News

December 2019

Update from HOD, Professor Ken Shadlen 

In November, Professor Shadlen spent two weeks as a Visiting Professor at the Federal University of Minas Gerais, in Belo Horizonte, Brazil. While there, he delivered three lectures, and worked on a project with colleagues regarding the relationship between intellectual property rights and levels of profits in the global pharmaceutical industry. 
 
Earlier this month, Professor Shadlen participated in the Global Forum on Intellectual Property, Access to Medicines and Innovation, organized by the South Centre and the Max Planck Institute for Innovation and Competition, in Munich. His presentation was entitled “Responding to the Challenges of Secondary Patents in Pharmaceuticals.”

Earlier this month, Professor Shadlen spoke to BBC Newsnight about the US trade deals and the NHS. Professor Shadlen's research focuses on on the political economy of health and pharmaceutical policies, the dynamics of “North-South” trade agreements, and the changing patterns of government-business relations and democratisation. Watch the interview again here (03:29). 

November 2019

Article published in memory of Dr Birney

The journal Democratization has recently published an article on social media and political discussion in China, 'Designing authoritarian deliberation: how social media platforms influence political talk in China'. The authors of this article, Daniela Stockmann, Ting Luo, and Mingming Shen, were working on the piece when Assistant Professor Mayling Birney passed away in September 2017. In appreciation of the benefits they received from all of Mayling’s inputs into the project, the authors included this kind acknowledgement in the published version:
“This article is dedicated to the memory of the late Mayling Birney (1972–2017) whose research on voicing opinions in Chinese surveys inspired this research.”

November 2019 

Professor Keen on the West’s obsession with border security

Professor David Keen collaborated with Dr Ruben Anderson on an article for Foreign Policy, in which they discuss how the emboldening authoritarian regimes of the EU, the United States and Australia are fuelling abuses and corruption.

Read the full article here. 

November 2019 

Professor Faguet on Boliva's elections   

Professor Jean-Paul Faguet was interviewed by BBC World Service's Dan Damon about the political situation in Bolivia on both Wednesday 13 November and Friday 15 November. Before joining LSE, Professor Faguet, worked for the World Bank in La Paz, Bolivia on health, education, early childhood development and the environment. He is also the author of 'Governance from Below: Decentralization and Popular Democracy in Bolivia'.  

October 2019

PositiveNegatives and Ipas awarded Funding from KEISG 

Professor Ernestina Coast has been awarded £96,000 by the LSE’s Knowledge Exchange & Impact Strategy Group (KEISG) to work with PositiveNegatives and Ipas to create contextually-relevant stories, likely with a social media focus – to reach and engage adolescents aged 10-19 years in Ethiopia, Malawi and Zambia about abortion, contraception, and abortion-related care. This funding is based on interviews with more than 300 adolescents who sought abortion-related care – either safe abortion or postabortion care following an unsafe abortion - in the public health sector in urban settings in these three countries, as part of Professor Coast’s MRC/DFID-funded research project, “Improving adolescent access to contraception and abortion-related care”. 

There are currently no adolescent-specific communications about abortion in any of the three countries, and this funding will help us work with artists and communicators from within these countries to use our research findings to inform country-specific communications tailored to adolescents. Collaborating on this project provides a unique opportunity to share and scale up low literacy versions of our findings specifically targeting young people in their own languages in private and impactful ways.   

October 2019

Dr Kar and Dr Sequeria on this year’s Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences

Dr Sohini Kar and Dr Sandra Sequeria we interviewed by sciencemag.com for their opinions about this year’s Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences. Whilst Dr Sequeria congratulates the winners, Dr Kar encourages caution when using randomized controlled trials in the fight against poverty. 

You can read the full article here. 

October 2019

One Year Anniversary for the CRP Blog

The CRP Blog turned one on Thursday 3 October. Over the past year, the blog has published insightful and thought provoking articles on Syria, Iraq, DRC and Somalia, covering an array of topics.

You can check out the CRP blog here. 

September 2019

Update from our Head of Department, Professor Ken Shadlen 

Professor Shadlen presented the keynote lecture at a seminar in Buenos Aires on Argentina's possible accession to the Patent Cooperation Treaty. The event took place in the Bolsa de Comercio de Buenos Aires (the Buenos Aires Stock Exchange) on Wednesday 28 August. His presentation was entitled "Argentina en el mundo de TRIPS/ADPIC: patentes secundarias y los desafíos por venir" (Argentina in the World of TRIPS: Secondary Patents and the Challenges to Come).

Professor Shadlen also presented a paper "TRIPS, Patents, and Drugs in India," co-authored with Margaret Kyle (ParisMines) and Bhaven Sampat (Columbia) at the annual meeting of EPIP (European Policy for Intellectual Property), 11-13 September, in Zurich. 

September 2019

Professor Kabeer's new documentary: Rice and Fish Curry

The documentary, Rice and Fish Curry, produced by Professor Naila Kabeer and directed by Gautam Bose is about a project intended to help some of its poorest families in West Bengal to move out of extreme poverty onto more sustainable livelihood trajectories.

This film spoke to six of these women in 2007 when they were just joining the project. It returned in 2018, a decade later, to find out to what extent the project had fulfilled its promise.

Watch the full documentary here. 

August 2019 

Professor Robert Wade on Trump and the rise of the "Strongman" 

Professor Robert Wade was interviewed by New Zealand broadcaster, Kim Hill, for her magazine programme Saturday Morning. In the interview, Professor Wade is asked about his thoughts on the rise of authoritarianism, the effect of AI on the labour markets, and the grievances feeding populism.

You can listen to the full interview here. 

August 2019 

Goodbye Professor Dyson and Dr Roelofs!

Professor Tim Dyson, Professor of Population Studies, and Dr Portia Roelofs, LSE Fellow in International Development, will be leaving us this summer. Professor Dyson will be retiring to enjoy his life with his family and dogs, whilst Dr Roelofs will join St Anne's College, Oxford, as a Junior Research Fellow in Politics and Political Theory in October 2019. 

The International Development Department would like to say thank you and best wishes to both of them. We wish them the very best on their new journeys!

July 2019 

Professor Kate Meagher's "Taxing Times" receives the Dudley Seers Memorial Prize

An article by Professor Kate Meagher entitled “Taxing Times: Taxation, divided societies and the informal economy in Northern Nigeria”, published in The Journal of Development Studies 54(1), has been awarded the journal's Dudley Seers Memorial Prize for the best article of 2018. 

The article challenges the popular contention that taxing the informal economy is an effective means of enhancing political voice among informal actors and rebuilding the social contract between the state and society. 

You can read the full article here. 

July 2019 

Development Studies alumna Emma Smith on LSE's "The Ones to Watch List"

Congratulations to Development Studies alumna Emma Smith who is on LSE's "The Ones to Watch List" for her work at Eversend, which uses blockchain technology to provide a mobile money transfer service in Africa. The application has over 9000 users and has successfully facilitated over $5.5million worth of transactions.

Emma won funding for Eversend from LSE Generate in December 2018 and she has participated in this year’s LSE Festival New World (Dis)Orders.

You can see the full list of LSE's Ones to Watch here. 

July 2019 

Professor Naila Kabeer’s Seeds of Change harvest: a ‘simple’ question of respect and equality

In this interview with CGIAR, Kabeer reflects on gender in agriculture, her life lessons on gender and suggestions on areas to explore further and for future scientists to take at heart.

You can read the full interview here. 

July 2019 

Professor Kathy Hochstetler hosts Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change

Professor Kathy Hochstetler hosted a workshop of climate scholars from five continents in July with Indian scholar Navroz Dubash. The aim was to prepare papers on climate institutions that can be used to inform the next international report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

You can read the full report here. 

June 2019

Follow us on LinkedIn!

The Department of International Development at LSE now has a LinkedIn page. 

Follow us for the latest job postings, opportunities and programmes from the department.  

Follow us on LinkedIn here. 

June 2019

Max Gallien on the role of the state in North Africa's smuggling economies

PhD candidate, Max Gallien, summaries a recent paper in an article published by the Washington Post in which he shows that most smuggling in North Africa is indirectly regulated by the region’s states. 

Max Gallien's research specialises in the political economy of informal and illegal economies. 

You can read the full article here. 

May 2019 

LSE-Stanford-Uniandes Conference 2019

The Department of Economics at the Universidad de los Andes hosted the third annual Uniandes-LSE-Stanford conference on long-run development on 30-31 May 2019.

The multi-disciplinary event was hosted by Universidad de los Andes to probe the institutional, political, and economic drivers of long-run development. Most papers focuses on Latin America, but with important comparative research from Africa and Asia.

Conference organisers: María del Pilar López-Uribe (LSE & Los Andes), Jean-Paul Faguet (LSE), Alberto Díaz-Cayeros (Stanford) and Fabio Sanchez Torres (Uniandes).

More about the event here. 

May 2019 

Dr Joana Naritomi on consumer tax

Seema Jayachandran mentions Dr Joana Naritomi's research on consumers as tax auditors in her recent article for the New York Times.

Read the full article here. 

May 2019 

Professor David Keen contributes to Al-Jazeera programme on starvation in Yemen

David Keen, Professor of Complex Emergencies, contributes to this 25-minute documentary that aims to document the latest on the humanitarian crisis through interviews with experts about mass starvation as a possible war crime and asks whether the world is desensitised to hunger.  

Watch the full programme here.

May 2019 

Professor Tim Forsyth informs on UK aid and climate change

Tim Forsyth, Professor of Environment and Development, provided specialist guidance for a new report from the House of Commons International Development
Committee entitled: UK aid for combating climate change: Eleventh Report of Session 2017–19 

Read the full report here. 

May 2019 

Dr Sohini Kar on microfinance in India

In this short 10-minute interview, Dr Sohini Kar discusses India's development record, its history of microfinance initiatives and the Government's record on expanding financial inclusion across the country.

Watch the full interview here. 

April 2019
Dr Tiziana Leone presents at the Population Association of America

Dr Tiziana Leone presented her research on Timing and Determinants of Age at Menarche in Lower Middle-Income Countries at the 2019 Population Association of America Annual Meeting in Austin over the weekend of April 10-13. 

Find out more about the meeting here.

