NOVEMBER 2016 VOL .18 – NO. 2
Worker-driven change – the role of academia?
From the Editorial Board The role of participants is very important to ISS. Our phrase ‘Social Justice and Equity’ underlines our desire to make a difference and engage fairly with all those with whom we meet and relate. Yet the balance between giving (internal and external) participants a voice and our role as academics is not always clear in practice. This edition of DevISSues elaborates this theme in respect to ISS as an institution but especially from the perspective of how we engage with (precarious) labour. For instance, it is wonderful to get affirmation (see Where are they now) of how past students see ISS as a unique social and educational institution; this diverse cultural learning experience intensifying with the mix of global students. Our Rector (Inge Hutter, blog) underlines the value of this multicultural experience, seeing the ISS community as unique and inspiring, yet also one in which academics must remember their influence with humility. In this vein, how then do we see what we do with respect to labour – their voice in change? This question is ever-present in our refresher courses and research projects (see Focus on ISS by Zarkov and Cheney; Staff-student discussion). It is also instructive to reflect on how ISS has focussed on labour over time. In the 1960s our work in this area was dominated by formal labour and its institutions and/or by ‘new’ forms of participation. In the 1990s this moved from a focus on employment policy/Human Resource Management (albeit a critical one) to one more centred on informality itself, especially (but not only) the impacts of global processes on the working precariat in many parts of the world. That studies of labour processes are now increasingly found in all corners of ISS is a strong reflection of this diverse reality and focus.
Colophon DevISSues is published twice a year by the International Institute of Social Studies, PO Box 29776, 2502 LT The Hague, the Netherlands Tel +31 (0)70 4260 443 or +31 (0)70 4260 419 Fax + 31 (0)70 4260 799 www.iss.nl DevISSues@iss.nl Editor Jane Pocock Editorial Board Lee Pegler, Sunil Tankha, Sandra Nijhof
The recent ISS workshop (June 2016) on ‘Worker-driven Innovation’ (articles by Siegmann/Iocco, Sethia; Witbooi interview), provides a most vivid example of these precarious workers (movements) but also the limits of academia. Bringing together activists and students from diverse sectors such as textile, vegetable, sex and domestic workers, the message is clear – workers do and should speak for themselves. The evidence is very rich and inspiring. Moreover, workers often benefit by involving coalitions of like-minded people in similar and other sectors, stretching their influence from the local to the international. Their coalitional and structural power is often helped by students, consumers and others. Yet academia (and many of its supporters) needs to refrain from a ‘top down’ approach, using one which does not emasculate worker tensions and voice. ISS is well-placed to provide open, trusting, and sharing environments for such movements as well as the leveraging of resources for mutually beneficial research, to help those in precarity in their worker-driven knowledge building, decisions and activities.
Design Ontwerpwerk, The Hague Production De Bondt Grafimedia Circulation 6,500 The text material from DevISSues may be reproduced or adapted without permission, provided it is not distributed for profit and is attributed to the original author or authors, DevISSues and the International Institute of Social Studies. ISSN 1566-4821. DevISSues is printed on FSC certified paper
We were glad to host the Forum and hope you enjoy the articles on this theme in DevISSues!
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Rector’s Blog My Hutter bike It is November 2016, and as I write this blog I realize I have now been Rector of ISS for more than a year. The first year was very intense: getting to know the institute and my new colleagues, and from the very beginning being involved in major processes such as the outsourcing of our student housing and the renovation of our building. After the summer holidays, a lot of the dust from the first year seems to have finally settled. I feel reenergized and everything is so different from last year: I now know everyone and am very eager for us to move forward – together – towards the future, and … I feel very much at home at ISS. I love working with my colleagues. For me, ISS is very much the place to be. In September we started the new academic year with renewed energy, working in a beautiful, up-to-date building, with 172 new MA students, and with up-to-date student housing. It is now time to move forwards! Every day I travel by bike to ISS. As I peddle along the beautiful Scheveningseweg (which always makes me think of the Dutch writer Louis Couperus and his books on life in The Hague in the early 20th century), I feel that I am not only on my way to work but on my way to the world. And when I enter the ISS building, I literally feel that I am entering the world, as so many of us are from other countries and cultures. Let me tell you about my ISS bike. It is a special bike – a Hutterbike. I bought it last Christmas from my cousin, Willem Hutter, who owns a bicycle shop in Beverwijk. The shop was founded by my grandparents after the Second World War. They were
Inge Hutter Rector ISS originally from the northern province of Drenthe; peat-diggers, living in complete poverty. My grandmother completed only three years of primary school before having to quit to take care of her younger brothers and sisters – 13 in all. After their marriage, my grandparents decided to look for a better life and move away from the poverty of Drenthe to the small city of Beverwijk in North Holland. They lived in a small neighbourhood with many more people from Drenthe, all of whom spoke the northern dialect. Starting a bicycle shop was an opportunity for them to make a better life for themselves and their children. And they did just that; their four sons were all able to get good jobs such as a teacher (my father) and a bicycle shop owner (my uncle). Why am I telling you this? It’s because of something my father once said to me. When I gave my inaugural lecture at the University of Groningen in 2005, my father congratulated me on my professorship. He also implored me never to forget where I came from: to always remember that I am a granddaughter of peat-diggers who, just two generations ago, lived in real poverty. And that being a professor, I should be aware of my privileged position. As ISS Rector I am very much aware of this privilege. These are some of the things I think about as I peddle to ISS on my bike with the name Hutter on the back-frame. As I walk through the entrance and take the stairs up to my office, I feel like I am taking not only myself and but also my ancestors with me … and we enter the world.
Contents
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Towards decent work with workers in the driver’s seat
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Thoughts from the CIRI Forum on Worker-driven Innovation
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ISS news
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Focus on ISS
10 ISS Alumni: Where are they now?
19 ISS publications - staff & PhD
11 Upscaling rights and respect
22 ISS publications - WP/ D&C
17 Staff-student discussion
23 Student life
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Karin Astrid Siegmann is senior lecturer in labour and gender economics at ISS.
Giulio Iocco is an independent researcher and co-organizer of the Forum on Workerdriven Innovation.
Towards decent work with workers in the driver’s seat: Learning from the Forum on Worker-driven Innovation in the Globalized Economy
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An open space to learn from worker-driven initiatives In the context of neo-liberal governance of markets that has often taken place at workers’ expense, workers have nevertheless struggled successfully to (re-)establish their rights and improve their working conditions. The Forum on ‘Worker-driven Innovation in the Globalized Economy – Learning from Encounters’ that took place at ISS in June 2016 offered an open space to share, discuss and learn from a diverse and exciting range of such initiatives. The group included workers representing farm, garment, domestic and sex work, trade unionists and other labour rights advocates, researchers and students from ISS and other institutions – and not to forget the two sons of the representative and co-founder of the Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW), Lucas Benitez. He proudly shared that the boys’ first words were not ‘Papa’ and ‘Mum’, but ‘boycott’.
