Community Land Trust for Housing Solutions in Latin America
With funding from Fondecyt (Chile) and the Architecture College of Bahia Blanca (Argentina), R-LAC Co-chair Dr Claudia Murray developed and delivered a series of focus groups with the University of La Frontera (Chile) and the Universidad Nacional del Sur (Argentina). The work seeks to explore the feasibility of implementing Community Land Trust (CLTs) models in Argentina and Chile as an alternative to provide affordable housing solutions.
Attendees to focus groups including municipal planning authorities, land owners, housing developers as well as NGOs representing community groups. Results from this work are currently being analysed and a report and academic publication will be presented in an event co-organised with the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC). If you are interested in participating in this online event in June 2023, please contact Dr Claudia Murray c.b.murray@reading.ac.uk
SONGS (Study of Obesity, Nutrition, Genes and Social factors)
The MRC-funded SONGS project used a biosocial approach to examine the impact of dietary patterns, lifestyle, genetic factors, physical places of residence, sensory perception of foods and the metabolome on obesity-related outcomes in 1,000 Peruvian adolescents. SONGS is organised by the University of Reading (UK), the University of Oxford (UK), Grupo de Análisis para el Desarrollo (Peru), Instituto de Investigación Nutricional (Peru), and Universidad Nacional Pedro Ruiz Gallo (Peru). The data collection has been completed and biochemical and biomarker analyses are being undertaken at the University of Reading, UK. The overall aim of the project will be to utilise the data from nutritional trajectories and drivers of nutritional trajectories (changes in dietary diversity and physical activity, and changes in household and community characteristics), with the analysis of data collected in SONGS (dietary intake, physical activity, sensory perception and physical places of residence; and genetic factors and metabolomics markers) to assess BMI at age 19 and the risk of non-communicable diseases.
As part of this 3-year project, we have conducted two systematic reviews, where one focused on interventions that are likely to reduce, mitigate and/or prevent obesity among school children in Latin American countries (LACs) by modifying the food and built environments within and around schools and the other one focused on the role of genetic and lifestyle factors on cardiometabolic diseases in LACs.
In addition to the above stated objectives, we have also explored the role of government support in relation to food insecurity during COVID-19 pandemic, and we have shown that pre-pandemic socioeconomic status, family size, and the economic disruption during COVID-19 contribute to the risk of food insecurity in 2,026 Peruvian adolescents. We have also developed and validated an online food frequency questionnaire which proved to be reliable and valid for assessing dietary intakes among Peruvian young adults during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The findings from the project will be disseminated to the key stakeholders in Peru in March 2023 in addition to producing policy briefs with key findings from SONGS and circulating the results through GRADE, Oxford & Reading websites and social media. Four papers have been published through this project, please see the publication section for them.
Participatory Research with the Colombian Diaspora on Peacebuilding and Transitional Justice
With funding from Research England, R-LAC Co-chair Dr Cherilyn Elston developed a series of workshops with members of the Colombian community in London (including exiled victims of the conflict who had given their testimony to the Colombian Truth Commission). The aim of the project, which used a participatory action research methodology, was to create collective spaces of dialogue and psycho-social support where individuals could share their experiences with the aim of promoting reconciliation; collectively evaluate the process of giving testimony and assess the community’s future needs; and co-produce a participatory arts project exploring the themes of creativity, conflict resolution and action/activism within the Colombian and Latin American community.
Co-organised with the charity Diaspora Woman, Pueblito Paisa Community Centre and the UK and Ireland Hub in support of the Colombian Truth Commission, the workshops led to a research output in the form of a co-produced podcast, Comunidad para el Cambio Social/Community for Social Change, which can be found online here.
The workshops were followed by a one-day event at the University of Reading, ‘Creative Participatory Research with the Latin American Community in the UK’, where the results of the project were disseminated alongside other similar participatory projects working with the Latin American community in the UK.
NERC Discipline Hopping – Interdisciplinary Research Seminars
Three interdisciplinary workshops were held in 2022 on 9th and 23rd February, and 9th March, and one research sandpit, held on 30th March. They involved participants from academic institutions, government, and non-government fields from the UK and Argentina.
The workshops involved UoR academic staff from the following schools/departments: Archaeology, Geography and Environmental Science; Meteorology; Languages and Cultures; Built Environment; Real Estate and Planning; Agriculture, Policy and Development; Food and Nutritional Sciences.
Each workshop focussed on different steps toward developing interdisciplinary research, while the sandpit was used to capitalise on the learnings achieved during the three workshops to develop seed ideas for future interdisciplinary research grant bids.
Climate Resilience and Food Production in Peru (CROPP)
Funded by Royal Academy of Engineering
Our project aims to gain a better understanding of the difficulties faced by rural farming communities living with climate change, the opportunities afforded through appropriate adaptive strategies, and the inherent resilience of people and mountain environments to natural shocks and disasters caused by climate variability. We are undertaking a fully integrated study that is collaborative and interdisciplinary drawing upon methodologies developed in the humanities, and social and natural sciences, with expertise provided by local communities, NGOs, government personnel, and academic staff from the fields of archaeology, hydrology, ethnography, economics, ecology and climatology. The research involves workshops and interviews with stakeholders, interrogation of secondary socio-economic datasets, assembling climate models and meteorological data, the survey of the water management infrastructure, and the collection and analysis of hydrological and ecology data from rivers and peatlands. Our geographical focus is Ancash (Santa Valley) in west-central Peru, and Ayacucho-Apurimac (Sondondo and Chicha-Soras Valleys) in south-central Peru, where the impact of climate change is already being felt by rural communities. Collaborators include Professor Joy Singarayer (University of Reading), Professor Nicholas Branch (University of Reading), Dr Martin Timana (Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú), Professor Andrew Wade (University of Reading), Dr Fernando Gonzalez (Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú), Dr Kevin Lane (Universidad de Buenos Aires), Dr Frank Meddens (University of Reading), and Dr Alex Herrera (Universidad Los Andes, Colombia), Douglas Walsh (NGO Asociación Andina Cusichaca) and Eric Capoen (NGO ECLOSIO).