March 2019
Professor Naila Kabeer gives her first public lecture in Canberra

In her first public lecture in Canberra, world-renowned feminist development economist Professor Naila Kabeer discussed policies and programmes seeking to promote women’s empowerment. The lecture brought together key findings on livelihood capabilities in rural development in the Global South, with specific attention to their role in agriculture.

The sold out event was hosted by the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR) and the University of Canberra.

Find out more about the event here. 

March 2019
The ID at LSE Blog celebrates International Women’s Day

To celebrate International Women’s Day 2019, the ID at LSE Blog published three posts around the issues of women empowerment.

The first article: International Women’s Day blog: The grit behind the glitch, was contributed by current student Krista Kartson, who introduced us to Seyi Akiwowo - Newham’s youngest Councillor and the founder of Glitch, a non-profit start-up aimed at ending cyber bullying.

The second article: Access to quality and equitable education can transform women’s lives, was a contribution from alum, Asmat Kakar, who reports on two case studies from young women living in rural Balochistan. Both women share their inspirational stories about how they transform their lives through accessing education, despite the odds being against them.

And the third article: UNSCR 1325: Time to move from letter to spirit, was a contribution from alumni Anushna Jha, Valerie Gebhard and Youmna Cham, who outline the main achievements and shortcomings of the Women, Peace and Security Resolution 1325. 
 
Read more ID at LSE articles on gender here. 

March 2019
Citing Africa podcast launches

The Firoz Lalji Centre for Africa has launched its new podcast series, Citing Africa, which investigates the decline of Africa-based contributions in top international academic journals. The series provides practical guidance to young scholars seeking to publish their own work and takes a critical look at the wider context of knowledge production about the African continent.

Find out more about the podcast series here.

March 2019
Students share their takeaways from the ID guest lecture series

International Development students were invited to write about the weekly Cutting Edge Issues in Development Thinking and Practice visiting lecture series hosted by the Department. The weekly talks introduced postgraduate students to pressing issues in the field and engaged them in discourses that affect decision making in the professional world. Speakers included: Ha Joon Chang, Kate Raworth, Rory Stewart, Yuen Yuen Ang, Stefan Dercon, Owen Barder, Saleemul Huq, Melissa Parker, Kevin Watkins, James Walters, Laura Kelly, Rafeef Ziadah.

Read the event blog posts here. 

March 2019
Book launch: Financialising Poverty: labour and risk in Indian microfinance

On Thursday 21 February, we celebrated the launch of Dr Sohini Kar’s new book, Financialising Poverty: labour and risk in Indian microfinance, from Stanford University Press. The event featured a talk by the author, with comments from Dr Deborah James from LSE's Department of Anthropology and Dr Kate Meagher from LSE’s Department of International Development. The event was chaired by Professor Kenneth Shadlen, HOD for the Department of International Development. 

"The book also talks about de-risking. De-risking is about shifting as much risk as possible onto the borrowers to protect the lenders." - Dr Kate Meagher

March 2019
Professor Kenneth Shadlen wins ISA Book Prize 

Professor Kenneth Shadlen has been announced as winner of the International Studies Association's Global Health Studies Section Book Prize for his book, Coalitions and Compliance: the political economy of pharmaceutical patents in Latin America. 

The Global Health Section Book Prize recognises the best book on any aspect of global health published in the previous two years. The prize was announced at the Global Health Section Business Meeting at the ISA Annual Convention and was also recognised at the Global Health Section reception.

Find out more about the prize here. 

February 2019
Alumna, Emma Smith, mentioned in the Forbes list for 30 Under 30

We're extremely proud of last year's MSc International Development and Humanitarian Emergencies graduate, Emma Smith, who has been listed in the Forbes list for 30 Under 30 - Europe - Technology 2019.

Emma is co-founder and chief operating officer of Eversend, a mobile-wallet payment system for consumers in Africa. The Berlin, Germany-based startup uses blockchain technology to allow people to send money via mobile phones and avoid costly transfer fees. 

Find out more about Eversend here. 

February 2019
The LSE Festival 2019: New World (Dis)Orders 

The LSE Festival 2019 theme is 'New World (Dis)Orders'. How did we get here? What are the challenges? And, importantly, how can we tackle them? LSE invites members of the public to an exhibition of research on these themes by LSE students and staff in the New Academic Building, 25 February-2 March 2019. 

The following is a list of nominations from the department for this year's research festival: 

The Indispensable Work and the Invisible Workers: undocumented Bangladeshi women immigrants in the Indian informal economy
Harshita Sinha
Written pitch

Conflict, Trauma and Peace: critical psychology approaches for peacebuilding?
Eric Frasco
Written pitch

Consumerism, Artificial Intelligence and the Death of Human Connection
Renuka Ramasamy
Photograph

Rice and Fish Curry
Prof Naila Kabeer
Short film

Please note that voting closes at 9am on Wednesday 27 February

You can see the full list of nominations here

January 2019
Book launch and lively debate on nationalism, development and ethnic conflict in Sri Lanka

On the evening of Tuesday 22 January, the Department of International Development celebrated the launch of Dr Rajesh Venugopal's book, Nationalism, Development and Ethnic Conflict in Sri Lanka through Cambridge University Press. The two part series kicked off with a discussion on the book from the author and Professor Dr David Keen, chaired by Dr Alessandra Radicati. The second half of the event invited external speakers, Dr. Farzana Haniffa (University of Colombo / Cambridge), Iromi Perera (The Asia Foundation) and Vindhya Buthpitiya (UCL) to discuss the current political crisis in Sri Lanka, followed by a lively Q&A session with the audience. 

You can listen to the podcast of the event here.

January 2019
Wellcome Award MSc in Health and International Development

LSE is pleased to announce the Wellcome Award MSc in Health and International Development scholarship for the 2019/20 session. The MSc in Health and International Development programme will award a full scholarship to one student per year, for 3 years starting in 2019/20. Funded by the Wellcome Trust, these scholarships will support the very best students seeking a career in health-related social science research.  

Find out more about the scholarship here. 

January 2019
Professors Forsyth and Putzel on the role of decentralisation in development 

Professors James Putzel and Tim Forsyth comment on the sense of alarm amongst UK-based companies, both Asian and non-Asian, for Asia Times Online. 

Read the full article here. 

December 2018

Political Economy and Governance in Syria Conference

With a grant from the ID RIIF fund and additional support from the DFID fund, the Conflict Research Programme organised a conference between 4-5 December titled ‘Political Economy and Governance in Syria Conference’. The conference subsumed both academics, especially from LSE ID, and policy makers from the UK, the EU, the UN, Norway, Sweden and Canada.

The conference covered a number of pre-identified key topics including, but not exclusive to:

1. The current political economy with emphasis on main economic developments, shifting power relations and the creation of new business elites, housing and land management, diagnosing current reconstruction efforts and discussing possible conditionalities, and the potential role of Syria’s private sector in economic development and peacebuilding mechanisms.

2. The current and post-conflict governance, with particular attention to local governance mechanisms and elections, health governance, and the potentialities, opportunities and obstacles to decentralisation in Syria.

3. The role of civil society, with a focus on new CRP research on the contribution of the Syrian Civil Society to the Geneva process through the Civil Society Support Room and on its research on the documentation required for transitional justice mechanisms in Syria.

Find out more about the conference here.

December 2018

The Politics of Humanitarianism: Perspectives from South Sudan  

On Friday 23 November, the Conflict Research Programme launched a new paper on the politics of humanitarianism in South Sudan, which adds a distinctive perspective to these debates by drawing on the expertise of twelve prominent South Sudanese academics and activists. The event explored issues of humanitarian access, accountability, authority and the roles of South Sudanese humanitarian activists. Jok Madut Jok, Martin Ochaya, Alex de Waal, Naomi Pendle and Rachel Ibreck sat on a panel that collectively questioned norms of humanitarian knowledge production, and discussed the histories and futures of South Sudanese humanitarian agenda setting.

Please contact a.m.robinson@lse.ac.uk to request the paper. 

December 2018

Professor Coast nominated for the #LSEWomen Series

"Working in sexual and reproductive health, it’s the activists and providers of sexual and reproductive health services who inspire me. Often, they’re working in difficult situations and putting themselves at personal risk to provide services that, in a country like the UK, we can take for granted." - Ernestina Coast

Professor Ernestina Coast has been nominated by her students to share her experiences as a social scientist specialising in sexual and reproductive health for the #LSEWomen series. She joins Professor Naila Kabeer, also from the Department of International Development. 

Read her inspiring story here.

December 2018

Professor Faguet on why stable political party systems suddenly collapse 

Professor Jean-Paul Faguet was interviewed by Professor in Practice and strategic adviser for Oxfam GB, Duncan Green, for his From Poverty to Power podcast series, about his new paper in which he suggests we can open an analytical window into the causes of the rapid collapse of previously stable political party systems by examining the experience of Bolivia.

Listen to the interview and read a short summary of the paper here. 

December 2018

Dr Kar on Financializing Poverty 

Dr Sohini Kar spoke to newbooksnetwork.com about her new book Financializing Poverty: labor and risk in Indian microfinance. Drawing on fieldwork with a for-profit microfinance institution (MFI) and its intended beneficiaries in the Indian city of Kolkata, the book brings into view the perils of “financial inclusion” for the poor. Kar argues that new streams of credit are increasingly used to capitalise on poverty rather than to challenge it. 

Listen to the podcast interview here. 

A launch event for the book will be held at LSE on Thursday 21 February. 

November 2018

Professor Tim Forsyth appointed Specialist Adviser to the Houses of Parliament   

Professor of Environment and Development, Tim Forsyth, has been appointed as Specialist Adviser to the Houses of Parliament International Development Committee (IDC), with special reference to climate change and aid. His work will involve advising on how UKAid can assist with climate change in the future. 

The IDC monitors the policy, administration and spending of the Department for International Development (DFID) and its associated public bodies and takes an interest in the policies and procedures of the multilateral agencies and non-government organisations to which DFID contributes.

Find out more about the IDC here. 

