Project
Security and Rule of Law
The Knowledge Platform Security & Rule of Law is a vibrant network of experts working on generating, sharing, interrogating and applying evidence in the field of security & rule of law.
The Platform’s main objective is to improve the learning capacity and knowledge base of its members, specifically decision makers for Security & Rule of Law (SRoL) policy and programs.
Research activities
In cooperation with NWO/WOTRO, the research program ‘Security & Rule of Law in Fragile and Conflict-Affected Settings' has been established. The research program is funded by the Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs and consists of two separate funding instruments: The Strategic Research Fund and the Applied Research Fund. In addition to the thematic calls under the Applied and Strategic Research Funds, two Open Calls were launched in 2015. The Platform is responsible for defining the substantive focus of the calls that will open under this funding program.
Strategic research
Strategic research is research designed to develop and help decide on a strategy to reach specified policy goals. It addresses the academic basis and underlying assumptions of policy theories and intervention logics. Here, strategic research is meant to lead to informed advice and policy prescriptions for development practitioners. Within the strategic research fund, two calls have been launched.
1) Comprehensive approaches to human security
The call on ‘Comprehensive approaches to human security’ within the strategic research fund aims to contribute to new evidence-based knowledge and insights on policies and intervention theories and strategies regarding inclusive, comprehensive approaches to human security in fragile and conflict-affected settings, in view of transnational security threats. The following six projects have been funded:
- Human Security and Conflict in Ukraine: Local Approaches and Transnational Dimensions
- Preventing the spill-over: combatting violent extremism with a human security approach in Palestine, Egypt and Iraq
- Security Assistance and Non-State Actors in Iraq, Syria & Afghanistan: Comprehensive and Inclusive Human Security Beyond the State?
- Securing the local: the role of non-state security groups (NSSGs) in the struggle against extremism in Kenya, Nigeria and Indonesia
- The Fulani in the Sahel: Caught between the Hammer of Muslim Extremism and the Anvil of the State (Mali, Nigeria)
- Towards more effective human security approaches in the context of the emerging threat of violent radicalisation in Jordan, Egypt, Lebanon, Tunisia
2) Employment for stability
The call on ‘employment for stability’ within the strategic research fund aims to contribute to insight in the correlation between employment and stability, or into the key drivers and challenges determining employment strategies of the private sector in fragile and conflict affected settings. The following three projects have been funded:
- Entrepreneurship, Employment and Social Stability in Rwanda
- Conflict Sensitive Employment under Construction: Peace and Stability Strategies for the Private Sector in Afghanistan
- Does Opportunity Reduce Instability? A Meta-Analysis of Skills and Employment Interventions in LMICSs
Applied research fund
Applied research is a form of systematic inquiry involving the practical application of science, and deals with solving practical problems and generally employs empirical methodologies. It includes research aimed at providing proof for a concept and may encompass action research which involves active participation in a change process during the conduct of the research. Within the applied research fund, five calls have been issued.