Have a look at the dissertation titles of the research carried out at our Institute so far for the M.A. Islands ans Small State Studies. If you wish to carry out research at our Institute contact us.
Occupation: Lawyer
Country of origin: Mauritius
The research provides an understanding of how the dissonances between the legal policies and customary practices pertaining to LGBTQI+ rights impact LGBTQI+ people in Small Island Developing States, with a focus on Mauritius. The study aims at providing policy guidance on the situation of LGBTQI+ persons by addressing gaps between legal frameworks and practice, while contributing to the body of literature on LGBTQI+ rights in Small Island Developing States.
Occupation:
Country of origin: Malta
At each stage of the Global Value Chains, an enterprise may opt to source domestically or internationally, and source core or supporting business functions to affiliated or non-affiliated organizations. How a multinational enterprise opts to enter an investing country affects labour expertise demands. The extent of skilled and unskilled labour demands as a result of international sourcing are diverse, impacting wage rates and henceforth Gross Domestic Product. Despite this, there is a paucity of data; particularly more pronounced for small island states, including Malta.
The aim of this research is to use available statistical information together with recently published results from the Global Value Chains and International Sourcing Survey covering the period between 2018 and 2020, to analyse the effect on domestic employment and economy due to international sourcing.
Occupation:
Country of origin: Malta
The importance of Green Open Spaces (GOSs) in long-term urban development planning is becoming more widely understood and is being more recognised as one of the most important aspects. The aim of this study is to assess how easily accessible GOSs are in the Maltese Islands. Due to the limitations of size, GOSs are currently a subject of much debate. Pavements, public streets, roads are used by all residents and individuals, thus safety measures and precautions are necessary to prevent and avoid accidents.
As a case study, in Floriana (Malta), the researcher observed eight different open spaces to come up with the ultimate findings. From the presented maps, one can read, calculate how much, and identify where the obstacles and safety measures are located, and to discover whether each GOS is accessible or not.
Occupation: Statistical Officer (NSO)
Country of origin: Malta
The research adopts the ideal types of SITES (Bertram & Watters, 1984) (which focuses on island states being mainly a ‘tourist economy’) and PROFIT (Baldacchino & Bertram, 2009) (which focuses on island states taking advantage of ‘jurisdictional’ features), especially since Baldacchino (2012) attributes both models to the Maltese islands.
Furthermore, it also latches on the theory that Malta’s economic development model is ‘developmental state’ – where the state is the ‘economic driver’, and the commercial class is the ‘actor’ of the “vision” (political economy of governments) (Brincat, 2009).
Considering this, the research proposes that a network of intrapreneurs’ fostered throughout the economic history of the isles may have adopted rent-seeking behaviour (Hillman 2010) which has also affected the ‘path’ to economic development.
Using Social Network analysis as theory and methodology, the research will undergo an analysis of the networks of ‘intrapreneurs / entrepreneurs’ and their relationship with the state, especially post EU accession.
The aim is to understand if and to what extent rent-seeking behaviour is ‘practiced’, and what affect it has on the political economy of the Maltese islands.
Occupation: Director (Island Resilience), Pacific Islands Development Forum
Country of Origin: Fiji Island
A concept that has gained considerable status and adoption in recent times, especially in Small Islands and Developing States, is that of the Blue Economy (BE), which can act as a key determinant for a resilient and sustainable economic development in SIDS (UNEP, 2012). However, doubts remain as certain operational activities included in the concept of BE, such as Deep-Sea Mining (DSM), is a sustainable and reliable form of operationalizing the BE, given its uncertain socio-economic and environmental consequences of these activities on the overall development of countries. Furthermore, there is still much uncertainty about the impacts that DSM can have on local communities, possibly representing a constraint and a damaging activity. These DSM activities are often proposed by relatively big Multinational companies, with strong lobbying powers, supported by governments of large economies.
This research will test the hypothesis that DSM can be considered as a new form of neo-post colonial activity that possibly exploits resources at the advantage of external actors, rather than promoting local resilient and sustainable economic development. It does it by first discussing the concept generally in SIDS, to then present a case study of SIDS: in this case of Fiji. It will first use Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Review and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) to address the question on BE and DSM in SIDS and then zoom in through a Thematic Analysis on national policies of Fiji. Also, a further objective of this dissertation is to strongly consider the involvement of local communities and local actors, active in the territory, as a key element that can support the case for building a sustainable economic transition.
Occupation:
Country of origin: Fiji
Fiji, like other Pacific Island countries experiences climate change that has increased the frequency and the intensity of tropical cyclones. this has prompted the increase in the rate of hazards that can be termed as multiple hazards. Disaster management policies are not as compatible to capture such emerging concept and approaches. Community engagement is seen as an avenue to negotiate a baseline platform in integrating multi hazard form policy to practice.