November 2018

Roundtable on contracting of basic public services to NGOs in China

Professor Jude Howell hosted a roundtable on the Contracting of Basic Public Services to NGOs in China in October 2018 on behalf of a joint National Development Reform Commission (China) and UNICEF programme on the Innovative Delivery of Public Services. Key speakers included Dr Regina Enjuto-Martinez (LSE) on experiences from the disability sector in the UK and its relevance to China, Dr Andy West on experiences from children’s services in the UK and their relevance to China, and Michael Birtwistle (National Council of Voluntary Organisations, UK) on the lessons from contracting government services to NGOs in the UK. Both Dr Enjuto-Martinez and Dr West were contributors to an edited volume by Wang Puqu and Jude Howell on the UK and China experiences of government procurement of public services from NGOs.

Find out more about the funded project here.

November 2018

Professor Naila Kabeer on overcoming inequalities

Professor in Gender Studies, Naila Kabeer spoke at the Opening Event for the UNRISD Conference Overcoming Inequalities in a Fractured World: Between Elite Power and Social Mobilisation on Thursday 8 and Friday 9 November. Speakers also included Saskia Sassen from Columbia University and Jomo Kwame Sundaram from the Council of Eminent Persons, Malaysia.

Professor Kabeer will also be speaking at the Fletcher School's Conference on Gender and International Affairs: Gender, justice and politics: movement from the margins on Friday 16 to Saturday 17 November at Tufts University.

Find out more about the UNRISD conference here. 

November 2018

Professor Jean-Paul Faguet on better spending for better lives

Professor of the Political Economy of Development, Jean-Paul Faguet spoke at a recent panel discussion hosted by the LSE Latin America and Caribbean Centre (LACC) and the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB). The panel discussed the IDB’s flagship Development in the Americas report, Better Spending for Better Lives. 

Find out more about the event here. 

November 2018

Professor Kathy Hochstetler on Bolsonaro and the Amazon 

Professor of International Development, Kathy Hochstetler, wrote an article for the Foreign Policy blog in which she states that Bolsonaro could get the support he needs to pass his environmental proposals through the legislature. 

Read the full article here. 

November 2018

Henry Musa Kpala receives funding from the International Growth Centre 

Research student Henry Musa Kpala has received £20K funding from the International Growth Centre for his research proposal “Chiefdom Land Committees and Reducing Insecurity over Land Tenure in Rural Sierra Leone”. 

His research will ask the following questions: What has been the effect of Chiefdom Land Committees at providing access to a more secure land tenure for the rural poor, and at preventing and resolving dispute over land? The 2004 political decentralisation process made provision for an elected local council member to be a member of the chiefdom land committees, which hitherto had been dominated by people handpicked by the paramount chiefs. Has this inclusion had any effect on the security of tenure for the rural poor, and at preventing conflict over land? 

October 2018

FLCA researcher makes final shortlist for prestigious Herskovits Prize

FLCA Research Fellow, Dr Holly Porter has been selected as a finalist for the 2018 Melville J Herskovits Prize for her book, After Rape: violence, justice and social harmony in Uganda.

Published in 2017, After Rape examines issues of wrongdoing and justice, and sexual violence and rape among the Acholi people in northern Uganda. The Herskovits Prize is awarded annually by the Africa Studies Association to the author of the best scholarly work in African studies published in English during the preceding year.

Find out more about the book here. 

October 2018

Professor Mkandawire receives Honorary Degree

Professor Thandika Mkandawire, former Director of the United Nations Research Institute for Social Development, has been awarded an Honorary Doctor of Law Degree from York University, Toronto. 

Professor Mkandawire is also the first person to hold the Chair in African Development at the London School of Economics and Political Science.

Find out more about Professor Mkandwire here. 

October 2018

Assistant Professor in Health and International Development needed to join our team 

The Department of International Development is recruiting for an Assistant Professor in Health and International Development. The appointed candidate will contribute to the intellectual life of the School through conducting and publishing outstanding quality research, engaging in high quality teaching as instructed by the Head of Department, and participating in the School and wider Department activities. 

Deadline for applications is Monday 19 November 2018.

Click here to find out more about the position. 

October 2018

The Conflict Research Fellowship (CRF) - 2019

The Conflict Research Fellowship (CRF) offers year-long support for experienced scholars (based at a university or NGO). 

Successful fellowship candidates will need to examine how different interventions affect violent conflict and/or the risk of renewed violent conflict; analyze “what works” to counter drivers of conflict; and explore the contextual factors that affect the efficacy of such interventions, including the linkages among international, national, state, and local-level dynamics.

Deadline for applications is Sunday 6 January 2019.

Click here to find out more about the fellowship. 

October 2018

Thailand's Future forward party under the spotlight  

The Department of International Department hosted a public event that allowed academics and audience members to challenge leaders of the newly formed Future Forward to explain their political agenda and their vision for Thailand.

The May 2014 military coup in Thailand ushered in a junta that halted a period of mass demonstrations and ended open conflicts between competing political factions. After repeated postponements, a general election has been promised for 2019. As part of a realignment of the old party system, a new political party known as Future Forward was formed early this year, and has generated considerable media interest.

The event examined prospects for change in Thailand and posed the following questions: Will fresh elections really restore democracy? Is Future Forward fundamentally different from other Thai parties, or a variation on old themes? Can new parties such as Future Forward help overcome deep social and regional divisions? To what extent can young Thai voters, many of whom are disillusioned with electoral politics, become re-engaged? How can Thailand move on from military regimes and forge stable inclusive governance?

See the Twitter feed for answers to these questions here. 

October 2018

Economic empowerment across the lifecourse 

To mark the International Day of the Girl, the Department of Gender Studies, the Department of International Development and the Gender and Adolescence: Global Evidence (GAGE) programme at the Overseas Development Institute co-hosted an event to explore what economic empowerment means across womens' lifecourse in order to bring out the importance of laying its foundations in the adolescent years.  

The panellists explored the challenges of economic empowerment at different stages of the lifecourse and discussed what combination of skills, assets, opportunities and self-worth is needed for adolescent girls to exercise strategic voice, choice and influence as they transition into adulthood.

This event marked the launch of a new report, written by Professor Naila Kabeer, for GAGE, entitled: Gender, livelihood capabilities and women's economic empowerment: Reviewing evidence over the lifecourse. 

Click here to read the full report. 

October 2018

The Cutting Edge Issues in Development series launched   

The highly anticipated Cutting Edge Issues in Development Thinking and Practice launched on Friday 12 October, with guest lecturer Ha Joon Chang.

Dr Chang delivered a very charismatic lecture to a full Sheikh Zayed Theatre about Industrial Policy, Trade and Development in the New Global Economic Order. He also took his time to speak to students and signed books after the event. 

The next lecture in the series will be from best selling author, Kate Raworth from the Environmental Change Institute at Oxford University, who will be speaking about her theory of Doughnut Economics and how it links to development theory. Hope to see you there! 

Click here to read the Beaver's interview with Prof Chang. 

September 2018

The 2018/19 Cutting Edge Series kicks off!

How did China escape the poverty trap? What does complexity and systems thinking have to do with development? What is the international response to fragile and conflict states?

These are some of the questions that will be answered over the period of two terms in the Cutting Edge Issues in Development lecture series. The visiting lecture series, hosted by the Department of International Development, introduces postgraduate students to pressing issues in the field of International Development and engages them in discourses that affect decision making in the professional world.

Guests will include: Ha Joon Chang (Cambridge University), Rory Stewart (UK Government, Minister for Prisons), Kate Raworth (Environmental Change Institute) and Danny Sriskandarajah (CIVICUS) to name a few.

This year the lecture series opens up to external guests, including alumni, so please do email us if you would like to attend any of the lectures.  

The series will run through both Michaelmas and Lent Term every Friday from 4-6pm in the Sheikh Zayed Theatre and will usually be followed by informal networking drinks at a pub on campus!

View the Michaelmas Term schedule for the series here. 

September 2018

Welcome to our new ID staff

The ID Department would like to welcome Dr Arjan Gjonca, Associate Professor of Demography; Dr Jonathan Weigel, Assistant Professor of International Development; as well as Dr Florian Schaefer, Dr Alessandra Radicati and Dr Moritz Schmoll, all LSE Fellows, to the ID teaching team.  

We would further like to welcome Nina Craven, PhD Programme Manager, and Sarah Neuenschwander, Student Experience Officer, to the professional service staff team.

The Department also bids farewell this month to several LSE Fellows and researchers who have been working with us for the past few years. Benjamin Chemouni, Geoff Goodwin, Georgie Pearson, Geoff Swenson, Anna Macdonald and Tayyab Safdar have all managed to secure career enhancing posts in other parts of the UK. We wish them well in their new posts.

Find out more about ID staff.

September 2018

Government contracting of welfare services to NGOs in China workshop

The CSNC (Contracting Services to NGOs in China) project team is happy to announce its second international workshop, titled ‘Government contracting of welfare services to NGOs in China’, which will be held on 20 September 2018 at the LSE.

The workshop will gather academics from the UK, China, Norway and Australia, as well as NGOs from the UK. It will focus on issues such as the building of China’s new welfare system through services contracting, emerging findings from fieldwork in different locations and sectors such as children and care for the elderly, the impact of China’s Foreign NGO law on civil society organisations, and perceptions of NGOs in China. It will also involve presentations and discussions of findings from other relevant projects and experiences of services contracting in the UK. 

‘Contracting Services to NGOs in China’ is an ESRC-funded project which investigates how, why and with what consequences the Chinese government formally procures welfare services from NGOs.

Find out more about the CSNC project.

September 2018

ID staff awarded Excellence in Education Award

Dr Rajesh Venugopal, Dr Laura Mann, Dr Diana Weinhold, Dr Tiziana Leone, Dr Sohini Karr and Dr Ernestina Coast from the International Development Department will be receiving an Excellence in Education Award from the LSE.

Designed to support the School’s aspiration of creating ‘a culture where excellence in teaching is valued and rewarded on a level with excellence in research’ (LSE Strategy 2020), the Excellence in Education Awards are made, on the recommendations of Heads of Department, to staff who have demonstrated outstanding teaching contribution and educational leadership in their departments.

The academics are invited to attend a reception hosted by Dame Minouche Shafik and Professor Dilly Fung, which will take place on the evening of Wednesday 31 October in the Shaw Library. 

Find out about the Excellence in Education Awards.

