The right to health is vital. Therefore, its promotion should be in the best interest of all governments. Yet, not all health provision is the same, even amongst similar countries. Senegal and...Show moreThe right to health is vital. Therefore, its promotion should be in the best interest of all governments. Yet, not all health provision is the same, even amongst similar countries. Senegal and Sierra Leone are two West African countries with low levels of Human Development, and high levels of poverty. Nevertheless, Senegal has, according to the World Health Organisation’s Ranking of Health Systems, the 58th best health system worldwide, while Sierra Leone has the worst, at 191st. By asking the following question: Why did Senegal Perform Better than Sierra Leone in the World Health Organisation’s Latest Health Systems Rankings? This thesis aims to discover the factors leading to two countries with several similarities between them having such a stark difference in terms of their health systems. Through a review of theory and literature, this research explores the long-term effects of direct and indirect colonial rule. The goal here is to discover if the institutions built by the colonial powers affect the way modern-day states operate. The results indicate that indirect rule has led to Sierra Leone’s state fragmentation and institutional inefficiencies, while direct rule established ties between France and Senegal which undermine Senegal’s sovereignty. As a result, this thesis concludes that colonial institutions are a factor in the operations of modern-day governments and could therefore explain the difference in the results of Senegal and Sierra Leone’s positions in the WHO Rankings of Health Systems.Show less
This thesis will argue that the collaboration between local elites in Aceh, the uleebalang, and the Dutch colonials after the establishment of civil governance in 1918 was an uneasy one. In...Show moreThis thesis will argue that the collaboration between local elites in Aceh, the uleebalang, and the Dutch colonials after the establishment of civil governance in 1918 was an uneasy one. In contrast with existing historiography that depicted the position of uleebalang merely as the henchmen of the colonial authorities, this thesis will examine a specific event, that is the involvement of several uleebalang in North Aceh into the mass organization Sarekat Islam (Union of Islam) in the 1920s, to provide new insight into the nature of the collaboration and the making of modern political life in Aceh. In brief, this case presented anxiety and distrust of Dutch officials towards their local collaborator, the uleebalang, due to their activity in Sarekat Islam. By focusing on 1918-1923, this thesis attempts to analyze how Aceh was integrated into the colonial administration of the Dutch East Indies by means of collaboration with its local elites, the uleebalang. Rather than looking at the selected events of Sarekat Islam in North Aceh merely as local dynamics as previous research has done, this thesis will discuss the connection between local events with wider networks of anti-colonial resistance in the Dutch East Indies between 1918-1923. In doing so, this thesis aims to fill the gap in the historiography of colonial Aceh in its early years of civil rule while also contributing to the historiography of colonial civil administration of the Dutch East Indies.Show less
