Find evidence, practical ideas and fresh insight for greater impact

Founder | Acume | Netherlands
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I founded Acume to provide the international affairs and development sector with diverse, evidence-based insight, bridging the gap between academia and practical application. I believe a critical academic perspective is essential for bringing transformative social impact. 

Facilitated

Food Security & Agriculture

Right to food and right to water: are they the same challenge?

This chapter examines the parallels between the Right to Food and the Right to Water within the context of international human rights, trade, and investment law, arguing that both rights face similar challenges due to the fragmentation between human rights provisions and economic laws.

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Governance & Democracy

Rapid Humanitarian Response or Strategic Recovery in Post-Assad Syria?

Considers whether humanitarian aid or long-term recovery should be prioritised in post-Assad Syria, and proposes a response model built on local leadership, diaspora engagement, and reduced international dominance

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Health & Social Welfare

Paving the way for increased e-health record use: elaborating intentions of Gen-Z

Examines the determinants of Gen-Z’s intention to adopt and use personal electronic health records (PAEHRs) in Turkey, highlighting the effects of social influence, performance expectancy, privacy concerns, and trust in the health system.

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Health & Social Welfare | Asia

Healthy, nudged, and wise: Experimental evidence on the role of information salience in reducing tobacco intake

Evaluates the impact of behavioral interventions on tobacco consumption in an ultra-poor rural area in Bangladesh, where traditional policy tools like taxation and warning labels are often ineffective.

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Technology & AI | Europe

Security and Trust Issues in BYOD Networks

Investigates the security and trust challenges organizations face in implementing Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) networks and explores existing and emerging solutions to address these issues.

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Crime & Corruption

Cyber Crime as a New Form of Violence against Women: Case Study of Bangladesh

Explores the rise of cybercrime as a pervasive form of gender-based violence in Bangladesh, with specific attention to its impact on women and girls’ safety, social reputation, and access to online spaces, highlighting challenges in legal and social responses.

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Gender & Sexuality

Transgender-Specific Politics and Policy in Asia

Analyzes the discrimination, exclusion, and legal barriers transgender individuals face across Asia, exploring varied regional attitudes, policies, and cultural perspectives toward transgender rights, and proposing recommendations for policy reform and improved data representation.

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Gender & Sexuality

Queer(in)g Poland in the 21st Century: How Was It at the Beginning of the Millennium?

Explores the complex evolution of queer culture and LGBTQ+ rights in Poland since the early 2000s, with particular emphasis on the impact of nationalism, Catholic influence, and Polish identity on LGBTQ+ visibility and activism.

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Human Rights

The Nobody’s Listening VR Exhibition: Impact on Awareness, Empathy, and Advocacy for the Yazidi Genocide

Investigates the impact of the Nobody’s Listening VR exhibition on Iraqi participants’ understanding, emotional connection, and empathy for the Yazidi genocide, and explores the exhibition’s potential as a tool for human rights advocacy and education.

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Health & Social Welfare

A roadmap for patient-public involvement and engagement (PPIE): Recounting the untold stories of breast cancer patient experiences

Examines how storytelling workshops can foster patient-public involvement in breast cancer research, providing insight into patient perspectives on diagnosis, treatment, and recovery

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Health & Social Welfare

Co-coverage of reproductive, maternal, newborn and child health interventions shows wide inequalities and is associated with child nutritional outcomes in Ethiopia (2005–2019)

Analyzes trends and socioeconomic inequalities in the co-coverage of reproductive, maternal, newborn, and child health (RMNCH) interventions and examines associations with stunting, wasting, and minimum dietary diversity (MDD) among children in Ethiopia.

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Food Security & Agriculture

Is Cocoa Production a Main Driver of Children’s Work in Ghana?

Examining the relationship between cocoa production and children’s work in Ghana, particularly differentiating types and intensities of work and comparing cocoa with other agricultural activities.

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Law & Justice

The Interplay Between National Truth-Seeking and Criminal Justice Mechanisms in Transitional Justice Processes: A Comparative Case Study of the Liberian and Kenyan Truth-Seeking and Justice Processes

Examining the interaction and effectiveness of truth-seeking and criminal justice mechanisms in the Liberian (2005) and Kenyan (2008) transitional justice processes, with attention to complimentarity of truth seeking and criminal accountability in the two jurisdictions and contexts.

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Governance & Democracy

Local Government System in Zimbabwe and Associated Challenges: Synthesis and Antithesis

This research investigates the evolution, structural challenges, and political dynamics affecting Zimbabwe’s local government systems, detailing the impacts of central government interference, political conflicts, and resource limitations on local governance.

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Education | Sub-Saharan Africa

Engaging and Motivating Foreign Language Learners with Audiovisual Aids: The Case of French in Selected High Schools in Ghana

Examining how the use of audiovisual aids, particularly videos, influences motivation and language acquisition among French language learners in selected Ghanaian high schools.

