Humanitarian Health Research Partnership 2020 with French Red Cross Foundation

Since 2016, the AXA Research Fund has partnered with the French Red Cross Foundation, which supports francophone research in the area of humanitarian action. Through this partnership, AXA and the French Red Cross Foundation have supported eight young researchers working to advance action in service of the most vulnerable.

The goal of the French Red Cross Foundation is to mobilize the scientific community to work with suffering populations in both the North and South of Africa, in order to develop concrete, sustainable responses. Within these parameters, it funds and assists independent francophone researchers, prioritizing those originating from the areas involved, by providing postdoctoral grants. These one-year grants are awarded to researchers from different social science disciplines, such as sociology and anthropology, to study common social and humanitarian action issues.

The support of the AXA Research Fund makes it possible to fund grants for work related to “Risks, Health and Humanitarianism” each year. The grants are intended to improve our understanding of effective humanitarian action in response to the health needs of vulnerable populations in crisis situations such as epidemics and natural disasters, or when facing global and systemic risks such as climate change, migration and malnutrition.

 

Researchers supported by the AXA Research Fund in 2020 are working on the following projects:

Daniel Valérie Baska Toussia - Doctor of Health Geography, Professor-Researcher in Geography attached to the Ecole Normale Supérieure graduate school, Université de Maroua.

Country of nationality: Cameroon

Scientific discipline: Geography

Country of research: Cameroon

The concentration of Nigerian refugees in the Minawao camp and internally displaced people in Zamay and Gawar is a result of rampant insecurity in the Lake Chad Basin. The situation compelled the Cameroonian government and its international partners to set up the Minawao camp in Mayo Tsanaga in order to deliver adequate humanitarian aid. Internally displaced people, who left their villages due to the insecurity perpetuated by the Boko Haram sect, are living around the camp in Zamay and Gawar. There are huge challenges with access to adequate healthcare for the various strata of this very vulnerable population that includes children, women, pregnant women, widows and orphans. The research is intended to assess the health problems of refugees living in the Minawao camp and internally displaced persons living in Zamay and Gawar, near the camp.

Annabelle Moatty - Doctor of Geography, Researcher attached to the UMR LGP (the joint research lab and physical geography unit - 8591), of the Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne, Université Paris Est-Créteil and the French national center for scientific research (CNRS).

Country of nationality: France

Scientific discipline: Geography

Country of research: Saint Martin, Saint Barthélemy, Guadeloupe

Dr. Moatty is conducting a project called "Characterization and Analysis of Mechanisms of Solidarity Following Cyclone Irma" (CASCIRA). The purpose of the project is to characterize and analyze solidarity mechanisms implemented after Cyclone Irma passed through the northern islands, in order to understand their significance in the post-disaster resilience and adaptation process at different levels (from collective to individual). The novelty of this research lies in its comparative approach to solidarity mechanisms on the two French Antilles territories, Saint Martin and Saint Barthélemy, and their relationships with France and Guadeloupe. Such analysis is particularly relevant for these insular islands, where socio-cultural and territorial differences are both levers of action, and obstacles, if not taken into consideration, to the optimal reconstruction the government wants to achieve.

This partnership includes support for the Foundation’s Research Prizes of €5,000 each awarded to young doctoral students and more established researchers whose work or studies demonstrates bold, original ideas. The awards recognize basic or applied research on humanitarian or social action, regardless of discipline or nationality.