The research project studies the impact of transnational organised crime and drug-trafficking (TNOC) on poor urban communities in Port-of-Spain, Trinidad, which has seen crime and violence soar since the mid-1990s as the city became transhipment point in the illegal drugs trade. We address the impact of TNOC on vulnerable populations, culture and security by considering the 'transnational-to-community' impact of drug-trafficking. In particular we consider how TNOC contributes to a number of male residents becoming increasingly violent at a micro level as 92% of homicide victims are men: how do relatively benign 'corner kids' turn into violent gang members? In turn we ask, how can these communities work with young men to insulate themselves from the negative impact and violence generation of TNOC? This research uses masculinities as an interpretive lens and draws upon scholars across the disciplines of Peace Studies, Cultural Anthropology, and International Relations. The methodology is rooted in Trinidadian 'Spoken Word' traditions, and art and music, to grasp how male identity, culture, community violence and TNOC intersect. Before high levels of TNOC emerged, the region had relatively low levels of violent crime. However, this changed rapidly with the onset of cocaine trafficking in early 1990s across the Caribbean which dovetailed with the multiple clefts of colonial legacies, exclusion and poverty, worsened by the collapse of traditional agricultural exports, racial divisions and widespread institutional weaknesses. Violent death rates in cities in the region have grown to outstrip many warzones, whilst some of the highest rates of sexual and gender based violence (SGBV) in the world are found in the Caribbean. The answers to understanding violence must be sought at the interface between cocaine-driven TNOC and vulnerable communities, as poor residents have become disproportionately affected by violence. TNOC has weakened the rule of law, posing stiff challenges to already struggling institutions, whilst transforming local communities, hence the rather topical title of this research proposal 'Breaking Bad'. However, we still understand relatively little about the transformative processes between TNOC and community level violence. Furthermore, we understand little about how masculinities become violent in communities traversed by TNOC. It is at the intersection between TNOC, community, and masculinities, that the new violence of Port-of-Spain can be most productively understood. Certainly it is an area where we must strengthen policy and programming. Whilst there is no silver-bullet solution to violence in these cities, masculinities are clearly an important part of the solution and are almost completely overlooked. This research project strives to create pragmatic, evidence based recommendations to lead to concrete impact by promoting innovative, community-led and gender-based solutions for the populations that most suffer from violence, whilst serving to interrupt the negative impact that TNOC has on poor neighbourhoods.

Research on adolescent sexual and reproductive health (SRH) in sub-Saharan Africa is heavily focused on preventing unintended pregnancies and preventing HIV infection. However, very little of this work focuses on, and actively targets, boys and young men. Gender-transformative approaches, or approaches that seek to shift gender norms and power relations, have been hailed as one way to disrupt underlying factors that can lead to poor health outcomes and drive HIV infection and adolescent pregnancy. Applying a gender-transformative approach in South Africa and Lesotho, across two low-resource settings with very high rates of both HIV and adolescent pregnancy, our research aims to meet an urgent need for localised solutions and do so in an innovative and inclusive way. The aim of this study is to address the evidence gap by adapting the If I Were Jack programme for use in South Africa and Lesotho, under the name If I Were Thabo. The original programme, developed in the UK, is a group-based intervention delivered to adolescents in educational settings, which includes a culturally sensitive interactive film about an adolescent who discovers that his girlfriend is unexpectedly pregnant, and a guided discussion about how participants would feel and react in his position. The programme is accompanied by educational materials and sessions for adolescents' caregivers, and has been shown to be acceptable and cost-effective in its current form. We propose to adapt the programme in two LMICs, South Africa and Lesotho, in partnership with adolescents, parents, teachers, community members and local experts. We will target adolescents aged 13-14, an age range where there is still potential to prevent sexual risk-taking before the majority of adolescents are sexually active, and before the increase in pregnancy and STIs reported in later adolescence. To develop and test the intervention, the proposed study will involve two phases. First, we will work with adolescents, their parents and caregivers, teachers, health professionals and other key community members to adapt and optimise the programme materials from the UK for use in South Africa and Lesotho. This will involve co-producing locally relevant and appropriate intervention materials in each site. Adolescents will work with researchers and filmmakers to write, cast and develop new films in each site, and advise on the acceptability of text-based material, and their caregivers will be consulted on caregiver-targeted information. Teachers, community group facilitators and healthcare professionals will provide feedback on materials designed for programme facilitators. In addition, we will ask adolescents and their caregivers to give feedback on some of the research tools that will be used in the next phase. Next, we will run a pilot of the programme within a feasibility cluster randomised trial to assess if the intervention implementation and evaluation design is feasible in both countries. As a part of this phase we will survey adolescents in schools and community groups, half of whom will be randomly chosen to receive the intervention and the other half of whom will continue with 'normal practice'. We will assess whether the questionnaires capture the necessary information on SRH outcomes for this group, including intentions relating to adolescent pregnancy, and HIV and STI infection. We will also evaluate whether the processes needed to implement the programme work well. After programme completion, we will interview adolescents and other stakeholders about their opinions of the programme and whether it is feasible to deliver in schools and community groups, and what will hinder or help the implementation in the two settings. Based on these results, we will decide if it will be feasible to do a larger trial of the intervention in both sites to see if the programme is effective in improving SRH for adolescents in these countries.