Do the ways in which policymakers and national governments view borderlands reflect how the communities living there experience them? Building on this, can a better understanding of the characteristics of borderlands help in promoting development, improving governance and making more effective policy and programming choices in these contexts? Such are the questions that have informed the work of the Rift Valley Institute, The Asia Foundation and the Malcom H. Kerr Carnegie Middle East Center as part of the XCEPT programme since its inception in 2018. Taking these concerns as its starting point, this think piece offers an overview of the key observations to emerge from this research, and what this implies going forward for research and policy-making around borderlands.
Thinking about Borderlands: Observations and implications from XCEPT programme research
Observations derived from the XCEPT programme’s research, and thoughts on the future direction borderlands research might take.