Category: Other institutions

Deadline March 21

Number of visits: 4603

Theme: Global Visions and Local Practices
Development Research in a Post-2015 World
Stockholm, August 22-24, 2016
www.su.se/devres2016

Call for abstracts – deadline March 21

AIM

The aim with this conference is to provide a multi-disciplinary forum for networking and intellectual exchange among scholars who conduct research in and of relevance to low-income countries and/or engage in capacity-building collaborations. Researchers and research students will present ongoing and completed research, including projects funded by Sida and the Swedish Research Council. The conference also intends to offer a platform for dialogue and strengthen the relation between development research and policy makers.

THEME

Development visions have gained momentum with the setting up of a new global agenda. While significant international consensus was attained around a set of normative goals (the SDG’s), their materialization calls for serious reflection. One critical set of challenges relates to bridging global goals and visions, on the one hand, and local practices, realities and conditions, on the other. Ultimately, the outcomes of this global agenda depend upon the processes through which it is implemented and embedded in concrete settings. Global visions are modified by local contexts, producing a range of unintended and diverse outcomes. Local settings are characterized by an immense diversity in modes of life, physical environments and technical systems, which invites a consideration of a diversity of paths towards improved futures. Actors at the local level may embrace, appropriate or resist global agendas. Opportunities and risks for marginalized and vulnerable groups – the key targets of the new global agenda – are of particular concern. Also important is how their own innovations and everyday practices in a wide range of spheres (environmental, health, social and other practices) can be harnessed, their capacities and knowledges mobilized and how they can influence strategies and interventions seeking to materialize global development goals.

An emphasis on the encounter between current global visions and local contexts does not, however, entail that the great global-local challenges of our time can be solved at one specific scale. It rather actualizes long-standing questions about processes, structures and relations at multiple scales that work against, or alternatively open new avenues towards more just and sustainable futures.

There is an acute need for reflection concerning the role of knowledge production in the new policy context. How can the competences of a broad and diverse Swedish academic community be mobilized and shape Swedish global policies and interventions? Can opportunities for critical independent research be secured? Researchers may contribute to the development of indicators, to the assessment of opportunities, risks and impacts relating to the new global agenda, but they may also reflect upon the assumptions and notions of progress underlying their own work and the new agenda and its implementation.

Prominent keynote speakers will be invited to address this thematic area.

CALL FOR ABSTRACTS – deadline 21 March 2016

Abstracts are invited from all disciplinary backgrounds to the panels listed at the end of this call and at www.su.se/devres2016. Please submit only one abstract to the conference Abstracts should be submitted by e-mail both to the panel convener/s and to devres2016@humangeo.su.se. Abstracts should have a maximum length of 250 words, in plain text, and be saved in Word format. Name the file by stating the number of the panel you are submitting to, followed by your surname, ex 12_Surname.docx. Please adhere to the following format:

• Name of the panel
• Title of the abstract (lowercase letters)
• Author’s name and e-mail
• Author’s institutional affiliation
• Body of the abstract

The selection of abstracts will be made by the panel convener/s and the organizing committee. Abstract authors will be notified during the second half of April and accepted abstracts will be published on the conference webpage. Panel Conveners will organize their sessions and coordinate the submission of full papers.

Some limited travel funding will be available for researchers from a selection of countries – list available at www.su.se/devres2016. It can be applied for in connection with the abstract submission, by stating this in the abstract and by enclosing your CV and a letter of motivation (including whether the applicant has other funding available). Successful applicants will be notified during the second half of April.

REGISTRATION – deadline 15 June 2016

Registration is to be done through the conference web page. Registration will open in mid-April. There will be no registration fee, but the participants have to cover their own costs of travel and lodging. The conference starts on the 22nd August at 13.00 (please note that registration is to be done before that) and ends on the 24th August at 16.00.

For more information, please see the pdf file

Development Research Conference: Call for abstracts

Introduction

The African Leadership Centre (ALC) was established in Kenya in June 2010 as a joint initiative of King’s College London and the University of Nairobi. The ALC is pleased to announce a call for applications for the Peace and Security Fellowship for African Women for 2016/2017. This Fellowship is an intellectual and financial award to those who are able to portray convincing demonstrable or potential capacity to bring about intellectual, policy or other change in their field. The Fellowship is a postgraduate non-degree programme, and does not lead to an academic qualification.

Since October 2011 the ALC, King’s College London and the Institute of Development Studies (IDS), University of Nairobi, have delivered the Peace and Security Fellowships for African Women in partnership.

The ALC aims to build a new community of leaders generating cutting edge knowledge on peace, security and development. To this end, the ALC undertakes to do the following:

 Create an enabling environment for ideas that are grounded in African realities;
 Provide space for interaction with role models;
 Build capacity for independent thinking;
 Expand the knowledge base to develop transformational ideas that can be nurtured to create visions of change;
 Create opportunities to transfer knowledge to achieve multiplier effects for communities;
 Connect with processes nationally, regionally and globally, especially in the field of peace and security; and
 Build lasting partnerships that will maintain an African-led vision of change.

