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Public authority and epidemics

By investigating how public authority shapes governance in regions affected by epidemics, the Centre for Public Authority and International Development better equips policymakers to manage health responses based on knowledge of local power relations and popular social attitudes.

Ebola and public authority

The Firoz Lalji Institute for Africa has conducted research into the political, social and economic circumstances under which outbreaks of Ebola can spread or be contained.

By investigating how public authority shapes governance in regions affected by the virus, the research has better equiped policymakers to manage health responses based on knowledge of local power relations and popular social attitudes.

Below is the list of evidence-based research output on Ebola outbreaks by CPAID researchers. These range from academic papers to action-oriented research briefs and blog posts.

Papers

Briefings

CPAID Researchers have contributed to expert advisory groups for the Social Science in Humanitarian Action Platform (SSHAP), a partnership between the Institute of Development Studies and Anthrologica with support from UNICEF, the Wellcome Trust, DFID and others.

The platform has produced a series of rapid operational briefs which focus on key socio-cultural considerations that may influence transmission and response, and present action-orientated recommendations that can be used to shape interventions and engagement. The briefs mesh long-term ethnographic research with issues emerging on the ground and are based on collaborations between international and local researchers, universities and partner institutes.

CPAID researchers have collaborated on the following briefings:

Policy Recommendations

Blogs

Covid-19 and public authority

Since the outbreak of Covid-19 in 2020, CPAID researchers have used an extensive network on the ground to monitor the impact of public health responses on citizens’ everyday lives.

Through a public authority lens, researchers have investigated the role of religions, charities, local community organisations, and militias in their pandemic response.

The created the blog series Shifting Spaces, which tracks the varying impact of the Covid-19 pandemic across geographies in East Africa (Uganda, South Sudan, Tanzania, Kenya and Malawi) using on-the-ground reportage.

The CPAID research team continue to track fast-moving developments for peer-reviewed research. In June 2020, CPAID Investigator Professor Melissa Parker presented at the online event ‘Preparedness’ and ‘Response’ to Covid-19 with the Royal Anthropological Institute, during which she provided anthropological insights on events in Africa drawn from local networks.