Worker-driven change in Florida’s tomato fields Based on more than 20 years of creative campaigns, the migrant farmworker organization CIW designed and implemented the Fair Food Program (FFP) for the improvement of working conditions in Florida’s tomato fields. When we started organizing the Forum, it was with such programmes in mind. The CIW has contracts with tomato buyers and agreements with growers and ensures that failure to comply with the FFP labour standards is a reason for buyers to stop purchasing tomatoes from a grower. This sanctioning mechanism has worked – so far, it has not been necessary to act on the threat to stop a contract. The CIW’s struggles against poverty wages and precarious labour conditions have borne fruit and significant improvements in the conditions in Florida's tomato fields are now visible. Among others, workers have received nearly US$20 million in wage premiums since 2011. In contrast to the situation before, no cases of forced labour and sexual assault were reported on participating farms. The messages that this conveys are, firstly,
that workers can force even the most powerful corporations to address workers’ demands. Secondly, if workers themselves drive the design of new regulatory initiatives, they address the crisis of labour rights rather than corporations’ public relations crisis as corporate social responsibility initiatives do.
What is worker-driven innovation? The Forum broadly characterized workerdriven innovation as initiatives through which workers, labour organizations and their allies have successfully challenged the economic, political and social structures that marginalize them. During the Forum, more specific features came to the fore. Worker-driven innovation also builds on workers' knowledge of their working conditions as well as on their understanding of the mechanisms that exploit or empower them. Labour scholar Chris Chan summarized this succinctly: ‘The real problems only workers can tell you’. A prominent example from Florida’s tomato fields is the elimination of the practice of forced overfilling of harvesting buckets through the FFP. This practice effectively denied workers payment for up to 10 per cent of the tomatoes harvested. We looked at worker-driven innovation from the perspective of Wright’s (2000: 958, 967) notion of ‘positive class compromise’, referring to the mutual cooperation between opposing classes that emerges from strong worker organizations’ struggles. The Freedom of Association (FoA) Protocol in the Indonesian sportswear industry introduced by ISS researcher Jeroen Merk can be seen as an example of this type of worker-driven initiative. The Protocol was catalysed by the collaboration of diverse Indonesian trade unions and supported by labour rights organizations in Europe and Australia. Working with the unions towards the FoA Protocol allowed manufacturers to overcome a situation in which violent labour struggles choked production. Furthermore, the Protocol ‘rescued’ sportswear brands from threats to their reputation as producers that ‘play fair’ with to collective labour rights.
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‘The real problems only workers can tell you’ The Forum discussions brought to the fore a much greater diversity of forms of worker-driven innovation such as the successful campaign for domestic workers’ recognition and rights. Domestic workers led a campaign leading to the ratification of the international Domestic Workers Convention and the establishment of the International Domestic Workers Federation (IDWF). Other participants pointed to the establishment of the agricultural cooperative Mani e Terra (Hands and Land) in Southern Italy by local and foreign labourers and the factory occupations that Argentinian workers organized in the midst of the collapse of the national economy in 2001. These represent attempts to promote a process of social transformation from below through the establishment of alternative forms of production based on workers’ control and self-management.
How does worker-driven innovation come about? Labour scholar Maurizio Atzeni pointed out that workers innovate in strategic response to the political and economic structures that oppress them. The Asia Floor Wage Alliance (AFWA) in the Asian garment industry exemplifies this. Annanya Bhattacharjee, AFWA International Coordinator, explained how the idea of AFWA emerged in response to the power of a few, mostly European or US-American, brands and retailers in the global garment industry. These buyers hold oligopolistic power over suppliers in the global South, enabling them to drive down prices paid to manufacturers who pass these on to garment workers in the form of poverty wages. Based on a strategic analysis of the global garment production network, the AFWA decided to target buying companies with their demand for a regional living wage.
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More generally, several participants argued that, in order to counter labour precarity in the globalized economy, workers need to ‘jump scale’ and target powerful transnational buyers (who have effectively emerged as ‘indirect employers’) rather than their direct employers. The visibility of the direct employer or brands against which workers struggle came out as a catalytic factor in various mobilizations represented during the Forum. For instance, the CIW’s successes in empowering and protecting some of the most precarious workers in the USA have emerged in a context in which tomato buyers such as McDonald’s and Walmart are highly visible to consumers. Especially in sectors with a strong consumer orientation, brands’ reputations are an important factor in their ability to create and capture value. TNCs selling goods and services with a greater visibility to consumers are, therefore, more likely to be concerned about their ‘reputational capital’. As a result, they are more eager to negotiate. The Honduran trade union Central General de Trabajadores’ (CGT’s) campaign against union repression in garment company Fruit of the Loom’s Honduran subsidiary is a case in point. Fruit of the Loom approached the CGT after an avalanche of threats and contract terminations from US universities that were part of CGT’s coalition.
Coalitions as catalysts of worker-driven innovation The presence of coalitions with other social actors and movements came out as a key catalyst of worker-driven innovation. Evangelina Argueta, CGT’s Project Coordinator, argued that the success of the union’s campaign was only possible because of the strategic alliances between the union and allies such as the United Students Against Sweatshops (USAS). USAS mobilized public opinion in the US against union repression in Fruit of the Loom’s factories in Honduras. They also pressurised the company by using their bulk purchasing power as institutional garment consumers. This led to the abovementioned contract terminations. Brookes (2013: 192) calls this workers’ ‘coalitional power’ as workers’ capacity ‘[…] to expand the scope
of conflict by involving other, nonlabor actors willing and able to influence an employer’s behavior’. While precarious workers who use their structural power to stall production risk losing their job, coalitional power enables them to shift the locus of struggles from the place of production to the place of consumption. Lamine Niang highlighted a different role that allies can play when he shared the experience of the Italian agricultural cooperative Mani and Terra. Cooperative workers rely on the support of progressive farmers and critical consumers. Jointly, they form SOS Rosarno. Farmers experiencing an income squeeze as a result of their marginal role in mainstream buyer-driven food chains search for an alternative by subcontracting the management and commercialization of their harvest and products to the cooperative. In return, their incomes increase and they obtain a fairer remuneration. The role of critical consumers is equally crucial: by purchasing products from producers at a ‘fair price’, they enable workers and farmers to receive a fair remuneration. Furthermore, the sales to solidarity groups are currently the only source of funding that enables the cooperative to work.