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Entrepreneurship & Innovation

Independent Neural Computation of Value from Other People’s Confidence

Understanding how the brain separately processes value by assessing others’ confidence, distinct from firsthand experience, to illuminate social influences on decision-making.

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Economic Development

Industry 4.0 and Circular Economy: Opportunities of MENA Countries on the Path to Sustainable Development

Examining the integration of Industry 4.0 technologies with circular economy practices to enhance sustainable development in MENA countries, focusing on Egypt as a case study for implementing national policy frameworks to address environmental and industrial challenges.

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Economic Development | MENA

Economic Development and Environmental Sustainability in the GCC Countries: New Insights Based on the Economic Complexity Index

Analysing the impacts of economic complexity, income, globalization, and non-renewable energy use on environmental sustainability in Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries, with the Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) hypothesis.

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Knowledge Production

The Maturing of Anthropology

Exploring anthropology’s future as a discipline bridging local ethnographic understanding and global insights while re-evaluating ethical commitments and expanding its role in addressing contemporary challenges.

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Gender & Sexuality

Health-Seeking Behaviour of Rural Ethnic Women in Bangladesh: A Critical Analysis through an Intersectional Lens

Investigating how intersecting factors of ethnicity, gender, socioeconomic status, and geography shape healthcare-seeking behaviours of rural ethnic women in northern Bangladesh, specifically among Santal communities.

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Technology & AI

Codesigning AI with End-Users: An AI Literacy Toolkit for Nontechnical Audiences

This study presents a practical, card-based toolkit designed to improve nontechnical participants’ understanding of AI concepts, empowering them to actively participate in co-design sessions for AI development.

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Gender & Sexuality

Adolescents, Social Media and Access to Reproductive Health Information and Services in Ghana: Prospects and Challenges

This study examines how adolescents in Tamale, Ghana, use social media to access reproductive health information and services, analyzing factors influencing utilization, usage patterns, and associated challenges.

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Health & Social Welfare | Oceania

Does education improve adherence to a training monitoring program in recreational athletes?

This study evaluates whether educational interventions can enhance adherence to a training monitoring program among recreational athletes, and examines the effect on burnout, stress, and recovery while exploring athlete perspectives.

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Governance & Democracy | Asia

Democratizing Foreign Policy: Parliamentary Oversight of Treaty Ratification in Pakistan

This paper critically examines the Ratification of Foreign Agreements by Parliament Bill once debated in the Pakistan’s Senate. It emphasises the need for stronger parliamentary oversight in treaty ratification and withdrawal processes, arguing that such oversight is essential for ensuring the democratic legitimacy and accountability of foreign agreements.

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Economic Development | Asia

Gender Dynamics in Real Estate Entrepreneurship: Empowering FemRestate for Sustainable Development

This study explores the gender dynamics in Pakistan’s real estate sector through the lens of intersectional feminist economics, focusing on systemic barriers such as cultural norms, financial exclusion, and gender biases. It introduces the FemRestate framework to promote gender equality and empowerment within real estate entrepreneurship.

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Governance & Democracy | Sub-Saharan Africa

Cyberspace Xenophobia in South Africa

This research investigates how cyberspace, particularly social media, has become a key platform for the expression and mobilization of xenophobic sentiments and actions against African migrants in South Africa.

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Diplomacy & International Relations | Sub-Saharan Africa

Group Hegemonic Leadership as an Analytical Framework for Understanding Regional Hegemony in Africa

This paper investigates whether Africa has regional hegemons, using South Africa and Nigeria as case studies, and explores whether group hegemonic leadership better explains regional hegemonic behavior in Africa.

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Gender & Sexuality | Asia

Piloting the Unlearning Intervention in the Pakistan School System

This pilot report evaluates the effectiveness of the Unlearning Intervention, which aims to mitigate gender bias and gender-based violence in Pakistan’s educational institutions by addressing the cognitive heuristics that sustain these biases.

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Conflict Management

Hegemonic Masculinity and the Power-Centric Method of Conflict Prevention

This chapter critiques the power-centric approach to conflict prevention, arguing that it often fails to protect civilians effectively. Yet this power-centric approach is often consider as a natural approach to conflict due to the hegemonic conception of masculinity security discourse. The naturalisation of hegemonic masculinity in security affairs leads to an emphasis of the use of power and militaristic strategies.

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Conflict Management | MENA

Syria: The Border Situation between Turkey, Syria, and Iraq

This report examines the control, relations, and permeability of the borders between Turkey, Syria, and Iraq, focusing on actors of control, patterns of border openings and closings, and issues of corruption and violence.

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Governance & Democracy

The Iraq Invasion at Twenty: Iraq’s Struggle for Democracy

This research tries to assess Iraq’s attempt to democratise away from the shadow of the U.S. invasion.

