Research Focus

Priorities

MADAR will commission projects that address such questions via interdisciplinary, cross-sector, challenge-led, solution-focused research that aims to have a transformational impact on the humanitarian protection of vulnerable displaced people across the Maghreb region. Project proposals must fit in with one or more of our three priorities listed below. A proposal that makes no reference to any of these priorities will be ineligible. All projects should reflect upon the following:

1. Addressing the after-effects of harm: To what extent are the immediate protection needs of displaced people addressed? Can they access food, shelter, healthcare, education, and work?
   
2. Reducing risk exposure: How do broader cultural and socio-economic factors hinder or facilitate the protection of displaced people? To what extent are displaced people integrated into Maghreb countries? How can racism and interculturality be more effectively addressed to reduce and prevent harm?
   
3. Promoting change: What are the existing local, national and regional protection measures (e.g. legislative frameworks) for South-South displaced people in the Central Maghreb region? What impacts do they have? What are the gaps? Are the existing legislations effectively implemented?

Themes

We are especially interested in projects that address the following key interconnected themes:

1. Vulnerability and protection
   How do migration and displacement render people vulnerable? What are the protection needs arising from this, and how might these be addressed?
   
   This may involve reflecting on gender-based vulnerability to violence or harm that informs the experiences of women, men, and other genders; vulnerability due to sexuality; vulnerability due to age; vulnerability in forced displacement (along migration routes and at borders) and as a result of trafficking.
   
   Projects may focus on specific groups who are vulnerable due to their characteristics and/or circumstances, as well as the intersections and relationships that produce vulnerability.
   
2. Space, community and integration
   What is day-to-day life like for displaced people and migrants in Central Maghreb host societies, and what are the barriers to integration economically, socially, legally and politically?
   
   Addressing this question may involve consideration of the complexities of residence, access to rights, and spatial integration; the economic aspects of displacement and financial dimensions of life within the host society; inter-community relations, and interculturality, including the organization of displaced people as a community and political integration.
   
   Projects may approach the Maghreb as both a region of transit and onward migration, and a destination.
   
3. Advocacy and action research
   How can action and research, together, address urgent protection needs? How might actors and organizations across sectors collaborate to enhance inter-institutional knowledge?
   
   Addressing this question may involve exploration of the role of the media; how displaced people are represented; how disinformation and negative stereotypes are circulated; and how high-quality information may be shared across sectors. It may encompass how perceptions interact with legislative frameworks, policy, and knowledge production by research entities in the region.
   
   Projects should approach these questions both practically and critically – working to create change through cross-sector and interdisciplinary partnership, whilst reflecting on the dynamics between action and research.
   

The above themes are intended to be illustrative of key areas rather than exclusive and are deeply inter-connected – proposals which cut across these and other areas are encouraged. Proposals are expected to engage with protection and vulnerability in the contexts of displacement. Proposals should bring together a range of perspectives including social and political scientists, the creative arts, and humanities.