Fragile States
Women’s Agricultural Production in Guinea-Bissau as a Means of Strengthening Their Identity
Abstract:
This article was developed from the study done for the Swiss Cooperation in Guinea-Bissau on women horticulturists. The data were obtained by surveys and interviews in the regions of Bissau, Biombo, Bafatá and Oio, with the producers (which also include a limited number of male producers) of leguminous agricultural products, in a sample of 160/1063 people chosen at random. To better understand the results, it must be said that this business model is not very profitable, but it is an activity that gives a greater independence of women in relation to men in the family space, combating the existing male authoritarianism, since decisions about the use of profits belong to the women producers. It also has a potential environment of action for the affirmation of the social (and not just family) identity of women that should not be despised although, as far as we can see, this is expressed for now only in the organization of associations of producers. The data matrix and the qualitative observations file are the property of SWISSAID, but the tables obtained from it can be provided to researchers who request them.
Cite this Paper:
Sangreman, C., & Melo, M. (2024). WOMEN’S AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTION IN GUINEA-BISSAU AS A MEANS OF STRENGTHENING THEIR IDENTITY. Ars Educandi, 21. https://doi.org/10.26881/ae.2024.21.05
Circuitos de Comercialização Informal de Produtos Agrícolas na Guiné-Bissau: Relatório de Análise
Abstract:
This book examines the informal circuits of agricultural product marketing in Guinea-Bissau, based on field research conducted across all regions of the country. Drawing on both quantitative and qualitative data, the study reveals the strategies, challenges, and operational logics adopted by vendors — particularly women — who ensure urban supply and the livelihood of thousands of families. Focusing on the female informal economy, it highlights practices of resistance, community solidarity, and exclusion. The book also offers recommendations for public policies that acknowledge and value this vital sector.
Cite this ebook:
Sangreman, C., & Vaz, J. (2025, agosto). Circuitos de comercialização informal de produtos agrícolas na Guiné-Bissau: Relatório de análise. Lisboa: CEsA/ISEG Research/ISEG. ISBN 978-989-54687-7-5
A Social Science Research Laboratory as a Mixed Methods on Human Rights in a Fragile State: Guinea-Bissau 2014–2024
Abstract:
This case study describes and reflects on an original research process on Economic and Social Human Rights in Guinea-Bissau between 2014 and 2024. Human rights research is multidisciplinary, with sociology and political science bearing the greatest weight, as they are closely connected due to their focus on social structures, political institutions, and processes of governance and government, but law, history, psychology, social psychology, economics, and anthropology also must be considered when defining a research methodology on this topic. The challenge of this case study is to show what has been done over 10 years in the research for a methodology to articulate these disciplines, with the definition of different samples, with data collection through face-to-face surveys, presentations of results, debates, interviews, and publications, with the considering of analyses of other collateral themes, to produce a consistent and well-founded analysis.
What we hope to be able to share are, above all, two aspects of research in general: first, designing a methodology is an activity that is built on a more artisanal logic. In other words, it must be thought out and carried out with patience, persistence, and great care regarding “ready-made” stereotypes methods. Second, the larger and more complex the problem to be investigated and its social context, the more time is needed for research that coherently and satisfactorily answers the hypotheses put forward.
It is the answers to these methodological questions that we have tried to find over the years that we hope to summarize and present in this chapter.
Cite this paper:
Turè, B., Sangreman, C., Faria, R., & Bäckström, B., (2025). A social science research laboratory as a mixed methods on human rights in a fragile state: guinea-bissau 2014–2024. In Sage Research Methods: Data and Research Literacy. SAGE Publications, Ltd., https://doi.org/10.4135/9781036217266
Working Paper 204/2025: Insegurança e Terrorismo na Região do Sahel
Abstract:
If terrorism is political violence against civilians or unarmed people, it can either be employed by an autocratic state, or be instrumental in the subversive activity of paramilitary groups seeking to overthrow governments or change the current system. It is a phenomenon distinct from war or guerrilla warfare, although it can be an available resource in a hybrid conflict that also includes mercenaries and militias. This article gives examples of insecurity and terrorism in the Sahel region. It analyses jihadist groups that resort to coercive activities, therefore abusing vulnerable, conservative or fundamentalist peoples in order to achieve political-religious goals, and thus manipulating complex strategic stages with disastrous repercussions for the present and future of the countries involved. Secondary bibliography was used for scientific research and analysis, seeking an innovative and multifactorial approach to explaining a phenomenon that is difficult to eradicate in the Sahel, for the reasons identified.
