Mental health has been receiving increasing amounts of attention in recent years. Despite this, there are still many barriers to receiving mental health care in all parts of the world. Post-conflict countries have the dual challenge of increased mental health problems among their populations and trying to respond to these problems with low resources as their economies are often destroyed by the effects of war. This research studies the implementation of Rwanda’s post-genocide mental health policy to assess the challenges and best practises of implementing mental health reform in a low-resource, post-conflict country. The thesis found that the implementation of Rwanda’s mental health policy has relied on policies of rapid decentralization and integration to increase accessibility to mental health care. Decentralization has ensured that mental health services are available at every level and relies on a referral system. Mental health care is integrated into the general healthcare system by training generalists in hospitals and health centres to respond to mental health issues, therefore making these services available at nearly all health institutions. These policies were viewed positively by stakeholders, but there were still many gaps and challenges in the implementation of Rwanda’s mental health policy. One of the major challenges was stigma acting as a barrier to accessing services while one of the largest gaps was that the implementation relies too much on institutionalized, individualized, and Westernized care, which participants pointed out is not always suitable in the Rwandan context. Recommendations included an increase in sensitization campaigns, shifting towards community-based mental health care, expanding personnel and services, as well as increasing funding. The analysis, relying on complexity theory, found that many of the gaps are missed by the government because of a lack of collaboration with local organizations and service providers working in the domain.

The main subject of the research is the social discourse about the ethnic identity of children born of rape during the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina in 1992-1995. Acts of rape are considered to be part of the war tactics of major rivals (Army of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Army of Republika Srpska, and Croatian Defence Council) and paramilitary units. Forced fertilization and disallowance of abortion was carried out as an accompanying factor of ethnic cleansing. The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia has recognized these acts as war crimes. The main objective of the research is to pursue a cross- societal discussion on the issue of inheritance of identity in the case of children of war: first, through a discourse analysis of the media, which significantly contribute to the image of these children, and second, through the contribution of interviews conducted during the field research. The way in which the children born of war are depicted and perceived affects various aspects of their lives. The results of the project will contribute to the discussion of war crimes and their impact on contemporary Bosnian society.

The correlation between food insecurity and conflict has previously been studied and established in multiple studies. Furthermore, additional research has found linkages allying increased levels of female political participation and the de-escalation of conflict. Despite these facts, there are to date no studies examining whether female inclusion in peace processes has an effect on hunger. Thus, this dissertation addresses the relationship between female signatories’ presence in peace processes and food insecurity. Food insecurity is operationalized as prevalence of undernourishment, and female inclusion in peace negotiations is measured by the presence of female signatories in such processes. The study’s main conceptual claim is based on gaps found in previous literature, and argues that a higher level of female participants in peace processes leads to a lower level of food insecurity. The claim is evaluated in a quantitative statistical analysis, using data on food insecurity from the FAOSTAT Data for Food Security Indicators​, and incorporating statistics on female inclusion in peace negotiations from the ​Replication Data for Women’s Participation in Peace Negotiations and the Durability of Peace​. The analysis illustrates food insecurity’s dissemination in post-conflict societies and gender dispersals within peace negotiations, in order to demonstrate an existing correlation. Built on results from an ordinary least squares regression, the study confirms that higher presence of female signatories in peace processes decreases the likelihood of food insecurity in post-conflict societies.

