tion in Nicaragua between IOB, Nitlapán and the microfinance institute Fondo de Desarrollo Local( FDL). Other research focused on resource degradation and income diversification in Benin; the role of indigenous structures in forest management in Cameroon; the role of traditional and contemporary institutions in fisheries management in Benin; and water-related information-sharing in Uganda. A final focus is on green criminology, more specifically, on the ivory trade and poaching. A fourth research stream focuses on the aftermath of violence, with particular attention being paid to how this translates at the local level. A PhD project is currently being conducted on how education( teachers and curriculum) contributes to peace-building and dealing with a violent past in the Ivory Coast. Another research project looks at the impact of violent conflict on inter-ethnic relations in Rwanda, while another is looking at how traditional institutions are being formulated or reformulated in the face of violent conflict in western Uganda. Finally, a postdoctoral( FWO Pegasus) project has begun on sex and war, to understand sexual practices in war( in northern Uganda). Other research has focused on migration, dealing with regional mobility dynamics and the organisation of trans-local family life and care networks in Nicaragua. One PhD on this issue has been completed. A large research project( financed by the International Growth Centre) focused on migration, secondary towns and poverty reduction. Finally, a range of methodological papers have been published, focusing on a variety of methodologies used in LID research: a peer-reviewed article was published on measuring food consumption, another article on measuring household labour, and one on the use of financial diaries.
RESEARCH HIGHLIGHTS LID
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De Weerdt, J., Beegle, K., Friedman, J. and Gibson, J.( 2016)“ The challenge of measuring hunger through survey”, Economic Development and Cultural Change, 64( 4): 727-758.
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Huybrechs, F., Bastiaensen, J., Forcella, D. and Van Hecken, G.( 2016) « La microfinance pour les services environnementaux: enseignements en matière de politiques du Proyecto CAMBio au Nicaragua », Revue Tiers Monde, 225: 125-154.
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Kuppens, L. and Langer, A.( 2016)“ Divided we teach? Teachers’ perceptions of conflict and peace in Côte d’ Ivoire”, Peace and Conflict: Journal of Peace Psychology, 22( 4): 329-333.
# # Winters, N.( 2016)“ Embedding remittances: a methodological note on financial diaries in Nicaragua”, Tijdschrift voor Economische en Sociale Geografie: online first.
State, Economy and Society( SES)
This research line devotes its attention to state institutions and the formal and informal actors engaged in the‘ field of power’ surrounding these institutions. Three subthemes can be distinguished: the dynamics of statehood in relation to the cycle of conflict, peace and attempts at state reconstruction; hybrid governance and state-building in the contested development arena; and the governance of public funds and services. Within the broad theme of statehood, conflict and peace studies take a prominent role. This year, we welcomed contributions on peace-building in class rooms in the Ivory Coast. However, most contributions dealt, as usual, with Africa’ s still turbulent Great Lakes Region, looking at the many faces of rebel groups in the DRC, ongoing violence in Western Uganda, the fragile situation in South Sudan, and electoral violence in Burundi. As in previous years, state reconstruction also featured prominently in the SES research. Also here, the focus lies on the Great Lakes Region, with coverage of this year’ s many pivotal moments, including the presidential elections in Uganda and Burundi, the lack of elections in the DRC and the struggle over term limits throughout the region. Institutional engineering and the difficult path to reconciliation after inter-ethnic violence( in Rwanda and Burundi) also continued to receive attention. Moreover, attention was also paid to the embeddedness of national statehood in the international scene, for example, through the influence of aid flows to authoritarian regimes in Africa, and the international criminal court, including the exit from it by some African nations. Within the broad theme of hybrid governance and statebuilding in the contested development arena, there was a conceptual contribution that built bridges between‘ hybrid governance’ and‘ legal pluralism’. The other studies within this theme looked at applications of hybrid governance and / or legal pluralism in the education sector in the Democratic Republic of the Congo( DRC), but mainly in natural resource management – from fisheries in Benin, forest management in Cameroon, water and sanitation projects in Uganda to gold mining in the DRC. The subtheme of governance of public funds and services includes research on public funding channels. In particular, this year we undertook studies on local currency bond market developments in Sub-Saharan Africa, tax reform in South Sudan, and the impact of debt relief on public finances in Rwanda. Attention was also paid to how private funding can complement public funding; in particular, how FDI could help fill the finance gap in the Great Lakes Region, and how institutionalised portfolio approaches can facilitate African infrastructure development. To govern public funds and services,
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