The Fellowships bring together African women in the early stages of their careers to undertake a carefully designed training programme in conflict, security and development. This training is followed by an attachment to an African Regional Organisation or a Centre of Excellence to acquire practical experience in the field of peace and security. It is intended that this project will train African women to develop a better understanding of African peace and security issues, in order to increase their participation in conflict management processes and other areas of security concerns for Africans.

Call for Applications: Peace and Security Fellowship for African Women

SUMMARY DESCRIPTION:

The Ford Foundation seeks a dynamic and creative leader and strategist for this newly created senior management position, directing one of the seven thematic areas that will define our programming. Reporting to one of the three Program Vice Presidents, the Director will be responsible for overseeing the two lines of work that will define this thematic area, supported by a team of grant makers and a program investment officer. Additionally, the Director will be responsible for managing key support staff (program associates, financial analyst, program assistants and department coordinator) who are based in this thematic area.

The Foundation’s overall aim is to disrupt the drivers of inequality via seven (7) mutually reinforcing thematic areas of programming: Civic Engagement and Government; Creativity and Free Expression; Equitable Development; Gender, Racial and Ethnic Justice; Inclusive Economies; Internet Freedom; and Youth Opportunity and Learning. Inclusive Economies will work through government, business, and civil society to help create economies that are fair, accountable, and provide broadly shared prosperity and opportunity. The foundation has defined these seven areas through an intensive strategic planning process, now giving directors and their teams significant room to shape specific programming priorities and approaches (See “What’s next for the Ford Foundation”).

Specifically the two lines of work the Director will be responsible for are: Quality Work and Economic Security and Impact Investing. (See “Our Approach Inclusive Economies”). Illustratively, the Foundation’s most recent work in this area includes enhancing job quality in rapidly changing labor markets, improving and accelerating financial inclusion, promoting rural livelihoods through inclusive value chains tied to leading global companies, piloting and scaling innovative forms of social protection, promoting “high-road” business practices and models, making impact investments, and advancing the practice of impact investment.

The Director will be responsible for targeted collaboration with and among the other six (6) Thematic Area Directors. Their teams will pursue and integrate a variety of creative, but rigorous approaches to achieving impact, from research and policy advocacy to demonstrations (creating “proof points”), cultivating transformative learning and innovation networks, building implementer capacity, deploying capital as impact investment, building awareness and constituencies for change, and working to directly advise key decision makers in the public, private and nongovernmental sectors.

The Director will also work in concert with the Foundation’s Representatives, who manage our 10 overseas offices across Asia, Africa and Latin America. The work is both domestic and global, and our work outside the U.S. is focused on the global South.

CORE RESPONSIBILITIES:

• Help refine and advance the strategic goals and global outcomes for Inclusive Economies and work with teams across the world to develop specific approaches for achieving social change objectives. Among internal partners, collaborate, in particular, with other Thematic Area Directors working to advance change worldwide.

• Ensure that strategic and operational objectives are aligned with the Foundation’s overall thematic goals and region-specific priorities.

• Approve and oversee the alignment of grants worldwide to thematic area strategy, consulting with Representatives and supervising VPs on overseas grant making.

• Incorporate the Foundation’s commitment to strengthening mission-critical institutions into an integrated strategy that achieves the specific objectives of the Inclusive Economies thematic area.

• Develop and oversee evaluation and learning plans for Inclusive Economies lines of work, with support from the Strategy and Learning office and colleagues worldwide.

• Continuously review the overall strategy, revising the strategy as needed based on learning from the grant monitoring and evaluation processes and other sources of evidence, and respond to new challenges and opportunities. Partner with other thematic area directors and the Strategy and Learning office to ensure cross learning.

• Lead regular strategy reviews with Program VPs.

• Partner with regional Representatives on regional strategy and alignment.

• Provide thought partnership to the Program VPs and President on the effective deployment of discretionary funds managed by them to (a) advance innovation and cross-theme priorities and (b) play a “search light” function for the field.

• Direct line management of grant makers (program officers) and the program investment officer who runs the Program-Related Investment Fund, in addition to program associates, program assistants and department coordinators.

• Serve as an exceptional manager of team leads and team performance, set annual performance objectives for team leads, and provide timely feedback, coaching and mentoring for performance and career development.

• Manage all aspects of U.S. and global program and operations, including budgets and all human resources needs (e.g. travel, consulting needs, and hiring and promotion).

• Promote a collaborative working environment within the team and across teams that maximizes the diverse backgrounds, perspectives and skills of staff that contribute to the development of the Inclusive economies strategy.

• Serve as ambassador of work internally and externally, a relationship builder, connector, and source of leverage.

• Represent the foundation and its work to all potential partners – the government, media, private sector, academia, and philanthropy – through meetings, updates, speeches, briefings and interviews.

• Help develop and lead external communications strategies to advance the goals of the Inclusive Economies strategy and the Foundation as a whole.

• Assist in developing strategies for disseminating the impact of the Inclusive Economies work, both within and beyond the foundation.

