The mental health impact of multiple deprivations under protracted conflict: a multilevel study in the occupied Palestinian territory

Tiziana Leone
PLOS Global Public Health (2022)

Building on the literatures examining the impacts of deprivation and war and conflict on mental health, this study investigates the impact of different forms of deprivation on mental health within a context of prolonged conflict in the occupied Palestinian territory(oPt). The study uses data from the Socio-Economic & Food Security Survey 2014 conducted by the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, with an analytical sample of 7827 households in the West Bank(WB) and Gaza Strip(GS). 

Regional cleavages in African politics: Persistent electoral blocs and territorial oppositions

Catherine Boone
Political Geography (2022)

Do socio-economic cleavages shape electoral dynamics in African countries? Previous individual-level and party systems research on African politics has de-emphasized socio-economic factors, contributing to the common view that ethnic cleavages and short-term ethnic alliances define politics both locally and nationally. Focusing on Kenya, Zambia, and Malawi, we draw on methods in electoral geography to offer a spatial analysis of geographic patterns in constituency-level electoral returns over three decades that reveals the existence of persistent regional voting blocs that, in their temporal stability and multiethnic character, are not well explained by prevailing theory. 

What is equitable about equitable resilience? Dynamic risks and subjectivities in Nepal

Tim Forsyth
World Development (2022)

Equitable resilience is an increasing focus of development policy, but there is still insufficient attention to how the framings of equity itself shape what, and who, is targeted through development efforts. Universalistic assumptions about climate risk or social marginalization can define equity in ways that hide dynamic and intersectional influences on what constitutes risk to whom under different circumstances. This paper investigates the implications of two different equity framings for resilience in Jumla District, western Nepal. 

Aadhaar and social assistance programming: local bureaucracies as critical intermediary

Shirin Madon
Information Technology for Development (2022)

Digital identity platforms are a recent e-governance innovation for improving social assistance programming in the development context, the most well-known of which is India's Aadhaar. While a significant number of studies have accumulated on Aadhaar, so far under-researched is the importance of local government practices and processes in shaping usage of the platform to support social assistance programming. In this paper we theorize how local government intermediation on digital identity platforms can improve social assistance programming through a case study of the Aadhaar-enabled Fertilizer Distribution System (AeFDS) in Andhra Pradesh. Our findings show how the relevance of the platform for low-income farmers depends crucially on the proactive adaptation of the technology by key local government intermediaries. From a policy perspective, this result emphasizes the importance of supporting efforts to acknowledge the role of responsive local government agencies in ensuring that centralized digital identity platforms remain relevant for implementing social assistance programming.

Industrialization and Assimilation

Elliott Green
Cambridge University Press (November 2022)

Industrialization and Assimilation examines the process of ethnic identity change in a broad historical context. Green explains how and why ethnicity changes across time, showing that, by altering the basis of economic production from land to labour and removing people from the 'idiocy of rural life', industrialization makes societies more ethnically homogenous. 

Waiting for Dignity

Florian Weigand
Columbia University Press (2022)

In Waiting for Dignity, Florian Weigand investigates legitimacy and its absence in Afghanistan. Drawing on hundreds of interviews, he examines the perspectives of ordinary people in Afghanistan as well as those of rival claimants to authority: insurgents, warlords, members of parliament, security forces, and community leaders. 

Political Settlements and Development

Nicolai Schulz
Oxford University Press (2022)

Political Settlements and Development consequently has three main aims: to argue for a revised definition of a political settlement, capable of unifying its diverse strands, and opening new opportunities for the analysis of conflict and development; to put the concept on a more solid theoretical and scientific footing, providing a method for measuring and categorising political settlements, while using new data to analyse the relationship between political settlements and development; and finally, to examine the implications for policymakers.

Mental health coverage for forced migrants: Managing failure as everyday governance in the public and NGO sectors in England

Philipa Mladovsky
Social Science & Medicine (2022)

High-income countries (HICs) which are said to have “reached” universal health coverage (UHC) typically still have coverage gaps, due to both formal policies and informal barriers which result in “hypothetical access”. In England, a user fee exemption has in principle made access to treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and other mental health conditions thought to be caused by certain forms of violence universal, regardless of immigration status. This study explores the everyday governance of this mental health coverage for forced migrants in the English National Health Service (NHS) and NGO sector. 

Integrating child rights standards in contraceptive and abortion care for minors in Africa

Ernestina Coast
International Journal of Gynecology & Obstetrics (2022)

Minor girls in Africa face challenges in accessing high-quality contraceptive and abortion services because laws and policies are not child-friendly. Many countries maintain restrictive laws, policies, or hospital practices that make it difficult for minors to access contraception and safe abortion even when the pregnancy would risk their life or health. Further, the clinical guidelines on contraceptive and abortion care are silent, vague, or ambiguous regarding minors' consent.

Pathways to food insecurity in the context of conflict: the case of the occupied Palestinian territory

Tiziana Leone
Conflict and Health (2022)

Conflict reduces availability of production input and income, increases the number of days households had to rely on less preferred foods, and limits the variety of foods eaten and the portion size of meals consumed. While existing studies examine the impact of conflict on different food security measures (e.g., Food Consumption Score, Food Insecurity Experience Scale), the relationship between these measures as well as their relationship with political, economic, and agricultural factors remain under explored. Food insecurity may not only be an externality of conflict but also food deprivation may be utilized as a weapon to discourage residency in contested territories or to incentivize rebellions.

COVID-19 vaccination campaigns and the production of mistrust among Roma and migrant populations in Italy

Elizabeth Storer
BMJ Global Health (2022)

Achieving high rates of COVID-19 vaccination has become central to a return to normalcy in a post-pandemic world. Accordingly, exceptional measures, such as the regulation of immunity through vaccine passports and restrictions that distinguished between vaccinated and unvaccinated individuals, became a feature of vaccination campaigns in certain G7 countries. Such policies stand in tension with recent supranational European Union policies that seek to build inclusion and trust through engaging minoritised groups in vaccine campaigns. To explore this tension, we present novel ethnographic data produced with migrant and Roma communities in Italy. 

Link to report in the British Academy from the same project. 

The constitutive outside: EU border externalisation, regional histories, and social dynamics in the Senegal River Valley

Hassan Ould Moctar
Geoforum (2022)

This article situates the EU border externalisation process within the regional history and social dynamics of the Senegal River Valley. It does so by drawing from fieldwork data gathered in the Mauritanian border town of Rosso, a crucial node within the architecture of the EU border regime in West Africa. By ethnographically detailing the workings of the border crossing and the experiences of illegalised migrant workers in the town, the article argues that the externalisation process is conditioned by the histories and socio-spatial dynamics of the regions in which it unfolds. 

