The Inception Workshop is an intensive two days’ work session aiming at defining the contours of the research and exchanging perspectives and information among team members/researchers and invited scholars.

The first objective of the meeting is to, based on a review of background literature, fine-tune the research questions, data collection, and overall orientation. This will mark the inception of the research and lead to the identification of (provisional) relevant categories of urban migrants and stakeholders who will be surveyed and interviewed, the sampling methods, and the data collection instruments. The team will elaborate both the structured questionnaire – that will be considerably focused and not excessively long – and guidelines for qualitative research/interviews

The second objective is to define the research sites, which will include:

• consolidated boomtowns spawning from mining/extractives activity and/or to cross-border trade;
  

• former/consolidated refugee camps along the Zambia/Angola border, Angola/DRC border, and in the Zambia/DRC border;
  

• renewed/consolidated slums/peripheries in Luanda, Kinshasa, Lusaka, some of which were recently subject to upgrading programs.

While the project already identifies some of the possible empirical research sites, they can be altered after the workshop and even after the first round of consultations on the ground at the inception of fieldwork, after evaluating their relevance and/or logistical conditions for conducting research.

The third objective of the Workshop is to define the forms of engaging the partners at the University Agostinho Neto – Faculty of Social Sciences (Angola), the University of Kinshasa – Faculty of Social Sciences Policy and Administrative (DRC), and the University of Zambia – School of Humanities and Social Sciences.

This event will be documented (photo, film, interviews).