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Six million Iraqis were displaced during the Iraq-Daesh War, and although many have returned to their communities, there remain approximately 1.3 million internally displaced persons (IDPs) across the country. Today, approximately 25% of IDP children in Iraq are out of school (REACH, 2020). This study foregrounds the voices and family histories of IDPs when navigating educational access and makes a methodological argument for the need for increased qualitative research in post-conflict settings. Using the conceptual framework of navigation, the author presents displaced persons as agentic, dynamic people with lived histories, present realities, and imagined futures which inform their journey through the education system. Semi-structured interviews with 16 IDPs who identified as parents or caregivers were conducted virtually. Displaced Iraqis value education for different reasons, ranging from basic literacy to employment to societal improvement. In doing so, the author challenges the barrier-dominant framework through which IDP educational access is often understood and nuanced with a temporal lens which requires us to identify IDPs as (1) persons capable of making choices for themselves, (2) givers as well as receivers, and (3) persons who aspire to goals beyond basic survival.

This chapter analyzes the role of public libraries in providing access to information to Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in Nigeria. It examines some of the challenges experienced by the public library system in ensuring equitable access to information to such disadvantaged groups. It also looks at the concept of social exclusion in the context of public library services in Nigeria and how it can be tackled.

The study employed a survey method; data were collected through the administration of structured questionnaires to the study population.

Outcomes from the study point to a need for the development of a policy framework by the National Library of Nigeria and increased partnership between public libraries and other stakeholders in formulating more proactive strategies toward meeting the information needs of IDPs in the affected communities.

Implications from the findings of the study provide a basis by which more proactive measures can be taken toward intervention by public libraries and other stakeholders in the community.

Few studies on the public library in Nigeria have focused on addressing problems of disadvantaged groups in the society. This chapter has examined the fundamental role public libraries can play in confronting the social exclusion of IDPs and also provided useful insights to the nature of their information needs in their given context.

This chapter examines the dynamics of the Boko Haram insurgency in northeastern Nigeria and its effects on higher education in Nigeria. Insurgency has affected all the nook and crannies of northern Nigeria and has gone unabated, owing particularly to the institutional framework adopted to manage peace and resolve the conflict with severe implication on higher education in the region. Insurgency has caused catastrophic humanitarian crises through widespread infrastructural devastation, and massive dislocations and losses of human life. The incidence of insurrections, insurgencies, and counter insurgency activities in each of the conflict clusters in the northeast geo-political zone of Nigeria has been associated with widespread human insecurity and displacement of populations. Using both primary and secondary methods of data collection, the chapter examines how the role of government and policies has become central to educational development in the country. It also shows the extent to which the activities of the Boko Haram insurgency have affected students’ school enrolment and performance in northeastern Nigeria. The chapter further examines internally displaced persons (IDPs) and access to education in northeastern Nigeria and interrogates the role of the Nigerian state and agencies responsible for the management of IDPs in meeting their education needs in camps. It also examines the extent to which stakeholders in the management of IDPs have gone in initiating policies and programs that promotes access to education in IDP camps in northeast Nigeria. It concludes that the number of schools available in the conflict spots has reportedly been reduced because of the fact they are now occupied by IDPs. Most of the students in high school as well as universities in Adamawa, Borno, and Yobe states have had their opportunities for higher education severely constrained. The chapter recommends among others that protection of staff, students, and education workers working in the northeast region is imperative. In order to do so successfully, changes must be effected in the provisions contained in the 1999 constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria that relate to the management of IDPs.

Since 2013 northern Iraq, especially Kurdistan regional province, has seen a constant influx of refugees and internally displaced people (IDP) from Syria, Mosul and the mountains of Sinjar. Number of refugee camps has grown over the years. Over 2.2 million displaced Iraqis are living in private dwellings in host communities, over 700,000 with host families, and nearly 1.5 million in rented accommodation, and mostly in 47 camps across the region. The province is facing additional pressure on public services, including health, education, and infrastructure causing hardship for both communities and individuals, who must cope with uncertain economic and social conditions while striving to improve the situation and provide for their families. The magnitude of the problem has compelled countries and provinces shielding the IDPs to collaborate with wider range of partners in a growing recognition of the imperative and immediate need, both humanitarian and self-development. The authors of this chapter have highlighted certain case studies with whom they have been directly connected to. The effort was to use push factors and work toward capacity building of the IDPs and thereby work toward a self-reliant and self-sufficient livelihood.

Ethnic conflicts and their links to international human trafficking have recently received a surge in international attention. It appears that ethnic conflicts exacerbate the internal displacement of individuals from networks of family and community, and their access to economic and social safety nets. These same individuals are then vulnerable to being trafficked by the hopes of better economic prospects elsewhere. In this chapter, we empirically examine this link between ethnic fragmentation, conflicts, internally displaced persons, refugees, and international trafficking, making use of a novel dataset of international trafficking. We conduct a direct estimation, which highlights the ultimate impact of ethnic fragmentation and conflict on international trafficking through internal and international displacements.

The purpose of this study is to examine the impact of psychological climate perceptions on the employee’s intent to comply with the organization’s whistle-blower policies. This study also endeavors to add evidence to the debate concerning the effectiveness of implementing anti-retaliation measures to improve whistle-blowing behavior. Survey results show that psychological climate perceptions of fairness and commitment to the organization influence the employee’s attitude toward whistle-blower policies, perception of how important others within the organization view the act of whistle-blowing and the employee’s intent to blow the whistle. The results of this study also suggest that anti-retaliation measures used by government policy makers and organizations to improve whistle-blowing behavior may not be an effective strategy. This manuscript discusses the implications of the findings on whistle-blowing behavior and the debate concerning anti-retaliation measures.

