Masters Student Research Projects 2023

For several years Concern has engaged with universities in Ireland and abroad to work with Masters students as they expand their understanding of development and humanitarian issues, particularly as they research and write their Masters dissertation. This provides Masters students with the opportunity to gain an insight into Concern’s work and to access data for their research.

How does it work? Concern’s country programmes and technical advisors propose research topics or questions that could support organisational learning within Concern. If a topic is of interested to a master student and aligns with their career aspirations, they can then investigate the research question for their dissertation or final project. Concern provides access to programme documents (for example, project proposals and evaluations) and to key informants that students can interview while conducting their research. Each student has the support of at least one academic supervisor and one supervisor at Concern.

In 2023, five students conducted research with support from Concern. They were enrolled in the MA International Development Practice at the University of Galway, the MSc Public Health at the University of Limerick, and MSc Food Security Policy and Management at the University College Cork.

Two of the student researchers looked at one of Concern’s livelihood programme approaches, the Graduation Approach. Olasunkanmi Akindele conducted research into the potential for the Graduation Approach to tackle extreme poverty in fragile and conflict affected countries through its packages of financial inclusion, livelihood support, social protection, and capacity building. Drawing on the results of six randomised control trials in 10 countries, the study found that the graduation approach reduced poverty among participating households in Afghanistan and Yemen. Xurxo Alonso Vazquez’s research explored social capital and how it can be measured within Graduation Programmes. Drawing on the academic literature on social capital, the research notes that social capital takes three main forms: bonding (fortifying existing relationships), bridging (creating connections between diverse groups), or linking (promoting trust between communities and formal institutions). To measure how the graduation approach impacts these three forms of social capital, Vazquez argues that monitoring and evaluation frameworks could be expanded to include qualitative indicators.

Two of the student researchers focused on nutrition. Mai Ditie’s research explored the potential for innovation in the Ready to Use Therapeutic Food (RUTF) supply chain. Although the World Health Organization recommends that 50 per cent of RUTFs be derived from dairy products, drawing on the experience of an Irish company producing plant based RUTFs, the research argues that the use of non-dairy based protein could potentially reduce the cost of production, enable local production and thus reduce importation lead times, and reduce the environmental footprint of RUTFs. To enable innovation within RUTF supply chains, the research argues that greater transparency along the supply chain is needed. Ayime Albain Balibuno’s research explored the factors related to undernutrition among adolescents in sub-Saharan African at the individual, community, and societal level. Based on a literature review, it found that at the individual level, diet and dietary behaviour and age were the two most significant factors cited within the literature. At the community level, water source and residence were the factors most frequently cited by researchers, while (lack of) access to health services and medical care were key factors cited at the societal level.

The final student focused on Concern’s food security and livelihood programming. Mariana Siqueira’s research focused on how training on methods of food preservation in Somalia and Somaliland, Sierra Leone, and Pakistan can strengthen food security and diversify livelihood strategies. The research argues that drying vegetables in the sun, which is low cost and requires no electricity, and improving their storage can increase resilience to shocks, particularly during seasonal troughs in food supply or droughts.  

NB: These five research briefs were written by the students, based on their 3-4 months of research on the topic as part of their master programme. The findings and conclusions within these articles represent the student’s interpretation and analysis of the data. They were not written by Concern, nor do not represent Concern’s position on the topic.

1.    Olasunkanmi Akindele – Is the Graduation Approach effective in dealing with friction-driven poverty traps in Fragile and Conflict-affected contexts?
2.    Xurxo Alonso Vazquez – Lean on Me: Harnessing Social Capital for Resilience Building
3.    Mai Ditie – Technical and Market Innovations in the Ready-to-Use Therapeutic Food (RUTF) supply chain
4.    Ayime Albain Balibuno – Factors Associated with Adolescent Undernutrition and Public Health Interventions to Address it in Sub-Saharan Africa: A Scoping Review
5.    Mariana Siqueira – Impacts of vegetable processing on livelihoods, food and nutrition security