American University doctoral student, Micah Trapp, under the guidance of Dr. Dolores B. Koenig, will conduct research on food security at the Buduburam Liberian Refugee Settlement in Ghana. The focus of her investigation will be the relationship between food security and socioeconomic differentiation within a prolonged refugee camp situation. Usually, it is assumed either that all refugees in a camp setting will have equal access to food resources, or that if there is inequality, it is because some people have more money and can buy food while others cannot. However, other factors, including humanitarian aid projects, international flows of people, cash, and food, and relationships between refugees and local residents, often complicate this simple picture. This research is designed to understand how these factors come together to produce food security variability and socioeconomic differentiation
The researcher will employ a mixed methods approach. During the first stage of research, she will use ethnographic research methods, including semi-structured interviews and participant-observation, to gather qualitative data. In the second stage, she will conduct a survey tp measure food security using an adapted version of the United States Department of Agriculture Food Security Measure. These data will allow Trapp to (1) examine the development of socioeconomic status in a complex emergency situation; (2) evaluate the variability of food security at the camp; and (3) investigate the relationships between socioeconomic status, kin and non-kin social networks and remittances, and food security.
Conducted during a time of global economic and food crisis, this research focuses on access to food for refugees, an especially vulnerable population. Thirty years ago, food shortages contributed to civil war in Liberia, as they have in other countries. The research therefore will contribute not only to better understanding of the complex factors that produce food insecurity, but also to identifying root cause of conflict. The Liberian refugee camp in Ghana is but one example of hundreds of protracted refugee camps around the world. The an analytical model produced in this project can be used to understand food systems and strategies for self-sufficiency in other long-term refugee populations. The research also will contribute to social scientific theory of the local outcomes of global factors, and to the education of a social scientist.