• As appropriate, lead planning and execution of strategic convenings to advance the objectives of the Inclusive Economies strategy.

QUALIFICATIONS:

• At least 10 years of professional experience working on issues related to economic growth and development, the role of business in society, employment, wealth and poverty, and income security or other social protection systems.

• Knowledge and application of globalization, governance and public policy, cross-sector partnerships, advocacy and research, and systems thinking and development approaches to advancing solutions to important societal problems.

• Advanced graduate degree in economics or another behavioral science, public policy, political economy, management, planning, law, or other relevant fields. A strong foundation in economics is strongly preferred.

• Significant strategy development and management expertise with knowledge and experience in applying evaluation methods and metrics.

• Highly skilled experienced people manager in a global and matrixed context.

• Experience working with a range of individuals in civil society, government and the private sector in the U.S. and globally.

• Familiarity with the use of information and communications technologies to promote social justice.

• Demonstrated experience working effectively as team leader and as part of a team, with colleagues of diverse backgrounds and perspectives.

• Excellent interpersonal and communication skills and a high degree of emotional intelligence.

• Excellent analytical, oral presentation and writing skills.

• Fluency in written and spoken English essential and fluency in a second language preferred.

• Familiarity with economic and social development issues globally. Varied overseas work experience, along with working knowledge of U.S. history and domestic challenges, is strongly preferred. Working knowledge of philanthropy helpful.

ALIGNMENT TO THE MISSION AND CULTURE OF THE FORD FOUNDATION:

• Commitment to the Foundation’s mission and core values of equity, fairness and diversity
• Personal qualities of humility, capacity for self-reflection, and a sense of humor
• Discretion and ability to handle confidential issues
• Action-orientated and entrepreneurial self-starter who can work well independently and in teams

Location: New York, NY

Salary: is based on experience and on the Foundation’s commitment to internal equity. A generous benefits package is provided.

Deadline to apply: Until filled.

To apply: Please visit http://www.fordfoundation.org/careers/

Equal employment opportunity and having a diverse staff are fundamental principles at The Ford Foundation, where employment and promotional opportunities are based upon individual capabilities and qualifications without regard to race, color, religion, gender, pregnancy, sexual orientation preference, age, national origin, marital status, citizenship, disability, veteran status or any other protected characteristic as established under law.

CR25 – Sociologie des relations professionnelles et du syndicalisme
Syndicalisme et relations professionnelles dans des sociétés en mouvement : quel renouvellement du regard sociologique ?

Après nous être interrogés, à Rabat, sur l’ébranlement des institutions régulatrices du travail, nous proposons d’aborder la recomposition des niveaux de régulation, la transformation du rôle de l’acteur syndical ainsi que le renouvellement des formes de conflictualité. Ce nouveau congrès sera, en outre, l’occasion de déplacer le regard dans trois nouvelles directions : les « nouveaux mondes à comprendre », les niveaux d’analyse qu’il nous faut ajuster, les décloisonnements théoriques ou méthodologiques qu’il nous faut opérer.

La question « des nouveaux mondes à comprendre » doit nous amener à intégrer des espaces jusqu’ici relégués à la périphérie, ce qui implique une ouverture aux pays du Sud et émergents, qui génèrent plus des deux tiers de la production industrielle mondiale quand le Nord tend à se tertiariser. Mais elle doit également nous amener à repenser la conflictualité qui accompagne cette refonte de la division internationale du travail. Se pose ainsi la question de l’émergence d’acteurs collectifs porteurs d’un renouveau de la critique sociale (Occupy, les indignés….) ainsi que d’une mise en visibilité de la précarité et des nouvelles formes d’exploitation. Comment ces luttes parallèles ou périphériques sont-elles appelées ou non à s’articuler entre elles et/ou avec les revendications portées par les acteurs institués ? Comment se traduit cette nouvelle donne au sein du mouvement syndical ? Observe-t-on l’émergence de tensions et/ou articulations entre base et sommet, centre et périphérie ? Comment les syndicalismes historiquement construits sur des problématiques de main-d’oeuvre industrielle, masculine et nationale, sont-ils amenés à faire évoluer leurs référentiels d’action collective face à l’internationalisation des modes d’organisation productive et à la féminisation de la main-d’oeuvre ?

La deuxième piste à explorer portera sur les niveaux d’analyse. Il s’agira de nous demander comment les relations professionnelles et le syndicalisme composent avec la multitude de changements d’échelle qui résulte du fonctionnement « connexionniste » issu du « nouvel esprit du capitalisme » ? Quels sont les leviers de régulation multi-niveaux à l’oeuvre dans l’ensemble des espaces économiques affectés par les accords de libre-échange (Alena, TTIP…) ? Comment évoluent la place de l’État dans la création de normes ainsi que les rôles des différentes instances de régulation dans l’entreprise ? Comment se recomposent les systèmes de relations professionnelles dans ce contexte de remise en question de « l’action publique négociée » ? Se posera ici plus globalement la question du processus d’intégration européenne et des réponses que sont en mesure d’y apporter les acteurs des systèmes de relations professionnelles, tant au niveau communautaire que national.