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Crime & Corruption | MENA

The impact of administrative and financial corruption on human rights

My research examines corruption in Iraq, which is a highly corrupt country in terms of human rights. High corruption levels have persisted for years, especially since the collapse of the regime in 2003

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Media Freedom | MENA

Not to mislead peace: on the demise of identity politics in Iraq

The paper tries to falsify the argument that identity politics is declining in Iraq. It argues that the alleged decline in identity politics is not a true change happening in politics in Iraq. Group needs and demands are still there, and have still not been addressed. The dominant socioeconomic needs, in my view, has only temporarily masked identity politics.

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Conflict & Security | MENA

Conflict Transformations and Strategic Peace Building in Iraqi Society: A Sociological Field Study in the Anbar Province

This research talks about the period before and after ISIS. It focuses on how we can change the conflict between tribes and between people in Anbar to attain peace.

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Governance & Democracy | MENA

Pride and Power: A Modern History of Iraq

My book explored Iraq’s modern history and the fundamental issues that have shaped its political development. It has a chronological approach, starting in the Ottoman period and looking at how the state was created after the First World War.

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Conflict & Security | MENA

Locating the local police in Iraq’s security arena: community policing, the ‘three Ps’ and trust in Ninawa Province

This paper focuses on how the role of the local police is perceived in two districts in Mosul: Hay al-Tanak, a Sunni neighborhood in the west side of Mosul. And Hamdaniya, which is a multi-ethnic district with 80% Assyrian Christian and other minorities.

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Governance & Democracy | MENA

“They Hear Us But They Do Not Listen to Us”: Youth Narratives on Hope and Despair in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq

The research paper zooms in on the perspectives of young urban university students across the Kurdistan region of Iraq. We focus on young people (mostly university students) from four urban localities (Erbil, Sulaymaniyah, Duhok, and Halabja). Our aim was to understand their perspectives about the purpose and quality of education, and the challenges they face.

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Media Freedom | MENA

A comparative study of the production practices of the mass media of a country in conflict, Iraq

This research is a comparative study of two of Iraq’s leading media platforms (in terms of reach) newsroom practices, which is the government broadcaster and the main privately owned, leading television channel, Al Sharqiya.

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Law & Justice | MENA

Storytelling: Restorative Approaches to Post-2003 Iraq Peacebuilding

This research paper posits that integrating storytelling-based practices, such as restorative justice dialogue and restorative education, within Iraq’s legal and educations systems can promote an inclusive, cross-communal public discourse and facilitate bottom-up and inclusive peacebuilding practices to counter decades-long elitist, top-down, empty reconciliation efforts.

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Governance & Democracy | MENA

Women empowerment to build peace during the transitional justice period in Iraq after 2003

This research focused on the transitional justice programmes in Iraq since 2003 to now. But it has not been successful, since we still have victims and survivors who have not experienced justice or resolution. Women’s empowerment is a key focus of the research, as gender norms and restrictions on women’s rights have been exacerbated by extremism and long periods of conflict.

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Law & Justice | MENA

Kurdish Youth and Civic Culture: Support for Democracy Among Kurdish and non-Kurdish Youth in Iraq

Based on merged data from the World Value Survey and Arab Barometer data from 2010 to 2018 in Iraq, this research examined civic cultural attitudes. So it looked at whether there was a correlation between trust in institutions and staying informed on politics, and the effect of these variables on support for a democratic system versus an autocratic system.

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Conflict & Security | MENA

Body Count: The War on Terror and Civilian Deaths in Iraq

My book documents the impact of the 2003 invasion on the civilians of Iraq up until 2019. It examines the civilian cost and the patterns of violence caused by the alleged ‘War on Terror’.

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Governance & Democracy | MENA

Elite Theory and the 2003 Iraq Occupation by the United States: How US Corporate Elites Created Iraq’s Political System

Through the 2003 Iraq occupation, this book demonstrates the journey of ideology from corporate elite networks through to national security strategy and finally, how this looks as policy and actual decision-making on the ground. The book shows the level of involvement US corporate elites had in their own privatisation agenda in Iraq, which thus created a similar elitist Iraqi political system.

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Conflict & Security

Protecting the Global Civilian from Violence: UN discourses and practices in fragile states

My book looked into track records of 35 UN peacekeeping operations and unilateral operations, and assessed problems of violence.

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Governance & Democracy | Asia

Re-examining critiques of resilience policy: evidence from Barpak after the 2015 earthquake in Nepal

This began as a health systems project to look at resilience policy discourse in the context of Nepal, but instead it found a disconnect between well-intentioned policymakers and the people most affected by the 2015 earthquake

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Economic Development | Sub-Saharan Africa

Whose building? tracing the politics of the Chinese government-funded parliament building in Lesotho

This research explored the Chinese construction of Lesotho’s parliament building, focusing on how it was done.