September 2018

The Wellcome Trust awards three full Master's scholarships in MSc Health and International Development 

The Wellcome Trust has awarded the MSc in Health and International Development funding for three full Master's scholarships. In addition to fees and stipend, these scholarships will allow for research funding for scholarship recipients. There will be one scholarship per year for three years, beginning in 2019/20. 

Find out more about the Master's scholarship. 

September 2018

Timing and determinants of age at menarche in LMICs 

Dr Tiziana Leone has secured funding from STICERD to investigate timing and determinants of age at menarche in LMICs. The study will use literature and the 14 Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS) that have asked the question on age at first period to analyse patterns and develop a larger external grant proposal in 2019. The research will highlight the major gaps in knowledge linking literature from social epidemiology, demography, population health, life course studies, reproductive and mental health as well as bio-demography. 

Click here to find out more about the research. 

September 2018

Dr Sohini Kar discusses everyday debt

Dr Sohini Kar has been part of the 'Payback? Co-ordinating Solutions to the Debt Crisis’ e-conference, which ran from Thursday 6 to Friday 7 September. The conference was hosted by the Financing Prosperity group at the Institute for Global Prosperity, UCL. In her five minuet video, Dr Kar speaks about her research into everyday debts of micro-financing in urban India. The five minute video clips of participants discussing various dimensions of the debt crisis are available online.  
  
Watch five minute video clips from the e-conference here.

August 2018

Graduate Teaching Assistant vacancy

The Department of International Development is seeking to appoint a Graduate Teaching Assistant who is able to make an important contribution to teaching, at postgraduate level, and research in international development.

Click here to find out more.

July 2018

LSE IQ Podcast: Do we need to rethink foreign aid?

Earlier this month, Profesor in Practice Duncan Green, featured on the 16th episode of LSE IQ podcast which questioned: Do we need to rethink foreign aid? The monthly half hour long podcast poses intelligent questions about economics, politics or society to leading social scientists and other experts.

Listen to the LSE IQ podcast here. 

July 2018

Joe Hanlon on Mozambique's heroin trade

Joseph Hanlon's recent working paper entitled The Uberization of Mozambique’s heroin trade (see below in Publications section) has been attracting attention from international media, including Bloomberg, The Daily Mail, Quartz Africa and the BBC. The paper explains how heroin enters Mozambique from Afghanistan and is then distribution by the informal sector using mobile phone applications. 

You can read the BBC's summary of the paper here.

July 2018

Dr Swenson elected term membership with CFR

LSE Fellow, Dr Geoffrey Swenson, has been elected term membership with The Council on Foreign Relations (CFR). CFR is an independent, nonpartisan membership organisation, think tank, and publisher dedicated to being a resource for its members, government officials, business executives, journalists, educators and students, civic and religious leaders, and other interested citizens in order to help them better understand the world and the foreign policy choices facing the United States and other countries.   
Click here to find out more about CFR.

July 2018

Professor Wade to attend FLACSO-ISA Joint International Conference in Quito

Professor Robert Wade will be attending the FLACSO-International Studies Association (ISA) conference on the 26th and 27th of July, where there will be a panel entitled: A tribute to the work of Robert H. Wade.

Panellists will include:  Ralf Leiteritz  (Rosario University);  Diana Tussie  (FLACSO-CONICET); Alicia Puyana (Latin America Faculty of Social Sciences); Oscar Ugarteche (UNAM), and Professor Wade. The panel will aim to assess how the ideas of Governing the Market have travelled up to 2018. 

Click here to find out about the conference.

July 2018

Congratulations to ID PhD graduates 

Family, friends, staff and fellow PhD students from The Department of International Development attended the graduation ceremony on the 13th of July for the following PhD students: Thomas Hohne-Sparborth, Christopher Paek, Alessandra Radicati, Portia Roelofs, Nelson Ruiz-Guarin, Florian Weigand.

We wish them all the best in their futures!

You can find out more about the students 

July 2018
Professor Putzel speaks at the Brussels Rural Development Briefings

Professor of Development Studies, James Putzel, was invited to speak at the Brussels Rural Development Briefings on the 5th of July, where he presented his expert analysis in a briefing entitled: Agriculture as an engine of economic reconstruction and development in fragile countries.
 
Read the policy briefing here. 

June 2018

Comparative Peacebuilding in Asia

The Department of International Development at the London School of Economics hosted the final conference in the Peacebuilding Asia series. Previous locations include Myanmar, Sri Lanka and Indonesia. The London conference, held on the 25th of June 2018, sought to use the address the larger debates and frameworks on peacebuilding, to interact with the policy community, and to engage with comparative experiences from other regions, particularly Africa.

Find out more about the conference series here.

June 2018

HPG/LSE Senior Level Humanitarian Emergencies Workshop 2018

The annual HPG/LSE Senior Level Humanitarian Emergencies Workshop took place between the 18th and 22nd of June and welcomed seventeen delegates from around the world. The week-long intensive course provided an opportunity for mid-career and senior professionals to learn and reflect on critical issues in preparing for, responding to and transitioning out of humanitarian crises. Speakers this year included: Professor Mary Kaldor (LSE), Professor Mohammad-Mahmoud Ould Mohamedou (Graduate Institute), Tom Keatinge (RUSI) and Dr Sara Pantuliano (ODI).

Find out more about the course here. 

June 2018

Update from Professor Naila Kabeer...

In June, Professor Naila Kabeer took over as President of the International Association of Feminist Economists (IAFFE) at the 27th conference of IAFFE which was held at the State University of New York, New Paltz.

Professor Kabeer has also been elected to the Council of the Development Studies Association (DSA) at the 2018 Annual Conference of the DSA in Manchester which took place between the 27th to 29th June. She also presented a paper at the DSA on Multi-stakeholder initiatives in the Bangladesh garment industry after Rana Plaza: global norms and workers’ perspectives.  

June 2018

Update from Professor Kenneth Shadlen...

Along with two colleagues at Canadian universities, and Stephanie Rickard from LSE’s Department of Government, Professor Shadlen won a 'knowledge synthesis grant' to examine UK-Canada trade relations in the context of Brexit and other changes to the international trading system. You can find out more about the research proposal here. 
 
Professor Shadlen has been asked to participate on the Intellectual Property Trade Advisory Group, organised by the UK Department for International Trade and the Intellectual Property Office. The first meeting is later in this month. 

Further to this, Professor Shadlen chaired a session on the Latin American Pharmaceutical Industry at Canning House and attended The Political Economy of Generic Drug Promotion and Regulation in Latin America at the annual meeting of the Latin American Political Economy Network (REPAL), in Bogota, Colombia. He also presented Patents, Trade, and Medicines: Past, Present, and Future at the Development Studies Association conference meeting in June.

May 2018

Department alumni, Helen Mayelle, Represents ID for #LSEwomen 

Last month, LSE celebrated International Women's Day by sharing both historically and contemporary profiles of #LSEwomen. Helen Mayelle's story was shared alongside Minouche Shafik, LSE Director and alumna, and Eugenia Charles, Dominica’s first female prime minister! 

Helen graduated from the department in 2014 and was a scholarship beneficiary from LSE's Programme for African Leadership (PfAL). She is now the Head of Communications at United Nations Development Programme in Sierra Leone and a passionate advocate for humanity, social, economic and political peace, security and development. 

You can read Helen's story here 

May 2018

Consultancy students to present their report at The Hague 

IDHE consultancy students Olivia Singer, Sophia Chen, and Tami Odunaiya have been invited by Red Cross Netherlands to present their work to a group of Humanitarian Diplomacy experts and Red Cross Directors at The Hague in early July. As part of their consultancy project, the consultancy group looked at ways of Building Resilience with Private Engagement.

You can find out how the trip went by following our blog  

May 2018

Mary Kaldor honoured at the ISA conference

Professor Mary Kaldor received a Distinguished Scholar Award in the Peace Studies Section at the International Studies Association (ISA) Awards ceremony earlier this year. ISA offers several awards given to recognise outstanding scholarly contributions to the field of international studies. They recognise outstanding papers, books, achievement, and service awards by ISA members. 

Browse the full list of ISA awards here 

May 2018

Pavel Devyatkin on Russian Arctic policy

MSc Development Studies student Pavel Devyatkin has recently had his article series on Russian Arctic policy peer-reviewed and published by The Arctic Institute. The four part series explores natural resources, security, political economy and the expansion of a middle-income country in the Far North. 

Pavel Devyatkin is a Research Associate at The Arctic Institute. He manages the Institute’s flagship weekly publication, The Arctic This Week (TATW).

Click here to read Pavel's articles for The Arctic Institute

May 2018

New research project on deprivation and suffering in the West Bank funded by the Emirates Foundation 

A new research project funded by the Emirates Foundation will launch on the 1st of September. International Development's Dr Tiziana Leone, will be Principle Investigator on the project that will receive £128K over the period of two years.  

The project entitled Re-conceptualizing health in wars and conflicts: a new focus on deprivation and suffering in the West Bank will aim to understand how people give meaning to, make sense of, and cope with various forms of deprivation and the traumas and impacts of conflict and military occupation.

You can find out more about the Emirates Foundation here  

May 2018

Update from Professor Kenneth Shadlen...

In April Professor Shadlen, Head of Department for International Development, presented two papers at the annual meeting of the International Studies Association (ISA) in San Francisco: Patents, Trade, and Medicines: Past, Present, and Future and The Political Economy of Science and Technology in Contemporary Latin America. 

Later that month, he also participated at a round table on access to medicines in Latin America at Harvard. 

In May Professor Shadlen gave a lecture based on his book, Coalitions and Compliance, at Insper, in Sao Paulo. He spoke for 40 minutes, presenting the main arguments of the book, and placing the Brazilian experience in comparative context

You can find out more about Professor Shadlen's book here

May 2018

Workshop on Rising Powers in 2018

On April 23 2018, Professor Kathy Hochstetler (LSE ID), Lidia Cabral (IDS), Rory Horner (GDI), hosted a workshop on the Rising Powers of 2018. 

The one day workshop was held at LSE and aimed to answer the following questions: How are the rising powers transforming 21st century globalisation? How are rising powers shaping development across different domain areas? To what extent does it make sense to still talk of rising powers or of South-South cooperation? Are we entering a new era of polycentric flows of trade, ideas and power?

