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- Convenors:
-
Rijk van Dijk
(African Studies Centre Leiden)
Astrid Bochow (Goerg-August Universität Göttingen)
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- Format:
- Panels
- Location:
- KH111
- Start time:
- 30 June, 2017 at
Time zone: Europe/Zurich
- Session slots:
- 1
Short Abstract:
Building on a literature on local productions and receptions of 'crisis' (natural disasters, violent conflicts or epidemics) the panel explores ethnographically what happens when the crisis is 'over', international support is withdrawn and rural & urban settings face post-crisis challenges.
Long Abstract:
Recently, scholars have been describing the local effects of global responses to humanitarian crises on the African continent. These crises include natural disasters, violent conflicts or epidemics. Ethnography has studied the socio-economic and political effects of interventions by international organizations; the latter introducing new structures, resources, knowledge and expertise in local contexts. An often-overlooked question however is; what happens when the crisis is over? One effect of international interventions is the establishment of local NGOs, thereby creating a new labor market and (informal) economies of voluntarism. Another is the building of new infrastructures, such as medical & educational centers and policy institutions, fostering the emergence of new rural and urban educated middle classes. Yet, while humanitarian organizations create such structures for as long as a crisis appears to last, a new crisis often emerges when they terminate support and pull out. Local communities are then faced with post-crisis challenges in how to maintain these structures of expertise, knowledge and labor. How to understand the implications the retrenchment of international support has for the social formations that emerged throughout the crisis? How does this process differ in urban versus rural contexts; does this deepen social and political inequalities between rural and urban communities? What perspectives do people develop as a result of this chronicity of crisis (Vigh 2008)? In many cases the crisis-after-the-crisis triggers a revival of religious responses to this situation; which political or religious actors gain or lose credibility? We are interested in contributions that consider these questions ethnographically.
Accepted papers:
Session 1Rijk van Dijk (African Studies Centre Leiden) Astrid Bochow (Goerg-August Universität Göttingen)
Paper short abstract:
Building on a literature on local productions and receptions of ‘crisis’ (natural disasters, violent conflicts or epidemics) the panel explores ethnographically what happens when the crisis is ‘over’, international support is withdrawn and rural & urban settings face post-crisis challenges.
Paper long abstract:
Recently, scholars have been describing the local effects of global responses to humanitarian crises on the African continent. These crises include natural disasters, violent conflicts or epidemics. Ethnography has studied the socio-economic and political effects of interventions by international organizations; the latter introducing new structures, resources, knowledge and expertise in local contexts. An often-overlooked question however is; what happens when the crisis is over? One effect of international interventions is the establishment of local NGOs, thereby creating a new labor market and (informal) economies of voluntarism. Another is the building of new infrastructures, such as medical & educational centers and policy institutions, fostering the emergence of new rural and urban educated middle classes. Yet, while humanitarian organizations create such structures for as long as a crisis appears to last, a new crisis often emerges when they terminate support and pull out. Local communities are then faced with post-crisis challenges in how to maintain these structures of expertise, knowledge and labor. How to understand the implications the retrenchment of international support has for the social formations that emerged throughout the crisis? How does this process differ in urban versus rural contexts; does this deepen social and political inequalities between rural and urban communities? What perspectives do people develop as a result of this chronicity of crisis (Vigh 2008)? In many cases the crisis-after-the-crisis triggers a revival of religious responses to this situation; which political or religious actors gain or lose credibility? We are interested in contributions that consider these questions ethnographically.
Markus Hoehne (University of Leipzig)
Paper short abstract:
The paper outlines the intervention conducted by a Peruvian NGO specialized on forensic anthropology in Somaliland. The forensic work in Somaliland is challenged not only by infrastructural problems, but also by the fact that epistemologically and politically, many misunderstandings surround it.
Paper long abstract:
In contrast to the mainstream policy position, no or at least less intervention after crisis was much more effective than (more) intervention in Somaliland. It recovered because, not despite, the lack of external intervention and crisis support. Being ignored by the international community in the 1990s, people in the northwest of failing Somalia concentrated on rebuilding peace and political order according to local traditions and capacities. However, once Somaliland had proven to be "the better Somalia", many international organizations established themselves there. For the organization, being in Somaliland was the closest one would want to get to the real crisis. Consequently, things began to change in Somaliland. In its ethnographic part, the paper outlines the intervention by a Peruvian NGO specialized in forensic anthropology. The NGO concentrates on the exhumation of mass-graves dating from the 1980s, the time of the military dictatorship. These forensic interventions happen sequentially since 2012. For a month or two every year, the experts are on the ground; local students are partly integrated. A local institution called the office for the investigation of war crimes is assisting and supposed to carry on the work in the absence of the Peruvian NGO throughout the year. However, my research shows that the forensic work in Somaliland is challenged not only by infrastructural problems, but also by the fact that epistemologically and politically, many misunderstandings surround it.
Emmy Kageha Igonya (African Population and Health Research Center)
Paper short abstract:
By examining the development of HIV crisis though two CBOs and local NGOs, the paper hopes to shade light on the power of HIV crisis and aid (resources) on the development of HIV structures and knowledge.
Paper long abstract:
The Human Immune Virus (HIV) crisis led donors to provide mass financial and material support aimed at stemming the scourge in Kenya. Numerous Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs), Community-Based Organizations (CBOs), support groups and expert patients/activists emerged and played a significant role in the HIV intervention plans. Beyond the HIV crisis, there has been a shift in response strategies resulting in a reduction and redirection of resources. This has led to an emergence of new intervention structures or outfits.
Drawing on ethnography of HIV support groups in Kenya, this paper examines the emergence, redundancy, and transformation/resilience of NGOs, CBOs, support groups and experts/activists after HIV crisis. It states that continuity of structures emerging from HIV crisis depended on the vision, innovation, capacity to mobilize resource and networking.
Sethunya Tshepho Mosime (University of Botswana)
Paper short abstract:
For women and girls, the end of Botswana’s economic crisis was the beginning of a different crisis; of weaker support of their efforts towards emancipation from the grips of patriarchy.different crisis; of weaker support of their efforts towards emancipation from the grips of patriarchy.
Paper long abstract:
The results of the 'post crisis' donor flight from Botswana has reversed many of the gains made during the crisis. Whereas Botswana had a much celebrated maternal health care system by the late 1980s, the tables have turned such that we have some of the highest maternal mortality rates in the world. Women's political representation is at its lowest in two decades. Gender-based violence and intimate partner homicide is also very high. Young girls remain the most affected by HIV and AIDS, and early motherhood remains worrisome. This paper links the reversal in the gains made for women and girls to reduced resource support from former development partners. It calls for a closer examination of the meaning of crisis - so that humanitarian crisis in brought by social inequalities are not given less attention than civil wars. In this way, we may be able to deepened our understanding of humanitarian crisis and not be quick to declare the end of crises.