What we do
PRALOLEOR (Practice-led Alliance for Local Equity & Opportunity Research) is a tri-country network of social science researchers working in DR Congo, Ethiopia, and Uganda. We conduct and support locally grounded, practice-led research that helps communities, institutions, and decision-makers understand complex realities and expand equity and opportunity.
Our strength is our people: researchers who built their expertise through field experience, often beginning as research assistants in local institutions, and who now collaborate through PRALOLEOR to strengthen methods, pool resources, and broaden the reach of their work. Members remain active in their own contexts and institutions (often through temporary or flexible affiliations) while connecting across borders through shared standards, peer learning, and joint opportunities.
Our research approach
We work across qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods, with a commitment to:
- Local relevance: questions shaped by lived realities and local priorities
- Ethical practice: respect, protection, and responsibility in all research relationships
- Rigor: clear designs, transparent limitations, and careful interpretation
- Usefulness: results communicated in ways that can inform action (policy, programs, and public debate)
Core research topics
PRALOLEOR supports research on issues that affect everyday life and long-term development—especially where evidence can strengthen fairness and expand opportunity. Our priority topics include:
1) Governance, accountability, and public services
How institutions function in practice; citizen–state relations; local governance; service delivery; trust, transparency, and participation.
2) Livelihoods, labor, and economic inclusion
Informal economies, employment pathways, youth livelihoods, entrepreneurship realities, labor conditions, and household economic resilience.
3) Education, skills, and youth transitions
Access and quality, barriers to learning, teacher and school systems, skills development, and the transition from school to work.
4) Health systems and social wellbeing
Community access to care, health inequalities, social determinants of health, and how households navigate systems of support.
5) Gender, inclusion, and social inequality
Power and norms, barriers to opportunity, gender-based constraints, disability inclusion, and intersectional inequalities.
6) Displacement, conflict recovery, and social cohesion
Mobility, integration, community resilience, local peacebuilding, reintegration, and recovery in post-crisis settings.
7) Climate stress, land, and adaptation
The social impacts of climate variability, adaptation strategies, land and resource governance, and community resilience.
8) Urbanization, mobility, and local development
Urban services, housing, transport, informal settlements, migration, and changing patterns of opportunity in cities and towns.
Outputs and collaboration
Our outputs include research reports, policy briefs, working papers, community feedback products, trainings, and events. We collaborate with universities, research centers, NGOs, public institutions, and partners who value high-quality local research leadership across our three countries.
PRALOLEOR connects local expertise across borders, so research can better serve equity, opportunity, and practical change.