Increasing Access to Formal Agricultural Credit: The Role of Rural Producer Organisations

Allison Benson and Jean-Paul Faguet
The Journal of Development Studies (2022)

Access to agricultural credit contributes to rural development by allowing farmers to carry out profit-maximising investments that increase productivity and income, underlining the importance of exploring ways to increase access to this resource. This paper analyses the role of Rural Producer Organisations (RPOs) in easing access to formal agricultural credit. We build an original dataset comprising 15,000 municipality-year observations of RPO creation and credit allocation in Colombia to estimate a fixed effects model. 

Explaining Physical Violence in Parliaments

Moritz Schmoll
Journal of Conflict Resolution (2022)

Why do lawmakers resort to physical violence in some parliaments but not in others? Brawls not only constitute a stark break with democratic norms and ideals, they also affect voter perceptions and have been seen as a bellwether for conflict and democratic backsliding. Yet, the phenomenon remains poorly understood. This paper introduces a new, original dataset recording reported incidents of physical fights in parliaments across the globe between 1980 and 2018 that includes almost four times more cases of violence than existing data. Theoretically, we argue that levels of democracy and the composition of parliament should drive violence. The analysis shows that fighting is most common in countries that are neither very autocratic nor very democratic, in fragmented parliaments, and in chambers with slim majorities. The findings have implications for the study of (de-)democratization, political instability, and the design of democratic institutions.

New Mediums, Better Messages?

David Lewis
Oxford University Press (2022)

Edited by David Lewis, Dennis Rodgers, and Michael Woolcock, New Mediums, Better Messages? explores popular representations of international development. Written by a multidisciplinary team of international experts, the book opens a unique conversation between development and the arts. The book is available as open access. 

Leading States in the Periphery of the World Economy Challenge Core States: Impacts of the unlikely BRICS coalition

Robert Wade
Global Policy (2022)

The longer-run trajectory of the global economy (and its politics) will be much affected by the extent to which developing countries manage to cooperate to challenge the rule-setting dominance of the North Atlantic states. This essay assesses the impact on global economic governance of the cross-regional BRICS coalition (Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa).  The standard assessment in the west is: very little so far. The essay finds that this is too pessimistic, though not by much. The format exists, the political leaders do meet twice a year, finance ministers and central bank governors do the same, and two financing organizations have been created to complement or eventually even substitute for the IMF and the World Bank. Potential expansion of cooperation depends heavily on the willingness of the national presidents to act independently of the US, and on geopolitics between the members of the coalition.

When climate justice goes wrong: Maladaptation and deep co-production in transformative environmental science and policy

Tim Forsyth
Political Geography (2022)

Maladaptation to climate change is often portrayed as arising from the unjust exclusion of vulnerable people. In turn, analysts have proposed knowledge co-production with marginalized groups as a form of transformative climate justice. This paper argues instead that maladaptation arises from a much deeper exclusion based upon the projection of inappropriate understandings of risk and social identity that are treated as unquestioned circumstances of justice. Drawing on social studies of science, the paper argues that the focus on co-production as an intentional act of inclusion needs to be considered alongside “deep” or “reflexive” co-production, which instead refers to the non-cognitive and unavoidable simultaneous generation of knowledge and social order. 

The power of non-violence: Silmiya & the Sudanese Revolution

Reem Awad
Conflict, Security & Development (2022)

This research explores the 2018 revolution in Sudan to assess the extent to which the adoption of non-violence led to a more successful revolution and set Sudan on a path of democratic governance. It investigates the revolution’s main slogan, Silmiya, coming from the Arabic word Salam meaning ‘peace’. Thus, the nature and function of non-violence as well as what motivates people to resort to non-violence will be considered. The research acts as a point of departure from Fanon’s theory of violence arguing that violence is revolutionary and liberating. Ultimately, the research challenges normative frameworks on the necessity of violence for social movements to succeed as Fanon theorises, sheds light on the power of non-violence, and highlights the importance of re-examining characteristics historically associated with non-violence, such as passivity or weakness.

“One Man’s Meat Is Another Man’s Poison’: Marungi and Realities of Resilience in North West Uganda

Elizabeth Storer, Innocent Anguyo and Anthony Odda
Civil Wars (2022)

Approaches to resilience in post-war contexts prioritise systems-based thinking above everyday realities. This paper explores reconstruction through marungi (khat) in North-West Uganda. Presenting ethnographic evidence, we chart connections between marungi and resilience among growers, traders and “eaters”. Firstly, we argue for a consideration of the actual resources through which individuals and households build capacity to withstand shocks following war. Secondly, we explore inequities within production lines and the effects of criminalising khat, to demonstrate trade-offs within prospects for post-war prosperity. Ultimately, we argue for process-based analyses of how resilience is negotiated in contingent circumstances.

Theorizing community health governance for strengthening primary healthcare in LMICs

Shirin Madon
Health Policy and Planning (2022)

In recent years, community health governance structures have been established in many low and middle-income countries (LMICs) as part of decentralization policies aimed at strengthening primary healthcare systems. So far, most studies on these local structures either focus on measuring their impact on health outcome or on identifying the factors that affect their performance. In this paper we offer an alternative contribution that draws on a sociological interpretation of community health governance to improve understanding of how the government’s policy vision and instrumentation translate to interactions that take place within local spaces at field level. We study 13 Village Health Sanitation and Nutrition Committees (VHSNCs) in Karnataka, India, from 2016 to 2018 focusing on sanitation, nutrition and hygiene which remain impediments to improving primary healthcare amongst poor and marginalized communities. Three local governance mechanisms of horizontal coordination, demand for accountability and self-help help to explain improvements that have taken place at village level and contribute to the creation of a new theory of community health governance as evolving phenomenon that requires a constant process of learning from the field to strengthen policymaking.

Rural mechanization for equitable development: Disarray, disjuncture and disruption

David Lewis
Development Policy Review (2021)

Agricultural mechanization was once a mainstream issue. From the 1990s onwards it received less priority, as public policy concern for equitable economic development in rural areas faded. Despite recent signs of renewed interest, questions of rural mechanization require more systematic attention. After a long period of neglect, our knowledge is in disarray. This paper traces the evolution of thinking about rural mechanization. It examines how three increasingly important factors affect or potentially affect mechanization: (a) expansion of capital goods markets, (b) evolving urban-rural linkages, (c) climate crisis.

National climate institutions complement targets and policies

Kathy Hochstetler
Science (2021)

National climate institutions are a missing element in climate mitigation discussions. Yet institutions translate ambition to current action, guide policy development and implementation, and mediate political interests that can obstruct mitigation efforts. The landscape of relevant institutions is usefully categorized around ‘purpose-built’ institutions, ‘layering’ of responsibilities on existing institutions, and unintentional effects of ‘latent’ institutions. Institutions are relevant for solving three climate governance challenges: coordination across policy domains and interests, mediating conflict and building consensus, and strategy development. However, countries do not have a free hand in designing climate institutions; institutions are shaped by national context into four distinct varieties of climate governance. We suggest how countries can sequence the formation of climate institutions given the constraints of national politics and existing national political institutions.