Forum outcomes and way forward We hoped the Forum would encourage face-to-face encounters and enable the cross-fertilization of ideas and activisms. This was achieved. Participatory techniques used during the Forum supported trust-building and mutual learning. They catalysed networking among participants across geographical and occupational boundaries: agricultural, domestic and sex worker representatives came together around a platform for informal workers; a trade unionist from the Latin American garment sector learned from initiatives to counter the downward wage spiral in the Asian garment chain; a migrant worker in Italy drew from the experience of the CIW’s struggles in the US. These encounters suggest tentative answers to the question of how to upscale worker-driven initiatives. If such initiatives are strategic responses to a
For collaboration in alliances, it is crucial that the representation of workers’ interests is worker-driven. specific economic and political context, it implies that there are no blueprints for upscaling. Several Forum participants proposed adapted replication instead of initiatives’ economic growth in order to ensure that worker-driven innovations are not ‘happy islands’ that play a merely symbolic role. The CIW, for instance, has collaborated with the dairy worker organization Migrant Justice in Vermont in an effort to replicate the FFP within their Milk with Dignity Program. Mani e Terra is engaged in building a nationwide network of other worker-driven innovations inspired by the same values and political vision – the network FuoriMercato (Outside the market). Physical proximity is essential for such coalitions and spaces like the Forum have an important role to play. For collaboration in alliances, it is crucial that the representation of workers’ interests is worker-driven. Myrtle Witbooi, first President of the IDWF, summarized this succinctly: ‘The ILO decided to do something for us. Unions tried to talk on our behalf. We said no, you don’t know our work. We speak for ourselves.’
References Brookes, M. (2013) 'Varieties of Power in Transnational Labor Alliances: An Analysis of Workers’ Structural, Institutional, and Coalitional Power in the Global Economy', Labor Studies Journal 38(3): 181-200. Wright, E.O. (2000) 'Working-Class Power, Capitalist-Class Interests, and Class Compromise', American Journal of Sociology 105(4): 957-1002.
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What role for students in workers’ movements? Thoughts from the CIRI Forum on Worker-driven Innovation
Shikha Sethia is finalizing her MA in Development Studies at ISS in the Social Policy for Development Major.
ISS brings together students from all over the world to take part in teaching programmes and research events related to development studies. Its position and history allow it to link students and grassroots movements: the Forum on Worker-driven Innovation that was organized at ISS in June 2016 is one such example.
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The students that participated benefited immensely from the Forum
The Forum brought together worker’s movements, civil society organizations and workers’ rights groups, students and senior academics for three days of knowledge sharing on the theme of worker-driven innovation in different geographical and occupational contexts. The students that participated benefited immensely from the Forum which brought many of the themes covered in the teaching programme to life. A valuable insight that emerged from the Forum was that students tend to grapple with many different identities simultaneously – in addition to being students and researchers, they are also consumers and citizens. Many of them are or have previously been in employment relationships – as both employees and employers. As a result, while students have a lot to learn from workers’ mobilizations, they may also contribute institutional and structural capacities to aid workers’ movements. Using the discussions that took place at the Forum, I hope to highlight some important ways in which students 1 can take advantage of these different 2 3 identities to become sensitive and important allies to workers’ movements.
Students as workers Student workers are an important constituency for many workers’ movements. The discussion that made this point most strongly was around the minimum youth wage campaign by Young and United,1 an offshoot of FNV (a Dutch trade union federation), which argued for equal wages for equal work. Youth aged under 23 are paid close to half the regular minimum wage in the Netherlands, one of the lowest rates in Europe. Ostensibly a method to tackle youth unemployment, this obviously discriminatory practice adversely affects the livelihoods of many working members of the student community.2 As a result of the campaign, from 1 January 2017 the government plans to bring down the age at which workers are entitled to regular minimum wages from 23 to 21 years.3 The Forum’s student participants and Young and United also discussed the possibility of similar actions in the future on other issues relevant to younger workers, such as unpaid internships. For FNV, there was a clear benefit to engaging younger workers, as the demographic of trade unions is currently heavily skewed towards the older age brackets. Students could potentially play a similar role in the revival of other workers’ movements, while benefiting from the experience of these established movements.
Students as consumers Historically, students have played a significant role in showing solidarity with workers’ struggles. The United Students Against Sweatshops (USAS) was one such movement in the USA, which lobbied for better working conditions at apparel factories on the strength of licensing agreements that international apparel brands entered into with universities (eg, Kumar and Mahoney, 2014). Students’ unique position allows them to not only use their power as consumers but also
their structural position vis-à-vis their respective universities, for whom they are the primary constituency. This was echoed by one of the workshop participants, Evangelina Argueta, coordinator of the Central General de Trabajadores (CGT), who highlighted the role that students played in providing a much-needed impetus to their campaign against Fruit of the Loom. Through extended lobbying, the CGT and USAS managed to influence more than 100 universities to end their contracts with Russell Athletic (owned by Fruit of the Loom) by bringing to light routine labour violations, union-busting activities and the shutdown of their plant in Jerzees, Honduras, which led to mass worker dismissals. The role of students as conscious consumers was very useful to this campaign and led to a large multinational adopting a code of conduct to address worker grievances, to reopen the factory and rehire the dismissed workers. USAS also actively lobbied in colleges and universities to add the precondition of signing the Bangladesh Accord of Fire and Building Safety to their licensing agreements (Reinecke and Donaghey, 2005: 732).
Students as academics The role of students is connected to the broader issue of the role of academia in worker-driven innovation. The importance of research support to various campaigns and initiatives was emphasized during the Forum by a number of participants. For instance, Anannya Bhattacharjee from the Asia Floor Wage Alliance mentioned the organization’s need-based survey of workers in six countries to arrive at a figure for a common floor wage for the region to use when lobbying companies sourcing and manufacturing garments across Asia. The Young and United campaign at FNV also highlighted the role of research in determining the appropriate strategy and pressure points for action.
See https://www.youngandunited.nl (in Dutch) The FNV estimates the number affected to be close to 300,000. “Government poised to raise minimum pay for youngsters”, Dutchnews.nl, 21 April 2016. Retrieved from http://www.dutchnews.nl/news/archives/2016/04/government-poisedto-raise-minimum-pay-for-youngsters/. Accessed 14 September 2016.
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“We don’t want university people to speak for us; we can speak for ourselves.”
