Dr Ismail, Lecturer in Criminology in the School for Policy Studies, will lead this project with co-investigators Dr Thaatchaayini Kananatu (Monash University, Malaysia), Professor Pitch Pongsawat (Chulalongkorn University, Thailand), and Dr Elmer Soriano (Civika Asian Development Academy, Philippines).

The research will examine how state democracy, capacity, resilience, and multilateral cooperation impact pandemic preparedness in prisons across Malaysia, the Philippines, and Thailand.

The findings from the project will provide actionable insights for politicians and policymakers to develop more substantive, inclusive and effective future pandemic preparedness programmes.

Dr Ismail said, "Prisons in Southeast Asia have faced numerous pandemics, including SARS, the Nipah virus, H5N1, and COVID-19. It is crucial to capture the lessons learned from these experiences to enhance system resilience and preparedness for future pandemics.

"Not only will these programmes benefit prisoners and prison staff, they will also help these countries, as well as others in Southeast Asia, meet their commitments under the Sustainable Development Goals 2030.

"We would like to thank the British Academy for their funding, and express our gratitude to the anonymous reviewers and the Funding Panel for their rigorous evaluation and enthusiastic support of our proposal."

The 18-month research project, ‘Penal pandemic: A comparative study on COVID-19 pandemic experiences in Southeast Asian prisons to inform future pandemic preparedness’, is funded by the prestigious British Academy 2024 ODA Challenge-Oriented Research Grants Programme.

The programme focuses on specific global challenges and seeks to provide opportunities to develop and deepen international research collaborations, deliver policy relevant ODA-eligible research on specific global challenges, and engage with local and national community, societal, business and policy stakeholders to design, develop and embed the research findings.