Britain as a Force for Good: An Essay Collection

Mark Lowcock,
International Rescue Committee (2021)

The International Rescue Committee and the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI), a renowned defence and security think tank, have joined forces to publish this new essay collection. It provides tangible propositions for how the UK can be a progressive force for good on the international stage. The collection explores ways in which the UK can tackle global challenges and deliver on its ‘Global Britain’ ambition across a range of areas including climate, global health, foreign policy, science and technology. Each essay offers a tangible way forward, to ensure the UK’s foreign policy can deliver for people in the country and across the globe.

Climate institutions in Brazil: three decades of building and dismantling climate capacity

Kathryn Hochstetler
Environmental Politics (2021)

What kinds of national climate institutions can solve the governance challenges that the Paris Agreement devolves to them? This article identifies three stages of climate institutions in Brazil, a major emitter of greenhouse gases through deforestation that managed to reduce such emissions for nearly a decade. It shows that a narrow definition of climate institutions that seeks purpose-built state institutions fails to capture important dynamics there, and that such institutions have little direct impact on outcomes. In Brazil’s political landscape, national presidents exercise a decisive influence on their climate ambitions and capacities. However, positive and negative feedback loops also brought some effective climate action from the layering of climate purposes into existing institutions, as well as through non-traditional institutions like private governance arrangements for agriculture.

The Incoherence of Institutional Reform: Decentralization as a Structural Solution to Immediate Political Needs

Jean-Paul Faguet & Mahvish Shami 
Studies in Comparative International Development (2021)

Institutional reforms are structural changes in the rules and norms of authority, with effects that are long-term and unpredictable on government, politics, and society. But leaders may undertake them to solve unrelated, discrete, short-term political problems. Understanding the latter is key to understanding the characteristics of many real reforms, and hence their fate. We introduce the concept of instrumental incoherence and use it to construct a theory of decentralization where reform is motivated by orthogonal objectives. We show that reformers’ incentives map onto the specifics of reform design via their side effects, not their main effects, which in turn lead to the medium- and long-term consequences eventually realized. We characterize downwardly accountable decentralization, which ties the hands of the center to empower local voters, vs. upwardly accountable decentralization, which ties the hands of local government to empower the center. We use these ideas to explain highly divergent outcomes in two extreme cases, Bolivia and Pakistan, using detailed, original evidence. Our analysis likely extends to a broader class of reforms where the incentives of agents pursuing a change, and the effects of that change, are highly asymmetric in time and dimension.

Institutionalising decarbonisation in South Africa: navigating climate mitigation and socio-economic transformation

Kathryn Hochstetler
Environmental Politics (2021)

Strong climate institutional governance is necessary for countries to meet their international climate mitigation commitments. This article shows that while South Africa steadily created climate institutions up to 2011, these failed to take hold in the following years. Also, despite the systemically critical energy sector dominating the emissions profile, these climate institutions had no purchase over it. This situation is largely due to South Africa’s political economy of energy, which gave powerful actors the sustained ability to block meaningful institutionalisation of decarbonisation in the energy sector. As a result, South Africa’s climate institutions play few of the roles expected for successful institutionalization of climate action, with energy institutions instead playing a shadow climate governance role. This case suggests that conceptions of climate institutional governance in countries where single sectors dominate in emissions and power must accommodate the roles of institutions affecting climate outcomes despite this not being their primary objective.

Whose bodies are they? Conceptualising reproductive violence against adolescents in Ethiopia, Malawi and Zambia

Ernestina Coast
Agenda (2021)

We use a violence lens to visibilize how adolescents who sought abortion-related care in three African countries are coerced, controlled and punished with regards to their sexual and reproductive health. We suggest the use of the concept of reproductive violence to characterize these diverse experiences. Our data comes from a comparative study on adolescent contraceptive and abortion seeking behaviours in Ethiopia, Malawi and Zambia. We conducted 313 interviews that generated both quantitative and qualitative evidence in each country (2018 - 2019). Our analysis shows how adolescent bodies are subject to reproductive violence by parents, partners and healthcare workers, situated within a broader framework of structural violence. Reproductive violence manifests in multiple ways, often within a single abortion trajectory, including coercion to accept post-abortion contraception after receiving facility-based abortion services; having few to no choices of contraceptive methods prior to or after pregnancy; parents and relatives coercing adolescents to not/use abortion or contraception; lack of decision-making regarding sexuality or sexual identity; sex and contraceptive use in relationships rooted in gendered and power dynamics with partners; and - ultimately – adolescents’ lack of control over their own bodies. We show how these experiences make adolescents vulnerable to the experience and perpetuation of reproductive violence.

COVID-19 information dissemination in Uganda: Perspectives from sub-national health workers

Elizabeth Storer
BMC Health Services Research (2021)

In many places, health workers at the sub-national level are on the frontlines of disseminating information about coronavirus (COVID-19) to communities. To ensure communities are receiving timely and accurate information, it is vital health workers are kept abreast of the most recent recommendations, and guidance.

Uganda Information and Evidence Rapid Assessment Survey Report 

Elizabeth Storer
Ministry of Health, Republic of Uganda (2021)

The survey results provide insights about the dissemination and utilisation of information and evidence related to COVID-19 in Uganda. Respondents were individuals engaged at various levels of the health system.

Re-using Administrative Data for Statistics: Case Studies from Five Countries

Tiziana Leone
UNDESA-LSE (2021)

The report was produced in response to the increasing interest in administrative data combined with the amplified imperativeness of leveraging these data for policymaking during the COVID-19 pandemic. It is motivated by existing literature on the benefits of administrative data for improving the efficiency and accuracy of developing national statistics and evidence-based policies. The report focuses on five case studies – Chile, Denmark, Ghana, Kenya, and Pakistan – by presenting country profiles and illustrating insights of local experts on existing data sharing practices.

I no longer have a hope of studying: gender norms, education and wellbeing of refugee girls in Rwanda

Ernestina Coast
Routledge Humanitarian Studies (2021)

Adolescents are rarely considered as a distinct group within research about refugees, and relatively little is known about the lives and experiences of adolescent refugees in Rwanda. Rarely are adolescents’ perspectives, experiences and opinions sought, and their participation in decision-making [educational, economic, political] is limited. Our data are drawn from qualitative evidence collected in three Rwandan refugee camps from individual and group interactions with male and female adolescents, including adolescents who had given birth before age 20. Evidence focuses on two capability areas: education and learning and, psychosocial wellbeing. Gendered norms for adolescents affect educational outcomes and psychosocial wellbeing, and adolescent mothers experience multiple stressors to their psychosocial wellbeing. Our evidence highlights the extreme vulnerability – with lifelong implications – of some adolescent refugees. Refugee adolescent mothers face exceptionally heightened vulnerabilities because of the social stigma associated with non-marital pregnancy and childbearing. Investing in the lives of adolescent refugees – particularly those who are pregnant or mothers – is likely to yield significant medium- long-term dividends in terms of their life chances.

