Elizabeth Stites
Dr. Elizabeth Stites is a Research Director in Conflict and Livelihoods at the Feinstein International Center and an Associate Research Professor at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy. She examines how conflict, violence, and insecurity shape civilian livelihoods in crisis‑affected regions. Her research focuses on resilience in settings of protracted vulnerability, with particular attention to how gender and age drive shifts in livelihood strategies and how these transformations intersect with risk at the individual, household, and community levels. At the policy interface, Dr. Stites analyzes how humanitarian, development, and military interventions influence livelihood security and gender dynamics, generating evidence to inform more effective and equitable responses in conflict and crisis settings.
Elizabeth holds a B.A. from Wesleyan University, an M.A. from the University of Cape Town (South Africa), and an M.A.L.D. and a Ph.D. from The Fletcher School at Tufts University.
RESEARCH INTERESTS
COURSES TAUGHT
SELECTED JOURNAL AND BOOK PUBLICATIONS
MOST RECENT EXTERNAL PUBLICATIONS
NEWS STORIES
FEINSTEIN PUBLICATIONS
This learning brief presents findings from two scoping studies on acute malnutrition in the Daua Basin in the Mandera Triangle.
This desk study explores how state-owned policies and programs in pastoral areas of the Sudano-Sahel and the Greater Horn of Africa meet pastoralists’ needs and priorities.
This report presents the final findings from the USAID Nawiri longitudinal study, which investigated the drivers of the persistently high rates of acute malnutrition from September 2021 to September 2023.
This learning brief examines the drivers of malnutrition in Isiolo and Marsabit Counties and their implications for policy and programs.
This synthesis report reflects upon Phase 1 findings on humanitarian action in pastoral drylands of the Greater Horn and Sudano-Sahel.
This desk study explores how pastoralists manage climate, conflict, and other stresses through indigenous early warning systems, preventive actions, local emergency responses, and customary safety nets.
This briefing paper summarizes some of the nuances that exist and the shifts that are occurring within gender dynamics in pastoralist livelihood systems in Africa.
Cette note d’information résume certaines des nuances qui existent et les changements qui se produisent actuellement dans la dynamique du genre dans les systèmes de subsistance pastoraux en Afrique.
This analysis is motivated by the concerns of international donors and other stakeholders regarding the persistent challenges in advancing educational outcomes for the majority of the population in the Karamoja…
This learning brief explores the continuity and changes to livelihoods in select sites in Isiolo and Marsabit Counties, Kenya, and reviews the implications of the continuity and the changes on the drivers of child acute malnutrition.
This learning brief presents preliminary findings on strategic mobility and its nutritional benefits to pastoral and agropastoral communities in select sites in Isiolo and Marsabit Counties, Kenya.
This learning brief presents preliminary findings about the cause (drivers) of persistently high rates of child acute malnutrition in select sites in Isiolo and Marsabit Counties.
This report provides insights and perspectives from participatory workshops with displaced female youth in the Kurdistan region of the Republic of Iraq (KRI).
This paper examines the role of marital status and motherhood on schooling experience and educational interruption, attainment, and aspirations in South Sudan and the Kurdistan Region of Iraq.
This knowledge synthesis focuses on violent conflict in the Karamoja sub-region of northeastern Uganda. While violence and conflict both can and do take many forms, this synthesis takes as its…
After nearly 10 years of relative peace, conflict and insecurity returned to the Karamoja sub-region of northeastern Uganda starting in 2019. This assessment investigates this resumption of conflict and insecurity…
This brief investigates the perceptions and experiences of young women related to wealth, livelihoods, and aspirations in Uganda’s Karamoja sub-region.
This brief investigates how wealth, wealth equality, and food security have changed in specific villages in four districts in the Karamoja sub-region of Uganda from 2018 to 2021/22.
This study aimed to better understand changes in and perceptions of wealth and equality in four counties in the Karamoja sub-region of Uganda.
This scoping report investigates barriers, benefits, and “terms of inclusion” for girls’ education in the Karamoja sub-region of Uganda.
Very little is known about the experiences of female youth who marry under 18 and later become separated, divorced, or widowed. This briefing paper underscores the unique vulnerabilities and challenges that these youth face in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq (KRI) and South Sudan.
This briefing paper examines the experiences of life after marriage for female youth who married under the age of 18 in South Sudan and the Kurdistan Region of Iraq. It describes how early marriage affects education, mental health, protection issue, and family dynamics.
This briefing paper focuses on the decision-making processes that led displaced female youth to marry early, based on their experiences in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq and South Sudan.
This briefing paper follows displaced female youth in South Sudan who had unintended pregnancies. It describes the circumstances leading to early pregnancy, their after becoming aware of their pregnancies, and the impact of their pregnancies on marriage, education, mental health, family relationships, and household economics.
This report examines how informal social safety nets operate, the functions they serve, who benefits, and the obligations on community members in North and South Darfur.
New shocks (such as Covid-19) and persistent shocks (such as livestock and crop disease) caused rapid changes for young men and women in the Karamoja sub-region of Uganda between 2019…
This briefing paper examines how various shocks affected youth in the Karamoja sub-region of Uganda in 2020 and early 2021.
This assessment examines three ways in which national and international actors have sought to implement long-term, “durable,” solutions to internal displacement in Ethiopia’s Somali Region: resettlement, relocation, and local integration.