Click here to read Kathy Hochstetler's profile

May 2018

Professor Naila Kabeer interviewed for ID student's podcast channel

Professor Naila Kabeer was interviewed for The World Isn't Flat, a podcast channel set up by four International Development graduate students from our department. Professor Kabeer was interviewed by, Jovan Johnson and Shahrukh Wani, and spoke about Gender and Development, changes in society, the #MeToo Campaign, female leadership, and women's education. 

You can listen to the 30min interview here  

April 2018

Professor Hochstetler named Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences

Professor Kathryn Hochstetler has been named a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences, the national academy of academics, learned societies and practitioners in the social sciences. 

You can view the full list of Fellows here

March 2018

Launch of the Conflict Research Project 

The Conflict Research Programme (CRP) is designed to address the drivers and dynamics of violent conflict in the Middle East and Africa and to inform the measures being used to tackle armed conflict and its impacts. CRP research will analyse the logic of the political marketplace and how it intersects with moral populism to drive violence. It will use the concept of civicness to examine how people attempt to constitute humane forms of public authority even in the most extreme circumstances, and how international interventions might better resolve conflict-related problems by supporting responses based on such local civicness.
 
You can find out more about the CRP here

March 2018

Development student receives two LSE prizes 

Congratulations to MSc Development Studies student, Aurelia Streit, who was awarded Best Abstract and LSE Life Prize at the LSE Beveridge Research Festival. Her abstract entitled, "It Was Not Syria But the War That Gave Us Women Rights!" How Forced Displacement Can Be a Catalyst for Women's Empowerment of Syrian Refugees in Lebanon, was selected from 90 entries.The judges felt the piece, which looked at the paradoxical relationship of forced displacement and empowerment of Syrian refugee women, offers hope for female refugees and shows how something positive can emerge out of a difficult environment.

Aurelia was delighted to win both prizes. “It’s very exciting. I didn’t expect to win anything and I get two prizes. I’m very honoured and excited that LSE gives students the opportunity to partake in the festival and showcase what we’ve done.” 

This annual celebration of innovative and ground-breaking research by LSE students and staff has become a key feature in the university’s calendar. 

You can read the prize-winning research abstract here 

March 2018

The annual LSE African Summit is back!

The LSE Africa Summit was founded by students at the London School of Economics and Political Science as a platform to congregate policy makers, corporate leaders, researchers and forward-thinking individuals to provide a wealth of debate on issues about Africa. As it turns 5 this year, the theme is Africa at Work: Educated. Employed. Empowered.
 
The Summit will take place from April 20th to 21st , 2018  and will be largely centred around the following: bridging the skills, education and training gaps; entrepreneurship as an engine for job creation and inclusive growth; laws, regulations and policies; the impact of technology and digitalisation on jobs and economic growth: the role of creative industries in socio-economic development.
 
In previous years, the summit has hosted heads of states such as John Dramani Mahama, Ghana’s former President and Yemi Osibanjo who is the Vice-President of the Republic of Nigeria). The 19-man team that organises it this year has ensured that the line-up promises to be the most invigorating yet.
 
You can find out more about the summit here

March 2018

Development students host #LSERefugeeGig

As part of the Development Management Consultancy project, and with support from the International Development department, a group of four Msc. Development Management students and Adam Smith International (ASI) organised a panel of international development experts and a gig economy specialist met on 19 February 2018 to discuss a recently published Overseas Development Institute (ODI) report on Syrian refugee women in Jordan. The panel discussion was chaired by LSE International Development Fellow, Dr Tayyab Safdar.

You can watch the panel discussion again here

March 2018

Professor Naila Kabeer on Unpacking Women's Empowerment

On March 15 2018, Professor Naila Kabeer spoke at the Institute for the Study of International Development's (ISID) annual conference on Unpacking Women's Empowerment in Canada. 

Professor Kabeer sat on a panel that unpacked concepts and practices currently associated to the agenda of women’s empowerment, including gender equality, women’s rights as human rights, women’s political leadership and political participation, ending violence and discrimination against women, as well as women’s economic empowerment in the household, and control over reproductive decisions and health.

You can watch the conference talks again here (1.42.12 - 2.31.00)

March 2018

Spatial Dynamics in African Political Economy

Professor Catherine Boone is the Principal Investigator and project leader for a newly initiated, 3.5 year ESRC-funded research project entitled Spatial Dynamics in African Political Economy. The project abstract runs as follows: Lack of data and theory about the political effects of regional inequalities in sub-Saharan African countries persists in spite of the fact that many scholars recognise that African countries are characterised by extreme disparities across sub-national regions. This project tackles this challenge head-on.  

The interdisciplinary research team will break new ground in the study of African politics by using spatial data to reveal the dynamics regionalism, uneven economic development, and territorial inequalities. The work will be organised around four substantive research streams centring on the creation and evolution of internal (sub-national) boundaries and borders over time; regional dynamics in electoral coalitions; regionalism and preferences and political struggles around land registration and titling; and the logics and dynamics of settlement scheme politics.

Research team members include Michael Wahman, Michigan State University (Political Science); Leigh Gardner, LSE (Economic History), Andrew Linke, University of Utah (Geography), and Fibian Lukalo, Research Director of Kenya’s National Land Commission.  We expect to hire four RAs at LSE and U. of Nairobi and an LSE-based Research Fellow, and to incorporate several LSE ID PhD students into the work of this project over the next 3-4 years. 

March 2018

Eurozone beyond euphoria

PhD Researcher, Konstantinos Myrodias, explains why the Eurozone's ‘do more of the same’ approach based on brutal enforcement and discipline does not tackle the sources of the uneven development. The article has been published in OpenDemocracy.

You can read the piece here

March 2018

Update from Professor Shadlen...

On Thursday 22 February, Professor Ken Shadlen sat on a panel that discussed Universal Health Coverage in the Global South. The event was part of the Beveridge 2.0 Festival hosted by LSE. Professor Kalipso Chalkidou and Dr Daniel Wang also sat on the panel which was chaired by Dr Justin Parkhurst. You can listen to the panel discussion again here. 

On Monday 26 February, he presented research on secondary pharmaceutical patents at the WHO-WIPO-WTO Technical Symposium on Sustainable Development Goals in Geneva. You can find out more about the event here. 

Finally, following the recent post on the ID blog about Trump's Protectionism and its effect on International Development and the WTO, Professor Ken Shadlen was approached by Voice of America to give his views on the newly imposed US trade policy. You can watch the interview again here (01.18-01.32). 

March 2018

Dr Venugopal awarded Sanjaya Lall prize 

Rajesh Venugopal's article in Oxford Development Studies: 'The politics of natural disasters in protracted conflict: the 2014 flood in Kashmir’ (with Sameer Yasir) was awarded the Sanjaya Lall prize for the best article published in 2017. 

The Board of Oxford Development Studies awards two prizes in honour of the late Sanjaya Lall, formerly Managing Editor of the journal and Professor of Economics at the University of Oxford. The Sanjaya Lall Prize is awarded every year for the best article published in the previous year’s volume.

February 2018

Why is the ID academic world reassessing their reading lists for gender bias?

The trigger was a lecture from DFID Chief Economist, Stefan Dercon, who visited LSE to give a talk on The Future of Aid as part of the Cutting Edge in Development series. In a lecture on ‘aid in messy places’, Dercon mentioned the ‘Big Ideals, Big Egos and Big Thinkers in development’. The list included Jeff Sachs, Amartya Sen, Joseph Stiglitz, Paul Collier, Bill Easterly plus a few more "egos" that would come as no surprise to our development students. This list was summarised by Professor in Practice, Duncan Green, for his Oxfam blog From Poverty To Power, where he concluded, that although the talk was riveting and informative, it reflected a core issue in development thinking today – the lack of representation in the female perspective, as well as, from the Global South.

Dr Alice Evans, Lecturer in the Social Science of Development at King’s College London, called Dercon’s list a “Sausagefest” on Twitter and in response to an invitation from Duncan, wrote a blog post that highlighted the contribution of female scholars to five big issues in development.

The article received numerous comments from the academic world that inspired Dr Evans and Professor Green to invite international development academics to provide a gender breakdown of their course readings on an open source Google Doc.

You can view and contribute to the open source document here. 

February 2018

Launch of the Conflict Research Programme

Following the successful completion of its Inception Phase, the Conflict Research Programme (CRP) has been confirmed by DFID for an Implementation Phase that will run to March 2021.   The CRP is directed by Mary Kaldor and provides the core £6m grant for the Conflict and Civil Society departmental research unit.  The CRP is an international consortium led by LSE and will be working in Syria, Iraq, South Sudan, Somalia and DRC.   The programme’s goal is to provide operationally-relevant evidence and research outputs that will enable donors to refine their analysis of conflict and violence, whilst also advancing academic knowledge of the countries being studied.  A website with further information about the programme is under construction and will go live in early March.
 
The CRP will be formally launched on the evening of Monday 19 March 2018 with a panel debate in the Old Theatre on “Understanding Violence in Africa and the Middle East”.  Speakers include Rory Stewart, Lyse Doucet, Javier Solana and Tatiana Carayannis.  We hope to see many of you there.
 
As part of the CPAID/CRP seminar series, Mary Kaldor and Anna Macdonald will give a seminar on Thursday 22 February on the topic of ‘Civicness’, which is one of the CRP’s key research concepts. Please contact W.Foulds@lse.ac.uk for more information. 

February 2018

Connectivity at the Bottom of the Pyramid

Dr Laura Mann and Dr Kate Meagher present the Connectivity at the Bottom of the Pyramid White Paper. The White Paper follows on from a workshop held at the Rockefeller Foundation Bellagio Centre in 2016, which brought together stakeholders to address the challenges of digital inclusion for workers at the bottom of the pyramid in Africa.

You can read the full white paper here

February 2018

Professor Naila Kabeer at ISID’s annual conference on Unpacking Women's Empowerment

On March 15 2018, Professor Naila Kabeer will be speaking at the Institute for the Study of International Development's (ISID) annual conference on Unpacking Women's Empowerment in Canada. 

Professor Kabeer will sit on a panel that will aim to unpack some concepts and practices currently associated to the agenda of women’s empowerment, including gender equality, women’s rights as human rights, women’s political leadership and political participation, ending violence and discrimination against women, as well as women’s economic empowerment in the household, and control over reproductive decisions and health.