Climate institutions in Brazil: three decades of building and dismantling climate capacity

And 

Institutionalising decarbonisation in South Africa: navigating climate mitigation and socio-economic transformation

Kathryn Hochstetler
Environmental Politics (2021)

What kinds of institutions can meet the challenges of climate change - especially in the context of other social goals, like economic development and social transformation? Professor Kathy Hochstetler has two new articles on this topic, written as part of a group that was led by Professor Navroz Dubash of the Centre for Policy Research in New Delhi. Her article on Brazil shows the complex interactions of climate institutions and the politics of agribusiness in that country, where most GHG emissions come from deforestation and land-use change. In South Africa (article with Emily Tyler of South Africa), climate institutions face significant challenges of energy transition from coal. These challenges are made much more complicated by the apartheid government’s historic embedding of deliberate and extreme racial inequality in the energy system and broader economy there. They will be in a special issue of the journal Environmental Politics that includes studies of other major emitters, and is entirely open access.

The politics of COVID-19 vaccination in middle-income countries: Lessons from Brazil

Kenneth Shadlen
Social Science & Medicine (2021)

As the world struggles to meet the challenges of vaccination against COVID-19, more attention needs to be paid to issues faced by countries at different income levels. Middle-income countries (MICs) typically lack the resources and regulatory capacities to pursue strategies that wealthier countries do, but they also face different sets of challenges and opportunities than low-income countries (LICs). The authors focus on three dimensions of vaccination: procurement and production; regulation of marketing registration; and distribution and uptake. For each dimension they show the distinct challenges and opportunities faced by MICs. 

If she's pregnant, then that means that her dreams fade away: exploring experiences of adolescent pregnancy and motherhood in Rwanda

Ernestina Coast
European Journal of Development Research (2021)

This article considers how adolescents’ capabilities are influenced by pregnancy and motherhood, using a mixed-methods case study of Rwanda. Adolescent motherhood impacts girls’ lives across multiple capabilities including education, psychosocial well-being, voice and agency, and economic empowerment. Rarely were adolescent mothers in our sample supported to return to school, for instance. Their pregnancy and motherhood were stigmatised by their families, peers, wider community and service providers. The psychosocial consequences of adolescent motherhood are significant, linked to social isolation and multifaceted stressors, including poverty. Despite recent policy and service improvements, adolescent mothers continue to be left behind.

Domestic humanitarianism: the Mission France of Médecins Sans Frontières and Médecins du Monde

Tine Hanrieder
Third World Quarterly (2021)

What are the boundaries of humanitarianism? This question is controversially debated among humanitarian practitioners and scholars, given ever-changing spaces and temporalities of human suffering. This paper explores an understudied site of this controversy: the domestic humanitarian engagement of Médecins Sans Frontières and Médecins du Monde, two NGOs widely regarded as epitomes of liberal international humanitarianism.

Are landscape approaches possible under authoritarianism? Multi-stakeholder governance and social transformation in Myanmar

Tim Forsyth
Environmental Science & Policy (2021)

Landscape Approaches have been proposed as a transferable model of multi-stakeholder governance, yet assume conditions of ideal speech, trust, and transparency that seem untransferable to authoritarian regimes. This paper argues that building Landscape Approaches under authoritarian conditions cannot be based on a governance deficit model of awaiting idealized political conditions, but instead needs to pay attention to how local social and political structures influence what is deliberated, and by whom. The paper presents evidence from a multi-stakeholder environmental intervention around Lake Indawgyi in Kachin State, Myanmar, to draw lessons for transferring Landscapes Approaches under conditions of political authoritarianism, sporadic violent conflict, and rapid socio-economic change. 

Geographies of unease: Witchcraft and boundary construction in an African borderland

Elizabeth Storer
Political Geography (2021)

African borderlands – such as those between South Sudan, Uganda and Congo – are often presented by analysts as places of agency and economic opportunity, in contrast to hardened, securitized borders elsewhere. We emphasize, however, that even such relatively porous international borders can nevertheless be the focus of significant unease for borderland communities. Crossing borders can enable safety for those fleeing conflict or trading prospects for businesspeople, but it can also engender anxieties around the unchecked spread of insecurity, disease and economic exploitation.

Connectivity, clientelism and public provision

Mahvish Shami
British Journal of Political Science (2021)

In many developing countries the rural poor often depend on patrons to act as brokers in order to get public provision from the government. The broker facilitates provision in return for securing peasants’ votes for politicians. Yet, low bargaining power of peasants allows patrons to appropriate public resources for themselves. I propose increasing peasants’ bargaining power by connecting them to markets outside their village. Making use of a natural experiment found in the construction of a motorway in Pakistan, I find public provision to be significantly higher in connected villages when compared to those which are isolated. Moreover, I find that the beneficial impact of connectivity is felt most strongly by the lower classes, who are most vulnerable to exploitation when isolated

Two decades of theorising and measuring women's empowerment: Literature review and future research agenda

Naila Kabeer
Women's Studies International Forum (2021)

The analysis identifies the most influential journals, authors, and centres of excellence that have shaped women's empowerment research and unearths the sub-topics related to women's empowerment, which have been in vogue in recent times. The topics trending currently include interrelationships between gender equity and empowerment, measurement of women's empowerment, dimensions, and consequences of women's empowerment. These themes present fresh opportunities for aspiring researchers to align their work in this field. Our analysis makes a significant contribution for researchers interested in women's empowerment by providing a historical perspective, tracing the reason for the spurt in research output, establishing linkages between the articles, and identifying the emerging areas within the broad theme of women's empowerment.

The politics of COVID-19 vaccination in middle-income countries: Lessons from Brazil

Ken Shadlen
Social Science and Medicine (2021)

As the world struggles to meet the challenges of vaccination against COVID-19, more attention needs to be paid to issues faced by countries at different income levels. Middle-income countries (MICs) typically lack the resources and regulatory capacities to pursue strategies that wealthier countries do, but they also face different sets of challenges and opportunities than low-income countries (LICs). We focus on three dimensions of vaccination: procurement and production; regulation of marketing registration; and distribution and uptake. For each dimension we show the distinct challenges and opportunities faced by MICs. 

From targeted private benefits to public goods: Land, distributive politics and changing political conditions in Colombia

Allison Benson
World Development (2021)

This paper analyzes how changes in political conditions affect distributive politics. We study the case of Colombia, focusing on the strategic allocation of land in relation to the electoral cycle. Relying on over 55.000 municipality-year observations on land allocations, exogenous timing of elections and sociodemographic controls, we show that there is a political land cycle (PLC), and that this cycle is dependent on the local political conditions in place. 

