All Funded Projects

The issue of climate change is becoming increasingly significant, especially for managing water. In some mountain rural regions, it has even strong consequences on migration to urban areas. The effects are a feminization of the population that have to struggle with daily life. This project addresses the impact of outmigration and climate change on the demographics in the mountains of Bolivia and Nepal.

More and more, non-core multilateral aid has been increasing over the last twenty year in place of traditional multilateral aid. This multiplication of funds may lead to a fragmentation of aid, and therefore affects its effectiveness. This project seeks to understand the mechanisms of this new trend for non-core multilateral aid and proposes to be the first in depth analysis on that matter.

Studies have shown that the main border crossing point between Brazil and Peru is an important factor of spreading various endemic diseases. Government of both countries are required to unify their effort to face that challenge and analyze it in depth. For a better handling of the situation, this project focuses on the link of cross-border migration and the spread of the diseases in order to control and eliminate the risk.

The overall aim of this project is to provide a methodological and conceptual contribution to address the governance of natural resources as a complex process involving multiple levels and scales. The main objective is to develop a comparative geographical information system methodology to address land governance at multiple levels by investigating interrelations between land tenure, land use, land cover and biodiversity in the cases of Bolivia and Laos. The identifications of these complex geographical context and their local dynamic outcomes will allow finding processes that are globally relevant to policymakers in development and conservation.

To achieve several of the Millenium Development Goals, significant improvement must be made in innovation and access to affordable medicines, particularly in developing countries. This research project will examine existing and new ideas for global partnerships to address the problems of lack of access and innovation for medicines on a sustainable, priority needs’ basis. The research question mainly deals with the economics of product development partnerships for neglected diseases in order to define efficient mechanisms.

Addressing the global challenges arising from climate change requires international environmental cooperation. While scholarship acknowledges that in democratic systems domestic support for international cooperation eventually determines its long-term prospects, we know very little about how the design of international agreements affects individual support for establishing and joining such institutions. The project examines the determinants of preferences for international environmental agreements in four important democracies: the United States, the United Kingdom, France and Germany. The research findings will provide policymakers with important knowledge about which types of international environmental cooperation are likely to have long-term prospects in democracies and which will not.

The project deals with the issue of the socio-political, economic and environmental potentials and problems that characterizes transnational, large-scale land acquisitions. The project’s preliminary findings from field research indicate that the on-going agrarian transformation associated with rubber-tree plantation in Cambodia and Laos increases the vulnerability of the less well-off segments of the population. The project aims at producing generalised insights for evidence based decision and policy making. It will provide material for policy dialogue with authorities, UN agencies, international financial institutions and non-governmental organizations in their effort to accompany the implementation of large-scale land deals and to mitigate their possible negative impacts.

The detention of irregular migrants and asylum seekers is drawing the attention and resources of entities from all facets of contemporary society - including government agencies, not-for-profit groups, private companies, and international organizations, resulting in the creation of new forms of collaboration between state and non-state actors. While the international community focuses on developing ways to “govern” migration, the issue of the legal framework and key norms in the treatment of migrant detainees have largely been overlooked. The present project aims at filling this research gap at looking at the legal and normative framework of migration detention.

In light of the current economic slowdown, the prospect of achieving most of the Millennium Development Goals by 2015 looks increasingly slim. Hence at this stage, it is crucial to realistically revise strategic choices. This project will investigate how different groups of stakeholders identify their development priorities.

In contemporary transnational capitalism, the branding, financial services and intellectual pro- perty are managed in the ‘North’ while manufacturing and assembly is performed in the ‘South’. However, this configuration has been heavily criticized by international NGOs and civil society movements. This project asks how the actors and tools of global governance converge (or diverge) to regulate labour conditions in the electronics manufacturing industry in China and Taiwan.

Victims having witnessed in the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC) often suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder which severly impeded memory processes. This project aimed at providing an attempt to coordinate psychological and legal knowledge in order to take into account the impact of after effects on witnesses in the Cambodia trials. By offering training and support to the legal professionals who could then interact more consistently with victims and witnesses, the research contributed to the overall purpose of the Court of establishing reconciliation.

Women are considered in some developing countries as a the principal agent in the struggle against poverty. Conditional cash transfer programmes may strengthen the stereotyping of women with the effect of increasing their traditional roles of "caring". There is a justified questioning on results of these programmes in terms of efficiency in the fight against poverty and the effect they may have on the position of women in these societies. The research project was based on a comprehensive study of the implementation of gender discourses and cash transfers programmes in three countries: Brazil, the Philippines and Mozambique.

The structural evolution of agriculture appears so deep that agricultural policies do not seem to affect farmer’s socio-structural situation. This research compared agricultural settings in France, Switzerland and Quebec in order to evaluate the impact of the political, economical and juridical context on farmer’s situation.

International human rights and humanitarian law stipulate that prisoners have the right to be treated humanely and especially receive adequate medical treatment. However, so called “natural” deaths in custody are frequent. The research focused on the conditions under which deaths in custody should be investigated and on how they can be prevented. It resulted in the elaboration of practice guidelines which will prepare humanitarian workers for investigations of deaths in custody worldwide.

This successfully completed research allowed to contribute to a better understanding of health services in developing countries through the activities of former Swiss missionary hospitals in Ghana and South Africa. The research was based on two case studies located in Ghana and South Africa. Historical explanations for the success and failure of health systems serve to guide today’s decision makers in view of setting up sustainable health systems.

This research project deals with the reasons of highly-qualified young people from developing countries, especially from Africa, for leaving their country. Excessive emigration whereby young, talented individuals do not return to their native countries has an extremely negative effect known as the brain drain. This study allowed to gain a better understanding of the expectations relating to migration that are cited by young people.

The UN Global Compact (UNGC), with approximately 4000 members, the largest corporate citizenship initiative in the world, serves as an illustration of how corporations are expected to become involved in political activities on a global level. By signing the UNGC, companies voluntarily commit themselves to ten principles in the areas of human rights, labor standards, environment, and anti-corruption. This research provided a consistent conceptualization of corporate citizenship and developed a theoretical framework in order to understand the approaches of Swiss large multinational corporations and small and medium sized enterprises in the context of the UN Global Compact.