You can find out more about the conference here.

February 2018

Welcome to our new Assistant Professor in International Development

We are very pleased to announce that Jonathan Weigel has accepted our offer and will be joining as Assistant Professor in International Development in September.
 
Jonathan’s appointment represents the conclusion to an ultra-long recruitment process, involving the drafting of lengthy recruitment documents, advertising, long-listing, short-listing, hosting, interviewing, asking challenging and exciting questions at the job talk, and further contact with him after his visit.
 
Jonathan is currently a Ph.D. candidate in Political Economy and Government (expected in May 2018) at Harvard University. His dissertation was “State building and political engagement: evidence from the D.R. Congo,” which contributes to the political economy and public economics of developing countries.
 
His training in Harvard’s Political Economy and Government program included standard Ph.D.-level
sequences in microeconomics, macroeconomics, and econometrics as well as rigorous training in political economy and quantitative political science.  He also has considerable experience managing large randomized, controlled experiments in difficult circumstances and working with governments to embed evaluations into public programs.
 
He has the ability to teach core courses in political economy, development economics, comparative politics, applied microeconomics, and applied econometrics.
 
You can read more about Jonathan here.

January 2018

Wellcome Trust funding awarded to LSE researchers for seed project on Zika and medical abortion

An inter-disciplinary team from LSE have received funding from Wellcome Trust for a seed project to understand the impact of the Zika outbreak on how women access medical abortion, and how national regulation has impacted on women’s choices and abortion service provider’s activity during this health emergency.

This LSE Health research will be undertaken by Clare Wenham (Department of Health Policy), Ernestina Coast (Department of International Development), Tiziana Leone (Department of International Development) and Sonia Correa (LSE Gender Institute), and will analyse medical abortion (the use of mifepristone and misoprostol to terminate pregnancy) during the Zika outbreak, to consider the impact different regulatory environments had on women's reproductive health at a time of uncertainty.

The project will analyse the intersection of Zika, regulation and medical abortion through a comparative case study of Brazil, Colombia and El Salvador. Each of these states had Zika infected women (albeit with differing incidence) yet represent diverse regulatory environments for medical abortion, ranging from legalisation in Colombia to criminalisation in El Salvador to medical abortion drugs being on the list of prohibited smuggled drugs in Brazil.

In spite of regulation, however, it is believed that women have still been accessing medical abortion during the Zika epidemic, assumed through civil society groups, pharmacies and the black market. The research will assess women’s choices and provider activity in the case study locations, and in doing so, produce a conceptual framework for understanding the regulation of abortion during health emergencies.
The project will start in Summer 2018, and will begin with a research workshop with leading abortion and Zika academics and activists to determine pathways to understanding the impact of the outbreak on medical abortion, and suitable study sites. 

For more information, please contact Clare Wenham c.wenham@lse.ac.uk. 

January 2018

Professor Kaldor on the Global Trends to 2030

Professor Mary Kaldor was recently part of a panel at the European Political Strategy Centre (ESPAS) in Brussels called Global Trends to 2030: The Making of a New Geopolitical Order. Professor Kaldor sat on a panel which discussed "Geopolitics of an economically interdependent world".

The panel, led by Eva Kaili (S&D, Greece) and featuring Daniel Gros, Juca Jahier, Mary Kaldor and Guntram Wolff, cast a critical eye on geopolitics. Identifying important trends, such as the growing mismatch between the nation state and new models of economic development, and the power of the EU to use its domestic conception as a foreign policy tool, the panel highlighted the overestimation of globalisation when it comes to trade and the tremendous importance of Africa.

You can watch the panel discussion here.

January 2018

Professor Shadlen interview for IP-Watch  

Ken Shadlen, Professor of Development Studies and Head of Department in the Department of International Development gave an interview to Intellectual Property Watch about his recently published book Coalitions and Compliance: The Political Economy of Pharmaceutical Patents in Latin America. The book provides a clear presentation of global changes in intellectual property, particularly regarding pharmaceutical patents, and the ensuing challenges for developing countries, using detailed case studies
and systematic comparative analysis of pharmaceutical patent politics in Latin America's three largest countries over two time periods. 

You can read the interview here.

Professor Shadlen's 2015 paper, co-authored with Bhaven Sampat at Columbia University, TRIPS Implementation and Secondary Pharmaceutical Patenting in Brazil and India, has been translated into Portuguese and republished in an edited book in Brazil.

January 2018

Globalisation at a Crossroads

On Wednesday 10 January, the conference for Globalisation at a Crossroads took place at the Danish Institute for International Studies (DIIS) in Copenhagen. The conference examined how, and to what extent, US trade policy is being reshaped along unilateralist and neo-mercantilist lines. 

Robert Wade, Professor of Global Political Economy from the Department of International Development, spoke on Trade, Trumponomics and the liberal economic order. 

You can watch the talk again here (3.37.08).

January 2018

Normative Politics in Africa: Collaborative workshop series

Call for Participants
Afternoon 5th March (London) Morning 11th April (Oxford) Afternoon 9th May (London)

The study of politics in Africa has long been focused on the material. In privileging clientelism, patronage, corruption, and money politics, as conceptual frames, mainstream analysis has presented politics as reducible to practical transactions. However, there is growing recognition that political contestation cannot be understood without attention to the role of ideas. We invite participants to participate in a collaborative series of workshops to forge new research directions in the study of normative politics in Africa.

You can find out more here.

January 2018

Professor Hochstleter talks to the FDI about the Odebrecht Scandal 

As Ecuador's vice-president Jorge Glas is convicted of corruption and Peru's President Kuczynski faces the possibility of impeachment, this new FDI Intelligence podcast on the effects of the Odebrecht scandal in Latin America, featuring Professor Kathyrn Hochstleter is very timely. 

You can listen to the full podcast here. 

January 2018

Geoff Goodwin to present paper plurinationalism workshop

Geoff Goodwin, LSE Fellow, will present a paper on indigenous struggles over land and water at a workshop on plurinationalism and autonomy in Latin America, which will take place at the University of Bath on the 12th January. 

You can find out more about Geoff Goodwin's research here.  

January 2018

Comments, Compliments and Concerns

Use your voice as an LSE student and help make positive changes across the School. We need student input to understand what we do well at LSE and what we need to better. Tell us what you think and share your ideas for improvements through our online feedback tool, or by submitting a Comments, Compliments and Concerns postcard in one of the post boxes across campus, or in the post box in the 6th floor common room.

Alternatively, you can also leave a comment via the LSE website:

You can leave a comment, compliment or concern here. 

December 2017

Doughnut Economics, in case you missed it

On Thursday 23 November, the Department of International Development hosted Kate Raworth to talk about her best selling book Doughnut Economics. Kate captivated the audience by using story telling, dramatic images and humour in a bid to challenge what we know about economics. Professor in Economics, Oriana Bandiera, discussed the book whilst Professor in Practice, Duncan Green, chaired the event. 

In case you missed it, you can watch and listen to the event (that has been downloaded over 17,000 times) by clicking on the link below.

You can watch the Kate Raworth talk here.

December 2017

The World Humanitarian Action Forum 2017

The World Humanitarian Action Forum 2017 (WHAF) took place in Westminster yesterday, and served as a opportunity to bring together humanitarian organisations to work together on key issues effecting the industry. The WHAF served as a platform to develop strategies for informing policy on key issues affecting humanitarian organisations and aimed to develop joint initiatives and campaigns for collaborative working at local, national and international levels. 

Dr Stuart Gordon led the first roundtable discussion with the Humanitarian Policy Group at The Overseas Development Institute (ODI). He also received an award from Dr Hannibal Al Barri, chairman of the World Humanitarian Forum, for supporting their work with research in Syria. Dr Dorathea Hilhorst also chaired a session which was administered with the help of LSE International Development Students.

You can find out more about WHAF 2017 here.

December 2017

MSc Health and International Development promotional video goes live

The promotional video for the new MSC Health in International Development degree has gone live on Youtube. The video features programme leaders, Dr Ernestina Coaste and Dr Tiziana Leone as well as Head of Department Professor Ken Shadlen and Professor of Development Anthropology Tim Allen. 

The video is a more personable and engaging way for prospective students to find out about the new programme. 

You can watch the full video for the programme here. 

December 2017

Cutting Edge Issues in Development, the first half

What is the future of aid? What does an inclusive Global Value Chain look like? Who drives climate-relevant policies in the rising powers?

These are some of the questions being answered over Michaelmas and Lent Term in the Cutting Edge Issues in Development Thinking & Practice series. The visiting lecture series, hosted by the department, introduces postgraduate students to pressing issues in the field of International Development and engages them in discourses that affect decision making in the professional world. 

Guests this term have included: Kevin Watkins from Save the Children; Lorenzo Cotula from IIED; Claire Hutchings from Oxfam GB; and Stefan Dercon from DfID.

Students have also been invited to write short articles about each lecture. These have been shared with the wider International Development community on the department blog. 

You can read the Cutting Edge in Development blog articles here. 

December 2017

Conflict Research Programme News

Professor Mary Kaldor visited New York recently for a series of Conflict Research Programme meetings with the Social Science Research Council and also held a book launch for her book, International Law and New Wars, which came out earlier this year. 

You can find out more about the meetings and book launch here.

November 2017

Europe At Sea

A new documentary featuring professor Mary Kaldor will be launched on the 1st of December 2017. “Europe At Sea” was written, produced and directed by Annalisa Piras, who was given exclusive access to Federica Mogherini, the head of EU Foreign and Security Policy, for a year and a half while she put together the complex jigsaw puzzle of the new EU Global Strategy. The same year that saw the Brexit vote and Trump’s election. 

Professor Kaldor gives her expert opinion on Mogherini's global strategy in the documentary. 


You can watch the trailer of the documentary here.

November 2017

How Should We Measure Women’s Economic Empowerment?

Professor Naila Kabeer sat on a panel of discussants at last week's launch of Measuring Women’s Economic Empowerment: Lessons from South America, at the Centre for Clobal Development in Washing DC. Co-Editor Susana Martinez-Restrepo presented the main findings from field work in Colombia, Peru and Uruguay, which was followed by a panel discussion that included leading experts on the topic including Mayra Buvinic and Markus Goldstein.

