 Begging street children in Senegal
28 April 2008
Fafo researcher Anne Hatløy (pictured) has led a methodologically groundbreaking census of street children in Dakar, commissioned by the Understanding Children's Work Project (an inter-agency research collaboration between ILO, UNICEF and the World Bank). The data from Hatløy's field work is published in the report Enfants mendiants dans la région de Dakar. Rukmini Callimachi with the Associated Press in West Africa wrote a story citing the results of our study. The story is picked up by the websites of several major newspapers, e.g.: TODAY: Some Islamic schools turn kids into beggars, and Newsweek: Islamic schools lure African boys into begging |
Palestinians believe Hamas should negotiate with Israel
28 March 2008
Fafo carried out an opinion poll of 4000 adult individuals in the West Bank and Gaza Strip in the period 22 February-4 March 2008. We found that a majority of Palestinians believe Hamas should negotiate with Israel, but at the same time they have little faith in political actors. Fafo's Middle East expert Gro Hasselknippe (pictured) has been in charge of the project.  Read more about the survey here |
Social Research and Policy Making
13 March 2008
Professor and Fafo researcher Gudmund Hernes (pictured) has published the article «The Interface Between Social Research and Policy Making» in European Sociological Review, Vol 24, No 2, 2008. Problems of communication often arise when social research is to be used as premises for policy making. Hernes argues that the two activities are entirely different, yet that there is a logical parallelism between theory construction and policy making which can be identified in four steps. Read the article here |
 Poverty Dynamics and Social Exclusion
10 March 2008
Fafo research director Tone Fløtten (pictured) has together with Espen Dahl and Thomas Lorentzen published the article «Poverty Dynamics and Social Exclusion: An Analysis of Norwegian Panel Data» in Journal of Social Policy 37/02. The article aims to examine the relationship between poverty and social exclusion in a dynamic perspective. The authors look at two dimensions of social exclusion (lack of friendship relationships and lack of participation in civic organisations), and scrutinise two aspects of poverty: poverty duration and poverty gradation. Read the abstract at Cambridge Journals |
Can Fatah Survive?
6 March 2008
Long the main political faction in the PLO, Fatah is facing challenges from within and without. Efforts to reform Fatah have focused in recent months on holding a General Conference in 2008, but the many challenges may prove too much for what Fafo Associate Mouin Rabbani calls "the spinal column" of the Palestinian National Movement. Mouin Rabbani has recently joined Fafo as an Associate, based in Amman, Jordan and has written on the reform process in Fatah for Carnegie's Arab Reform Bulletin. |
Failed aid policy?
14 March 2008
A majority of Palestinians believe international donor aid to the PA is contributing to the political paralysis. A new Fafo survey says Palestinians believe Hamas should negotiate with Israel.
A majority of Palestinians think Western financial assistance to the Palestinian Authority (PA) is doing more harm than good; two thirds of those polled in February and March believe that aid to the PA contributes to widening the rift between Fatah and Hamas. A similar proportion thinks that aid to the PA promotes corruption, and the same number believes it has very little to no effect on poverty alleviation. Only a third of those polled felt aid to the PA had a positive impact on services. Read the complete Fafo press release here |
