DIFI grant for research on conflict and Arab families

The Doha International Family Institute (DIFI), will provide funding up to $50,000 a year for researchers from Qatar and other Arab countries to conduct studies on the impact of wars on the family structure.
“The Osra Research Grant is offered in collaboration with the Qatar National Research Fund,” announced Noor al-Malki al-Jehani, executive director of DIFI at the second annual conference on Family Research and Policy that was opened yesterday.
“This is the second edition of the grant to fund research on the impacts of conflict on family formation and breakdown, parent-child relationships, and the policies related to these topics,” she explained. Al-Jehani also underscored the importance of putting families, the smallest units in the society at the core of research initiatives, discussions, debates and policymaking in tackling the impacts of wars and conflicts.
“The conference provides a platform for policy debate. The conflicts all over the Arab world and its effects on families should be a priority for researchers as well as policymakers. At the end of the conference we will have a session dedicated to research methodologies in such situations,” she added.
The first day of the two-day conference, held under the theme, ‘The Impact of Wars and Conflicts on Arab Families’, explored family formation, socio-economic impact of wars on families, and gender dimensions during conflicts.
Sheikha Hessa bint Khalifa al-Thani, special envoy of the Arab League Secretary General for Humanitarian Affairs; Rami Khouri, senior fellow, Issam Fares Institute, American University Beirut; Luay Shabana, regional director of Arab States, United Nations Population Fund; and Nahla Haidar, member of the Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women Committee, took part in the first plenary session, moderated by Amal Mohamed al-Malki, founding dean, College of Humanities and Social Sciences at Hamad Bin Khalifa University.