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- Convenor:
-
Anis Ben brik
(Hamad Bin Khalifa University)
Send message to Convenor
- Formats:
- Papers Synchronous
- Stream:
- Global methodologies
- Sessions:
- Thursday 1 July, -
Time zone: Europe/London
Short Abstract:
This panel will provide a space for dialogue and discussion on the implications of the COVID 19 pandemic on the field of evaluation in the global south to address the ethical, conceptual, and methodological challenges that are affecting evaluation work during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Long Abstract:
The COVID-19 pandemic is rapidly transforming the field of evaluation. Governments, organizations, and evaluators are facing enormous challenges such as increasing complex dynamics systems, uncertainties, turbulence, lack of control, and nonlinearities. As we move towards the post-COVID-19 phase in many countries, governments, international NGOs, evaluators, and international organizations need to transform themselves and rethink the field of evaluation.
This panel will provide a space for dialogue and discussion on the implications of the COVID 19 pandemic on the field of evaluation in the global south: discuss where we are and what it means.
Original contributions will be encouraged from diverse disciplines and methodologies to address the ethical, conceptual, and methodological challenges that are affecting evaluation work during the COVID-19 pandemic. Theoretical and/or empirical contributions with a comparative and regional perspective are equally encouraged. Papers can focus on a single country case or propose cross-country analyses.
Accepted papers:
Session 1 Thursday 1 July, 2021, -Paper short abstract:
Women farmers despite the devastating effects of climate change and the paralyzing effects of Covid 19 lockdown in 2020 fought were able to escape hunger by overcoming gender discrimination in accessing government benefits. The government needs to re-evaluate their policies to favour the marginalized.
Paper long abstract:
Climate change is recorded to have increased the vulnerability of women smallholder farmers because of their critical gender roles as home keepers and their socio-economic responsibilities in farming and trading especially in Africa. These women farmers are combating the effects of climate change on their farms; 97% of respondents lamented about the various losses they have incurred due to the devastation effects of climate change ranging from dry and infertile soil to flooding. All the respondents have poor knowledge of the scientific explanations behind climate change, but experience taught them that nature (weather) is no longer their friend and they have to devise strategies to make it work in their favor. More so, the immediate past year was plagued with the Covid 19 pandemic and subsequent lockdown rules, subjecting the women to more poverty. They create indigenous adaptation strategies (innovations) to fight the effects of climate change and recover from the Covid 19 pandemic effects. They devise methods like using swamp farming, rain harvesting for dry season irrigation and forming cooperative societies to make funds available. However, the Nigerian government has made efforts to curtail climate change and Covid 19 challenges by promoting various adaptation measures; most of these measures however are not accessible to women because of their sexual category, they cannot compete with men because most cultures and some religions forbid it. Thus the need for the government to re-evaluate their policies to favor this marginalized group.
Paper short abstract:
This paper will find effect of social security programs on women material and subjective wellbeing. It also highlights the role of digital platforms in mitigating women’s vulnerability with special focus on mobile phones and internet as medium of awareness, communication and skill enhancement.
Paper long abstract:
Covid19 has adversely affected the capabilities and functionings of women and exacerbated their vulnerabilities in existing patriarchal structures. Consequently, countries have adopted several measures to alleviate poverty through social security and cash transfers. However, the advent of digital culture has redefined women’s wealth status by opening new civic space for women in Covid19. Therefore, the conventional wellbeing literature needs to account for this digital culture in the course of women’s material wellbeing. The existing literature, pertinent to digital culture, suggests that use of internet reduces disparities among the people by increasing productivity, improving markets, expanding linkages and strengthening human and social capital at large. Against this backdrop, this paper analyses women’s material wealth and the role of digital culture, as proxied by the awareness, and the use of mobile phones and internet, as an enabler to the environment conducive for women’s sustainable development. Moreover, it suggests policy implications for developing countries for investing in ICT in the post Covid world. Paper also evaluates the impact of cash transfers, social security programs and institutional support of women on their material and subjective wellbeing. This evaluation can be helpful in formulating policies for women in wake of Covid19. Our data set is composed of 74,010 women, aged between 15-49 years, and is taken from the Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey (2017-2018). The Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) regression technique is employed. Our findings suggest that digital culture has played more significant role as compared to social security programs in enhancing women’s wellbeing.
Paper long abstract:
Nigeria is the most populous state in Africa and is endowed with abundant human and material resources. In spite of this, poverty remains a major problem with approximately 70 million people living on less than US$1 per day without adequate social protection arrangements. Before the reinstatement of democracy in 1999, some scholars viewed military rule as the source of the problem. This makes it pertinent to ascertain whether the practice of democracy in Nigeria since 1999 has improved the social protection arrangements for poverty reduction and social cohesion in Nigeria. Additionally, the paper examines social protection arrangements put in place in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Specifically, this paper seeks to answer the following questions: What are the current social protection arrangements for ameliorating poverty and other forms of vulnerabilities? How has Nigeria performed in the area of social protection since the reinstatement of democratic rule in 1999? Do existing social protection arrangements foster social cohesion in Nigeria? How did available social protection arrangements address additional challenges created by the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020? Primary and secondary data was used for the study. Primary data were sourced through key informant interviews and secondary data from books, journal articles, magazines and reports of local and international organizations. Data collected were content analysed and presented thematically.
Paper short abstract:
Through mixed-methods virtual research conducted during the pandemic with a diverse sample of adolescents and youth in Bangladesh, Ethiopia and Lebanon, this paper illustrates the limitations of existing social protection responses to Covid-19 and identifies key gaps in coverage.
Paper long abstract:
The socioeconomic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic in low- and middle-income countries have highlighted the need for comprehensive and inclusive social protection responses, as subsequent restrictions on work and movement have limited people’s ability to meet basic needs such as food and healthcare. Young people have been identified as particularly at risk due to school closures, a lack of frontline services, and the disproportionate representation of youth in informal employment. Yet as this chapter identifies, even in countries where robust national social protection systems exist or where international humanitarian actors are responding, initial government and development partner assistance to those most in need has been slow, disparate and often inadequate.
Through mixed-methods virtual research conducted during the pandemic with a diverse sample of adolescents and youth in Bangladesh, Ethiopia and Lebanon, this paper illustrates the limitations of existing social protection responses and identifies key gaps in coverage. We explore the consequences for young people who were already socioeconomically marginalised prior to the pandemic, including young migrants and refugees, adolescents with disabilities, and married girls. Our findings underline the need for responses that adequately recognise the complexity and intersectionality of youth vulnerability in each context. We identify and discuss key implications for strengthening social protection systems, emphasising the need for better coordination between financial assistance and social services to ensure that the most vulnerable adolescents are not left behind. This is vital if the commitment to universal social protection made within the Sustainable Development Goal framework is to be realised.