Our Thematic Expertise
Our former pillars are our core areas of thematic experience. While our projects broadly fall under each of these pillars; we also recognise and work on the intersections of these themes through cross-sectoral collaborations.
MIGRATION & DISPLACEMENT
A paradigm shift to migrants as opportunities and actors
of change
We focus on the protection, contributions, and aspirations of migrant and displaced persons. We provide an evidence base to ensure that the development and implementation of global, regional, and national policies are adapted to and incorporate local specificities. Our research contributes to a paradigm and narrative shift to showcase migrants as opportunities and actors of change for the societies that they belong to, temporarily or permanently.
SOCIAL EQUITY
Coping, adapting, transforming, and learning in the face of crises and shocks
We aim to understand and act on the growing social and economic inequalities of today’s world. We do this by conducting participatory research with marginalised communities to identify models of equity and equality for tomorrow.
Based on almost fifteen years of field research, Samuel Hall’s teams have identified three interrelated thematic dimensions for identifying new models of social equity: Climate Change, Urban and Gender.
CHILDREN & YOUTH
Allowing children and youth to voice their future
Our Children & Youth experts focus on these key segments of the population whose needs, rights, and aspirations are little understood within contexts affected by migration. This thematic area delivers research that responds to the global explosion of this demographic and its central role in shaping the future. Over half the world’s population is currently under 30, the vast majority of which lives in developing countries. Rather than see them as a force for development, political, and societal change, the rhetoric around this youth “bulge” casts young people as a burden and children as “victims” to be protected.
IMPLEMENTATION
Technology and innovation designed to support migrants
Our Implementation Research thematic intervention was developed in 2016, in the spirit of inductive design thinking, to:
1. Ensure that monitoring and evaluation of humanitarian and development programmes consider the scalability and sustainability of actions, learning from best practices and challenges that commonly face practitioners and implementers.
2. Focus on community-driven solutions and partnerships with a range of actors (incl. from the private sector and the tech sector) to roll-out innovations that support migrant and low-income communities, and that are sustainable and viable over the longer-term.