The Australian Football League (AFL) is the premier sporting competition in Australia in terms of capital outlay, breadth of industry associations, public consumption, and arguably cultural significance. The AFL competition is now a domain of specialisations and interests, which provides vast opportunity for both sporting and non-sporting institutions seeking to utilise the game to capitalise on a society of consumption, entertainment and risk. AFL officials expect high standards of their players both on and off the field. These standards are expressed in various forms of Codes and Policies. Off field player misconduct is an ongoing concern not escaping media attention, which is a resounding indication more needs to be done by the AFL to improve responsible player character development. Whether the current education programmes are sufficient to meet the AFL’s own expectations is the central issue addressed in this chapter. As it stands AFL governance is deficient on several counts. In this chapter I will focus on three governance deficiencies: firstly, the AFL Illicit Drug Policy (IDP) contains unnecessary inconsistencies relative to its primary purpose; secondly, the present measures undertaken to ensure players have appropriate education to achieve the expected character development are far from efficacious and so arguably can be vastly improved; and thirdly, the promotion of live-odds gambling during televised games is culturally problematic and inconsistent with its own demands. The ethical grounds central to this investigation are ‘fairness’ and ‘cultural influence’. In order to resolve some of its governance concerns I will explain why the AFL should be characterised as a practice-community and as such should adopt a comprehensive virtue and value-based compliance ethical education programme consistent with its own vision and conduct expectation of its players and officials. I will argue that the AFL as a practice community is much more than simply a game, given its cultural influence, commercial associations and community programmes.

Peace support operations and the role of the United Nations is getting important in changing the global power system. But generally peace support missions are creating new problems while trying to solve the original ones. In this presentation I will try to examine the relative effectiveness of the UN in the military observer missions, which is the most common type of UN peace support operations. The UN Observer Mission in Georgia (UNOMIG) is used to show their relative effectiveness in the current world system by means of differentiating the problems they are facing. After showing the common problems, I will give special emphasis to the genuine problems of UNOMIG. First of all we have to take a brief look at the origins of military observer missions. During the long Cold War, the UN had to engage in conflict resolution/management in a world widely divided between two superpowers. The Security Council (SC) suffered lots of problems to handle conflicts without jeopardising the interests of the superpowers. So in most of the cases (except Korea and Congo) the SC did not authorise the necessary military forces to the conflict areas. Instead the SC preferred to send interpositional forces with light arms or military observers without arms after getting the consent of the conflicting parties. Currently we are calling this approach traditional peacekeeping. By experiences gained on the ground and in the SC it was understood that the best and easiest reaction is establishing a UN military observer mission (UNMOM) (Mackinlay, 1996, pp. 9–11; British Army, 1995, pp. 1–2/2–7). According to this limited and conservative logic this process must follow standard steps: First an armed conflict between two states; second a stalemate that nobody is able to defeat the other side completely; third conflicting states ask the UN to enforce a ceasefire; fourth the SC authorises neutral military observers to monitor a ceasefire and to achieve some other limited objectives, according their mandate; fifth conflicting states try to reach a peaceful solution by diplomatic negotiations with the help of the UN; sixth agreement is reached and end of UNMOM. In short, the duty of the military observers is to monitor the ceasefire and the restrictions agreed to by both parties in a geographically limited area for a limited time. But in reality, diplomatic negotiations often do not provide fast and lasting solutions. UNMOMs have remained and temporary missions turned into permanent ones. The answer to the question why is that they are economically cheap operations and politically easier to maintain than to remove. Most of the UNMOMs that were established in different continents are still going on without an end in sight (Brahimi et al., 2000, p. 3).

This study investigates the impacts of operational risks and corporate governance on bond yield spreads, examining their impacts on bond yield spreads during the COVID-19 pandemic. The results indicate that operational risks significantly raise yield spreads, especially for high-leverage firms. Moreover, a higher independent director percentage reduces debt costs. Furthermore, the results reveal more pronounced effects of operational risks on yield spreads during the COVID-19 pandemic, with these risks increasing the financing costs for large firms. When the effect of the independent director percentage on the yield spreads increases, this consequently raises the debt costs for large firms.

Purpose – The forced rural–urban migration in Colombia is a phenomenon that could be seen as the collateral damage of an armed conflict that takes place mainly in rural areas. Nevertheless, there is a significant percentage of cases in which the main reason to flee is a direct threat by an armed actor. This chapter proposes a possible reason why an illegal armed group displaces population from rural to urban areas.

Design/methodology/approach – A two-stage game theoretical model is considered, in which the central government struggles over the control of a region with the insurgents. In the first stage, rebels have the choice of forcing a proportion of peasants out of the rural areas or not. In the second stage, both players choose the level of military expenditure.

Findings – It is found that, under certain circumstances, the displaced population could be used by the insurgents as a means to deter the central government from fighting. This model predicts that the larger the value rebels attached to the contested region, the higher the proportion of forced migrants. It is also consistent with the idea that if the central government can commit to warfare, then forced migration will be useless for rebels.

Originality/value – This chapter explores a new rationale for forced displacement which consists in lowering government's incentives to fight for a region, by reducing the remaining population which in turn reduces income for the government.