A recent example of students contributing as academics and activists is SACOM (Students and Scholars Against Corporate Misbehaviour), which works with other labour rights groups and publishes reports highlighting violations of minimum labour standards in China at supplier factories of leading global clothing brands like Zara, H&M and UNIQLO. Based on their investigative research, SACOM has negotiated with global brands, demanding improvements in their labour practices, including wage increases, health and safety improvements, and protecting the right to organize. Another model for alliances between scholars and workers is the Research Network for Domestic Worker Rights, which partners with the International Domestic Workers' Federation (IDWF), to support domestic workers by bringing issues related to domestic worker rights to the forefront of academic debates. Students can also engage academia on issues in which they have a shared interest with workers’ movements and identify important knowledge gaps. For instance, ISS students have written research papers on the work and employment experiences of migrant communities in the Netherlands. Genet Haile Getachew, a former Eritrean ISS student, wrote on the deskilling of Eritrean and Ethiopian migrant women as a result of structural barriers in the labour market, such as language barriers and incorrect assumptions about their skill levels as a result of their migrant status (Getachew, 2012).
Conscious allies – a note of caution A key learning from the Forum was that the terms on which workers are involved in the broader agenda for action are extremely important. Participants mentioned how data collection for research has, in their experience, been a largely top-down process, with academics defining the scope and method for collecting information. Students, being part of the larger structure, may replicate and perpetuate this practice. Similarly, while some participants noted the need for academics as mediators between workers and the actors negotiating covenants at the international level, Myrtle Witbooi from the IDWF strongly asserted, “We don’t want university people to speak for us; we can speak for ourselves.” It is therefore important to recognize that mediation should not compromise the authenticity of the message or marginalize the workers’ voices. A relevant question here is whether a case can be made for ‘worker-driven research’. To what extent does academia allow workers themselves to set the terms, e.g. identify the research questions and methods and validate the findings? Lastly, Forum participants noted that the issue of trust between students and workers was nonnegotiable. Thierry Schaffauser from the International Committee on the Rights of Sex Workers in Europe stressed this point, noting that he only engages with students with whom he feels he has shared objectives. There is thus an urgent need to make academic and policy spaces more inclusive of workers’ movements, in order for them to be able to set the terms of engagement with states, corporations and society.
students can be made and by training its students to be sensitive allies for workers’ movements. It is within such a framework that students may be able to make the biggest contribution to workers’ movements as conscious allies.
Bibliography Getachew, G.H. (2012), ‘“Deskilling and Disempowerment’’ of skilled Eritrean and Ethiopian migrant women in the Netherlands’, International Institute of Social Studies. The Hague. Retrieved from http://hdl.handle.net/2105/13052 Kumar, A. and J. Mahoney (2014), ‘Stitching Together: How Workers Are Hemming Down Transnational Capital in the Hyper-Global Apparel Industry’, WorkingUSA, 17: 187–210. doi:10.1111/wusa.12107 Munteanu, M. (2015), ‘Bringing Immigrant Voices into Integration Discourse Experiences of Polish Greenhouse Workers in the Netherlands’, International Institute of
With these caveats, workers’ movements would do well to engage with students, given their potential to assist in movement revival, to participate as political consumers and to respond to the research needs of these movements. Academic institutions like ISS can play an important role here by providing forums where mutually beneficial connections between workers and
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Social Studies. The Hague. Retrieved from http://hdl.handle.net/2105/32981 Reinecke. J. and J. Donaghey (2015), ‘After Rana Plaza: Building coalitional power for labour rights between unions and (consumption-based) social movement organisations’, Organization, 22(5): 720-740. Retrieved from http://org.sagepub.com/ content/22/5/720.full.pdf
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ISS Alumni
Where are they now?
Athi Majija
Carla Reyes
Paulo T. Kyama
Yu Yin
Study GPPE, 2013 Country of origin South Africa Current occupation Manager: Secretariat – Cape Peninsula University of Technology
Study Human Rights, 2005 Country of origin Peru Current occupation Legal Adviser in International Issues, Ministry of Women and Vulnerable Population, Peru
Study Public Policy and Administration, 1990 Country of origin Uganda Current occupation Change Management Specialist/ Head Change Management & Communication, Financial Management and Accountability Programme, Ministry of Finance, Planning & Economic Development
Study Politics for Alternative Development, 2007 Country of origin China Current occupation Small grants coordinator, China Program, Global Greengrants Fund
What made your time at ISS special? The Institute as an international space, that itself was a life-changing process. That feeling of meeting young scholars from different parts of the world and economies and being able to co-exist with respect. The culture and values of the Institute made my stay at ISS very special. Your most memorable moment? Socially, the diverse nature of the Institute formed an unforgettable learning experience – inside and outside classroom. Academically, the in-depth knowledge and experience of the teaching and support staff. The diversified learning materials and research-based method of learning gave me a remarkable exposure to the world of knowledge. What does ISS mean to you now? ISS is a true epitome of an international institute – where worlds meet. ISS has not only branded itself through words but also through deeds: it has internationalized higher education. The Institute is a hub of knowledge where divergence in views is encouraged.
What made your time at ISS special? The multicultural and international atmosphere is what makes ISS so different. The fact that the students come from various backgrounds helps them develop an understanding of different perspectives in a multicultural and multiethnic environment. I used to enjoy working in the very peaceful library. And The Hague is a beautiful, international city with a wide cultural offering. Your most memorable moment? When I entered ISS for the first time and discovered the multicultural and international environment that makes it so unique and special. To see so many students wearing their national clothes and hearing them speak their own language made me feel as if I was in a small multicultural world. What does ISS mean to you now? ISS encouraged me to continue my studies in human rights. I have now been working in this field for 10 years.
What made your time at ISS special? Exposure to a multicultural environment and the intellectually stimulating content of the graduate programme. The ISS also exposed me to working on computers – a skill which propelled my career and brought immense stimulus. Your most memorable moment? Arrival at the ISS, then located in the Hotel Wittebrug. It was a lofty feeling and the fulfillment of a longcherished desire to visit “Holland”. What does ISS mean to you now? The ISS enriched my grasp of issues and concepts pertaining to the dynamics guiding the public sector in emerging economies. This enabled me to seamlessly support the reform programmes that span central and local Government entities in Uganda, starting with decentralization policy reforms (1995-2000) and the ongoing public financial management reforms.
What made your time at ISS special? The opening of world views is the most essential part of ISS. This includes the teachers’ teaching and peers’ learning. Through them, my understanding of ‘development’ became much clearer and these built up my confidence on continue along this career path. Your most memorable moment? My classmates: we discussed readings and lessons seriously, we laughed and relaxed after exams and papers, and we have been supporting and encouraging each other ever since. What does ISS mean to you now? It was a great experience that opened up my mind to the world, especially learning about Africa and Latin America. This helped me in studying and working on issues such as the geopolitics of Chinese overseas investments and civil society building.
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Upscaling rights and respect for domestic workers: yes, this is what we have done Karin Astrid Siegmann is senior lecturer in labour
Interview with Myrtle Witbooi, President of the International Domestic Workers Federation1
and gender economics at ISS.