The gender gap analysis analyzes available information and identifies evidence and knowledge gaps around livelihood systems from a gender perspective in Isiolo and Marsabit Counties in northern Kenya.
This desk study examines the existing knowledge on how livelihood systems influenced nutritional outcomes in the Marsabit and Isiolo counties in northern Kenya.
Livelihood systems in the Karamoja sub-region of northeastern Uganda have undergone substantial changes in the past two decades due to a number of interlinked processes, including disarmament and improved security,…
This briefing paper is based on a midline quantitative survey for the Apolou project in the Karamoja sub-region of Uganda.
This briefing paper examines the ways in which young people take advantage of emerging livelihood opportunities and respond to shocks.
This briefing paper explores some of the major life events and social markers for young people in the Karamoja sub-region of Uganda.
This paper analyzes and investigates young people’s interactions with savings and credit associations and how this contributed to livelihood strategies.
This briefing paper examines how South Sudanese refugees in settlements in West Nile, Uganda establish and leverage their social connectedness throughout the process of displacement and settlement.
This report describes household recovery in northern Uganda from the 20 years of conflict between the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) and the Government of Uganda (GoU) by following the same…
This paper examines the parallel but separate trajectories of peace-building, transformation, and livelihood recovery in northern (Acholi and Lango sub-regions) and northeastern (Karamoja sub-region) Uganda over the past 15 years….
This briefing paper examines changes to wedding rituals and the nature of marriages in the Bentiu Protection of Civilians site and adjacent areas of Rubkona and Bentiu towns.
This briefing paper explores the establishment and reconfiguration of informal livelihood groups and associations as a form of socioeconomic connectedness in Bentiu, South Sudan.
This briefing paper examines changes in social connectedness in the Bentiu Protection of Civilians site and surrounding town.
This paper synthesizes findings from four studies on youth migration and resilience in different urban contexts. This work emerges from a collaboration between Save the Children US (Save US) and…
This report presents findings on the experiences and aspirations of male and female youth as they interact with the economic and aid systems in the Karamoja sub-region of Uganda. This…
This report reflects findings from the baseline quantitative study of a four-year research project in the Karamoja sub-region of Uganda. We describe different aspects of wealth, such as animal-related wealth…
This working paper presents findings on the migration of youth from Acholi, Uganda to the urban areas of Gulu and Pabbo in northern Uganda, and to the Acholi Quarter neighborhood in Kampala.
Research and observations over the past decade have pointed to the high prevalence of alcohol use in Karamoja. Brews made locally of sorghum and maize have sociocultural, nutritional, and economic…
This briefing paper examines alcohol brewing and consumption in Karamoja, Uganda from the health and economic perspectives.
FEINSTEIN RESEARCH PROJECTS
This research study investigates the ways in which pastoralists in cross-border areas in the Moyale and Mandera Clusters of East Africa engage in anticipatory action.
This project investigates what drives child wasting in Kenya, Ethiopia, and Somalia and identifies effective prevention strategies.
The Cities of Youth project seeks to understand how climate change influences patterns of youth migration to secondary cities in Uganda.
This project aims to improve the lives and livelihoods of populations in pastoral areas of the Sudano-Sahel and Greater Horn of Africa by ensuring that early warning systems and humanitarian action are better attuned and more responsive to the needs and realities of these communities.
USAID Nawiri is an evidence-based development project to address acute malnutrition in northern Kenya. Catholic Relief Services leads a consortium in Isiolo and Marsabit counties, and Feinstein provides research and capacity-building support.
Feinstein’s work as part of the Apolou project seeks to understand the impacts over time of a shift to an increasingly cash-based economy on different wealth, livelihood, and demographic groups.
Our latest research shows that we do not know enough about early marriage to design programs and policies that effectively support female youth in the ways that they need. This study is generating the evidence humanitarians need.
The RISING II operational research analyzes the informal social safety nets—how they function, who benefits from them, and how external support interacts with them—in multiple program areas in Darfur, Sudan.
This study reviewed different options for durable solutions to internal displacement in the Somali Region of Ethiopia to inform and improve efforts by national and international stakeholders.
In this partnership with Mercy Corps, the Feinstein International Center team investigates the nature of social networks and social connectedness, and explores how humanitarian assistance can strengthen these as a key aspect of resilience, recovery and relief interventions in complex humanitarian emergencies.
The Karamoja Resilience Support Unit (KRSU) is an initiative of USAID/Uganda aimed at increasing resilience and economic development in the Karamoja Region of Uganda.
The Secure Livelihoods Research Consortium aims to generate a stronger evidence base on how people in conflict-affected situations make a living, access basic services like health care, education and water, and perceive and engage with governance at local and national levels.
From 2005 to 2017, we developed a wide-ranging research portfolio on livelihoods systems under stress throughout the Greater Horn of Africa and beyond. This project synthesizes key themes of that research.
The Humanitarian Evidence Program produces a series of evidence syntheses to distill humanitarian evidence and communicate it to key stakeholders in order to enable better decision-making and improve humanitarian policy and practice.
This USAID-funded five-year project (2014-2019) aims to improve food security, resilience, and livelihoods for poor and marginalized communities in select areas of rural Nepal.
This project aimed to improve disaster risk reduction interventions by studying the relationship between disaster risk and livelihood strategies.