The adoption and implementation of innovative IT tools and systems can be a driver for socio-economic development in developing countries. While developed countries are making advances, most developing countries are left behind due to several barriers.  In this study, we explore some of the challenges faced by various communal players in Uvira, a municipality in the Democratic Republic of Congo.       The observation method was used to capture the current situation and the contextual dimension of this region, which has major differences compared to the western / Swedish conditions in terms of infrastructure, organization, and socio-economy. Selection of interview respondents in the survey was based on theoretical selection where selected units had the most knowledge within the study area of the study. Analyzes of their responses identified the lack of an interoperable IT system between different co-dependency institutions, which makes the collaboration challenging. Cooperation between actors in the private and public sector such as banking, education, hospitals, and pharmacies is a limiting factor for rapid access and efficiency to the various services provided by these important actors.      The municipality faces major challenges, but if it succeeds in implementing digital solutions such as mobile banking systems, the effects can be very positive in the form of the municipality developing, the inhabitants coming out of poverty and cooperation and collaboration can lead to a more open and democratic.

The Democratic Republic of Congo is a country that has a violent and long history as a european colony and has since then been affected by recurrent interethnic conflicts between different armed groups. In these interethnic conflicts, armed actors have used sexual violence against women and girls as a weapon of war. Based on the social constructivism theory, this study aims to identify underlaying historical and colonial factors that could explain conflict- related sexual violence against women and girls in present interethnic conflicts in the country. The purpose is furthermore to explain why women and girls are subjected to conflict-related sexual violence to a great extent and why the sexual violence continues. The study concludes that social interactions between individuals and the social context where it occurs helps to explain conflict-related sexual violence against women and girls in present interethnic conflicts in the country. Sexual violence against women and girls can be explained as an instrument of power that has been used by armed actors to promote their own interests, which has been done in similar ways since the colonial era. Sexual violence against women and girls can also be explained as a social construction that has been created as a result of the power relationship that exists between men and women. Furthermore, sexual violence against women and girls still occurs to a great extent because it continues to be used as an instrument of power and because of armed groups perception about women and girls worth in the Congolese society.

Philosophiae Doctor - PhD / Many refugees and asylum seekers have emigrated from The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), which has a long history of unrest and instability. Besides its own citizens, South Africa is a refugee receiving country. Its obligations to people seeking refuge within its borders are outlined in both, international and domestic law.

Instability and political repression are two reasons why many states in Africa are unable to develop. African regional organizations have the potential to encourage democracy, stability and development within their regions if they have the right tools. Using case studies of two major interventions by African regional organizations this thesis will determine what those tools may be. Both the intervention of ECOWAS into Liberia and the SADC into the DRC were rife with problems but they were able to bring some stability and even democracy to states in crisis. This thesis finds that African regional organizations can promote democracy and stability, but the focus is always on stability for the region. With strong institutions and mandates, policy agreement and strong leadership, African regional organizations can bring stability, development and even democracy to their regions.

Yes / Buruli ulcer is a neglected tropical disease of skin and subcutaneous tissue caused by infection with the pathogen Mycobacterium ulcerans. Many critical issues for disease control, such as understanding the mode of transmission and identifying source reservoirs of M. ulcerans, are still largely unknown. Here, we used genomics to reconstruct in detail the evolutionary trajectory and dynamics of M. ulcerans populations at a central African scale and at smaller geographical village scales. Whole-genome sequencing (WGS) data were analyzed from 179 M. ulcerans strains isolated from all Buruli ulcer foci in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, The Republic of Congo, and Angola that have ever yielded positive M. ulcerans cultures. We used both temporal associations and the study of the mycobacterial demographic history to estimate the contribution of humans as a reservoir in Buruli ulcer transmission. Our phylogeographic analysis revealed one almost exclusively predominant sublineage of M. ulcerans that arose in Central Africa and proliferated in its different regions of endemicity during the Age of Discovery. We observed how the best sampled endemic hot spot, the Songololo territory, became an area of endemicity while the region was being colonized by Belgium (1880s). We furthermore identified temporal parallels between the observed past population fluxes of M. ulcerans from the Songololo territory and the timing of health policy changes toward control of the Buruli ulcer epidemic in that region. These findings suggest that an intervention based on detecting and treating human cases in an area of endemicity might be sufficient to break disease transmission chains, irrespective of other reservoirs of the bacterium.

Studies on immigrant women’s political incorporation in Canada suggest that they are less likely to participate politically than immigrant men and Canadian-born women. Many studies have examined the factors that contribute to their lower levels of political participation, yet the impacts of migration experiences have received less attention. To address this gap, this dissertation examines the political incorporation experiences of first-generation immigrant women from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) in Canada as a case study by employing a trajectory and life course approach to migration to analyze how gendered migration trajectories and experiences influence immigrant women’s political participation in Canada. I also employ La Barbera’s (2012) ‘intersectional-gender’ approach to examine how gender intersects with other social cleavages like race, ethnicity, class, and immigration status to affect immigrant women’s repertoires of political participation. Lastly, I examine how immigrant women may overcome the obstacles imposed by migration and the interlocking systems of oppression in Canada, particularly through the various ways they exercise political agency in the informal political sphere. I draw on life stories interviews with fifteen Congolese women residing in Canada’s metropolitan area of Ottawa-Gatineau. The findings reveal that participants’ migration trajectories to Canada are deeply gendered at the micro, meso, and macro levels, and while most participants felt politically incorporated in Canada, aspects of their gendered migration trajectories limited their participation in the formal political sphere. This includes barriers posed by migration projects, migration types, modes of entry, immigration status, migration experiences, and travelling gender norms from the DRC. However, these barriers generated opportunities for greater participation in the informal political sphere, such as advocacy through ethnocultural and religious groups, protests, school boards, professional networks, and petitions. Furthermore, the findings reveal that participants’ experiences of political marginalization and discrimination in both Canadian society and African immigrant communities, because of their identity as Black Congolese immigrant women, increased their proclivity to participate in informal political activities, as did their socioeconomic status as middle-class immigrant women. The findings make important empirical, analytical, and methodological contributions by providing an original framework for understanding the links between gendered migration trajectories and immigrant women’s political incorporation, enlightening broader understandings of political participation and challenging notions of immigrant women as apolitical, highlighting the understudied impacts of interlocking systems of power on political participation, and disproving the idea that political incorporation is a straightforward process of inclusion and a condition of social cohesiveness.