Myrtle Witbooi is President of the International Domestic Workers Federation.
Myrtle Witbooi, the first President of the International Domestic Workers Federation (IDWF), was one of the participants of the Forum on Worker-driven Innovation that took place at the ISS in June 2016. Four months later, she reflects on this experience and how it relates to domestic workers’ struggles for rights and respect. 1
The interview was conducted on 12 October 2016 via telephone. Thanks to Giulio Iocco for transcribing the interview. The transcript has been shortened and slightly edited.
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Karin Astrid Siegmann (KAS): You are the President of an international federation of workers who were not even recognized as workers a few years back. Can you explain how domestic workers won the struggle for recognition and rights? Myrtle Witbooi (MW): In 2006, domestic workers from all over the world came to Amsterdam, to a meeting hosted by the Dutch trade union federation FNV. They started to talk about domestic workers’ suffering and exploitation. In 2008, they called my staff to try to understand what happened in 2006, what we had discussed and what decisions had been taken. At the same time, we learnt that the ILO might discuss domestic workers during its 2010 International Labour Conference (ILC). We decided to start talking again. In 2009, we formed the International Domestic Workers’ Network which I was asked to chair. At the ILC we had a debate on international domestic workers’ rights and how we could actually campaign more effectively for domestic workers. Many employers were against the idea of having an international convention for domestic workers, but the voice of domestic workers was very strong and we kept going. In 2011, we finally managed to set up a convention, Domestic Workers Convention 189, stipulating that domestic workers have internationally recognized labour rights. We then moved on to ask: what next for domestic workers? We decided that we wanted to unite in a global federation for domestic workers. In 2013, we came together in Uruguay, as this was the first country to ratify Convention 189, and formed an international domestic workers federation. At that stage we had 230,000 members from different countries. Today, the federation is very strong and has only women at the top: both the international leader and the secretary are women. So far, 23 countries have ratified Convention 189 and we have 560,000 members. So, that is
where we are, that is how we fought, that is how we actually formed our own federation to unite domestic workers to have one voice. Now, together, we can go back to our own countries and fight for national labour laws. KAS: This June you participated in the Forum on Worker-driven Innovation. I was wondering what links you see between domestic workers’ struggles in South Africa and internationally and the discussions we had at the Forum. Do you see domestic workers’ struggles as worker-driven innovation? MW: If we look at domestic workers’ struggles at the local level, we find that they have little power. But if domestic workers at the local level can connect to form a national organization, they are much stronger to speak out for themselves and take the voice of domestic workers’ rights further. That is what the Forum called ‘upscaling’. It means that from a local level you go to the national level and then on to the international level – and that is exactly how our struggle happened in South Africa. You have much more power and much more voice in a national or international setting.
KAS: You say that through these organizations, domestic workers’ voices have become much more powerful. Can you perceive changes in the material conditions of domestic workers in South Africa or at the international level as a result? MW: If you look at South Africa you see that, before 1994, domestic workers had no rights at all, no labour law covered them. When the South African Domestic Service and Allied Workers Union (SADSAWU) started fighting, in around 2001, we see that it started playing a big role in drafting legislation for domestic workers. The way we achieved this was by uniting, standing together, sending petitions, going to Parliament, standing in front of Parliament, and having discussions with Parliamentarians. We also called in other stakeholders. We had universities, NGOs and other organizations supporting us, and that is how we got most of the labour rights we see in South Africa today, but the struggle was spearheaded by domestic workers themselves.
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The way we achieved this was by uniting, standing together, sending petitions, going to Parliament, standing in front of Parliament, and having discussions with Parliamentarians. KAS: What about the implementation of these labour rights? MW: Implementation… oh… that is a big question. Implementation is very slow because there are so many domestic workers who do not know their rights. Also, employers are better off ignoring domestic workers’ rights. The only basic right that we are fighting for currently is unemployment benefit: many domestic workers are not registered for unemployment benefits, and we also find that there is no way that the Department of Labour can actually take employers to court. That’s why we had a big march recently in Johannesburg with over 200 domestic workers – to tell the Department of Labour that we are tired of waiting. We want the Compensation Act now, which would protect domestic workers, and we want all domestic workers to be registered for unemployment benefits. As we tell ourselves every day, we must fight to get the Department of Labour to punish those employers who are not abiding by national laws. KAS: How did the discussions that took place during the Forum feed into your activities as a trade unionist and campaigner? MW: I found that each day of those conversations added something that I could take back to the domestic workers. I looked at the farmworkers that managed to upscale their work and are now selling their own produce. I looked at the sex workers and how they are standing up for their rights, and then I looked at the migrant domestic workers’ situation and I find there’s a lot that I could learn from them. There was also a lot of support for the domestic workers’ struggle during the Forum. And I also learnt about ‘upscaling’ and I realized: yes, this is what we have done.
Look at us, at that small organization, and look what we have done. It was all worker-driven, it was all done by workers, and today the federation is still worker-driven. Sometimes we overlook things. The Forum made me realize what domestic workers have achieved. Even the discussion with the FNV, the meeting with the domestic workers in the evening – something good has come out of that. If I had not had the opportunity to meet with them again, I don’t think they would have pushed as much for the ratification of Convention 189 and for the further regularization of undocumented domestic workers. There was also interaction with the sex worker activist Thierry. He was in South Africa and I introduced him to other organizations here. I think we have learnt a lot. We have learnt how to interact with each other, we have learnt how to act better, and we have learnt how to take our migrant and domestic workers’ issues forward. KAS: What role can you see for academic institutions like ISS in supporting domestic workers’ struggles? MW: One thing that I would like to see universities look at more is the question of the value of domestic work. How can we bring the value of domestic work to the attention of many countries and many people, how can we show them the role it plays in the economy? KAS: Looking back at the Forum, what, for you, was the highlight of the three days? MW: For me the highlight was when we discussed the struggle of domestic workers and farmworkers. Another highlight was the close way we discussed issues and, you know, the way it was done, how the discussions took place, the way we could talk.
There were opportunities for all of us to talk. All the different organizations were able to get the most out of the Forum. But it was also the audience we had. Some of the students showed deep interest in what these organizations were doing and how their work could be more effective. I like the idea of going to a university to speak on issues affecting domestic workers, migrant workers, farmworkers and sex workers. KAS: One of the highlights for me was when you sang the song ‘My mother was a kitchen girl…’ with us! MW: (laughing) Yes, I think that was a very nice moment. And also when we took the pictures with the sticker of ‘My home is a fair home!’, that was a nice moment. Actually, for me that was the highlight: to share with you what we are doing, and to say that this is where we come from and this is what we want to do in each home. It was wonderful that you gave me the opportunity to do that. KAS: That was what the Forum was meant to be: sharing and mutual inspiration. Thank you so much for sharing your reflections – and good luck with your work!