You can watch the panel discussion here.

November 2017

Dr Mayling Birney Fund

To honour the memory of Dr Birney and create a permanent and lasting contribution to LSE, her family and the Department of International Development have established The Mayling Birney Memorial Fund, to help provide financial assistance to students in the ID Department. The Memorial Fund will continue her legacy at the School, and generous gifts will support the LSE in keeping alive Mayling’s commitment to and passion for enhancing all students’ learning experiences.

You can support The Mayling Birney Memorial Fund here.

November 2017

Beyond Brexit: The UK and the Western Balkans 

Dr Vesna Bojičić-Dželilović's policy paper, Beyond Brexit: The UK and the Western Balkans, has been published on the UK Parliament’s website. The paper answers the following questions: has there been a radicalisation of Islam in the region? If so, what have been the driving forces and what are the consequences for the region? How can UK policy respond?

You can read the policy paper here.

November 2017

Civil Society, Religion and the State

Dr Portia Roelofs authored a report "Civil Society, Religion and the State: Mapping of Borno and Adamawa". The report will support the GIZ programme ‘Support to strengthening resilience in North-East Nigeria’ which focuses on governance, livelihoods and infrastructure in areas affected by the Boko Haram insurgency. It is based on fieldwork conducted this summer in Maiduguri, Yola and Mubi.

You can request a copy of the report from P.Roelofs@lse.ac.uk.

November 2017

ESRC grants awarded for two new research projects

Laura Mann has been awarded an ESRC grant for the project: “A Tale of Two Green Valleys: Power Struggles over Data-Driven Agro-Innovation in Kenya's Rift Valley and California's Central Valley”. The project will explore the political economy of digital data within agriculture, postulating that control over knowledge is the source of dynamic value in the global economy.

The project will be based jointly in the Firoz Lalji Centre of Africa and the Department of International Development, and will run for three years, starting in January 2018.  

Find out about the research grant here.

Professor Jude Howell has been awarded an Economic and Social Research Council Research Grant for a project on “The politics of services subcontracting to NGOs in China” (2017-2020), with a total value of £882,393. The project investigates how, why and with what consequences the Chinese government procures services from NGOs, through sub-contracting welfare services for children with disabilities, care for the elderly, and migrant workers.

The international research team includes Co-investigators Professor Xiaoyuan Shang (Beijing Normal University) and Professor Karen Fisher (University of New South Wales), and post-doctoral research fellow, Dr Regina Enjuto Martinez (LSE).

Find out more about the research grant here.

November 2017

Professor Jude Howell on the Chinese Communist Party and women

Professor Jude Howell was asked by the BBC to give her expert opinion on the lack of female representatives in the Chinese Communist Party. In the article Professor Howell says: 

"There is inadequate state intervention to implement policies to alleviate some of the barriers to women's progression in politics. Quota requirements have had the opposite effect because of the way they have been interpreted." 

The article was published on BBC News Online on Wednesday the 25 October 2017. 

You can read the full article here.

November 2017

Professor Teddy Brett on the military sidelining of president Mugabe 

Professor Teddy Brett gave his expert opinion to USA Today in an article about the sidelining of President Mugabe by the Zimbabwean military. In the article Professor Brett says:    

"One can't just read this as an army takeover. They've created a situation where they can move their man into position and hopefully turn Mugabe into a puppet who balances all the forces but doesn't make decisions."

The article was published on USA Today on Wednesday the 15 November 2017. 

You can read the full article here.

November 2017

Congratulations to Florian Weigand 

Congratulations to Florian Weigand, who successfully defending his thesis Waiting for Dignity: Legitimacy and Authority in Afghanistan. Additionally, the thesis had no revisions. Florian's supervisor was Professor Mary Kaldor. 

You can follow Florian on twitter here.

November 2017

Public launch of the new LSE Global Health Initiative

On Tuesday 24 October, LSE held the public launch of the new Global Health Initiative research platform. The event was chaired by Professor Julia Black, Pro Director for Research at LSE and included a panel of LSE experts including Professor Catherine Campbell, Professor Elias Mossialos and Professor Tim Allen, who showcased the range of global health activity taking place at LSE. This was followed by a keynote speech by Geeta Rao Gupta, Executive Director of the 3D Program for Girls and Women and Senior Fellow at the United Nations Foundation.
 
The Global Health Initiative is a cross-departmental research platform set up to increase the coherence and visibility of Global Health research activity across the School, both internally and externally. It provides support for interdisciplinary engagement and showcases LSE’s ability to apply rigorous social science research to emerging global health challenges.

Find out more about the initiative here.

October 2017

Dr Mayling Birney

The sudden loss of Dr Mayling Birney came as a great shock to everyone in the Department of International Development and across LSE. To bring together staff and students from the department to remember Dr Birney's life and contribution to the LSE, a memorial service was held on Monday 16 October in the Shaw Library. A condolences page was also set up, where everyone is invited to leave a message. 

In addition, to honour Mayling and create a permanent and lasting contribution to LSE, Mayling’s family and the Department of International Development have established The Mayling Birney Memorial Fund, to help provide financial assistance to students in the ID Department. The Memorial Fund will continue her legacy at the School, and generous gifts will support the LSE in keeping alive Mayling’s commitment to and passion for enhancing all students’ learning experiences.

Mayling was a cherished colleague and friend, a great teacher, and always a positive and uplifting spirit in everything she did. She will be sorely missed.

You can support The Mayling Birney Memorial Fund here

October 2017

Professor Mary Kaldor on intervening in foreign conflicts and peace in Colombia

Professor Mary Kaldor Mary was interviewed for the End of the World Podcast by the European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR) in the summer. In the interview, she talks about the importance of involving local movements and civil society groups in political negotiations in ending new wars. 

You can listen to the End of The World interview here

Professor Kaldor also recently delivered a keynote speech on "Security in Times of Peace" at the Universidad del Rosario in Bogotá. In her speach, Professor Kaldor suggested international examples of peace-building that could serve for the implementation of peace in Colombia. She was also interviewed by the national Colombian newspaper El Espectador.  

You can read the full interview in Spanish with El Espectador here

October 2017

Max Gallien interviewed about his research on informal economies

PhD candidate Max Gallien was interviewed by the LSE Research Division about conducting research into informal economies in the Middle East and North Africa and the impact on local development. Max's research interest includes: informal economies, illegal trade, politics and the political economy of the Middle East and North Africa, and, political Islam. He was also awarded runner-up of this year's ESRC writing competition.   

You can read the interview for LSE Research here

October 2017

Update from the ID PhD Programme

This September the department has prepared six students due to submit, including the entire class who entered the final year of the MPhil/PhD Programme in September 2013. A huge congratulations to: Thomas Hohne Sparborth (E. Green), Maria Lopez Uribe and Nelson Ruiz Guarin (both with JP. Faguet), Chris Paek (K.Meagher), Florian Weigand (M. Kaldor) and Alessandra Radicati (R. Venugopal).

Further to this success, since introducing the MRes/PhD programme in September 2014, every single student has upgraded within regulations, including all of this year’s group at their first attempt.

Continuing the success for the programme, all of this year’s intake of seven students are being funded either from inside or outside the School.

Find out about the MRes/PhD programme here

September 2017

The Essential Guide to Critical Development Studies

This new book takes as its starting point the multiple crises – economic, political, social and environmental – of the dominant current global capitalist system. The chapters collectively document and analyze these crises and the need to find alternatives to the system(s) that generate them. To do so, analyses of class, gender and empire are placed at the centre of discussion, in contrast to markets, liberalization and convergence, which characterize mainstream development discourse.  

Contributors include, Professor Naila Kabeer, Professor of Gender and Development. 

You can download a promotional flyer which entitles all purchasers to a 20% discount.

September 2017

Max finally receives his award from ESRC

Third year PhD candidate Max Gallien was presented his award for “Reading the Margins” which won the runner-up prize for the 2017 ESRC's essay writing competition.

Marcus Cerny, Deputy Director of the LSE PhD Academy, collected the prize on behalf of Max whilst he was in the field and was given the opportunity to present the award to Max last week. 

You can read Max Gallien's essay here. 

Septemebr 2017 

Promotion and regulation of generic medicines in Latin America

Professor Kenneth Shadlen has been approved for a new grant, with Elize Fonseca (from INSPER, in Sao Paulo, Brazil), for their project on the promotion and regulation of generic medicines in Latin America. The project, funded by the joint LSE-FAPESP initiative, builds on their recent article on the topic. 

You can read their article on Promoting and Regulating Generic Medicines here.  

September 2017

Dr Goodwin's summer in Latin America

Geoff spent the summer developing his research on community water management in Ecuador. The research involved interviews with a range of actors, including representatives of community water organisations, leaders of indigenous and peasant movements and members of the water bureaucracy. He also conducted some exploratory research in Colombia, with a view to extending his research into the Andean region of the country next summer.

In September, he convened a panel - Land Institutions in Historical and Comparative Perspective - at the Development Studies Association Conference at the University of Bradford. He also presented a paper on his water research at the Radical Americas Conference at University College London.

Geoff received a LSE Excellence in Education Award for his contribution to teaching in the department and will attend the award ceremony at the LSE on the 18th October.

You can see Dr Geoff Goodwin's profile here. 

September 2017

The Politics of Return: An agenda for research

A new research project exploring the dynamics of return and re-integration of refugees in Central and Eastern Africa was launched on 18 September 2017. With worldwide displacement at an all-time high, the need for evidence-based research to inform national and international policies is increasingly urgent to successfully mitigate cycles of violence in places like Central Africa which has struggled with widespread displacement and return over past decades. Politics of Return seeks to fulfil that need.

Professor Tim Allen will be the Principal Investigator on the AHRC/ESRC PaCCs-funded project with Dr Anna MacDonald and Dr Holly Porter serving as co-Investigators. They have also written a blog article about the new grant. 

Find out more about the research programme here. 

August 2017

Professor Tim Dyson: The deception of child mortality and economic sanctions in Iraq

In this publication, Professor Tim Dyson and Dr Valeria Cetorelli  unveil a series of lies manufactured by the Iraqi Government in the early nineties. The surveys that were jointly conducted by UNICEF, claimed that child mortality fell due to international sanctions on the country. The manipulated data was widely believed to be true, and was subsequently used in the case to invade Iraq in 2003. 