Utilization of GSP schemes as a political and economic determinant of the utilization of North-South FTAs

Antonio Postigo 
Review of International Political Economy (2021)

Many works have examined the variables driving the formation of North-South free trade agreements (FTAs) between developed and developing countries. This study analyzes the determinants shaping their utilization in the contexts of their political economy and of Generalized System of Preferences (GSP) schemes that are unilaterally granted by developed economies to developing countries’ exports. Most of the goods liberalized through GSP are liberalized from early on in North-South FTAs; however, since FTA concessions are legally binding, goods that are excluded or only partially liberalized in GSP will be also excluded or protected in FTAs.

Feminist Economic Perspectives on the COVID-19 Pandemic

Naila Kabeer
Feminist Economics (2021)

This article provides a contextual framework for understanding the gendered dimensions of the COVID-19 pandemic and its health, social, and economic outcomes. The pandemic has generated massive losses in lives, impacted people’s health, disrupted markets and livelihoods, and created profound reverberations in the home. In 112 countries that reported sex-disaggregated data on COVID-19 cases, men showed an overall higher infection rate than women, and an even higher mortality rate.

Digitalizing Community Health Work: A Struggle over the Values of Global Health Policy

Tine Hanrieder
Historical Social Research (2021)

The introduction of digital technology has sparked new debates about the value of community health workers in low- and middle-income countries. This debate offers important insights into the conventions that are relevant in global public health. Community health workers, a workforce that was already celebrated during the 1970s Primary Health Care movement, are having a remarkable revival in recent years, and myriad actors seek to boost their impact through mobile devices. Our content analysis of the public health literature evaluating this impact reveals the centrality of attempts at reconciling equity and cost effectiveness concerns, and thus considerable normative tensions. Additionally, we find that discussions about “domestic” values such as privacy and gender roles come with a paternalistic undertone, calling for feminist and postcolonial engagement with the digitalization of community health work.

Challenges in ensuring global access to COVID-19 vaccines: production, affordability, allocation, and deployment

Ken Shadlen
The Lancet (2021)

The COVID-19 pandemic is unlikely to end until there is global roll-out of vaccines that protect against severe disease and preferably drive herd immunity. Regulators in numerous countries have authorised or approved COVID-19 vaccines for human use, with more expected to be licensed in 2021. Yet having licensed vaccines is not enough to achieve global control of COVID-19: they also need to be produced at scale, priced affordably, allocated globally so that they are available where needed, and widely deployed in local communities. In this Health Policy paper, the authors review potential challenges to success in each of these dimensions and discuss policy implications. 

Fictitious commodification and agrarian change: Indigenous peoples and land markets in Highland Ecuador

Geoff Goodwin
Agrarian Change (2021)

Creating private property rights and establishing land markets were fundamental to the historical development of capitalism in the Global North and remain at the centre of capitalist development in the Global South. This article contributes to debates about these processes by analysing the relationship between land markets and indigenous peoples in Highland Ecuador.

Introduction: The Politics of Open Access — Decolonizing Research or Corporate Capture?

Kate Meagher
Development and Change (2021)

This introductory article looks beyond the conventional framing of open access (OA) debates in terms of paywalls and copyrights, to examine the historical processes, institutional and digital infrastructures, and political dynamics shaping the effects of OA in development research. From a historical perspective, it focuses on tensions and crises in the relationship between scholarly and corporate publishing ecosystems. The spectrum of open access models is also examined, with a focus on green, gold, diamond and black, which tend to obscure the underlying scholarly publishing infrastructures that shape the parameters of openness and access. 

Depends Who's Asking: Interviewer Effects in Demographic and Health Surveys Abortion Data

Tiziana Leone and Ernestina Coast
Demography (2021)

Responses to survey questions about abortion are affected by a wide range of factors, including stigma, fear, and cultural norms. However, we know little about how interviewers might affect responses to survey questions on abortion. The aim of this study is to assess how interviewers affect the probability of women reporting abortions in nationally representative household surveys: Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS).

Timing and determinants of age at menarche in low-income and middle-income countries

Tiziana Leone
BMJ Global Health (2020)

Understanding the timing and determinants of age at menarche is key to determining potential linkages between onset of puberty and health outcomes from a life-course perspective. Yet, we have little information in low-income and middle-income countries (LMICs) mainly due to lack of data. The aim of this study was to analyse trends in the timing and the determinants of menarche in LMICs.

Covid-19 lockdowns, income distribution, and food security: An analysis for South Africa

Stephanie Levy
Global Food Security (2020)

Absent vaccines and pharmaceutical interventions, the only tool available to mitigate its demographic effects is some measure of physical distancing, to reduce contagion by breaking social and economic contacts. Policy makers must balance the positive health effects of strong distancing measures, such as lockdowns, against their economic costs, especially the burdens imposed on low income and food insecure households.

Regulating Humanitarian Governance: Humanitarianism and the ‘Risk Society’

Stuart Gordon
Politics and Governance (2020)

This research advances the critical literature of humanitarian governance by demonstrating how ‘risk management’ is reproduced within the governance and regulatory structures of humanitarian institutions and, crucially, how it distorts patterns of emergency assistance coverage. 

Ethnic favouritism in Kenyan education reconsidered: when a picture is worth more than a thousand regressions

Elliott Green
The Journal of Modern African Studies (2020)

Does a leader's ethnicity affect the regional distribution of basic services such as education in Africa? Several influential studies have argued in the affirmative, by using educational attainment levels to show that children who share the ethnicity of the president during their school-aged years have higher attainment than their peers. In this paper we revisit this empirical evidence and show that it rests on problematic assumptions. Some models commonly used to test for favouritism do not take adequate account of educational convergence and once this is properly accounted for the results are found to be unstable. Using Kenya as a test case, we argue that there is no conclusive evidence of ethnic favouritism in primary or secondary education, but rather a process of educational convergence among the country's larger ethnic groups. This evidence matters, as it shapes how we understand the ethnic calculus of politicians.

Priorities, Partners, Politics
The WHO’s Mandate beyond the Crisis

Tine Hanrieder 
Global Governance: A Review of Multilateralism and International (2020)

The World Health Organization (WHO) is once more asked to reinvent itself and become more effective. This essay discusses recurrent reform proposals directed at the WHOwhich, in different ways, ask it to find a strategic focus and thereby its niche in the crowded global health arena. Looking back at decades of reform endeavors at the WHO, it exposes the contradictions and unresolved normative conflicts with regard to the WHO’s priorities. Ultimately, the WHO’s effectiveness hinges on Member State support for public authority in global health, and thus the political commitment to protect it against capture by special interests.

