CESSMIR Breakthrough Breakfast - 5th Edition

19 February 2025
Ghent

Social services across a Contested Divide:
Transnistrian Case organized In collaboration with the Department of Social Work and Social Pedagogy (Ghent University) and UNU-CRIS

09.00 - 09.30 Reception & Breakfast, second floor
Campus Dunant, Dunantlaan 2, 9000 Gent OR ONLINE

09.30 - 11.30 Research & Practice, Room 5.1 (fifth floor)

REGISTER HERE

Dr. Gaëlle Le Pavic

Department of Social Work and SocialPedagogy, Centre for the Social Study of Migration and Refugees (CESSMIR) & UNU-CRIS, Bruges

Gaëlle’s doctoral dissertation explored social services within and across contested borders in the case of Transnistria, Abkhazia and Samegrelo. The dissertation highlighted the role of Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) as key service providers across and within contested borders. When providing social services, CSOs interact with multiple stakeholders such as local and national authorities and international donors and organisations, all of them controlling key resources, yet the CSOs retain agency in negotiation and remain a crucial actor in filling gaps in social services provision. Gaëlle will share insights from her 4-month fieldwork in Transnistria and the Samegrelo region of Georgia as well as remote data collection in Abkhazia.

Alexandru Stratulat

Programme Manager One UN Joint Action - Cross-river support for Human Rights

Alexandru Stratulat has worked extensively on sustainable development issues, as a policy advisor with the Government of Moldova, EU, NATO and UN. He has over 15 years of experience with the UN in Moldova in various positions, including in UN CoordinationOffice, UNICEF, UN Women, OHCHR and UNDP. Over the years Stratulat was involved in a number of development initiatives on confidence-building, human rights and empowerment of vulnerable groups. He is currently coordinating the first One UN Joint Action,implemented in Moldova - Cross-River support for Human Rights. His focus is on the rights of the vulnerable groups in the conflict-affected set-ups and promotion of confidence- and peace-building measures.