Research Reports

Permanent URI for this collectionhttps://mro.massey.ac.nz/handle/10179/924

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    Walking with broken crutches : exploring the effects of host-state fragility upon refugees : a research project presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of International Development, School of People, Environment and Planning, Massey University, Manawatu, New Zealand
    (The Author, 2015) Foreman, Mark
    This research report explores the relationship between state fragility and the hosting of refugees in the context of the protracted Afghan refugee crisis, where fragile state Pakistan hosts Afghan refugees. The reality for the majority of the world’s refugees is that their hosts are neighbouring countries which are in varying conditions of state fragility. Some states are bearing the brunt of the global refugee burden despite their general struggle to provide basic services and livelihood opportunities for their own citizens. For these ‘fragile hosts’, providing for an influx of refugees would be untenable without significant international assistance. Following a comprehensive literature review looking at the complex interplay between conflict, state fragility, underdevelopment and forced migration, the report case study is prefaced by background chapters surveying the factors which triggered Afghan forced migration, and Pakistan’s fragile status as host respectively. This report then offers an analysis of two region-specific UNHCR documents which explores the relationship between Afghan refugees and Pakistan as ‘fragile host’. Various host-state incapacities were found to entrench endemic poverty and insecurity in the Afghan refugee population in Balochistan due to a lack of livelihood opportunities, and availability and access to quality services. These issues have also created barriers to local refugee integration, and the fluctuating interest of international donors has historically served to exacerbate these challenges. This report argues that a much-improved understanding of the multi-layered and complex regional, national and local relationships between protracted conflict, state fragility and refugee-host dynamics is needed in order to approach a sustainable solution.
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    How have women been empowered by gender-focussed development projects in post-Taliban Afghanistan? : reviewing the literature which incorporates the critical consideration of two gender focussed development projects : a research report presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of International Development in Development Studies at Massey University, Palmerston North, New Zealand
    (The Author, 2014) McMillan, Robert Melville
    This research report examines the empowerment approach within the Gender and Development (GAD) discussion, providing an emphasis on women’s empowerment as an instrument of post-conflict reconstruction in post-Taliban Afghanistan. Utilising a comprehensive literature review, the report establishes the framework of Naila Kabeer as a consistent base for the comparing and contrasting of two gender-focussed development programmes in Afghanistan. The contextual background of empowerment programmes pursued over the past decade in Afghanistan are presented with an examination of the challenges and opportunities encountered pursuing women’s political, economic, social and psychological empowerment. A specific consideration of the New Zealand-led Provincial Reconstruction Team in Bamyan Province, Afghanistan, and the Community Development Council initiative within the Afghanistan National Solidarity Programme is undertaken. The report concludes that while there have been enormous symbolic advances for women’s political empowerment in the national sphere, the more private and local the sphere examined: the less decision-making agency Afghani women are empowered to exercise. While seeking to provide opportunities for women’s economic empowerment the programmes have made little practical change to women’s income or financial agency. The two gender-focussed programmes examined have made significant compromises to the extremities of the local context, and are considered ‘gender accommodating’ rather than ‘gender transformative’. The large body of literature concerning Afghanistan substantiates that the road to gender equity will stretch across the generations and is necessarily gradual to remain sustainable. As Afghanistan enters further political turmoil, the empowerment attained by Afghani women in the past decade must be expressly guarded.