Women's access to market opportunities in South Asia and the Middle East & North Africa: Barriers, opportunites and policy challenges  

Naila Kabeer, Ashwini Deshpande and Ragui Assaad 
LSE International Development (2020)

Althoughwomen continued to have lower rates of labour force participationthan men in much of the world, there had been a gradual reductionin the gender gap in participation rates. Various factors have playeda role in this: declining fertility rates, rising rates of female educationand aspirations, new opportunities for work represented by the rise oflabour-intensive export manufacturing and services and so on. Thepace of increase in female participation rates has slowed down, andeven reversed, in a number of regions but a striking feature throughoutthis period has been the persistently low rates of female labour forceparticipation in the MENA and South Asia regions. Male labour forceparticipation rates in the two regions are no different from other regionsof the world, but female participation rates have remained intransigentlylow.

Is the internet the game changer? Disabled people and digital work in China

Yuanyuan Qu
Disability and Society (2020)

The marginalisation of disabled people in paid employment has been a longstanding issue. This article examines whether the recent proliferation of information and communication technologies (ICTs) can change the employment challenges for disabled people. It focuses on China, where digitalisation has happened almost simultaneously with industrialisation, and where a special disability employment trajectory is developing. 

The participation dividend of taxation: how citizens in Congo engage more with the state when it tries to tax them

Jonathan Weigel
Quarterly Journal of Economics (2020)

This article provides evidence from a fragile state that citizens demand more of a voice in the government when it tries to tax them. The author examines a field experiment randomizing property tax collection across 356 neighborhoods of a large Congolese city. 

Adolescent sexual and reproductive health and universal health coverage: a comparative policy and legal analysis of Ethiopia, Malawi and Zambia

Ernestina Coast
Sexual and Reproductive Health Matters (2020)

Universal Health Coverage (UHC) forces governments to consider not only how services will be provided – but which services – and to whom, when, where, how and at what cost. This paper considers the implications for achieving UHC through the lens of abortion-related care for adolescents. 

Political Economies of Energy Transition: Wind and Solar Power in Brazil and South Africa

Kathryn Hochstetler
Cambridge University Press (2020)

Global climate solutions depend on low-carbon energy transitions in developing countries, but little is known about how those will unfold. Examining the transitions of Brazil and South Africa, Hochstetler reveals how choices about wind and solar power respond to four different constellations of interests and institutions, or four simultaneous political economies of energy transition. The political economy of climate change set Brazil and South Africa on different tracks, with South Africa's coal-based electricity system fighting against an existential threat. Since deforestation dominates Brazil's climate emissions, climate concerns were secondary there for electricity planning. Both saw significant mobilization around industrial policy and cost and consumption issues, showing the importance of economic considerations for electricity choices in emerging economies. Host communities resisted Brazilian wind power, but accepted other forms. Hochstetler argues that national energy transition finally depends on the intersection of these political economies, with South Africa illustrating a politicized transition mode and Brazil presenting a bureaucracy-dominant one.

Seeing the "Changing Nature of Work" through a Precarity Lens

Richard Mallett
Global Labour Journal (2020)

This article reviews the concept of precarity and, via a critical analysis of the World Bank’s World Development Report 2019 on the ‘changing nature of work’, offers reflections on its contribution to the study of contemporary labour and livelihoods. 

Fragmentation by design: Universal health coverage policies as governmentality in Senegal

Philipa Mladovsky
Social Science & Medicine (2020)

This study analyses a highly fragmented health financing system through a UHC policy that aims to remove user fees for people aged 60 and over in Senegal. 53 semi-structured interviews (SSIs) and focus group discussions with the target population were conducted in four regions in Senegal over a period of six months during 2012. A further 46 SSIs were conducted with key informants at the national level and in each of the four regions. 

The perversion of public land distribution by landed elites: power, inequality and development in Colombia

Jean-Paul Faguet
World Development (2020)

Over two centuries, Colombia transferred vast quantities of public land into private hands. Much of this process was justified publicly in terms of giving land to the landless and reducing rural poverty. And yet Colombia retains one of the highest concentrations of land ownership in the world. Why? Analyzing the period 1960-2010, the authors show that the effects of public land distribution across 1100+ municipalities are highly heterogeneous. Land distribution increases turnout, makes politics more competitive, and increases public service provision. But landed elites use patron-client ties to distort local policy and decision-making to their benefit. Land distribution’s secondary, institutional effects on the distribution of power outweigh its primary effects on the distribution of land.

Conflict and Transnational Crime
Borders, Bullets & Business in Southeast Asia

Florian Weigand
Edward Elgar (2020)

Exploring the links between armed conflict and transnational crime, Florian Weigand builds on in-depth empirical research into some of Southeast Asia’s murkiest borders. The disparate voices of drug traffickers, rebel fighters, government officials and victims of armed conflict are heard in Conflict and Transnational Crime, exploring perspectives that have been previously disregarded in understanding the field. This book will be available to buy and open access in June. 

Rebel rule of law: Taliban courts in the west and north-west of Afghanistan

Florian Weigand
ODI (2020)

This briefing note, based on more than 200 interviews with claimants and defendants in civil cases in Taliban courts, traces the evolution of the post-2001 Taliban justice system and explores civilian experiences in the courts. Understanding this system will become increasingly important, particularly when any intra-Afghan political talks commence (during which the Taliban system will presumably have to be reconciled with the current government system). 

Female Genital Mutilation/Cutting in Mali and Mauritania: Understanding Trends and Evaluating Policies

Ernestina Coast
Studies in Family Planning (2020)

Despite international commitments to end female genital mutilation/cutting (FGM/C), very little is known about the effectiveness of national policies in contributing to the abandonment of this harmful practice. To help address this gap in knowledge, the authors apply a quasi‐experimental research design to study two west African countries, Mali and Mauritania. 

Women’s Empowerment and Economic Development: A Feminist Critique of Storytelling Practices in “Randomista” Economics

Naila Kabeer
Feminist Economics (2020)

The 2019 Nobel Prize in economics was awarded to three scholars on the grounds that their pioneering use of randomized control trials (RCTs) was innovative methodologically and contributed to development policy and the emergence of a new development economics. Using a critical feminist lens, this article challenges that conclusion by interrogating the storytelling practices deployed by “randomista” economists through a critical reading of a widely cited essay by Esther Duflo, one of the 2019 Nobel recipients, on the relationship between women’s empowerment and economic development. 

Health financing for asylum seekers in Europe: three scenarios towards responsive financing systems

Philipa Mladovsky
Springer International Publishing (2020)

This subsection discusses the applicability and limitations of instituting financing mechanisms to fund healthcare provision for asylum seekers at the level of the European Union. To illustrate the need for such arrangements, we outline the current dilemma addressing health needs of refugees in Europe, where the financial burden lies disproportionately on countries in the periphery of the region.

Security over health: the effect of security policies on migrant mental health in the United Kingdom

Philipa Mladovsky
Springer International Publishing (2020)

Patents, trade, and medicines: past, present, and future

Shadlen, Kenneth
Review of International Political Economy (2020)

This article analyzes the spread of intellectual property in trade agreements. We explain how the integration of intellectual property with international trade rules led to the globalization of pharmaceutical patenting, and then how additional provisions related to pharmaceutical products have been introduced by regional and bilateral trade agreements. 

