Social Inquiry participated in the kick-off meeting for the 2-year long project “Refugee and IDP profiling towards sustainable peace and durable solutions in Darfur, Sudan”. This project is funded by the UN Peacebuilding Fund and implemented by IOM and UNHCR, with the participation of Social Inquiry on its data component. It aims to produce and disseminate data on displaced populations, nomads, and non-displaced communities in Darfur and thus contribute to the peaceful and sustainable return and reintegration processes in their communities of origin. Dedicated information material will be disseminated as a first step.

The 6th and final round of the Conflict and Stabilization Monitoring Framework in Iraq’s Ninewa Governorate is finally released. It was collected during November 2021 and consists on the largest longitudinal study conducted in Iraq (over 8,000 surveys across 6 rounds in 3 years) on conflict and social cohesion in partnership with the United States Institute of Peace and Sanad for Peacebuilding. The background and all results for this research project are available here: https://bit.ly/3rc9WdC.

The final report on our panel data study on IDPs’ decision-making on displacement and return is finally released. This study was conducted in partnership with Heartland Alliance and monitored more than 300 IDPs from Ninewa for the last 2 years, understanding their information and discussion social networks as well as their perceptions of places of origin as factors that could have an effect on their resolution of displacement over time. The full report is available here: https://bit.ly/3rafLIC.

Social Inquiry researchers presented preliminary findings of an in-depth GIZ funded research project that aims to explore potential avenues to address harms and wrongs restoratively in Iraq, focusing on Kirkuk, Diyala, and Salahaddin. We presented these findings at the "Stabilization Support in Iraq through Violence Prevention" workshop convened by Jiyan Foundation and the Consortium for Just Reparations. Participants included relevant local and international actors working for accountability and redress, and particularly survivors groups and their representatives.

Erbil hosted a conference on 'Trust-building and peace in Nineveh: Roadmap and the role of research', organized by UPP Iraq. Social Inquiry presented insights on the role of social research in promoting peace in Ninewa and Iraq in general in one of the roundtables. Our participation discussed better ways to connect research with implementation and decision-making, as well as touching aspects of knowledge-sharing between international and local actors and the risks of excessive or duplicative research. More information here: shorturl.at/dLQRU.

The 4th round of the Conflict and Stabilization Monitoring Framework in Iraq’s Ninewa Governorate is finally released. It was collected during November 2020 and consists on the largest longitudinal study conducted in Iraq on conflict and social cohesion in partnership with the United States Institute of Peace. The background and all results for this research project are available here: https://bit.ly/30StuWo.

Our co-director Nadia Siddiqui discussed findings on the political dimension of displacement in Iraq in a webinar convened by the American University of Iraq-Sulaimani and Chatham House. The webinar marked the presentation of IRIS’s new report on displacement and Iraq’s political marketplace. The full video is available here: https://bit.ly/3rVjbNn.

Social Inquiry presented today in an all-day workshop coordinated by the World Food Programme in Iraq our latest research on conflict drivers in rural areas in the south of Iraq. This was part of WFP’s Improving Prospects for Peace and Stability in Vulnerable Communities in Southern Iraq, for which we are supporting with conflict and do-no-harm analysis. More information available in this post: https://bit.ly/3rZCuow.

New research report available: “Home Again? Categorising Obstacles to Returnee Reintegration in Iraq”. This report, done in collaboration with the Research Unit at IOM Iraq, provides a preliminary categorization of obstacles returning households face toward reintegration as well as possibilities for reconceptualizing what reintegration means in the aftermath of conflict and more nuanced ways of measuring progress in this regard. Based on a desk review, it builds on existing frameworks such as EGRIS. Available at: https://bit.ly/37XxxVu

Social Inquiry co-organized along with JIPS, IOM Somalia, and Samuel Hall a knowledge exchange session on “Localised Durable Solutions programming based on integration metrics: assessing objective and subjective factors for integration”. Here we presented methodological insights into how we measured IDP integration in place of displacement from our recent research. The full exchange and materials is available here: https://bit.ly/3rQEQWR.