SUFISA UK National report (WP2 - Deliverable 2.2)

This report is part of the EU-funded Horizon 2020 project SUFISA (Sustainable finance for sustainable agriculture and fisheries). The purpose of this report is to investigate the nature of policy requirements and market imperfections, and their implications for the sustainability and resilience of inshore fishing in the county of Cornwall, England and dairy farming in Somerset, England respectively. (H2020-SFS-2014-2;Grant agreement 635577

'Pre-endoscopy point of care test (Simtomax- IgA/IgG-Deamidated Gliadin Peptide) for coeliac disease in iron deficiency anaemia: diagnostic accuracy and a cost saving economic model'.

BACKGROUND: International guidelines recommend coeliac serology in iron deficiency anaemia, and duodenal biopsy for those tested positive to detect coeliac disease. However, pre-endoscopy serology is often unavailable, thus committing endoscopists to take routine duodenal biopsies. Some endoscopists consider duodenal biopsy mandatory in anaemia to exclude other pathologies. We hypothesise that using a point of care test at endoscopy could fill this gap, by providing rapid results to target anaemic patients who require biopsies, and save costs by biopsy avoidance. We therefore assessed three key aspects to this hypothesis: 1) the availability of pre-endoscopy serology in anaemia; 2) the sensitivities and cost effectiveness of pre-endoscopy coeliac screening with Simtomax in anaemia; 3) whether other anaemia-related pathologies could be missed by this targeted-biopsy approach. METHODS: Group 1: pre-endoscopy serology availability was retrospectively analysed in a multicentre cohort of 934 anaemic patients at 4 UK hospitals. Group 2: the sensitivities of Simtomax, endomysial and tissue-transglutaminase antibodies were compared in 133 prospectively recruited patients with iron deficiency anaemia attending for a gastroscopy. The sensitivities were measured against duodenal histology as the reference standard in all patients. The cost effectiveness of Simtomax was calculated based on the number of biopsies that could have been avoided compared to an all-biopsy approach. Group 3: the duodenal histology of 153 patients presenting to a separate iron deficiency anaemia clinic were retrospectively reviewed. RESULTS: In group 1, serology was available in 361 (33.8 %) patients. In group 2, the sensitivity and negative predictive value (NPV) were 100 % and 100 % for Simtomax, 96.2 % and 98.9 % for IgA-TTG, and 84.6 % and 96.4 % for EMA respectively. In group 3, the duodenal histology found no causes for anaemia other than coeliac disease. CONCLUSION: Simtomax had excellent diagnostic accuracy in iron deficiency anaemia and was comparable to conventional serology. Duodenal biopsy did not identify any causes other than coeliac disease for iron deficiency anaemia, suggesting that biopsy avoidance in Simtomax negative anaemic patients is unlikely to miss other anaemia-related pathologies. Due to its 100 % NPV, Simtomax could reduce unnecessary biopsies by 66 % if only those with a positive Simtomax were biopsied, potentially saving £3690/100 gastroscopies. TRIAL REGISTRATION: The group 2 study was retrospectively registered with clinicaltrials.gov. Trial registration date: 13(th) July 2016; TRIAL REGISTRATION NUMBER: NCT02834429

Case Study 3: Effectiveness of Data-Driven Advocacy in Policy Influence in Mauritius

The 2024 CHOGM Shadow Report examines the obligations of Commonwealth member states under international human rights law, while taking into consideration the Commonwealth Charter and the 2022 CHOGM Communiqué, in order to provide an overview of the extent to which Commonwealth member states are fulfilling these obligations in the lead-up to CHOGM 202

Foreign Aid and Economic Growth in Developing Countries : Evidence from Sub-Saharan Africa

This study aims at understanding the impact of foreign aid on the economic growth of the Sub Saharan African region. Despite being the largest foreign aid recipient in the world, the region is the poorest with the lowest Human Development Index (HDI) and Gross National Income (GNI) per capita. This raises serious questions about the effectiveness of foreign aid to the economic growth and development of the region. As such, we examine the relationship between foreign aid, determined by the official development assistance (ODA), and the economic growth rate of the Sub Saharan Africa’s ten largest recipients of foreign aid, for a 23-year period from 1990 to 2012. These ten countries include Ethiopia, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Tanzania, Kenya, Côte d’Ivoire, Mozambique, Nigeria, Ghana, Uganda and Malawi. Based on the work of Burnside and Dollar (2000), Collier and Dollar (2002) and others, we include a wide range of factors in our model such as economic policies and institutional factors which are considered to be crucial for aid effectiveness. We find that aid by itself does not have significant impact on economic growth. However, the variable aid interacted with the policy index was found to be statistically significant and positive, which means that aid tends to increase growth rate in a good policy environment. Subsequently, when we include the institutional quality index and its interaction term in the model, we find that institutional quality has a positive and significant impact on growth; however, none of the aid variables were significant. We also test the two-gap growth model, developed by Chenery and Strout (1966) which states that foreign aid enhances economic growth through investment and imports. The results show that foreign aid is a good ingredient for supplementing investment and imports requirements in these ten countries. We believe that given foreign aid is conditional on the economic, political and institutional environment of the recipient country, this can explain why aid effectiveness is insignificant in the Sub Saharan Africa region where bad governance is a core issue on the region. Therefore, respective governments, donor agencies, and policy makers should take into consideration these multiple aspects when undertaking aid-financing activities