Patents, trade, and medicines: past, Paradigm shift or business as usual? Workers' views on multi-stakeholder initiatives in Bangladeshresent, and future

Kabeer, Naila
Development and Change (2020)

This article is concerned with the experiences and perceptions of workers in the Bangladesh garment industry regarding these new initiatives. It uses a purposively designed survey to explore the extent to which these initiatives brought about improvements in wages and working conditions in the garment industry, to identify where change was slowest or absent and to ask whether the initiatives did indeed represent a paradigm shift in efforts to enforce the rights of workers.

The 'populist' right challenge to neoliberalism: social policy between a rock and a hard place

Putzel, James
Development and Change (2020)

This article looks at the rise of right populist politics in both developed and developing countries, and its implications for social policy. The author locates the cause for the right populist surge in the legacies of neoliberalism, paying particular attention to the way neoliberal reforms have affected popular attitudes towards politics. 

The unstable coastline: navigating dispossession and belonging in Colombo

Radicati, Alessandra
Antipode (2020)

This article explores how residents of a small coastal fishing enclave in Colombo live with cumulative waves of dispossession brought on by exclusionary projects of urban development. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork, the author introduces the analytic of navigation to describe how people move, plan and live with both present and future threats of dispossession. 

The politics of export restrictions: a panel data analysis of African commodity processing industries

Schulz, Nicolai
World Development (2020)

This paper sets out to answer the question why African governments aiming to industrialize their economies introduce export bans on some processable commodities and not on others. 

Service utilization patterns for childbirth and neonatal mortality in the occupied Palestinian territory during conflict

Leone, Tiziana
European Journal of Public Health (2020)

The global incidence of man-made crises has increased in the last decade. Evidence on demand-side deviations in service uptake during conflict is needed to better understand the link between conflict and adverse neonatal outcomes. We assessed the association between conflict intensity in the Occupied Palestinian territory (OPT) at time of birth and 1) utilization patterns for childbirth across different providers; and 2) neonatal mortality. 

A Distributional Analysis of Artisanal and Industrial Wage Levels and Expenditure in the Congolese Mining Sector

Radley, Ben
The Journal of Development Studies (2020)

This paper aims to shed light on the long–term effects of this process on the strength and vibrancy of local mining economies. It does so through the analysis of original empirical data collected during 15 months of fieldwork at and around an industrial gold mine in South Kivu Province of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, centred on how the entry of industrial mining into pre-existing artisanal mining economies has affected the total volume of mining wages earned, consumed and invested locally.  

Assets and domestic units: methodological challenges for longitudinal studies of poverty dynamics

Coast, Ernestina
The Journal of Peasant Studies (2019)

Tracking change in assets access and ownership in longitudinal research is difficult. Assets are rarely assigned to individuals. Their benefit and management are spread across domestic units which morph over time. We review the challenges of using assets to understand poverty dynamics, and tracking the domestic units that own and manage assets. Using case studies from longitudinal research we demonstrate that assets can afford useful insights into important change.

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Naked bodies and collective action: repertoires of protest in Uganda’s militarised, authoritarian regime

Porter, Holly E
Civil Wars (2019)

How can citizens living under increasingly militarized and authoritarian regimes exercise political voice? Using an in-depth case study of naked protest in modern day Uganda, this article finds that naked bodies allow citizens to employ three types of overlapping power to confront a militarized authoritarian state: biopower, symbolic power, and cosmological power. The study illustrates one way in which citizens seek to engage militarized regimes—and in doing so, how political voice takes particular forms with limited capacity to instigate broader political claim-making that might be associated with country- or region-wide political action.

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Consumers as tax auditors

Naritomi, Joana 
American Economic Review (2019)

To investigate the enforcement value of third-party information on potentially collusive taxpayers, I study an anti-tax evasion program that rewards consumers for ensuring that firms report sales and estab-ishes a verification system to aid whistle-blowing consumers in São Paulo, Brazil (Nota Fiscal Paulista). Firms reported sales increased by at least 21 percent over 4 years. The results are consistent with fixed costs of concealing collusion, increased detection probability from whistle-blower threats, and with behavioral biases associated with lotteries amplifying the enforcement value of the program. Although firms increased reported expenses, tax revenue net of rewards increased by 9.3 percent.

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The spread of ideas related to the developmental idealism model in Albania

Gjonça, Arjan 
Sociology of Development (2019)

In this paper we use data from a nationally representative survey conducted in Albania in 2005 to study the spread of the worldviews, values, and beliefs of developmental idealism in the country. We find that Albanians have adopted developmental idealism, with ideas about development and developmental hierarchies that are similar to those of international elites. A substantial majority of Albanians also endorse the developmental idealist belief of an association between socioeconomic development and family matters. Many perceive development as both a cause and an effect of family change, but with more seeing it as a cause than as an effect. Albanians also perceive development as more closely related to fertility and gender equality than to age at marriage. But despite believing that development and family change are related, most Albanians continue to endorse lifetime marriage and strong intergenerational relations. This unique perception of development and demographic behavior reflects Albania’s unique history with regard to economic, political and social change. We conclude that despite living in one of the most radical state socialist regimes in the world, which tried to keep its population sealed off from the outside world for many years, Albanians endorse many of the elements of developmental idealism.

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Chile's export diversification since 1960: A free market miracle or mirage?

Lebdioui, Amir
Development and Change (2019)

Conventional wisdom has proclaimed Chile's recent economic development a 'free market miracle'. In an examination of Chile's export diversification experience, this article departs from that view. By analysing the dynamics underlying the emergence of the salmon, fruit, forestry and wine sectors in Chile's export basket since the 1960s, the study sheds light on the crucial role of industrial policy in the process of capability accumulation that shapes new industries. The article undertakes a qualitative historical analysis of the scope and nature of policy interventions in each of the four sectors and conducts a quantitative policy evaluation using the difference-in-difference method. It finds that public institutions are essential in overcoming market failures inhibiting the emergence of new industries. Specifically, it shows that the government has a key role to play as a catalyst of human capital accumulation, as a venture capitalist, in trade promotion, and in ensuring 'national' sector reputation through a strong regulatory and quality control role. By elaborating on the dynamic process of structural transformation and capability accumulation, this article contributes to theoretical debates on the role of vertical policies in the emergence of new competitive sectors, and debates relating to static versus dynamic approaches to comparative advantage.

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Working in chains: African informal workers and global value chains

Meagher, Kate 
Agrarian South: Journal of Political Economy (2019)

This article examines how global value chains alter the processes of value creation by reshaping the institutional systems that govern the livelihoods of poor rural workers in contemporary Africa. In connecting rural workers to distant markets, global value chains reconfigure local modes of organization and resource use, translating and redistributing value in unexpected ways. The capacity of global linkages to resolve problems of rural poverty and disaffection is explored in the context of informal workers in horticultural farms in South Africa and precarious women producers of exotic oil in the Argan forests of south-western Morocco. Particular attention is focused on the mechanisms through which global linkages reconfigure institutional systems in the creation of transnational value chains, realigning labor regimes, livelihoods, and local commercial systems, followed by a consideration of the social tensions created by the economic and organizational realignment needed to make global value chains work.