Enfin, sur les frontières disciplinaires, voire intra-disciplinaires, à décloisonner, ce Congrès devra nous permettre de réfléchir au renouvellement des cadres théoriques et méthodologiques pertinents pour penser toutes ces transformations. De nouveaux courants de pensée tels que les postcolonial studies nous interpellent sur la nécessité de dialogues épistémologiques autour de notions jusque-là conçues et pensées exclusivement par et pour les sociétés du Nord. Les propositions de communications gagneront à interroger les grilles de lectures aujourd’hui classiques (« régulation sociale », «analyse sociétale », approches institutionnalistes, « action organisée », économie des conventions, etc.) afin de réfléchir à leurs portées et limites ainsi qu’aux pistes conceptuelles susceptibles d’être mobilisées pour mieux éclairer nos « sociétés en mouvement ».

La date limite pour déposer une proposition de communication est fixée 15 janvier.

les propositions de communication sont à déposer directement sur le site de l’AISLF à cette adresse : http://congres2016.aislf.org/pages/32-aac2.php

Toutes les précisions concernant les modalités de dépôt et d’inscription sur le site du congrès sont accessibles à cette adresse : http://congres2016.aislf.org/

MSc Security, Leadership and Society

http://www.kcl.ac.uk/sspp/sga/alc/STUDY/The-MSc-Security,-Leadership—Society-.aspx

Introduction

The African Leadership Centre (ALC) was established in Kenya in June 2010 as a joint initiative of King’s College London and the University of Nairobi. The ALC is pleased to announce a call for applications for the Peace, Security and Development Fellowships for African Scholars starting in September 2016. This Fellowship covers an 18-month period, comprising a rigorous training programme on peace, security and development, which includes a 12-Month MSc programme at King’s College London and a six-month attachment to an African University to undertake an independent research project. The Fellowship programme is designed to expose junior African scholars to the complexities of security and development issues facing the African continent. The Carnegie Corporation of New York has provided funding for this programme.

The ALC aims to build a new community of leaders generating cutting edge knowledge on peace, security and development. To this end, the ALC undertakes to do the following:

 Create an enabling environment for ideas that are grounded in African realities;
 Provide space for interaction with role models;
 Build capacity for independent thinking;
 Expand the knowledge base to develop transformational ideas for meaningful change;
 Create opportunities to transfer knowledge to achieve multiplier effects for communities;
 Connect with processes nationally, regionally and globally, especially in the field of peace and security; and
 Build lasting partnerships that will maintain an African-led vision of change.

NOTE:

Applicants to the Fellowship Programme must make individual successful applications to the MSc Security, Leadership and Society by 17:00 hrs, Friday 18 March 2016. The MSc is a separate but parallel application procedure handled by King’s College London, rather than ALC. To be accepted on to the Fellowship, applicants must be accepted on both the MSc programme by King’s and the Fellowship Programme by ALC.

Call for Applications: Peace, Security and Development Fellowship for African Scholars

Abuja, Nigeria, 23-25 May 2016

CALL FOR PAPERS

According to a path-breaking study commissioned by UNICEF in 2003, child poverty in Sub-Saharan Africa (in particular in Western and Central Africa) was extremely high. Fortunately, the situation has since improved in many countries. This is in part due to the expansion of social protection. However, given the rate of population growth, the decline is too low to make a dent in the total number of children living in poverty, contrary to the trend of adult poverty. It also seems that the reduction in child poverty has occurred in areas and among groups that are relatively close to those who are better off. Thus, inequalities, social exclusion, and the depth of poverty might have increased. Moreover, this takes place in a context where social protection is still limited and fragmented in most countries.

This workshop will seek to further understand the trends of child poverty, its distribution, and how social protection has contributed, or not, to its decline in Western and Central Africa during the last 10-15 years. It will also explore the types and limitations of social protection in the region, as well as its accomplishments. Other policies that can help reduce child poverty, improve well-being, and address inequities will be investigated.

The main objective of the workshop is to engender dialogue among academics, policy-makers, and civil society representatives about policies to expand social protection and eliminate child poverty in Western and Central Africa.

Papers are invited to answer the following questions for a given country or comparing across countries:
 What changes in the incidence, depth, and distribution (geographically or among socio-economic groups) of child poverty have been observed in recent years? Have inequalities and ethnic discrimination played a role in these trends? And what has been the impact of emergencies (e.g. the Ebola epidemic, floods/drought or armed conflicts) on the incidence and depth child poverty?
 Are trends similar across the different dimensions of child poverty? How sensitive are these trends to adjustments in the deprivation thresholds in these dimensions?
 Which policies have demonstrably contributed to (or hindered) these trends? What role has social protection played in reducing child poverty?
 What is the state of social protection in Western and Central African countries and how has it evolved?
 What is the political economy of social protection in Western and Central African countries?
 What lessons can be learned for successful regional integration? What should be key elements / instruments for a Regional Social Protection Policy?

