Dr Rilka Dragneva-Lewers and Dr Gulara Guliyeva in Law are co-investigators on an AHRC PaCCS Innovation Award on Conflict and International Development, for the project ‘Ukraine’s Hidden Tragedy: Understanding the Outcomes of Population Displacement from the Country’s War-torn Regions’.
Since the beginning of the conflict in eastern Ukraine approximately 1.7 million Ukrainians have been internally displaced and are facing an uncertain future. The majority have experienced a significant drop in living standards, problems in accessing services (eg. healthcare), difficulties in obtaining suitable work, and an overall lack of support for their situation.
Led by Dr Irina Kuznetzova in Human Geography, the project’s overarching argument is that meaningful post-conflict reconstruction and reconciliation cannot take place without a full understanding of problems faced by displaced people and their full incorporation into social, economic and legal structures within the country.
The team, which also includes Dr Vlad Mykhnenko (Human Geography) from Birmingham and Professor Oksana Mikheieva and Dr Victoria Sereda from Lviv Catholic University, Ukraine, will interview those displaced and those charged with assisting them, focusing on their legal and social status, their everyday experiences, their ability to obtain work in their new locality and how they cope with their new challenges.
More information on the two-year project, which starts in November 2016, can be found here: Ukraine’s Hidden Tragedy.