Developing a context based framework for understanding interpersonal resilience

Taking a pragmatic approach, this research has developed a context based framework to understand how people effectively cope with each other in their relationships at times of stress. Contexts of intractable conflicts – such as Israel and the West Bank region - are fertile ground for such inquiry because the sources of tension on people’s relationships are numerous and accentuated, making any resilient cases worthy of attention. Besides, there is an urgent need for expertise to manage interpersonal relationships effectively and efficiently as the reviewed literature has underlined. A conceptual framework was developed to provide a methodologically robust and philosophically coherent basis for the investigation and analyses were grounded in contemporary literature using a trans-disciplinary approach. From there, a three-tiered analytical framework was built to allow understanding of the emergence of resilience in dyadic co-worker relationships in episodes of tension. The analytical lens employed, grounded in the Maussian gift theory, has allowed for a multi-level and multi-dimensional analysis, thus moving from an individualistic to a relational approach, much advocated for and yet sparsely studied in the literature. The field research was conducted over a phased period of three years in three small-scale enterprises. Following an exploratory phase, data was gathered using semi-structured interviews with individuals close to the businesses and their day-to-day operations. Conversations focused on the stories of how participants dealt with circumstances of stress in their work-life relationships with each other. Findings were then fed back to participants through group interviews which allowed a refinement of the primary work, and further deepened the research findings. Analyses of the three cases revealed three complementary drivers of resilient relationships: 1) A motivated willingness to maintain the relationship; 2) the existence of a physical and emotional space for communication; and 3) a space of recognition, underpinned by feelings of being listened to and understood. All three drivers brought a feeling of belonging to the relationship which further maintained and strengthened the bonds. The analytical framework developed, and methodological approach employed, have proved useful in understanding how interpersonal resilience of co-workers is initiated and maintained in the specific contexts. While focusing at the micro-level, the research has also shed a different light on designing research in intractable conflict environments. Instead of focusing on individual traits or socio-economic factors, the contextualised socio-cognitive approach put forward here opens the gateway to more complex thinking and better understanding of human relationships and the drivers nurturing and maintaining them

Pacing emotional labour of qualitative research in an intractable conflict environment

Qualitative field research in any type of terrain calls for a practice-oriented reflection on the researcher’s emotional labour management in relation to the context of the field before, during and beyond data collection. Intractable conflict environments (ICE) are characterised by long running social crises still unresolved. This particularity makes such contexts risk-prone in terms of unpredictable dangers and unexpected outcomes, hence, the requirement for thorough ethical evaluation of field research designs. Field researchers, often working on their own, are expected to safely make ethically sound decisions while gathering high quality data within complex social realities of which they are often socio-culturally unaware. This inevitably exacerbates the emotional burden on the researchers and makes fieldwork challenging. Although feminist geographers have significantly contributed to highlighting the social dynamics of fieldwork by initiating and deepening discussions of the emotional and ethical challenge, discussions have rarely gone beyond underlining the need for recognition of the field researchers’ emotional labour. Despite academic consensus for reflexive analysis and field diary keeping, little has been discussed on how to systematically manage this effort during the research process. In this paper, building on the first author's PhD fieldwork experience in Israel and the West Bank area, we propose a paced field research organisation method – PFROM – which systematically accommodates time and space for the researcher’s engagement with and detachment from the intensity of the field research. Applying the concept of pacing – intentionally distributing focused attention in such a way that will reduce fatigue prior to the completion of a task – this framework systematically integrates reflexivity within research designs. The PFROM provides researchers with a tool applicable beyond the context of intractable conflict locations which has the potential to enhance their emotional labour management

A Comparative Analysis of the Financial Stability of Islamic and Conventional Banks: Evidence from 10 Countries

Half a decade since the unfolding of the Global Financial Crisis (GFC), the global economic scene is yet fogged by a steady and spreading financial gloominess. No countries are left unscratched. The financial sector has received a heavy blow. Islamic banking and finance industry, one of the most fast-paced booming sector of the worldwide financing system, has become pervasively distinguished and too big to be ignored. This study attempts to address the financial stability of Islamic banks and conventional banks. The level of bank stability is measured individually using one of accounting-based bank soundness measurement called the Z-score indicator. This paper uses secondary financial data of 71 Islamic banks and 92 conventional banks from 2005-2011 covering ten countries. The econometric model is regressed based on panel data analysis and robust estimation technique. The first hand data analysis show Islamic banks are more financially stable than conventional banks. The empirical findings do not provide a clear cut answer on the stability of Islamic banks

Building WASH resilience for behavioural change: An interim research brief

With the growing frequency and flows of migration and the ever-increasing negative effects of climate change intensifying the urbanisation pressure on policy makers, service providers and citizens, it is timely to develop efficient and effective methods of building WASH resilience.This interim research brief is designed to help engage discussion for co-analysis and forms an essential part of the research designed in the interest of scientific rigour, practice-driven policy advice and a pragmatic approach to impactful research