Papers addressing other similar and pertinent questions about the trends, distribution, and depth of child poverty and social protection policies, including experiences from other regions, would also be welcome.

Selected participants will engage actively in presentations and discussions of all papers throughout the workshop. The presentations can be made in any of the ECOWAS official languages. After the workshop, participants should be willing to edit their paper with a view to publication. Participants are responsible for their own travel expenses and medical insurance. There will be support to cover room and board during the event. A limited number of travel subsidies are available. For co-authored papers, only one author may apply for grants.

Child Poverty and Social Protection in Western and Central Africa

Deadline: 7 November 2015

11 – 13 January 2016, New Delhi, India

Theorizing in the International Relations discipline remains a Global North (mainly North America and Western Europe) enterprise that continues to be the primary knowledge-, especially theory-producing hub shaping its foundational parameters and key problematiques. Many, if not most, alternate intellectual formulations, concepts and tools offered by scholars from the Global South are de-valued on account of being ‘metaphysical’, ‘spiritual’, or, at best alternative ‘belief systems’ – none of which meet the ultimate gold standards of rationality and scientific spirit – or, largely as a source of knowledge about local realities, but never of theory and hence considered as ‘second class’.

A central premise of the WISC-IRIIS Exploratory Workshops for which this “Call” is issued is that the globe is indeed home to different cosmologies with diverse knowledge systems and, each of these may have different ways of knowing and, often these are indeed constitutive of different realities. The Workshops seeks participation of scholars who are trying to think through ways of doing IR differently, which may well entail stepping out of the precincts of IR to engage with other disciplines and other ways of knowing realities.

In particular, applications are invited from scholars whose research;

1) Critically interrogates both epistemological and ontological standpoints for knowledge creation in International Relations, with due recognition to the inherent multiplicity of ontologies.

2) Draws upon the historical pasts of different civilizations including the Indian, the Chinese, the Egyptian, the Aztec, the Maya or the Inca located in the Global South or, those located in the recessive margins of the Global North such as the Aboriginal and Indigenous people of the North and South Americas and Australia, for devising new (alternate?) knowledge practices in International Relations.

3) Explores ways to expose, unravel and, possibly transform the deeply embedded practices of ‘othering’ in International Relations that work
through inscribing a whole range of binaries such as ‘men versus native’, ‘men versus women’, ‘white (wo)man versus black (wo)man’ to ‘reason versus belief’, ‘objective versus subjective’, ‘order versus chaos’, north vs south and ‘primitive’ vs ‘modern’—all of which are cast in an explicit or implicit hierarchy where the ‘self’ or the first category is privileged, most often also de-legitimizing the ‘other’.

In view of the ‘exploratory’ nature of these workshops, scholars are invited to address any of these problematiques from a theoretical, methodological standpoint or debate the multiple ontologies embedded in different histories or contemporary social, cultural or political practices through which these have been enacted in the past and the present.

We encourage applications from early-career scholars coming from or studying in the Global South and Asia in particular. However, in principle, everybody could apply. Ideally participants will have diverse backgrounds and come from different scholarly communities. For this workshop, ‘early-career’ refers to doctoral students, post-doctoral fellows, and scholars not more than 5 years tenure in any academic position.

Applicants must provide a ‘statement of purpose’ of up to 500 words as to how their research engages with the overarching theme of the workshop along with their curriculum vitae and, up to 500 words abstract of their paper proposal.

WISC-IRIIS will provide a limited number of travel grants, depending on the number of applications and financial needs of the applicants (see attached WISC Travel Grant Application Form). Normally travel grants will consist of partial support for travel and local hospitality. There may be exceptions to this rule if sufficiently substantiated (see Travel Grant Form).

Participants are expected to submit a think piece (approximately of 2500-3000 words), two weeks ahead of the workshop. Up to 16 scholars, selected by competitive and peer reviewed process, will be invited to take part in this workshop, to be held on 11-13th January, 2016 in New Delhi, India.

Applications (curriculum vitae, statement of purpose and paper abstract) should be addressed exclusively to contact@iriis.in. The deadline is 7th November 2015. Decisions will be communicated by third week of November at the latest.

Call for Proposals: WISC-IRIIS Exploratory Workshops

School of Built Environment and Development Studies, University of KwaZulu-Natal

TrustAfrica, under the administration of the School of Built Environment and Development Studies, University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, South Africa is pleased to announce 2 Post-Doctoral Fellowships for 2015. The fellowship awards are for R200,000 per annum and there is the possibility for a maximum of 2 years. The selected fellowships will be attached to the DST/NRF Research Chair (SARChI) in Applied Poverty Reduction Assessment, held by Professor Sarah Bracking. Funding for two fellowships has been made possible by TrustAfrica.

The post-doctoral fellows who receive these fellowships will work in the economic justice and wealth accountability focus area of the Chair and they will be supervised by Professor Bracking.