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ISS news
ISS news alumni awards EUR events PhD projects research staff students
‘What difference can the Netherlands make in the world?’ event
‘Gender-based violence and global governance’ event
On 31 May ISS co-organized this conference for development specialists and Dutch political parties. The keynote lecture was by Professor Jayati Ghosh who spoke on recent trends in development issues.
This symposium on 8 June facilitated an exchange of insights and included a keynote speech by Professor Rema Hammami who shared her insights on the politicized framing of gender-based violence and strategies to deal with this.
ISS staff and alumni win research grant research The research grant funds a project on ‘Becoming a young farmer: young people’s pathways into farming in four countries’ and will be led by ISS alumna Sharada Srinivasan.
Wendy Harcourt part of team to win Antipodes Grant project
The grant is for the project ‘Re-drawing the economy: creating place-based images that can travel’. Wendy will lead a team producing a teaching module to be used by ISS, NGOs and activists.
ISS news
ISS listed on Global Go To Think Tank Index research
ISS is only one of a handful of Dutch institutes to be listed on the index which was compiled following an international survey of scholars, public and private donors, policy makers, and journalists who ranked more than 6,600 think tanks using a set of 28 criteria.
Opening ISS MA programme with guest speaker Petra Stienen event
Professor Jun Borras lead author of report on land grabbing and human rights staff This EUcommissioned report provides data on EU-based entities involved in land deals outside the region.
Best Practice Award for ISS-led research project, ‘Community based health insurance in Ethiopia’ award The project was awarded for achieving and demonstrating ‘high quality cooperation between research and practice’. Professor Arjun Bedi collected the prize on behalf of the project group.
On 9 September, ISS hosted the opening of its 2016-2017 MA programme. Guest speaker Petra Stienen delivered a lecture on ‘Diversity as the fuel of the twentyfirst century’.
Thea Hilhorst inaugural Inaugural lecture Professor Thea Hilhorst event
On 22 September, Professor Thea Hilhorst gave her inaugural lecture on ‘Aid-society relations in humanitarian crises and crisis recovery’.
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ISS Dies Natalis event On 12 October guest speaker Melissa Leach, Director of the Institute of Development Studies, gave a lecture entitled ‘Challenging inequalities and unsustainabilities: the politics of transformative pathways’.
International Monsanto Tribunal at ISS event On 15-16 October, ISS hosted the International Monsanto Tribunal. Five judges were asked to consider whether Monsanto’s activities are in compliance with UN legal instruments. The judges will provide their ‘advisory opinion’ in the first half of 2017.
Lecture by Jane Goodall at ISS event
Rosalba Icaza part of Latin American Council of Social Sciences (CLACSO) research working group research CLACSO has granted the status of ‘Working Group’ to the International Research Consortium Bodies, Territories and Resistances for the period 2017-2019. As a member of the Consortium, Rosalba Icaza will contribute with her expertise on Mexico's social resistances to coloniality.
On 5 December, ISS will host a lecture by the world renowned primatologist, ethnologist and anthropologist Jane Goodall.
EUR 103rd Dies Natalis EUR The theme of the Dies Natalis was 'Consumer behaviour in the digital economy'. EUR alumna Neelie Kroes delivered the guest lecture and Saskia Krijger was awarded the Athena Prize for her efforts to promote female talent.
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ISS news
Six ISS students receive Wim Deetman Scholarship award students
International symposium on global redistribution and the challenges of externally financing social policy development event To be held on 16 and 17 February 2017, the symposium will consider the need for a scaling up of global redistribution to meet the challenges of contemporary development. It is organized by the ISS AIDSOCPRO research project.
The annual award is given to students from developing countries who would like to study for an MA in The Hague in the area of peace and justice. The six ISS students received their award from Wim Deetman and Deputy Mayor of The Hague, Ingrid van Engelshoven.
In Memoriam Rodolfo Stavenhagen ISS Honorary fellow Rodolfo Stavenhagen passed away on 5 November at the age of 84. Professor Stavenhagen was awarded his ISS honorary fellowship in 1982. He was a professor at El Colegio de MĂŠxico and former Deputy Director General of UNESCO. In 2001 he was appointed the first United Nations Special Rapporteur on the situation of the human rights and fundamental freedoms of indigenous people.
PhD graduations PhD
Maazullah (11 November 2016) Akhuwat Microfinance: Participation, Impact and Gender-Based Heterogenity in Business Returns
Christina Sathyamala (16 September 2016) Cum Laude Nutrition: Contested Meanings: A Theoretical and Empirical Enquiry
Runa Laila (29 August 2016) Reproductive Health Practices in Rural Bangladesh: State, Gender and Ethnicity
Mohammed Omer Almoghayer (8 July 2016) Beyond Factionalism: Cultural and Children’s Programs on Palestinian Satellite Television
Staff-student dialogue
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Evaluating SMS to promote retention and adherence to programme treatment by HIV/AIDS patients in Burkina Faso – discussion between assistant professor Natascha Wagner and MA student Vanessa Perez Lamas Natascha (N): We are currently conducting a three-year project to test the value of SMS messages in promoting retention and adherence to treatment by HIV/AIDS patients in Burkina Faso. The idea is to use modern technology to intervene in the health system of a resource-poor country, trying to understand how text messages can be harnessed for health promotion. WHO supports such programmes for health promotion as they are cost-efficient and can reach out to people in remote areas.
Vanessa (V): Why are you targeting people living with HIV who take antiretroviral treatment? N: Current medication means we are now at a point that HIV is no longer terminal, but chronic. The real challenge for poor people now is accessing the medication. Although medication is given out for free, people still have to travel to clinics to pick it up. A second challenge is to respect the medication schedule, i.e. to take the pills consistently. One of the big problems is that there is often a stigma about being HIV positive, even from patients’ own families.