Cite this Working Paper:
Galito, Maria Sousa (2025). “Insegurança e Terrorismo na Região do Sahel”. CEsA/ISEG Research – Documentos de trabalho nº 204/2025
Working Paper 201/2025: A Glance at International Challenges of Refugee Crises in the New Millenium
Abstract:
This study investigates the intricate relationship between forced displacement and human development. By examining refugee outflows from key regions, this paper seeks to comprehend the factors driving these movements and their development implications. Employing a qualitative case study methodology, the research focuses on the five main refugee outflow countries in 2023. The paper finds that the most relevant factors that induce displacement are political violence, especially civil conflict, and climate change. Refugee emergencies have multiple aggravating elements, like economic crises, food insecurity, and infrastructure damage. Despite not identifying strong correlations between displacement and human development (measured through HDI), except for Syria, the study reveals that these emergencies are simultaneously humanitarian and developmental challenges. Repercussions are more prominent in the Global South since it is the origin and the destination of over 70% of displaced people. The findings reiterate the urgency for integrated policy responses that combine development and humanitarian efforts.
Cite this Working Paper:
Rocha, Marcela e Eduardo Moraes Sarmento (2025). “A glance at international challenges of refugee crises in the new millenium”. CEsA/CGS – Documentos de trabalho nº 201/2025
Working Paper 198/2024: The Relevance of the Concept of Cumulative Causation: Understanding growth trajectories in Sub-Saharan Africa
Abstract:
Differences in growth trajectories among countries – including the possibility of divergence -, are a central issue in economics. Mainstream economics explain growth processes via varieties of neoclassical models, even improved with concepts such as institutions. Yet such models have difficulties in providing accurate accounts of the growth trajectories of many developing countries, notably low-income ones. It is argued that the growth paths of low-income countries are more appropriately explained by the theoretical framework that relies on the nexus of concepts of cumulative causation, non-linearities, threshold effects, self-reinforcing processes, irreversibility, path dependence and traps – though this approach remains marginal in mainstream economic analyses of growth and development. Firstly, this nexus of concepts is a powerful framework concerning the possibility and explanation of dynamic divergence regarding growth between countries, as it exhibits properties such as: the possibility of cumulative, dynamically self-reinforcing, processes; the existence of thresholds and tipping points; multiple equilibria. Secondly, cumulative causation, by definition, involves a combination of causes: its conceptual framework allows for the integration of several dimensions – economic, political, social, cognitive -, whose combination results in either virtuous or vicious circles. In developing countries, these causes (and their coalescence) typically consist in economic structures (e.g., commodity-based export markets), political institutions and social norms (predatory regimes, high inequality) as well as types of public policies.
Cite this Working Paper:
Sindzingre, Alice Nicole (2024). “The Relevance of the Concept of Cumulative Causation: Understanding growth trajectories in Sub-Saharan Africa”. CEsA/CGS – Documentos de trabalho nº 198/2024
National Social Identity in Guinea-Bissau: An Exploratory Essay Inspired by the Methodology of J. Cheek, S. Briggs, S. Smith and L. Tropp
Abstract:
The research (supported by the Centre for African and Development Studies of the University of Lisbon) is defined as exploratory and aims to evaluate whether the methodology of inquiry and analysis of the identity of J. Cheek, S. Briggs, S. Smith and L. Tropp, can be adapted to a fragile state like Guinea-Bissau. This methodology consists in the assessment of the importance attributed by the respondents of 70 sentences from which the characteristics of individual and social identity (family and collective) are extracted (Cheek, J. M. & Briggs, S. R.). The phrases were sent by digital means to 102 Guineans known in person or only by Facebook with a request for response and dissemination and obtained 183 responses. These answers, calculated according to the methodology adopted, allowed to define some identity characteristics of the respondents. We tried to interpret these results using other surveys conducted since 2014 in Guinea-Bissau with different themes. It is concluded by realizing that this is a method that can contribute to the knowledge of the national identity of Guineans, but insufficient. This conclusion remains to be demonstrated if it is carried out with a statistically significant sample.
Quotation:
Sangreman, C., Faria, R., & Magalhães, J. (2023). National Social Identity in Guinea-Bissau: An exploratory essay inspired by the methodology of J. Cheek, S. Smith and L. Tropp. Advances in Social Sciences Research Journal, 10(5).148-171.
