Request for research proposals
Institutional legacies of violent conflict

Background

One of the most critical challenges in international development today is to understand how best to support peace, security, economic recovery, and legitimate political authority in countries affected by political instability and violent conflict – where more than 1.5 billion people currently live. While peace and stability are central to the prosperity and security of countries and their citizens, we currently have a limited understanding of how and why violent conflicts persist in modern times, how and why their legacies endure across time and what can be done at the policy and practical levels to reduce the risk and impact of violence.

Our project on the Institutional legacies of violent conflict seeks to fill these gaps in knowledge and policy. The goal is to increase understanding among policymakers, academics and practitioners of how institutional dynamics that develop during violent conflicts shape state-building and economic development trajectories in the long run, in order to provide policy guidance on achieving SDG 16. The project will include theory-building combined with the use of empirical data at the individual, household, community, and national levels.

We seek to commission research papers from researchers working in conflict analysis, peacebuilding, and related fields who would like to contribute to the project. We are particularly interested in papers with a strong empirical contribution on the broad theme of the long-term institutional legacies of violent conflicts, but welcome also strong theoretical contributions with relevance to this area of research.

Offer and expectations

UNU-WIDER invites proposals from qualified researchers for papers examining the institutional legacies of violent conflict. The aim is that these papers will be published in high-quality journals in economics, political science, development studies, or related fields after publication in the WIDER Working Paper Series. The papers need to be written in English and should be limited to 10,000 words maximum (inclusive of text, tables, figures, footnotes, references).

Proposals from individuals (or grups of individuals) as well as non-profit organizations are welcome. Applications from women and developing country researchers are particularly encouraged. One author of each successful proposal is expected to attend a project workshop in May 2022 (exact date and venue TBD).

Read the full announcement for more information.

Dates (Eastern European Summer Time – EEST)

Proposal submission details

Submission of proposals is done electronically by using the form at the top of this RFRP announcement page (see sidebar). There are three forms to select from: one for individuals, another for groups of individuals, and a third for non-profit organizations. Details (such as address, gender, nationality, date of birth) of all researchers involved is to be entered onto the form and the cover page, the proposal, and short CVs (five pages or less) of researcher/s uploaded. Please familiarize yourself with the form in advance.

Any questions on the proposal process should be sent to researchproposal6@wider.unu.edu by 15 July 2021. All queries and responses will be published on the RFRP announcement page. Selected answers will be updated on a rolling basis.