...children are being taken out of schools and pushed into work, which limits their future prospects and subjects them to health risks 7. The current study addresses this gap in the literature by ...exploring the relationships between social capital and cohesion and the health and emotional well-being of Syrian refugee children living and working in Lebanon. The main aspects of social capital that are highlighted in the literature include how it is produced through interaction resulting in material and symbolic profits for members of a group 23; its integration in everyday interactions between people in the form of obligations, expectations, information channels, and norms that encourage some practices and sanction others 24; and how it “facilitates coordination for mutual benefit” through “features of social organization, such as networks, norms, and trust” 25. Drukker and colleagues 42 found an association between children’s mental health and the level of informal social control, an indicator of social capital.
Research within conflict settings challenges the ethical assumptions of traditional research practice. The tensions between theory and practice were evident in a study of working children among ...Syrian refugee communities in Lebanon. While the study sought to introduce scientific evidence that might support effective policy solutions, its implementation was marked by a struggle to navigate bureaucracy, vested political interests, climates of xenophobia and sectarianism, and an unfolding military conflict that cast a shadow on the research initiative. The study pushed the researcher to examine privileged understandings of research ethics and elucidated structural, institutional, and societal obstacles beleaguering efforts to support refugees. Many of the challenges of the research process were structural in nature, tethered to the institutional and societal contexts within which the research was conceived and conducted. Some of these entrenched dynamics may be inescapable within the parameters of institutional research, while others may be addressed through greater awareness and preparation. Specifically, researchers studying refugee communities within conflict settings must intentionally reflect on the dynamics that govern refugee politics in the research context. Particular attention must be paid to the elements of xenophobia, violence, and fear that impact participants' autonomy and agency within the study. Intentional engagement with these dynamics cannot insulate the research process from the coercive realities of the refugee experience, yet researchers do have the opportunity to transparently reaffirm their commitments to ethical practice.
Syrian refugees in Lebanon have endured increasing hardships since the onset of the Syrian war in 2011, with many resorting to child labor. Working refugee children endure socioeconomic deprivation ...and harsh working conditions. This study explores the relationship between working conditions and the reporting of injuries among male and female Syrian refugee children in Lebanon and the related gender differences.
A cross-sectional survey of Syrian refugee children working in the Bekaa Valley of Lebanon was conducted in 2017. Face-to-face interviews with children (8 to 18 years) collected sociodemographic information and testimonies of their work experiences. Logistic regression tested the association between reporting of injuries and risk factors including school enrolment, field of work, means of transportation to work, age started working, number of working hours, multiple jobs, work pressure and hazards, and abuse. Analyses were stratified by gender. Of the 4090 surveyed working children, the majority reported working in agriculture (75.8%). Around a third (31.4%) reported being injured at work with a higher proportion in males. The most common reported injuries were cuts and wounds (44.9%), with males showing a higher proportion for all types of injuries compared to females. Nearly one fifth of reported injuries (19.8%) required medical attention in a hospital, with males reporting higher proportions than females for most types of injuries. The study findings revealed the association of multiple risk factors with an increased odds of reporting an injury, which included working in more than one job (AOR, 1.71; CI, 1.20-2.43; p = 0.003), working under pressure (AOR, 1.64; CI, 1.36-1.97; p<0.001), the use of sharp or heavy objects (AOR, 1.88; CI, 1.58-2.24; p<0.001), and experiencing physical abuse at work (AOR, 2.46; CI, 1.97-3.08; p<0.001). The odds of reporting an injury increased with every additional hour of work per day (AOR 1.08; CI, 1.02-1.14; p = 0.006). Most of these findings persisted in the male and female stratified models, with few exceptions. Males who went to work in a pickup truck had significantly lower odds of being injured than those who walked (AOR, 0.65; CI, 0.51-0.83; p = 0.001); this finding did not reach significance for females. Having longer work hours per day was significantly linked to higher odds of injury for females (AOR, 1.07; CI, 1.02-1.12; p = 0.008); but not for males. The main limitations of this study were its cross-sectional design and the use of self-reported variables.
This study is the first to obtain direct testimony on work-related injuries and working conditions, exploring gender differences, among Syrian refugee children in Lebanon. Results demonstrated the association between the occurrence of injury and multiple risk factors highlighting their strenuous working conditions, with some differences detected between males and females. Many injuries can be prevented through direct safety interventions and proper implementation of child labor policies. Multidimensional interventions are essential to address the complex evolving challenges facing refugees.
Strong Global South (GS) health research leadership, itself both dependent on and a requisite for strong health research systems, is essential to generate locally relevant research and ensure that ...evidence is translated into policy and practice. Strong GS health research systems and leadership are important for health development and in turn for strong health systems. However, many GS countries struggle to produce research and to improve performance on widely used research metrics measuring productivity and reflecting leadership. Drawing on literature from a rapid review, this viewpoint paper considers the barriers to GS health research leadership and proposes strategies to address these challenges.