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Staff-student dialogue
V: In this context, sending a weekly text message to people living with HIV is not so much a reminder to take their medication, it sounds more like psychological support. The text message is like a ‘reminder’ that they want to keep living. N: Exactly, the text messages show that there is someone who cares about them, particularly when their families are not supportive. The reminders are perceived as emotional support. In order to receive the daily reminder, many local self-help groups preprogramme the alarm into patients’ mobile phones. V: How is the study set up? What is the ultimate goal of the intervention and how do you measure success? N: This study is a randomized controlled trial. We carried out an initial survey in early 2015 and did a follow-up survey six months after the start of the intervention. We are now carrying out another survey round and in a year from now we will have a final survey. So a total of four surveys. Success is based on reducing the patient drop-out rate from anti-retroviral therapy. The ultimate goal is that patients remain in treatment and are in good health. So we measure biomarkers such as the body mass index along with the CD4 count, a measure of HIV progression, as well as self-reported psychosocial well-being; this latter through questionnaires. V: Very interesting. I believe that technology is just a tool, a way to find the most creative way to provide support. When you add the issues related to chronic disease to low standards of living, psychological support becomes very important but it seems to be under-recognized in the current development agenda. N: Psychological support is very expensive in both developed and developing countries. We want to increase awareness for psychological needs within developmental and health projects. One of the contributions we want to make with this study is to share the idea that health is more than physical health. Biomarkers are
important and objective, but psychology also plays a big role in a person’s well-being. V: Is this project only carried out by ISS? N: No, we are collaborating with a local university: the Université Polytechnique de Bobo-Dioulasso. This collaboration allows us to work directly with locals. The project is a learning experience. For example, our local colleagues carried out a small survey among farming households which gave us great insights into the particular challenges that farmers with HIV face. This resulted in two master theses. We also work with the Ministry of Health and the National Committee on HIV/ AIDS. This embeds the projects within local structures, making it meaningful within the local context rather than being a purely outside intervention. V: I think is very important that the intervention is performed with the collaboration of not only a local university that provides a better understanding of the context, but also with the participation of the pertinent authorities. It constitutes a sound basis for the intervention and for the outcomes to be taken into account in the policy-making process.
The way this project has developed from the idea of simply sending reminders to the acknowledgement that it provides psychosocial support and that the channels for and impacts of that support should be assessed, is very interesting.
We want to increase awareness for psychological needs within developmental and health projects.
Also, regarding the behavioural psychology side of the project, I think it is very interesting to see the relationship between behaviour and external stimuli. It helps reveal issues that the people concerned often do not understand themselves. For example, it is fascinating to explore what helps smokers stop smoking: it is crucial for them to understand this in order for them to change their habits. The health of an individual is closely related to their emotional intelligence. The way this project has developed from the idea of simply sending reminders to the acknowledgement that it provides psychosocial support and that the channels for and impacts of that support should be assessed, is very interesting. I think that behavioural experiments are an important tool that is gaining more prominence for assessing the success of interventions. N: Behaviour is an important aspect. It was captivating to notice the difference in needs between recently “infected” HIV individuals and chronic patients, i.e. those who have been under antiretroviral treatment for more than 24 months. What defines the well-being of these two groups is both emotionally and physically quite different. Our results suggest that more attention needs to be given to patients’ emotional needs during the transition phases as the determinants of well-being differ substantially for recently “infected” HIV individuals versus chronic patients. This aspect developed from observations on the ground. Talking to both patients and practitioners allowed us to gather feedback that underlined the relevance of the psychological aspect.
ISS publications
Some recent publications by ISS staff and PhD researchers ‘Collapsing Prospects: Palestinians in Area C, West Bank’ Dubravka Zarkov and Rachel Kurian were part of a multidisciplinary team to visit the West Bank to assess the human security and sustainable development situation of Palestinian communities in Area C and to subsequently offer Dutch policy makers recommendations for specific engagements.
‘Security guidelines for field research in complex, remote and hazardous places’ Co-authored by Thea Hilhorst, Lucy Hodgson, Bram Jansen and Rodrigo Mena, these guidelines assist researchers in conducting their field-based research or fieldwork in hazardous, remote or complex environments as safely and securely as possible.
‘Little Mawu, the Story of my Life’ Book by ISS alumnus Mawutodzi Abbisath on his life growing up in Ghana and Togo. Mawutodzi completed his MA in Development Studies in 2014 with a major in Agrarian, Food and Environmental Studies.
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Focus on ISS
Focus on ISS – Refresher courses From time to time, ISS runs short refresher courses for alumni of Dutch institutions. These tailormade courses contribute to the institutional development of the alumni’s employing organizations and prolong the impact of the original training. They are funded by competitive EP-Nuffic grants. Earlier this year, ISS won funding for two such refresher courses: One in Uganda on ‘Alternative care in East Africa: policy trends and best practices for children deprived of parental care’, and one in Colombia on ‘Conflict transformation, peace settlements and social justice in Latin America: Gendered intersections’. Both courses were a great success, attracting students from across their respective continents. Course leaders Kristen Cheney (for Uganda) and Dubravka Zarkov (for Colombia) tell us more…
Alternative care in East Africa: policy trends and best practices for children deprived of parental care ISS recently received an EP-Nuffic grant to run a refresher course on alternative care – i.e. foster care, kinship care, and domestic adoption – for children in Eastern Africa. The recent proliferation of orphanages in the region often encourages unnecessary separation of children from families, with profoundly adverse effects on the children’s development. To reverse this alarming trend, the refresher course – led by Kristen Cheney (ISS) and Mark Riley (Alternative Care Initiatives) in Kampala – aimed to provide the knowledge base and theoretical framework for understanding and developing best practices in alternative care. Participants came from six different countries and worked in various sectors from child protection to academia and the judiciary. Using an adult-centred learning approach that combined academic research with testimonials from various guest speakers in the field, the first week focused on the problems and challenges associated with child institutionalization. It included presentations on the latest research about orphan voluntourism (primarily young people from rich countries taking on temporary voluntary work in orphanages) and international adoption as a driver of child
institutionalization, as well as testimonials from care leavers (young adults who have aged out of institutional care). The second week challenged participants to think about the successful implementation of alternative care and included discussions on the prevention of family separation, on reintegration, and on domestic adoption. The course closed with a discussion on how to create an enabling environment for alternative care to take hold. The participants worked closely with a documentary filmmaker and advocacy campaign specialist to create a succinct alternative care advocacy message.1 After two weeks of hard but inspiring work, the participants spent the final evening enjoying a dinner together, where they received certificates of participation from Dr Eddy Walakira, ISS alumnus and Makerere University Senior lecturer in Social Work and Social Administration, who also taught in the course. By all accounts, the course was a smashing success, with participants returning to their work committed to deinstitutionalization and to the implementation of quality alternative care. As one participant wrote, ‘I feel I'm now in a strong and firm position to comment on benefits of alternative care and discouraging institutionalization of children...’ According to another, ‘The approaches discussed in the course provide a strong base to advise… government departments to pursue deinstitutionalization as a way of promoting [the] best interest principle for children’. They are already implementing these changes in their respective professions.
