT <div>Beeksma, Janneka</div> Immigration detention is increasingly employed by states to ‘securitize’ against irregular migration; alongside this trend is the rapid intensification policies aiming to control migration through a host of repressive crime-centered means. How can we make sense of these trends, and how can we understand their relationship to each other? This paper offers one explanation through a constructivist theory of migration control. It analyses the entrenchment of detention in the Netherlands relationship to the expansion of detention across the EU. Embedded in a constitutive relationship with migration control, this means these two layers are constantly reshaping, and reifying one another. As they do so, they perpetuate but one strand of means to ‘securitize’ migration. This paper is an invitation for researchers to further explore the constitutive relationships between migration control and the practices and regimes embedded within it; as well, to seek to theorize connections between these practices in new ways in order to build more holistic picture of the emerging trends in immigration policy. https://thesis.eur.nl/pub/15370/ Fri, 13 Dec 2013 00:00:01 GMT <div>Hoyos Vivas, Marcela</div> This research is about the implementation of peacebuilding projects initiated by private actors in Colombia. Through elaborating a framework based on a combined NGO-academic toolkit, the study tries to elucidate the motivations and means of two private actors in engaging in peacebuilding activities in the Montes de Maria and Middle Magdalena regions of Colombia. The study also looks at how these private sector organisations’ motivations and means shaped how the projects developed in practice. By taking two contrasting examples of private sector institutions, Semana Foundation and Indupalma Ltd., the study assesses a number of key variables to better understand the varying engagement of private sector actors in peacebuilding. Broader Corporate Social Responsibility strategies are drawn out to make some comparative conclusions possible. The main finding is that although both Semana Foundation and Indupalma Ltd. share a broad ‘liberal peace’ approach to development and peacebuilding, in practice the two initiatives involve distinct types of CSR strategies. Whilst Semana Foundation views CSR in terms of Corporate Social Investment for ‘broader’ peace, for Indupalma CSR is strategized in terms of a Business Integration model based on inclusive principles. As a consequence, private actors vary in the extent to which they engage in economic, social and political activities in the peacebuilding initiatives, given that each private sector actor has a different understanding of their role in peacebuilding and development. Overall the study concludes that the potential contributions of private sector actors, though variable, can also be substantial in the longer-term, situation that should be seized by other relevant development actors. https://thesis.eur.nl/pub/15309/ Fri, 13 Dec 2013 00:00:01 GMT <div>Asiimwe, Henry</div> This research paper contributes a vital element to the studies, debates and literature on bride price. While employing a systematic conceptual frame work to ground its analysis of the perceptions, experiences, processes and outcomes of bride price payment, it uses data collected from interviews, focus group discussions and observation to bring out the voices and experiences of the people most affected by bride price, that is, the men and women at the grass root whose voice has been missing in literature and debate. The study focuses on responses from field data collection in Mbarara, western Uganda to answer the question: How do notions of masculinity/femininity, gender, class and modernisation influences people’s experiences and perceptions on bride price? It uses a conceptual frame work consisting of Gender, Masculinity, class, modernisation and intersectionality to analyse data collected from interviews with different actors and direct observation of the bride price payment functions. The paper argues that while bride price has overwhelming support among the members of the community, its motivations, processes and outcomes are gendered and bent towards reinforcing masculinities and femininities that do not only create, but also reinforce male dominance and female subordination thus expanding gender inequality, reduced decision making powers for women in the households and sometimes wife abuse. It also argues that with forces of modernisation coupled with the desire for actors to conform to particular class status, the practice has turned too commercialised, lost its original meaning, and makes women appear like purchased commodities. The prohibitive costs have denied several young men and women a chance to marry. The paper recommends that much as it not necessary to abolish the practice (as demanded by several activists and legislators), serious reforms are required to remove the commodifiacation and financial motives so as to make it affordable by many intending to marry.