This study aims at researching how a sustainable culture of peace can be built through civic engagement in the Abkhaz-Georgian post-conflict context. It does so by learning from locally based NGOs, working for a culture of peace in areas affected by the Abkhaz-Georgian armed conflict which occurred 1993 to 1994. The studied NGOs work for different components within a Culture of Peace such as; women’s rights, peace building, social and economic development, democratic participation and human rights. In order to answer the research question following sub questions are answered: •What can we learn from the experiences of the studied organizations’ participatory communication for social change? •How has the culture of communication in the Abkhaz-Georgian post conflict context been affecting the participatory communication for social change for the different organizations?The method to collect data to the research has been through a field study in Abkhazia and outside its border on the Georgian side, in the city Zugdidi which is the closest city to the Abkhazian border. Participatory observations and interviews with representatives from the different organizations working for a culture of peace were conducted during two and a half months. The theoretical framework used for the study consists of three theories. The first is the theory of “Culture of Peace”, used to analyze how the studied NGOs are working for a culture of peace. The second is the theory “participatory communication for social change” which is used to analyze the work of the studied organizations in order to know how they work for sustainable civic engagement. Lastly, the theory used to look at how the Abkhaz-Georgian post-conflict context is affecting the communication, is the theory “culture of communication”. The findings of the research present solutions of how to practice participatory communication to build a culture of peace in a post-conflict context. However, the research also discovers how certain public values and views in a post-conflict context can hinder effective work through participatory communication as well as ways of overcoming these challenges.

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Ce projet de maîtrise explore les défis et les enjeux d’une approche filmique collaborative avec des jeunes, en situation pédagogique et en contexte post-conflit en Colombie. Cette recherche-création participe à la contribution scientifique dans un domaine interdisciplinaire, celui des arts – précisément la pratique cinématographique – et de la consolidation de la paix ; c’est-à-dire dans une pratique artistique qui s’engage dans la réconciliation, le développement communautaire et la justice sociale. Elle questionne l’action de filmer - comment agir et réagir - avec une communauté affectée par la violence et s’interroge sur comment utiliser les outils cinématographiques pour qu’ils soient bénéfiques à une communauté en situation de précarité. Le premier chapitre est consacré à la contextualisation du conflit armé en Colombie et aux enjeux de reconstruction. Dans le deuxième chapitre, j’expose à partir de mon expérience de terrain, la méthodologie et le dispositif que j’ai développé dans la réalisation du film En el fondo del núcleo del átomo, las chispas… au sein d’une école rurale en Colombie. On analysera de près les principes, les échecs et les réussites d’une approche collaborative située. / This master's project explores the challenges and issues of a collaborative film approach with young people, in an educational situation and in a post-conflict context in Colombia. This research-creation participates in the scientific contribution in an interdisciplinary field, that of the arts – precisely the practice of cinema – and the consolidation of peace; that is, in an artistic practice that engages in reconciliation, community development and social justice. It questions the action of filming - how to act and react - with a community affected by violence and questions how to use cinematographic tools so that they are beneficial to a community in a precarious situation. The first chapter is devoted to the contextualization of the armed conflict in Colombia and the challenges of reconstruction. In the second chapter, I expose from my field experience, the methodology and the device I developed in the realization of the film En el fondo del núcleo del átomo, las chispas… within a rural school in Colombia. We will closely analyze the principles, failures and successes of a situated collaborative approach.

The literature on security sector actors in transitional societies emerging from war and/or authoritarianism has evolved by critiquing local perspectives recently. While the existing literature has extensively analysed transitional societies in Africa, Middle East and Eastern Europe, the thesis adds a new geographical perspective by providing a case study of security sector change processes in the Republic of Georgia, 1985 - 2008. More specifically, the thesis examines the local processes and drivers of security sector change in Georgia, and their interrelationships with donor supported programmes including SSR. The thesis employs a political economy analysis to examine indigenous security sector actors and their characteristics. Based on the approach, the thesis particularly examines processes of change and reform of policing institutions. The paramilitary is identified and examined as a key focus for analysis. The research shows that political dynamics among a few political elites determined the course of security sector change in Georgia. Despite ample external assistance, domestic political dynamics remained the main driving factor in the SSR agenda-setting process. In the politically-driven security sector change efforts, the restoration and maintenance of regime security remained a priority under both the Shevardnadze and Saakashvili regimes. Overall, the security sector actors played significant role in the political developments. Consequently, the process of changing these actors was a largely domestically driven political process. The role of paramilitaries in relation to regime security and the security sector change agenda-setting process in Georgia requires the security sector research to treat paramilitary as a distinguished unit for consideration. / Akino Yutaka Eurasia Fund and the United Nations University Akino Memorial Research Fellowship.

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