Two recent Faculty of Graduate Studies alumni have received national awards from prestigious Canadian scholarly associations for research examining how systems and policies influence access, opportunity and equity in communities affected by global development challenges.
Patrick Abure (MA’26), who graduated from the Development Studies (DVST) program, received the Canadian Association for the Study of International Development (CASID) Institutional Membership Prize for his student essay Institutionalising Legitimacy: Gendered Gatekeeping, Women Refugee-Led Organisations, and the Limits of Localisation in Uganda.
The paper explores why women refugee-led organizations in Uganda are trusted by the communities they serve while continuing to face barriers to direct funding, partnerships and participation in decision-making processes.
Abure drew on interviews with leaders and community members served by three women refugee-led organizations in the Bidibidi and Imvepi refugee settlements, located in northwestern Uganda. His research examines how factors such as registration requirements, audits, reporting expectations, budgets, infrastructure, networks and gendered expectations can affect the recognition and support women refugee-led organizations receive.
“Receiving the CASID Institutional Membership Prize for my paper is a deeply meaningful honour,” says Abure. “This recognition affirms the importance of research that centres refugee knowledge, leadership, and lived experience, especially the work of women refugee leaders serving communities affected by humanitarian crises.”
He hopes that more refugee-led research like his can help challenge assumptions about “who is seen as an expert, a leader and a legitimate actor in humanitarian response.”
Valerie Lawson (MA’25), also a graduate of DVST, received the 2026 Fraser Taylor Prize from the Canadian Association of African Studies (CAAS), which recognizes the best graduate student paper presented at the previous CAAS conference and supports publication of the winning paper in the Canadian Journal of African Studies.
Lawson was awarded for her research, Health Care Access: An Analysis of the National Health Insurance Scheme in Accra, Ghana, which investigates how people enrolled in Ghana’s public health insurance program can still face out-of-pocket health-care costs and how those expenses affect health-care-seeking behaviour and financial well-being.
Through interviews with National Health Insurance Scheme subscribers, Lawson examines how systemic inefficiencies, coverage gaps and socioeconomic factors influence access to care and public trust in health-care systems. By situating these challenges within broader policy and political-economic contexts, her research contributes to discussions on universal health coverage and the impacts of health reforms across Africa.
Lawson’s work was supported by York through the Dahdaleh Global Health Graduate Scholarship from the Dahdaleh Institute for Global Health Research and the Greta Coger Travel Fund from the Harriet Tubman Institute. She also credits the Development Studies program for how it “played a central role in shaping my academic foundation and professional direction.”
“The program equipped me with a strong interdisciplinary understanding of global development grounded in equity, critical analysis and policy informed thinking,” she says. “Through DVST, I developed essential skills in research, communication, coordination and stakeholder engagement.”
Both Abure and Lawson were supervised by Associate Professor Mohamed Sesay from the Department of Social Science, who praises their recent recognitions, which will see their award-winning papers considered for publication in their respective associations' journals.
“Their achievements reflect the strength of graduate education and mentorship within the Development Studies program while demonstrating how York researchers are contributing to conversations on refugee leadership, health equity and social justice” says Sesay.