The current scale and scope of peacekeeping missions is unprecedented and with this increasing reliance on peacekeeping as a tool to manage threats to peace and security come questions about who should keep the peace. Is it, as many assume, the United Nations? Is it a regional organization, such as the African Union? Or is it an individual state? Each of these different types of peacekeeping operations have different strengths and weaknesses associated with them in terms of legitimacy, institutional capacity, local and regional awareness, resources, and military effectiveness. This dissertation analyzes types of peacekeeping operations to determine which is the most effective in restoring peace and stability and why. I use a structured, focused comparative case study methodology to examine eight cases of peacekeeping, across two countries, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Sierra Leone, each of which has been subject to all three types of peacekeeping operations. This approach allows me to hold a number of control variables constant, providing a clear test of the impact of the type of intervention. I found that the type of PKO makes a difference to the success or failure of that mission. PKOs run by lead states are more likely to be successful because they are more willing to use force and they are more likely to have the resources and capabilities necessary to implement that force. Further, I found that two types of PKOs working together can use their strengths to compensate for each other’s weaknesses. I also present a quantitative study with a larger sample size that both substantiates my findings and allows me to generalize them to a wider universe of cases. / Political Science

Doctorat en sciences sociales, politiques et économiques / info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished

This is a systematic and critical study of the mission of the Kimbanguist Church in the city of Lubumbashi in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The research question was: “How do the Kimbanguist members interpret and express the Christian message in and for the context of Katanga province through their communal life, worship and mission?” A historical chapter traces the origins and growth of the church, followed by four chapters that analyze the mission of the church by means of a ‘praxis cycle.’ The chapters look at mission strategies (leadership, church departments, mission methods), followed by mission agents (spiritual head, clergy, chaplains, women, youth), the theological sources of mission (the Bible, the life of Simon Kimbangu, and a code of conduct) and spirituality (liturgy, sacraments, pilgrimages and festivals). In a concluding chapter several critical issues were identified for critical dialogue between the Kimbanguist church and other African churches. / Christian Spirituality, Church History & Missiology / M. Th. (Missiology)

Cette thèse propose une analyse de l’emploi informel en RDC sous l’hypothèse d’une segmentation. Partant d’un questionnement qui se réfère aux conditions d’émergence et de prolifération d’emplois informels amplifiés par la crise structurelle que traverse ce pays, laquelle a détruit l’emploi formel, cette thèse réfute l’unicité de l’informel à l’intérieur du marché du travail de la RDC et analyse plutôt son hétérogénéité, en s’appuyant sur les analyses de Lautier (2004), Maloney (2004), Fields (2005) et Bacchetta et al (2009).Cette évidence a justifié la combinaison des théories de l’informalité et de la segmentation, suivie d’une exploitation de deux types de données mutuellement enrichissantes : les données quantitatives de l’enquête 1-2-3 et les données qualitatives collectées sur le terrain d’une activité spécifique : le marché des matériels d’occasion d’Europe, appelés « bilokos » en RDC. Les résultats de cette double exploitation ont permis de caractériser l’informalité d’emplois segmentée, notion forgée et mise en œuvre dans le cadre d’une analyse empirique de l’emploi informel reposant sur deux niveaux : les Caractéristiques de l’Activité (C.A.), et les Profils des Entrepreneurs (P.E.) représentant les variables explicatives d’analyses faites dans cette thèse. Les méthodes mixtes qualitative et quantitative utilisées dans cette thèse valident l’existence d’une segmentation en quatre types au sein des Unités de Production Informelles en RDC, selon plusieurs critères, dont le volume du chiffre d’affaires de leurs activités, en particulier. / This thesis analyses informal employment in the DRC under the assumption of a segmentation. We start with a description of the underlying conditions explaining the emergence, and then spread of informal jobs, which is mainly driven by a structural crisis and the destruction of formal employment in the DRC. The thesis then proposes to reject the uniqueness of the informal sector within the DRC labor market and analyzes its heterogeneity, based on the analyzes of Lautier (2004), Maloney (2004), Fields (2005) and Bacchetta et al. (2009).The thesis therefore highlights the relevance of combining the theories of informality and of segmentation to analyse informal employment in DRC, and applies this framework to two mutually enriching datasets: the 1-2-3 survey, which is quantitative, and qualitative data that we collected in the field and focused on a specific activity: an emerging market for second-hand equipment coming from Europe and called "bilokos" in DRC.The results from these two types of data allow to characterize what we call “the informality of segmented jobs”, a concept that we empirically apply with two levels of analysis: the Characteristics of the informal Activity (C.A.)., and the Profiles of the informal Entrepreneurs (P.E.). Mixed qualitative and quantitative methods allow us to characterize a segmentation in Informal Production Units along four types ranging from lower income to higher income.