Research Topics:

The purpose of the Chair is to promote and undertake research on government, private sector and civil society interventions that have been designed to reduce poverty. The two TrustAfrica fellowships will follow research topics around the political economy of illicit financial flows. The illicit financial flows research and advocacy agenda is now approaching a decade old, dating back to Baker’s seminal book (2005). Today the topic has received some successes including the appointment of a High Level Panel at the African Union and corresponding policy statements, however, there are still clear knowledge gaps. In particular the research methodologies, research designs and priorities for advocacy are heavily drawn from American and European sources, and the specificities of the African context remain limited in its research. While we know global estimates for illicit flows drawn from trade statistics, the means by which the structure of the political economy is maintained in Africa to generate these goods and services, some of course fictitious, is not well understood. For example, the professional service industries such as lawyers, auditors, banks, accountants, are heavily involved in the facilitation and generation of illicit financial
flows but how they do this is not widely known. In terms of some mechanisms of this political economy, there is a need to develop new research methodologies which can meet the challenge of opacity and economic justice.

Thus the overall objective is to create an indigenous knowledge system on illicit financial flows sustainable in an African context. This means that this is an exciting opportunity for the truly imaginative and gifted researchers to undertake blue skies research in the area of illicit financial flows and economic justice more broadly within the discipline of political economy at its investigative and methodological frontiers. The successful applicants will have completed (or submitted) their Doctoral work; will have a social science, legal or management background, such as in economics, political economy, finance, or political science; and be excited and committed to work on illicit financial flows. Their performance will be at a prior exceptional standard in order to develop this research agenda and commensurate research methodologies under the mentorship of Professor Sarah Bracking for a period of two years, renewable on review at the end of year one if satisfactory progress has been made.

Fellowship Award Criteria:

The following eligibility criteria apply:

• Applicants must have completed the doctoral degrees within the last five years;
• Fellowships are open to South African citizens and permanent residents;
• Outstanding international candidates from outside South Africa, who wish to undertake postdoctoral research in South Africa are eligible for support;
• Fellowships are awarded on a competitive basis, taking into account applicants’ academic achievements, outputs and research potential.
• Applicants who are applying for a third cycle of postdoctoral research support are not eligible
• Full-time employees of Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) are not eligible to apply.
• All fellowship awards should be held as primary funding towards the research study.
• Fellowships must not be held simultaneously with a fellowship from any other source.
• Fellows must not hold full-time salaried employment during the tenure of the fellowship.
• All fellows will be allowed to undertake a maximum of 12 hours of teaching, tutorials, assistance or demonstration duties per week on average, and may be remunerated for these duties, provided that they are reimbursed at a rate not exceeding the normal institutional tariff for services rendered.
• Fellows will be expected to be proximate to the University for at least 80 per cent of the period of the Fellowship.

In addition to this fellowship application, selected applicants are required to be accepted and registered in the discipline of Development Studies.

Post-Doc Fellowship Award applications should consist of:

1. A letter of motivation;
2. A summary research proposal of 2 pages;
3. A C.V. ;
4. Full academic records; and
5. The contact details of two academic referees.

In addition to the fellowship, successful applicants will also receive support for field work and conference attendance.

Preference will be given to South African applicants.

The deadline for bursary applications is October 15th 2015.
Applications should be submitted to: Mrs Kathleen Diga (digak@ukzn.ac.za) and Prof Bracking (bracking@ukzn.ac.za), using the header: TrustAfrica UKZN post-doc application 2015.

For further information please see:
http://sobeds.ukzn.ac.za/Homepage.aspx
http://www.appliedpovertyreduction.com

Post-Doctoral Research Fellowship Awards, 2015

School of Built Environment and Development Studies, University of KwaZulu-Natal Post-Doctoral Research Fellowship Awards, 2015

Call for Articles into Theme: WOMEN AND MIGRATION IN AFRICA

This issue explores African women’s experiences of migration and displacement through multiple lenses. We seek submissions that shed light on international, regional, national and local policies that shape women’s choices (or lack thereof) and experiences of migration, exclusion and displacement. Migration and displacement, as framed in this issue, are more than the movement of persons from one geographic location to another. In the context of this issue, the concepts of migration and displacement capture experiences of forming of new identities and new ways of being in the world; finding belonging in new places while staying connected to the past; negotiating complex cultural, economic and social dynamics across boundaries; and struggles to come to terms with the realities that necessitated moving from one place to another. Guided by the feminist principle of ‘the personal is political,’ we invite writers with experience and/or knowledge of African women’s migration to contribute to this important issue. Priority for this issue will be given to evidence-based articles that illustrate the connection between policy (or its absence/ inadequacy) and women’s choices and experiences of migration. We welcome articles that include recommendations for advocating for policies and programmes that improve women’s lives, case studies that expose policy gaps or reflect best practice, and/ or which propose women’s direct participation and involvement in policies that affect their lives.
The main sub-themes that will be explored in this issue are as follows:

1) Global Notions of migration and displacement: the changing political economy patterns globally, and impacts these have especially on women across the region. Articles under this theme will define and provide frameworks for understanding, migration, displacement and belonging.

a. Exploration of the myriad of ways that we can be displaced and seek for belonging. This piece will also provide theoretical underpinnings and the practice on the continent and beyond.

b. A feminist analysis of migration: focusing on exclusion and the inequalities underpinning the differences in men and women’s responses, practices and strategies.

