Local perceptions and military-assisted health interventions in conflict settings

This project aims to investigate and raise critical awareness of how local perceptions can influence responses to epidemics in conflict settings, particularly those assisted by the military, in order to improve the effectiveness of future health interventions. In recent high-level meetings in the UK and the US, policy-makers, academics, practitioners and military actors determined that there was need for additional research exploring how local communities feel about civil-military relations, particularly in health responses in conflict settings. While previous research has analysed, on the one hand, the significance of local perceptions within health interventions, and on the other hand, the limitations of civil-military coordination in conflict settings, there is currently limited research that examines the intersection of these two issues. This research project proposes to focus explicitly upon this crucial juncture and thereby address a significant gap in existing academic and policy literature. To carry out this analysis, this project will examine the currently ongoing Ebola response in the conflict affected eastern part of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). Local perceptions are generally undervalued and unaddressed in the Ebola response activities led by the Congolese government and World Health Organization. This is despite significant evidence suggesting that certain response approaches and the presence and involvement of military actors within the health intervention are leading to community resistance to response activities. This project proposes to explore exactly how the perceptions of local community members in the DRC are shaping the dynamics of the military-assisted.