The research seeks to answer questions on the concept of community engagement on multi-hazard risk assessment, specifically focusing on the concept of how communities are engaged from policy to practice.
Occupation: Economist, UN Resident Coordinator Office
Country of origin: São Tomé & Príncipe
Through the analyses of the dynamic and socioeconomic potential & importance of the cruise tourism in the island of São Vicente, Republic of Cabo Verde, the objective of the paper is to identify recommendations, at policy level and/or specific actions for the public and private sectors, to increase the service provision to cruise tourists, with a specific emphasis on the impact of Covid-19 in the sector post 2019.[OF1] The research will analyze the specific tourism market in the island of São Vicente, to understand how the demand and offer happens in the cruise tourism value chain (VC), with a view to identify new entry opportunities for additional services that can be provided to the cruise tourists while transiting in the port of Mindelo city, and to further integrate in the local links of the cruise tourism value chain. The subject is of interest because the island has potential to further explore and expand service provision in the value chain, as per existent natural potential of the island and ongoing
Occupation: Framework Programme Executive, Malta Council for Science and Technology
Country of origin: Malta
This research project analyses the performance of four of the smallest European Member States; Malta, Estonia, Cyprus and Luxembourg in the last two years of Horizon 2020 and the first year of Horizon Europe. The selected Member States were chosen based on the fact that they have less than 1.5 million inhabitants and therefore are the ideal candidates that have similar vulnerabilities and characteristics as Malta.
Malta’s performance in the EU Research and Innovation funding programmes was analysed vis a vis the performance of Estonia, Cyprus and Luxembourg. Small states face several challenges and vulnerabilities, ranging from small domestic market issues, limited natural resources, climate change vulnerabilities, environment vulnerabilities, small population and limited human resources, difficulties in attracting research talent, low representation in decision making institutions, health issues as a result of climate change and lack of green spaces to lack of infrastructure and more. It is because of these vulnerabilities that the author examined if small states issues are well represented in European Research and Innovation Funding Programmes, and if they are represented, to what extent they are being considered.
Descriptive statistics are also used to understand Malta’s, Estonia’s, Cyprus’ and Luxembourg’s performance on three levels; European Budget share rank per capita, Research and Innovation projects that were selected for funding and the proposal success rates for the different thematic areas found within Horizon 2020 and Horizon Europe.
Occupation: Departmental Head, Chief Commissioner's Office
Country of origin: Mauritius
Rodrigues Island is a part of the Republic of Mauritius with a total land area of 104 km2 and 45 000 inhabitants. It is located in the middle of the Indian Ocean and retains a highly administrative autonomy. The economy of the island is still largely dependent on Mauritius. However, the island also derives some of its income from economic activities such as tourism, agriculture, fishing and animal rearing.
The handicraft industry, which involves mostly women, is also an important contributor to the island’s economy. It is now highly acknowledged that climate change is a detrimental factor that is contributing to food insecurity in the SIDS. The SIDS, by essence, are more vulnerable to a rise in sea level, extreme weather conditions, changes in the pattern of precipitation and acidification of the Oceans, all of which have a direct impact on the economic activities intrinsic to their food systems. Furthermore, the recent Covid-19 pandemic has also had a dramatic impact on the food systems in the SIDS, affecting directly and indirectly the lives and livelihoods of people, plants and animals.
Improving local food production could thus offset the severe blow on the SIDS’ food system, notwithstanding the cause. It has thus become essential to adopt food systems that are more context-specific if we really hope to see a more equitable and resilient food and nutrition security in the SIDS. This research proposes to investigate whether, and to what extent, agroecology is considered in existing research as a solution to ensure food sovereignty in the case of SIDS.
Country of origin: Nigeria
Across all societal levels as well as in every medium, the continued conversation about climate change and its implications on the environment remains strong, and given the fragility of the Mediterranean islands, it is crucial to recognise the impacts of climate change related activities.
Climate change in the Mediterranean region has consistently occurred more rapidly than worldwide trends owing to human induced production of Greenhouse gases (Cramer, W., Guiot, J., Marini, K., 2020). Civil society organizations are receiving a lot of attention, both from the media and academia, particularly because of their unique traits and principles that serve to foster social cohesiveness, encourage engagement, and serve as stewards of society's common good (Egholm et.al., 2020).
The aim of this research is to evaluate the roles of the civil society organizations in advancing climate change adaptation in Malta by answering the following questions
1. What are the main climate change adaptation challenges faced by Mediterranean islands, and in Malta?
2. How are civil society organizations addressing the challenges posed by climate change adaptation in their strategies and campaigns?
3. To what extent are the civil society organizations collaborating with other stakeholders to address climate change impacts?
This study adopts a qualitative methodological approach using surveys to elicit different perspectives of actors involved in climate change adaptation activities in Malta.