2) The feminisation of migration: an exploration and analysis of shifting patterns of migration and how the phenomenon is increasingly adopting a woman’s face. What are the “pull” and “push” factors influencing women’s migration? This section will also make a critical analysis of current strategies, mechanisms and programmes and check the extent to which they respond to the realities of this increasing feminisation of migration.

a. “Choiceless choices” (without money, food and shelter, how realistic are migrants’ choices?) Experiences from the region and beyond. Experiences of women involved in rural to urban migration within countries and across borders.

b. Displaced and divided people, how women’s bodies are exploited, married-off, trafficked etc.) in times of forced migration and displacement.(Photo essays also welcome)

c. Impact of migration: Family separation (Case studies also welcome)

3) Global geopolitics and its impacts on migration and displacement of African women. In the past few decades there have been increasing numbers of people migrating from Africa to especially the global North. Analysis has pointed to this trend being largely due to a global neo-liberal economic framework which has pushed Africa especially, further to the margins of economic development. This section will attempt to place African women’s interests, concerns and experiences in these dynamics as it explores the drivers of migration within and across countries.

a. Skilled migration and emigration: Patterns of “Brain drain” or “Brain circulation” on the continent. Who wins and who loses? An analytical piece of the theories and thinking around economically active and non-economically active migrants in receiving countries.

b. Resilience and coping strategies: banding together as Africans in non-African spaces (Case studies from the diaspora).

c. Displaced by ‘gentrification’: A critique of neoliberal policies that support the displacement of poor citizens by the wealthy, big businesses and privatised services in urban spaces.

d. The gendered trend and impact of land access, ownership and displacement in Southern Africa.

e. The formation and sustenance of virtual communities through ICTs and social media as a coping mechanism after migration and displacement.

4) Migration and Money flows in the Global South: This section explores how the concept of and drive for remittances has fuelled migration and the gendered impacts of this phenomenon.

a. Women crossing borders: the patterns and experiences of women in cross border trade and the informal sector in Southern Africa

b. Domestic worker rights and experiences across borders.

c. Analysis of remittance models used by women migrants on the continent. What are the experiences of women migrants remitting to households and families? How has this impacted relationships? How gender-responsive are the banking systems on the continent in facilitating this?

5) Conceptualizing citizenship in an era of increased globalisation. To a large extent, who qualifies as a citizen and who does not determines the kind of services and quality of life one has in a given country. This section will explore how various countries in the region and on the continent have framed citizenship and how that excludes and or includes certain groups, and how this impacts especially women. (Case studies would also be great).

a. Culture, migration, belonging, displacement and the politics of identity (refugee women’s experiences in and outside of the region). What are their experiences of displacement and in shaping and reshaping these women’s identities as well as their sense of belonging?

b. Xenophobia: Afro-phobia/Negrophobia: structural causes and underlying drivers. Women bear the brunt. Analysis of women’s experiences in these contexts.

c. Race, class and gender in migration: migration experiences of women of different races and socio-economic classes.

d. Language and politics of identity (Finding a home in our tongues and in our mouths; accessibility, cultural context and colloquialism).

e. Experiences of low-literate women in foreign countries.

f. ‘Migrating to a new religion’: Experiences of women forced to change religions through marriage.

g. Displacement, belonging and politics of the body: Policy influences on migration choices and experiences of lesbians, gays, bisexual and trans men and women.

6) Responsiveness of migration-focused policy and legal frameworks to the needs of African Women: Interrogation of the extent to which available policy frameworks at continental, regional and national levels are responsive to the needs of African women and girls in and outside of their respective countries. How do these frameworks take into account the needs and realities of women and girls on the continent? Such frameworks include (but are not limited to): –

a. The SADC Gender Protocol

b. The Africa Common Position on Migration and Development;

c. Regional migration policy framework, e.g. SADC framework on immigration;

d. The Africa Agenda 2063: a secure future for African women in and outside of Africa;

e. The Soweto Declaration;

f. The Protocol to the African Charter on Women’s Human Rights;

g. Agricultural and mining policies that have led to the migration and forced displacement of citizens, with a specific focus on the impact on women;

h. International, regional and national policies for refugees and asylum seekers;

i. Human rights based frameworks for migration and immigration.

7) PHOTO ESSAYS

8) RELEVANT MOVIE AND BOOK REVIEWS

9) POEMS, CARTOONS, POSTERS, etc.

10) Existing or Proposed PUBLIC ART/ACTIONS and/or LIVE ART PERFORMANCES or INSTALLATIONS for documentation and featuring in the publication.

