Health, Livelihoods and Wellbeing in Fragile and Conflict Contexts: An Integrated Research and Grants Program

This project will support the Arab Council for Social Sciences (ACSS) to promote multidisciplinary research in health, livelihoods, and wellbeing in fragile and conflict contexts in the Middle East and North Africa. As the Arab region enters another year of conflict, displacement, and uncertainty, the need for critical research into the drivers, trajectories, and impacts of current events grows ever more urgent. Multidisciplinary and academically rigorous analytical knowledge and synthesis is urgently required.

Building on previous IDRC support to ACSS, the current project will develop an approach that brings together a working group, a research grants program, publications, mentoring, and policy dialogue. There will also be focus on health as a newer area of support that is interlinked to livelihoods and wellbeing, particularly addressing issues facing youth in the Arab world. Throughout its activities, ACSS is strongly committed to issues of gender, generational, disciplinary, and regional diversity.

New knowledge will be generated through the support of approximately 100 researchers through the research grants program. Knowledge will also be created through the establishment of a working group consisting of eight to eleven mid-career and senior researchers, and related capacity building of young researchers through additional workshops and one-on-one mentorship for writing, publication, and communication with diverse audiences, including policy audiences. Funding to collectives and institutions will enable collaborations between individuals and institutions. Outreach through events will be organized in different countries of the region to bring researchers, activists, and decision-makers together in productive dialogue. In addition, the increased ACSS capacity in publication and dissemination and the growth of its online presence will serve to reach out to diverse audiences through various media.

The project is closely aligned with the Government of Canada’s new feminist international assistance policy, the strategic priorities detailed in the 2016-2030 WHO-led Global Strategy for Women, Children and Adolescents, and the overarching 2030 global agenda for sustainable development.