Local perceptions and military-assisted health interventions in conflict settings

This project aims to investigate and raise critical awareness of how local perceptions can influence
responses to epidemics in conflict settings, particularly those assisted by the military, in order to improve
the effectiveness of future health interventions.
In recent high-level meetings in the UK and the US, policy-makers, academics, practitioners and military
actors determined that there was need for additional research exploring how local communities feel
about civil-military relations, particularly in health responses in conflict settings. While previous research
has analysed, on the one hand, the significance of local perceptions within health interventions, and on
the other hand, the limitations of civil-military coordination in conflict settings, there is currently limited
research that examines the intersection of these two issues. This research project proposes to focus
explicitly upon this crucial juncture and thereby address a significant gap in existing academic and policy
literature.
To carry out this analysis, this project will examine the currently ongoing Ebola response in the conflict affected
eastern part of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). Local perceptions are generally
undervalued and unaddressed in the Ebola response activities led by the Congolese government and
World Health Organization. This is despite significant evidence suggesting that certain response
approaches and the presence and involvement of military actors within the health intervention are
leading to community resistance to response activities. This project proposes to explore exactly how the
perceptions of local community members in the DRC are shaping the dynamics of the military-assisted.