NWO-WOTRO granted five projects in the ‘Open call for evidence-based policy advice and tools’ within the Applied Research Fund

WOTRO granted five projects in the ‘Open call for evidence-based policy advice and tools’ within the Applied Research Fund of the research program Security & Rule of Law in Fragile and Conflict-Affected Settings. This Open call aims to (develop tools that) provide new evidence-based insights in the underlying assumptions, feasibility and/or impact of policies on, or approaches for security and rule of law in fragile and conflict-affected settings (FCAS) and unlock the knowledge for practitioners organizations.

The following projects will receive funding:

• The Justice Box - a tool for evidence-based policy and legal empowerment in Mali | The main applicant is Dr S. Muller (The Hague Institute for the Internationalisation of Law, the Netherlands). The co-applicant is Dr I. Koreissi (Association DEME-SO, Mali). This project aims to co-design an evidence-based justice tool (Justice Boxes). This Justice Box is an interactive dashboard which allows users to link various types of justice data. It will enable to monitor justice from people's perspective and hold justice providers accountable. It will also assist donors in targeting their interventions and integrating their strategies.
• When will transitional justice join the transitional decade in Afghanistan? | The main applicant is Dr C.E. Echavez (Afghanistan Research and Evaluation Unit, Afghanistan). The co-applicant is Mrs L. Linke (The Liaison Office, Afghanistan). The aim of this project is to facilitate inclusion of community-level perceptions and expectations of transitional justice into a framework for a successful peace process. This project will provide a longitudinal view on the community perceptions and possible changes that might have happened in past years and will have a strong Afghan led character. Also, the project will directly approach practitioners by providing practical tools to incorporate transitional justice activities in their programming. And the proposed action will include positive deviance research in its research methodology. In the meantime, the project will spread its gained evidence-based knowledge, by conducting a series of training workshops on the usage of conflict sensitive tools, through clear policy recommendations and by making the findings easily accessible.
• Towards inclusive security governance of the Tunisian-Libyan border: Developing evidence-based approaches to enhancing border security in Tunisia | The main applicant is Dr O.L. Lamloum (International Alert, Tunisia). The co-applicants are Dr F. Rekik (Université de Sfax, Tunisia) and Mr A. Talbi (The Tunisian Forum of Social and Economic Rights (TFSER), Tunisia). Despite the transition from authoritarian regime, political violence and unrest is increasing and there is growing concern around insecurity along Tunisian borders. Empirical evidence is required to improve the ability of policy-makers to understand and address the drivers and underlying causes of Tunisia's border governance and security problems. This project will provide new insights and evidence through participatory research and policy advice, and link decision makers with existing evidence from community engagement approaches to border security.
• The 2013 National Dialogue Conference (NDC) in Yemen: Why did it fail to prevent conflict? | The main applicant is Dr M.A.A. Elayah (Radboud University, the Netherlands). The co-applicant is Dr B. AbuOsba (Awam Foundation for Development & Culture (AFDC), Yemen). This project aims at a meta-analysis ('systematic review') of a comprehensive set of NDC evaluations, and an elicitation among local civil society actors (including women's rights organisations) about their perspective on the NDC. The results will be triangulated and synthesized in a quick reference for international donors when pushing for national dialogues in the Arab region (or elsewhere). A policy brief will be written to assist in formulating an adequate strategic response once participatory spaces reopen.
• Codifying water rights in contested basins of Afghanistan | The main applicant is Dr A. Mehari Haile (UNESCO-IHE Institute for Water Education, the Netherlands). The co-applicants are Dr K. Qayoum (Kabul University, Afghanistan) and Dr F.W.M. van Steenbergen (Meta Meta, the Netherlands). This research aims at a mitigation of water related conflicts to contribute to larger general security and future agricultural development in Afghanistan. It will investigate the current systems of water rights, the way that are they settled and codified, while paying special attention to spate irrigation systems that make use of short term floods as the prime source of water in Nimroz, Afghanistan. From this, a guidance document for codifying water rights and distribution rules shall be created to operationalise the Water Law. The following activities will be carried out; a reconnaissance survey, field studies and stakeholder workshops.

Submit a proposal?

New applications for the Open call for evidence-based policy advice and tools can be submitted for the assessment round on 6 November 2015.These are also the deadlines for the Call for Evidence-Informed Ideas within the Applied Research Fund.Deadline for a preliminary proposal for the Stategic Research Fund is 18 August 2015.

 For more information about the research program, please continue to the website of WOTRO.