Ernesto Cardenas, PhD

Despite difficulties and mixed evidence, international economic assistance has been important for peacebuilding in Northern Ireland. In this manuscript, we summarize results from two financial support programs in Northern Ireland, the EU Support Program for Peace and Reconciliation (Peace I, Peace II, Peace III, and Peace IV) and the International Fund for Ireland, to provide insights that might inform the new Middle East Partnership for Peace Act destined to promote peace between Israelis and Palestinians. 

​

When individuals experiencing homelessness have the added burden of an acute health condition, returning to community from hospital means they are back to the street or a shelter when medically vulnerable. There are many challenges in trying to navigate existing community-based supports/resources, without which one’s condition deteriorates and results in a return to acute care. Our team has carefully attended to creating a participatory approach with community agencies and individuals with lived experience of homelessness. Together, we confirmed there is a gap in access – not entirely due to lack of resources but in the process of navigating and using the support system. Using the theory of networks, we will map a local urban network of health and social supports and resources, to understand use as well as intersections with the available social connections (or networks) supporting

this population in recovery and beyond. First, we will conduct an environmental scan to describe the support network's composition (e.g., community workers, institutions) and structure (e.g., connections and types of service providers). Data sources will include key informants in the support system (e.g.,directors in shelters and community programs, health care workers, community and caseworkers). Second, interviews with individuals with lived the experience of homelessness and medical vulnerability will explore existing social networks by constructing a closed list of social roles and their impact on the individuals’ agency. Third, overcoming barriers by bridging services to individuals ‘where they are at’ is an evidence-informed approach and will be facilitated by a peer support worker role. A synthesis of practical information on community resources along with peer support and facilitation will offer more effective resource utilization. We expect the findings will contribute to greater access and easier navigation for a marginalized and medically vulnerable population, which will improve access to integrated support services and positively affect patient outcomes as well as contribute to greater efficiency and effectiveness in how services are utilized. We expect reduced rates of health service utilization particularly high-cost hospital and acute care as a main point of entry to care. The findings will also provide a roadmap for further spread and scale as we implement this initiative, targeting individuals with other conditions and in other contexts or locations.

​

The present project focuses on the relationship between education and violent crime. It addresses a fundamental question about the promotion of domestic peace and individual security: Does education decrease violent crime and strengthen individual security? Following our disaggregated approach distinguishing between different dimensions of the education system, more specific and disaggregated questions will guide our theoretical and empirical inquiry. Education investment: 1) Does spending on education reduce violent crime? 2) Do conditional cash transfers (CCTs) reduce incentives for participation in violent criminal activities? Education attendance: 3) Does school attendance reduce violent crime? Education quality: 4) Does education quality mitigate violent crime? Education inequality: 5) Do sharp inequalities in access to education increase violent crime? The politics of education: 6) Why and under what conditions do governments implement education policies to strengthen individual security?

We study a causal mechanism between political exclusion, economic inequality and civil wars in non-democratic regimes. We argue that economic inequality between politically excluded and non-excluded groups increase the likelihood of social conflict or civil war. The mechanism at work is the lack of political channels for excluded groups to influence the allocation of public goods from the government. We show how this mechanism operates within a simple political economy model with four socio economic groups defined based on their income and social markers that represent for example ethnicity and/or religious characteristic. We find that a civil war can arise as an optimal forward-looking behavior between a social group that has political power in the regime and a political opposition that challenges its political power. Public policies that increase political inclusion will reduce the likelihood of civil war.