The open source article has received attention from The Washington Post, The Times, and The Telegraph.  

You can read the open access article in full here

August 2017

America's control over Afghanistan's future 

Department Fellow, Geoff Swenson, has written an article for the Washington Post entitled: “Trump says ‘our troops will fight to win’ in Afghanistan. Here’s why peace and stability are so elusive.”

You can read the full article here

June 2017

Professor James Putzel on the battle over Marawi City

Over the past two weeks, Professor Putzel has been providing media commentary concerning the battle over Marawi City between Philippine
government troops and ISIS-linked Islamist armed groups. He says only an acceleration of the implementation of a stalled Peace Agreement can avoid the spread of Islamic fundamentalism in the Philippines.

You can view a clip of Professor Putzel on BBC World here

June 2017

Dr Mayling Birney on BBC World Service

Dr Birney appeared on the BBC Newshour (BBC World Service radio) on Tuesday 12 June, giving her comments on China's recent crack down on fake economic data despite it being a long-standing problem. (26:36 - 29:55)

You can listen to her comments here 

June 2017

Dr Geoffrey Swenson awarded the 2016 Bapsybanoo Marchioness of Winchester Thesis Prize

Congratulations to Geoffrey Swenson, who has won the Bapsybanoo Marchioness of Winchester Thesis Prize 2016 for a paper entitled Addressing Crises of Order: Judicial State-building in the Wake of Conflict. The Winchester Prize is awarded by University of Oxford Social Sciences for the most outstanding thesis in area of International Relations, with particular reference to human rights and fundamental freedoms.

Geoffrey completed his DPhil in International Relations at Oxford University on post-conflict judicial state-building in legally pluralist settings.

June 2017

New book from Professor Kaldor: International Law and New Wars

Professor Mary Kaldor and Professor Christine Chinkin’s new book, International Law and New Wars examines how international law, largely constructed in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, rests to a great extent on the outmoded concept of war drawn from European experience - inter-state clashes involving battles between regular and identifiable armed forces. The book shows how different approaches are associated with different interpretations of international law, and, in some cases, this has dangerously weakened the legal restraints on war established after 1945. It puts forward a practical case for what it defines as second generation human security and the implications this carries for international law.

Click here to find out about the book launch.
Click here to pre-order your book.

June 2017

Conference on Long-Range Development in Latin America

The inaugural LSE-Stanford-Universidad de los Andes Conference on Long-Range Development in Latin America will take place in Stanford on 11-12 May. The papers presented by co-organiser, Professor Jean Paul Faguet, are a blend of politics, economics and history, and trace the intellectual frontiers of long-run development in Latin America and beyond. They will be publicly available soon.

More about the event here

Tim runs London Marathon

A huge congratulations to Professor Tim Allen for completing the London Marathon on Sunday in just under five hours!

As many of you know, in 2000 Tim was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia. After a year of treatment, the cancer returned and the only way to save his life was to find an unrelated bone marrow donor. The Anthony Nolan Trust finds such people, and Tim is still alive, because someone he had never met was willing to provide bone marrow to attempt a transplant. Each year, Tim runs the London Marathon to remember what the donor did for him, and to raise funds for the Nolan Trust.

Please sponsor Tim, even if it is just for a small amount.

Sponsor Tim's run here.   

Book launch for After Rape                      

This event on the evening of the 9th of May, hosted by Firoz Lalji Centre for Africa, marks the publication of Holly Porter’s new book After Rape: violence, justice and social harmony in Uganda. Holly Porter will talk about the book with Adam Branch from Cambridge University and the event will be chairs by Professor Tim Allen, Director of the Firoz Lalji Centre and Head of the Department for International Development.                      

Click here to reserve your space for the talk  

Professor Robert Ashford to talk at LSE in May

Professor Robert Ashford, Distinguished Professor of Law at Syracuse University, will deliver a public talk in May at The London School of Economics. To coincide with a new book, he will suggest a new approach to making employment and growth more sustainable by broadening capital ownership, using the earnings of capital.

Find out more about the event here.

After Rape, the new book from Dr Holly Porter

Drawing upon abundant fieldwork and in-depth interviews with almost 200 women, Dr Holly Porter, Research Fellow from the department and Lead Researcher for the Justice and Security Research Programme, examines issues surrounding wrongdoing and justice, and sexual violence and rape, among the Acholi people in northern Uganda.

Find out more about the book here.

Congratulations to Dr Sandra Sequeira

Congratulations to Dr Sandra Seqeira who has been promoted from Assistant Professor to Associate Professor in Development Economics. 
Dr Seqeira is also Lead Academic for the International Growth Centre’s Mozambique programme. Her research applies a combination of experimental and quasi-experimental methods to three broad themes in development economics: infrastructure and growth, private sector development in developing countries and the economic costs of bureaucratic corruption.

You can see Dr Sandra Sequeira's full profile here.

PhD student Max Gallien wins ESRC Writing Competition

A huge congratulations to Max Gallien, PhD student in the Department of International Development, for recently being announced of one of only four prize winners in the highly prestigious ESRC Writing Competition. Max’s entry “Researching the informal economy teaches us about the lives of the most vulnerable in our society” was runner up in the competition which is run in partnership with SAGE publications.

You can read Max Gallien's entry for the competition here.

Dr Tasha Fairfield to join Stanford University as fellow                      

Tasha Fairfield will be a 2017-2018 fellow at the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences (CASBS) at Stanford University, where she will be working on a book project, “Social Inquiry and Bayesian Inference: Rethinking Qualitative Research.”  Her article with A.E. Charman, "Explicit Bayesian analysis for process tracing: guidelines, opportunities, and caveats," is forthcoming in Political Analysis. 

Professor Tim Forsyth receives grant to research resilience in Nepal and Myanmar                 

Tim Forsyth has won a grant funded by the Rockefeller Foundation to conduct research on the resilience and access to sustainable growth in upland Nepal and Myanmar. The grant which is equivalent to £350,000. Tim, the principle investigator with collaborators in Oxford and East Anglia, will be investigating how livelihood transitions in upland, and post-conflict villages in Nepal and Myanmar change what we think about risk and resilience, including resilience to climate change.

Mary Kaldor awarded BISA Distinguished Contribution Prize

Professor Mary Kaldor was awarded the Distinguished Contribution Prize by the British International Studies Association (BISTA). The prize recognises an individual’s contribution to the promotion of excellence in the discipline of International Studies over a substantial period of time. The award also recognises the distinction in the intellectual development and the leadership of the discipline, as well as acknowledging the considerable prestige added by the individual to International Studies in the UK and beyond.                        

Find out more about BISA here.

Stuart Gordon at the IWM

Dr Stuart Gordon has been featured in a video interview at the Imperial War Museum for an exhibition about the British arrival in Helmand. The exhibition examines the British arrival in the Afghan province in 2006 and the decisions that shaped the way the conflict escalated, exploring the impact the period had on those who were there and the lessons learnt from the deployment.                      

Find out more about the exhibition here.

Development Management Student Releases Debut Book                      

MSc Development Management student and Khattar Scholar, Agnes Chew, released her first debut nonfictional book, titled The Desire for Elsewhere, at the Singapore Writers Festival 2016.                      

You can find out more about the book here.

Pritish Behuria Interviewed by Radio France International

Pritish Behuria, Visiting Fellow of the department, was interviewed by Radio France International about Agaciro in Rwanda. This follows on from his recent publication in The Journal of Eastern African Studies about the subject.  

You can listen to the interview here.

LSE ranked 3^rd best university in the world for Development Studies

QS TopUniversities has ranked The London School of Economics the third best university in the world for Development Studies. LSE jumped two places from the previous year, topping both Oxford and Cambridge University, and is the only university on the list to have scored full marks for research impact.   

You can see the full list of universities here 

Development Management consultancy project presents report to leaders in the field

A small team of students from the MSc Development Management 2015/2016 course presented a successful report last week in collaboration with Charities Aid Foundation at the pre-launch event for their research. 

You can read their article for the department blog here 

International Development students have their paper published by the Inter-American Development Bank

A group of students from last year’s Development Management class have had their constancy project published for the Inter-American Development Bank. The paper analyses the different ways in which big data can be leveraged to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of governments in Latin America and the Caribbean by using five case studies. 

You can download and read the paper by following this link 

Dr Tasha Fairfield wins the Donna Lee Van Cott Award for best book on political institutions 

Dr Fairfield, an Assistant Professor in Development Studies in the Department of International Development has been awarded the 2016 Donna Lee Van Cott Award for best book on political institutions for her book Private Wealth and Public Revenue in Latin America (Cambridge University Press, 2015). The committee for the prize described it as "both theoretically and empirically rich and persuasive in showing the impact of business power in reforming tax policy across and within countries". They went on to say that they "found particularly compelling the way in which the book brings social movements into the picture to explain how movements in the street can change the balance of power between states and business and empower states to pass anti-business tax reforms."

New Report - "From Hybrid Peace to Human Security: Rethinking EU Strategy towards Conflict"

The latest report by the Civil Society and Human Security Research Unit proposes that the European Union adopts a second generation human security approach to conflicts, as an alternative to Geo-Politics or the War on Terror.

Read the full report here

Professor Jean-Paul Faguet speaks at World Bank

On Wednesday 10 February Professor Jean-Paul Faguet spoke at an event at the World Bank entitled "Is Decentralization Good for Development: Perspectives from Academics & Policy Makers", where he discussed his research from his book of the same name.

A video of the event can be found here

Programme for African Leadership scholarships available for 2016

PfAL is delighted to announce that scholarship funds are available for bright African students applying to select Masters programmes for the upcoming 2016/17 academic year. There is a three-stage application process, with an initial deadline of 4 March 2016 for the first phase. Click the link for more information and for the Pre-Application Form. 

Find out more about the scholarships here.

Professor Kaldor receives honorary award at University of Sussex graduation

On Friday 22 January Mary Kador was awarded an honorary doctorate from the University of Sussex for her  academic excellence and her contribution on issues of humanitarian security and the new causes of war. The award  was conferred to her by the Chancellor of the University, actor and writer Sanjeev Bhaskar at Brighton’s Dome, where the University’s winter graduation ceremonies took place.