GS researchers and institutions face numerous barriers that undermine health research leadership potential. Barriers internal to the GS include researcher-level barriers such as insufficient mentorship, limited financial incentives and time constraints. Institutional barriers include limited availability of resources, restrictive and poorly developed research infrastructures, weak collaboration and obstructive policies and procedures. Structural barriers include political will, politicization of research and political instability. External barriers relate to the nature and extent of Global North (GN) activities and systems and include allocation and distribution of funding and resources, characteristics and focus of GN-GS research collaborations, and publication and information dissemination challenges.
Strengthening GS health research leadership requires acknowledgement of the many barriers, and adoption of mitigating measures by a range of actors at the institutional, national, regional and global levels. Particularly important are leadership capacity development integrating researcher, institutional and systems initiatives; new GN-GS partnership models emphasizing capacity exchange and shared leadership; supporting GS research communities to set, own and drive their research agendas; addressing biases against GS researchers; ensuring that GS institutions address their internal challenges; enhancing South-South collaborations; diversifying research funding flow to the GS; and learning from models that work. The time has come for a firm commitment to improving localization of research leadership, supported by adequate funding flow, to ensure strong and sustainable research systems and leadership in and from the GS. Just as the humanitarian donor and aid community adopted the Grand Bargain commitment to improve funding flow through local and national responders in times of crisis, we strongly urge the global health research community to adopt a Grand Bargain for research leadership.
This article adopts a socio-economic and political lens to elucidate the interplay of factors that heighten the vulnerability of Syrian refugee agricultural workers and their exposure to pesticides ...in Lebanon. It provides a comprehensive understanding for the interconnected social, political and economic factors at the global, regional, national and local levels and how they increase the vulnerability of Syrian refugee agricultural workers, particularly their exposure to pesticides. The global factors highlight the shifts from colonialism to state-controlled economies to neoliberal policies. These changes have prioritized the interests of large agricultural schemes and multinationals at the expense of small and medium-sized agriculture. Consequently, there has been a boost in pesticides demand, coupled with weak regulations and less investment in agriculture in the countries of the Global South. The article explains how the dynamic interaction of climate change and conflicts in the Middle East and North Africa region has negatively impacted the agriculture sector and food production, which led to an increased potential for pesticide use. At the national and local levels, Lebanon’s social, political and economic policies have resulted in the weakening of the agricultural sector, the overuse of pesticides, and the intensification of the Syrian refugee agricultural workers’ vulnerability and exposure to pesticides. The article recommends that researchers, policymakers, and practitioners adopt a political-economic-social lens to analyze and address the full dynamic situation facing migrant and refugee workers in Lebanon and other countries and promote equity in the agricultural sector globally.
Abstract
Background
This cross-sectional study explores the relationship between housing, social wellbeing, access to services and health among a population of Syrian refugee children in Lebanon.
...Methods
We surveyed 1902 Syrian refugee households living in informal tented settlements in Lebanon in 2017. Logistic regressions assessed relationships between housing problems, socioeconomic deprivation, social environment and health.
Results
Of the 8284 children in the study, 33.0% had at least one health problem. A considerable number of households (43.1%) had > 8 housing problems. Children in these households had higher odds to have three or more health problems compared to children in households with < 6 housing problems (adjusted odds ratio AOR, 2.39; confidence interval CI, 1.50–3.81). Nearly three-quarters (74.3%) of households were severely food insecure. Children in these households had higher odds to have one health problem than those in food secure households (AOR, 1.75; CI, 1.11–2.76). There was a significant positive association between households that reported being unhappy with their neighbourhood and the number of children with health problems in those households.
Conclusions
This study highlights the association between the physical and social living conditions and refugee children’s health. Without multidimensional interventions that consider improvements to living conditions, the health of young Syrian refugees will continue to worsen.
Due to the continuous rise of global temperatures and heatwaves worldwide as a result of climate change, concerns for the health and safety of working populations have increased. Workers in the food ...production chain, particularly farmworkers, are especially vulnerable to heat stress due to the strenuous nature of their work, which is performed primarily outdoors under poor working conditions. At the cross-section of climate change and farmworkers' health, a scoping review was undertaken to summarize the existing knowledge regarding the health impacts associated with climate change and heat stress, guide future research toward better understanding current and future climate change risks, and inform policies to protect the health and safety of agricultural workers. A systematic search of 5 electronic databases and gray literature websites was conducted to identify relevant literature published up until December 2021. A total of 9045 records were retrieved from the searches, of which 92 articles were included in the final review. The majority of the reviewed articles focused on heat-related illnesses (
= 57) and kidney diseases (
= 28). The risk factors identified in the reviewed studies included gender, dehydration, heat strain, wearing inappropriate clothing, workload, piece-rate payment, job decision latitude, and hot environmental conditions. On the other hand, various protective and preventive factors were identified including drinking water, changing work hours and schedule of activities, wearing appropriate clothing, reducing soda consumption, taking breaks in shaded or air-conditioned areas, and increasing electrolyte consumption in addition to improving access to medical care. This review also identified various factors that are unique to vulnerable agricultural populations, including migrant and child farmworkers. Our findings call for an urgent need to expand future research on vulnerable agricultural communities including migrant workers so as to develop effective policies and interventions that can protect these communities from the effects of heat stress.
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