1 The video can be viewed at https://www.facebook.com/ issycsinterestgroup/videos/
Focus on ISS
Conflict transformation, peace settlements and social justice in Latin America: Gendered intersections This EP-Nuffic-sponsored refresher course was held from 26 September to 8 October in Bogotá, Colombia, and was attended by alumni from around Latin America. Our partner in the region was Pontificia Universidad Javeriana, with a number of lecturers from different university departments, activists from grassroots and non-governmental organizations, and people who have been directly involved in the Colombian peace processes. Those well-versed in the history of Latin American conflicts and Colombia will notice that the first day of the course coincided with the day that the Colombian government and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) signed a Peace Accord. We were also there on 2 October when the Colombian population was called upon to express its agreement or disagreement with the Peace Accord in a referendum. Wherever we walked, we saw posters calling for ‘VOTA SI’ (vote yes). But the referendum results showed that the NO vote won by a margin of just 0.4 per cent. More than half of the course participants were Colombians, all of them working on issues of conflict, peace and justice, be it among the indigenous peoples in the Amazon affected by large scale mining, in the coastal regions with the marginalized Afro-Colombian population, on reproductive health, or on media and peacebuilding. Many of them had been preparing for months for post-peace deal activities: the demobilization and reintegration of FARC fighters, inclusive spatial planning by local governments conducive to equitable development, or pastoral care. When the peace deal was rejected, all this work suddenly came to a halt in a liminal space filled with shock, disbelief and distress. Yet within days, the city of Bogotá and many others across the country woke up to hope and people went to the streets to share this with thousands of others.
Many non-Colombian participants recalled their own personal experiences of conflicts and violence from their countries, and understood what the peace deal means for Colombia. So we were together in the streets, as we were in the classroom. Being in Colombia during these historic events was an unforgettable experience. The course addressed the histories of Latin American conflicts, struggles for peace and issues of social and economic justice. Gender and intersectionality – and especially power relations around class, race and indigeneity – formed our central perspective. The questions we asked were not just what caused the conflicts and violence but also – once fighting stops, will it be possible to create space for more justice? How will issues such as mining, exploitation and degradation of land and people be addressed? What are the ways to deal with past crimes, and is it possible to engage in discussions about reconciliation, amnesty, retribution and restitution? Whose memory of the conflict will be commemorated and how? What kind of agricultural and industrial production will be privileged in the strategies for postconflict development? And who will benefit from it all? Our class discussions on these issues were steeped in the realities unfolding around us in Bogotá and Colombia, as well as in deeply felt personal concerns about the people, communities and countries that the participants and lecturers work with. Being together at such an incredible time created a sense of solidarity, making the refresher course a space within which academic, activist and professional experiences mixed and matched, and all of us learned from each other.
1 https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/oct/02/colombia referendum-rejects-peace-deal-with-farc 2 http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2016/10/colombians-streets support-farc-peace-deal-161013034609165.html
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ISS publications
Development and Change
Working Papers
Development and Change is an interdisciplinary, peer-reviewed journal devoted to the critical analysis and discussion of current issues of development. It was established by ISS in 1969, in response to the perceived need for a multidisciplinary journal dealing with all aspects of development studies. http://www.iss.nl/publications/development_and_change/
The ISS Working Paper series provides a forum for work in progress which seeks to elicit comments and generate discussion. The series includes academic research by staff, PhD participants and visiting fellows, and award-winning research papers by graduate students.
Volume 47, Number 4, July 2016 Forum 2016 Guest Editor: Bridget O’Laughlin Focus articles Benjamin Knutsson Responsible Risk Taking: Neoliberal Biopolitics of People Living with HIV/AIDS in Rwanda Ben Fine, Deborah Johnston, Ana C. Santos and Elisa Van Waeyenberge Nudging or Fudging: The World Development Report 2015 Massoud Karshenas Power, Ideology, and Global Development: On the Origins, Evolution and Achievements of UNCTAD Debate Bridget O’Laughlin Pragmatism, Structural Reform and the Politics of Inequality in Global Public Health Simon Reid-Henry Just Global Health? Anne-Emanuelle Birn, Laura Nervi and Eduardo Siqueira Neoliberalism Redux: The Global Health Policy Agenda and the Politics of Cooptation in Latin America and Beyond Imrana Qadeer and Rama Baru Shrinking Spaces for the ‘Public’ in Contemporary Public Health Jasmine Gideon and Fenella Porter Challenging Gendered Inequalities in Global Health: Dilemmas for NGOs Moritz Hunsmann Pushing ‘Global Health’ out of its Comfort Zone: Lessons from the Depoliticization of AIDS Control in Africa C. Sathyamala Nutritionalizing Food: A Framework for Capital Accumulation Megha Amrith and Sunil Amrith Migration, Health and Inequality in Asia Reflections Clive Gabay Sisyphus on the Mountain: A Conversation with Professor James C. Scott Ashwani Saith A Defiant Sociologist and His Craft: Jan Breman. An Appreciation and a Conversation Legacies Julien-François Gerber The Legacy of K. William Kapp Lungisile Ntsebeza What can We Learn from Archi Mafeje about the Road to Democracy in South Africa? Assessments Séverine Deneulin Expanding Freedoms, Changing Structures: The Human Development Report 2014 Kiran Asher and Bimbika Sijapati Basnett Gender Equality as an Entitlement: An Assessment of the UN Women’s Report on Gender Equality and Sustainable Development 2014
The evolution of Tibetan representation and preferentiality in public employment during the Post-fenpei period in China: Insights from new data sources ISS Working Paper Series / General Series, Volume 620 p. 1-82. Fischer, A.M. (Andrew Martín) and Zenz, A. (Adrian) Womens’ voices: The journey towards cyberfeminism in Iran ISS Working Paper Series / General Series, Volume 621 p. 1-34. Shojaee, M.
Student life
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STUDENT LIFE ‘Living in The Hague means opening yourself to new horizons – getting to know lots of people from all over the world, tasting new cuisines and pursuing intellectual paths through learning at ISS or working for peace and justice issues in various NGOs, or simply seeing the tulips bloom during the spring and walking in Scheveningen on a sunny afternoon.’ Celebratory lunch after completing exams
State opening of Parliament
A Hague park
ISS students make their opinion heard
Thanks to the photographers: Chad Brevis, Lucia Chimi, Siddharth Dhote, Jon Walton and Ana Maria Arbelaez
View of The Hague
Your MA or PhD in Development Studies
MA Majors Agrarian, Food and Environment Studies Economics of Development Governance and Development Policy Human Rights, Gender and Conflict Studies: Social Justice Perspectives Social Policy for Development Migration and Diversity Track Mundus MA in Public Policy programme
International Institute of Social Studies Kortenaerkade 12 2518 AX The Hague P.O. Box 29776 2502 LT The Hague The Netherlands (+31) 70 426 0460 info@iss.nl www.iss.nl www.facebook.com/iss.nl www.linkedin.com/edu/school?id=42258 www.youtube.com/user/issmedia www.Flickr.com/photos/issthehague/ www.instagram.com/iss_erasmus