7) Urbanisation as a driver of migration
Sixty-six percent of the continent’s population is now urbanised; there is often a eulogised myth around rural existence) as it is a big driver of migration both rural to urban within states and/or across borders. We invite case studies or photo essays on the big cities across the region (or continent), focusing on issues of urban informality (housing, trade, care economy) etc. local policy, urban planning, informal economies, and public service and infrastructure delivery etc.
Indicate your interest and focus of your selected piece by 15 September 2015. All full articles should be submitted by 15 October 2015.

Write to us on Tsitsim@osisa.org

View earlier Issues of the publication at www.osisa.org

BUWA! Journal on African Women’s Experiences, Issue 6

20th -23rd July 2015

 

Call for Abstracts/Papers

The United Nations Economic Commission for Africa, Southern Africa Office in collaboration with the UNDP, South Africa, Southern Africa Trust and the Open Society Initiative for Southern Africa (OSISA) are organising a regional conference on: Building Democratic Developmental States for Economic Transformation in Southern Africa from 20th – 23rd July 2015. The conference will bring together high level policy makers, scholars, development practitioners and civil society actors in promoting informed intellectual and policy debate on options and strategies of building democratic developmental states in Southern Africa.

Over decades Africa has gone through bouts of rapid economic growth, stagnation and contraction resulting in development that has been halting and patchy. In the event, other more consistent regions have overtaken and passed it. In the 1960s and 1970s the average per capita income in sub-Saharan Africa was almost twice that of East Asia and Pacific countries, but reduced to less than 70 percent of the same group of countries in the 1990s. While both Asia and Africa were recipients of vast development aid flows, the latter had the added advantage of unparalleled amount of natural resources that should have enabled Africa to be amongst the world’s most developed regions by now. Instead, the continent’s development has lagged all other regions: Africa is the only region unlikely to meet the MDG on halving poverty by 2015; the continent lacks the basic infrastructure; and it still relies on fortuitous events such as periodic high commodity prices, occasional good rains for its food and export needs, and whimsical aid and financial flows to meet financing gap.

What differentiates Africa and other Asia and South American nations is that the progress of the latter two has been initiated, nurtured and reinforced by developmental States whose stewardship of the development processes was anchored on a clear transformative agenda centered on economic restructuring that supported manufacturing and industrialization to absorb labor thereby ensures broad-based development.

A developmental State is defined as “a state that puts economic development as the top priority of government policy, and is able to design effective instruments to promote such a goal. The instruments should include forging of new formal institutions, the weaving of formal and informal networks of collaboration among citizens and officials and the utilization of new opportunities for trade and profitable production.” Developmental State does not mean a state dominated economy; rather an economy shepherded and actively supported by the state. In this case, Asian governments, such as Japan, had to intervene to stimulate and promote economic development. This interventionist posture enabled them to establish clear economic and social objectives and influence the direction and pace of economic development. Admittedly, the immediate post-independence Africa in a sense had a predilection towards building some form of development States. Their objectives and interventionist agendas were however derailed by the adoption and implementation of international financial institution’s (primarily the World Bank and International Monetary Fund) structural adjustment policies in the 1980s and 1990s. The rolling back of the State’s influence on the economy at a time when the countries’ private sector was tiny, human resource development at infancy, and State’s grasp of national resources was soft, left several African countries very vulnerable to economic decline and crisis. The consequence was a prolonged period of economic crisis and stagnation, which some refer to as Africa’s wasted decades” (1970- early 1990s).

In contemporary times, some African Countries like South Africa and Ethiopia have made allusions to building democratic developmental states in their public statements, policy pronouncements and documents and policy options. However, there is little or thorough groundings on what this concept entails especially in the African experience and how African countries can begin to construct it. Little or no public debate or policy conversation has taken place on this subject matter. Yet, developmental States can neither be imported nor have wholesale formulae that can be adapted from elsewhere. For instance, relevant questions include, are there institutional and cultural peculiarities that African countries can tap into in building democratic developmental states? How can leadership be re-engineered in Africa in support of a developmentalist agenda and vision? How possible is it to build a developmentalist public service that has not only the expertise but commitment to a developmentalist project? What could be the influence of external forces either in promoting or undermining a developmentalist vision? These are some of the questions this conference will seek to address within the context of Southern Africa.

Sub-Themes:

1. Concept, Theory, and Comparative Experiences in Democratic Developmental State construction

2. Governance and developmentalist leadership

3. State Capacity including the public service and bureaucracy for development

4. Actors, Institutions and Agencies for Economic and Social Transformation

5. National Planning: Content, Coordination, Implementation, and Monitoring in a Developmental Context

6. Macro-economic policy and strategies towards industrialization and Inclusive Growth

7. Research, Science and Technology for Development

8. Social Policy for accelerated development and Empowerment of Economically marginalized groups

9. Regional and international institutions, frameworks and Agreements in Southern Africa’s development quest

Submission of Abstracts

Abstracts for the regional conference, not more than two pages maximum, should be submitted not later than 24th March 2015 to the email addresses below. Successful authors of abstracts will be notified by the first week in April 2015.
Email: srdcsa.uneca@un.org
CC: jachen@uneca.org and msibanda@southernafricatrust.org

Call for Abstracts/Papers