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Permanent URI for this collectionhttps://eresearch.qmu.ac.uk/handle/20.500.12289/9

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Author: search.filters.author.Panter-Brick, CatherineSubject: search.filters.subject.Resilience

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    Living with transience in high-risk humanitarian spaces: Gendered experiences of international staff and policy implications for building resilience
    (Wiley, 2020-08-10) Strohmeier, Hannah; Panter-Brick, Catherine
    Being deployed in crisis zones is perilous business. To-date, little is known regarding how humanitarian workers relate social and professional goals to lived experiences of high-risk environments. In South Sudan, ranked as the most dangerous country for aid workers globally, we interviewed international humanitarian staff (n=20) to examine, using thematic and interpretative phenomenological analysis, their sense of place, wellbeing, and vocation. Subjectivities of humanitarian spaces hinged upon negotiating physical hardships and social relationships: Juba was described both as a "prison" and "party hot spot." For expatriate staff, making sense of spatial, social, and professional transience was sharply gendered and rooted in subjectivities of risk-taking, crisis-managing, and career-building. We highlight two policy measures to address the implications of transience for human wellbeing and organizational effectiveness. Efforts to support teams and structure work environments, altering the humanitarian and vocational bubble, will help build resilience at the heart of humanitarian systems.
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    Measuring the psychosocial, biological, and cognitive signatures of profound stress in humanitarian settings: Impacts, challenges, and strategies in the field
    (BioMed Central, 2020-06-23) Panter-Brick, Catherine; Eggerman, Mark; Ager, Alastair; Hadfield, Kristin; Dajani, Rana; This research was funded by Elrha’s Research for Health in Humanitarian Crises (R2HC) Programme (https://www.elrha.org/project/yale-psychosocial-call2/) for a total GPB 295,131 in 2015–17 (grant #14045). Elrha aims to improve health outcomes by strengthening the evidence base for public health interventions in humanitarian crises (elrha.org/r2hc). The R2HC programme is funded equally by the Wellcome Trust and the UK Government.
    Background: Evidence of ‘what works’ in humanitarian programming is important for addressing the disruptive consequences of conflict and forced displacement. However, collecting robust scientific evidence, and ensuring contextual relevance, is challenging. We measured the biological, psychosocial, and cognitive impacts of a structured psychosocial intervention, implemented by Mercy Corps with Syrian refugees and Jordanian host-community youth. In this paper, we present a case analysis of this evaluation study and reflect on the scientific contributions of the work, the challenges experienced in its delivery, and the strategies deployed to address them.