Working Paper 189/2023: Fragilities and shocks effects on households and communities in West Africa
Abstract:
Shocks are drivers of fragility yet most works on fragility in Africa use the tag “fragile state(s)” with less focus on the drivers of fragility in its institutions, states, and economies. Shocks are cardinal to the entrenchment or stability of any system. The Covid-19 pandemic revealed how fragile the world is including the “developed” or “advanced” systems. Today, households, businesses, and communities in most parts of Sub-Saharan Africa suffer the effects of a triple whammy (climate change, the pandemic and Russia/Ukraine War) including effects of history and an unfavourable global system all of which leaves them in hunger, poverty and vulnerable conditions. Fragilities and Shocks Effects on Households and Communities in West Africa used secondary sources to revisit the effects of these shocks on households, and communities in West Africa through the lens of common resources. The recent shocks effects prevalent in all these countries is higher than reported and would affect West Africa´s growing population in the foreseeable future with the absence of safety nets or effective interventions. The absence of shocks preparation in the subregion is not sustainable and adds up to the sustenance of the revolving circle of fragility in the subregion.
Quotation:
Agulonye, U.V.P. 2023. “Fragilities and Shocks Effects on Households and Communities in West Africa“. Instituto Superior de Economia e Gestão – CEsA/CSG – Documentos de Trabalho nº 189/2023
Working Paper 188/2023: A identidade nacional na Guiné-Bissau: um ensaio exploratório inspirado na metodologia de J.Cheek, S.Briggs, S.Smith e L.Tropp
Abstract:
The investigation of A Identidade Nacional na Guiné-Bissau – Um ensaio exploratório inspirado na metodologia de J.Cheek, S.Briggs, S.Smith e L.Tropp is defined as exploratory and aims to evaluate whether the methodology of inquiry and analysis of identity. created by J. Cheek, S. Briggs, S. Smith and L. Tropp, can be adapted to a fragile state like Guinea-Bissau. This methodology consists in the assessment of the importance attributed by the respondents of 70 sentences from which the characteristics of individual and social identity (family and collective) are extracted. The sentences were sent by digital means to 102 Guineans known in person or only by Facebook with request for response and dissemination and obtained 183 responses. These answers, calculated according to the methodology adopted, allowed to define some identity characteristics of the respondents. We tried to interpret these results using other surveys made since 2014 in Guinea-Bissau with different themes. It is concluded by realizing that this is a method that can contribute to the knowledge of the national identity of Guineans, but insufficient. This conclusion remains to be demonstrated if it is carried out with a statistically significant sample.
Quotation:
Sangreman, C., Magalhães, J., Faria, R. (2023). “A Identidade Nacional na Guiné-Bissau – Um ensaio exploratório inspirado na metodologia de J.Cheek, S.Briggs, S.Smith e L.Tropp“. Instituto Superior de Economia e Gestão – CEsA/CSG – Documentos de Trabalho nº 188/2023
Working Paper 187/2022: Resiliência em Países Frágeis – uma investigação exploratória em curso
Abstract:
Resiliência em Países Frágeis – uma investigação exploratória em curso started in 2017 when the director of a service directorate of the Joint Research Center, at ECAS in Geneva, invited Prof. Carlos Sangreman to an exploratory study on resilience in Guinea-Bissau with the title Context specific risk perception and resilience patterns for individuals and communities (urban/non-urban) – the case of people in Guinea-Bissau. The study was carried out on the basis of the survey whose form is included in this Working Paper, gave rise to the attached article in an international journal and to a PhD thesis in progress at the University of Aveiro. The partnership between JRC and Cesa also involved Professor Alexandre Abreu and Master Jessica Santos, as well as Carlos Sangreman. From the JRC were Chistophe Quétel, Guy Bourdin and Ilektra Lemi. A survey was conducted in all regions and capital of the country to 210 households, with a previous pilot to 36 to refine the questionnaire in this partnership: project Enquêtes de terrain sur la perception du risque et la résilience des ménages en Guinée-Bissau Projet: Ares(2018)2381703 – 04/05/2018. Centre Commun de Recherche (JRC) de la Commission Européenne, Direction E, and CESA – Centre for Studies on Africa and Development of the University of Lisbon.
Quotation:
Sangreman, C., Martins, D., Quetel, C. Abreu, A. e Bourdin, G. (2022). “Resiliência em Países Frágeis – uma investigação exploratória em curso”. CEsA/CSG/ISEG/ULisboa – Documentos de Trabalho nº 186/2022