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Economic Development | Asia

Women Construction Workers in Bangladesh: Health, Wellbeing, and Domestic Abuse during the COVID-19 Pandemic

It was about making visible some of the challenges and the gender-based violence that women construction workers in Sylhet faced due to being perceived as ‘bodies out of place’, and how opportunities to develop their creative skills not only enhanced self-worth but also enabled them to build a social enterprise.

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Governance & Democracy | Asia

Understanding the Ethnic Inequality of the Thai Lao through Perspectives on Promoting Social Inclusion Policy in Thailand in Accordance with UN Sustainable Development Goal 10.2

The research examines the differences between a primarily Bangkok Establishment sample and a middle class Thai Lao educator sample on the socioeconomic and political inclusion of the Thai Lao, who face unacknowledged structural inequalities. Furthermore, it prescribes policies to promote inclusion.

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Governance & Democracy

A Longitudinal Review of National HIV Policy and Progress Made in Health Facility Implementation in Eastern Zimbabwe

Our research centred on HIV policy adoption in Zimbabwe and its related implementation within health facilities. We compared health facility data at two time points to examine changes in service provision, and assess whether there was a noticeable increase in the number of patients receiving HIV care and treatment

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Environmental Sustainability | Asia

Climate Change Adaptation and Gender Inequality: Insights from Rural Vietnam

This article examines gender, class and age as variables – and shows how these variables can significantly impact the adaption for climate resistant crops. In Vietnam, as women do most the farm labour, by not listening including women, policies and initiatives will fail.

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Environmental Sustainability | Sub-Saharan Africa

The role of indigenous knowledge in climate adaptation: experiences with farmer perceptions from climate change project in Sedumbwe Agricultural Camp of Southern Zambia

Indigenous knowledge from elders and farmers on extreme weather must be integrated and considered alongside expert knowledge seasonally, and Zambian agriculture policy must consider this knowledge.

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Food Security & Agriculture | Asia

Gender discrimination in Nepal: Does it vary across socio-demographics?

Gender discrimination in Nepal is perceived differently by different socio-demographics background groups, and some socio-demographics background group have lack awareness that they are being discriminated against.

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Health & Social Welfare | Oceania

Counting Ourselves: The health and wellbeing of trans and non-binary people in Aotearoa New Zealand

Our findings illustrate the stark contrast and health inequities between trans and non-binary people and the general population, especially in the areas of mental health and wellbeing, including the very high rates of psychological distress and suicide attempts within our communities.

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Gender & Sexuality | Asia

Silence and Silencing of Women: The Case of Trafficked Women

Trafficked women are entitled to self-respect, human rights and dignity. They should be treated like any other person and are capable of exercising their own agency

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Economic Development | Oceania

Looking Good and Being Good: Women Leaders in Australian Universities

This research examines explicit and implicit ways women’s leadership bodies are gendered. I interrogate the visibility of women in leadership positions and the performance of gender.

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Gender & Sexuality | Asia

Sex Workers, Stigma and Self-Image: Evidence from Kolkata Brothels

Self-worth training can support marginalised people to escape pschological aspects of the poverty trap, and needs to be considered alongside material aspects when designing programmes to alleviate poverty.

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Governance & Democracy | Europe

Who is entitled to feel in the age of populism? Women’s resistance to migrant detention in Britain

My research is on how immigration policies in Britain impact migrants psychologically and emotionally, and what kind of policies can be formulated to ensure their perspective on British society remain positive.

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Law & Justice | Oceania

Technology-Facilitated Domestic Violence Against Immigrant and Refugee Women: A Qualitative Study

Digital technologies are increasingly being used as tools for the perpetration of domestic violence. Little empirical research to date has explored the nature and impacts of technology-facilitated domestic violence, and even less attention has been paid to the experiences of immigrant and refugee women.

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Gender & Sexuality | Europe

Towards the “Undoing” of Gender in Mixed-Sex Martial Arts and Combat Sports

This work explores the role of sex-integrated martial arts and combat sports in challenging sexist understandings of gender.

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| Europe

“This class is not for you”: An investigation of gendered subject construction in entrepreneurship course descriptions

This research considers the exclusionary nature of gendered language within entrepreneurship training and education in universities.

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Food Security & Agriculture | Oceania

Legal Capacity and Gender: Realising the Human Right to Legal Personhood and Agency of Women, Disabled Women, and Gender Minorities

This research draws attention to where the law is denying decision-making on the basis of gender, and closely examines women, disabled women and gender minorities.

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Conflict & Security

Queering Women, Peace and Security

This work considers how the Women, Peace and Security (WPS) agenda can better include LGBTQ (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender and queer) voices in gender, peace and security initiatives. Central to including lesbian, bisexual and transgender women in WPS is confronting heteronormativity and cisprivilege.

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