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Patents, trade and medicines: past, present and future

Shadlen, Ken 
Review of International Political Economy (2019)

This article analyzes the spread of intellectual property in trade agreements. We explain how the integration of intellectual property with international trade rules led to the globalization of pharmaceutical patenting, and then how additional provisions related to pharmaceutical products have been introduced by regional and bilateral trade agreements. We describe the additional ‘TRIPS-Plus’ rules contained in recent trade agreements, which go beyond the requirements of the World Trade Organization’s TRIPS Agreement, and explain the potential challenges that they may create for developing countries. We draw attention to the conceptual and methodological challenges of assessing the effects of patent provisions in trade agreements on prices and access to drugs, with particular emphasis on the importance of timing. Depending on when countries began allowing drugs to be patented, TRIPS-Plus provisions have different effects; and when pharmaceutical patenting has been in place for more countries for more time, the effects of TRIPS-Plus provisions will change again.

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Kenya’s Identity Ecosystem

Kirk, Tom
Caribou Digital (2019)

As international and civil society organisations increasingly show an interest in identification systems, this new report on Kenya aims to put the power and politics back into prevailing discourses on their potential to support development.

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Maternal and child access to care and intensity of conflict in the occupied Palestinian territory: a pseudo longitudinal analysis (2000–2014)

Leone, Tiziana 
Conflict and Health (2019)

In the occupied Palestinian territory (oPt), access to maternal and child healthcare (MCH) services are constrained due to the prolonged Israeli military occupation, the Separation Wall, army checkpoints, and restrictions on the movement of people and goods. This study assesses the relationship between conflict intensity and access to Maternal and Child Health care in occupied Palestinian territory (oPt). To the best of our knowledge, the impact of conflict on access to health care has not been measured due to the lack of data.

To read the full article, click here

Economics of abortion: a scoping review protocol 

Coast, Ernestina 
BMJ Open (2019)

Abortion is a common feature of people’s reproductive lives. However, the economic implications of abortion and policies affecting abortion provision are poorly understood. This scoping review aims to systematically review social science literature for studies that have investigated the impact of abortion care (ie, un/safe abortion, post-abortion care) or abortion policies on economic outcomes at the micro-levels (ie, abortion seekers and their households), meso-levels (ie, communities and health systems) and macro-levels (ie, societies and nation states). Informed by the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) reporting guideline for protocols, this protocol details the scoping review’s methodological and analytical approaches.

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Zika, abortion and health emergencies: a review of contemporary debates

Coast, Ernestina 
Globalization and Health (2019)

The Zika outbreak provides a pertinent case study for considering the impact of health emergencies on abortion decision-making and/or for positioning abortion in global health security debates. This paper provides a baseline of contemporary debates taking place in the intersection of two key health policy areas, and seeks to understand how health emergency preparedness frameworks and the broader global health security infrastructure is prepared to respond to future crises which implicate sexual and reproductive rights. Our paper suggests there are three key themes that emerge from the literature; 1) the lack of consideration of sexual and reproductive health (SRH) services in outbreak response 2) structural inequalities permeate the landscape of health emergencies, epitomised by Zika, and 3) the need for rights based approaches to health.

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The Problem and Promise of Coproduction: Politics, History, and Autonomy

Goodwin, Geoff
World Development (2019)

Interest in coproduction has continued to grow since Elinor Ostrom introduced the concept to the development scholarship two decades ago. The idea that multiple actors often interact to coproduce public goods and services helped shift development thinking away from a one-size-fits-all policy prescriptions based on free market principles to a more nuanced position that recognizes organizational and institutional diversity. However, while Ostrom’s concept of coproduction provides a useful starting point to think about how states and societies interact to deliver public goods and services, it fails to capture the complexity and significance of the process. The diverse scholarship that has extended and critiqued her work has provided a fuller picture. Yet, important gaps remain. The principal aim of this article is to fill some of these gaps and expand the boundaries of coproduction research and analysis. 

Geoff would particularly like to thank the LSE students enrolled on 'The Informal Economy and Development' in 2015/16 and the course convenor, Kate Meagher, for inspiring him to write this article. 

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Revolution from below: cleavage displacement and the collapse of elite politics in Bolivia

Faguet, Jean-Paul 
Politics and Society (2019) 

For 50 years, Bolivia’s political party system was a surprisingly robust component of an otherwise fragile democracy, withstanding coups, hyperinflation, guerrilla insurgencies, and economic chaos. Why did it suddenly collapse around 2002? I propose a theoretical lens combining cleavage theory with Schattschneider’s concept of competitive dimensions, and then empirically analyze the structural and ideological characteristics of Bolivia’s party system between 1952-2010. Politics shifted from a conventional left-right axis of competition unsuited to Bolivian society, to an ethnic/rural vs. cosmopolitan/urban axis closely aligned with its major social cleavage. This shift fatally undermined elite parties, facilitating the rise of structurally and ideologically distinct organizations, and a new indigenous political class, that transformed the country’s politics. Decentralization and political liberalization were the triggers that made Bolivia’s latent cleavage political, sparking revolution from below. I suggest a folk theorem of identitarian cleavage, and outline a mechanism linking deep social cleavage to sudden political change.

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Informal Institutions and the Regulation of Smuggling in North Africa

Gallien, Max
Perspectives on Politics (2019)

Contemporary writing on North African borderlands invokes the idea of a general, unregulated porosity through which small-scale informal traders of food or textiles move alongside drug smugglers and terrorists. I challenge that conception, demonstrating that the vast majority of smuggling activity is in fact highly regulated through a dense network of informal institutions that determine the costs, quantity, and types of goods that can pass through certain nodes, typically segmenting licit from illicit goods.

While informal, the institutions regulating this trade are largely impersonal and contain third-party enforcement, hence providing a direct empirical challenge to common characterisations of informal institutions in political science. I argue that revisiting the characteristics associated with informal institutions, and understanding them as contingent on their political environment, can provide a new starting point for studying institutions, the politics of informality, state capacity, and the regulation of illegal economies.

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Reassessing the Hu–Wen Era: A Golden Age or Lost Decade for Social Policy in China?

Howell, Jude
The China Quarterly (2019)

The Hu–Wen era has been characterised as a “lost decade” for economic and political reform, but a “golden era” in terms of economic growth and political stability. Yet, relatively little attention has been paid to the social policies introduced during Hu and Wen's decade in power. These important policies, however, abolished agricultural taxes, extended health insurance, pensions and income support to almost all rural as well as urban residents, and built a civic welfare infrastructure to address migrants’ grievances. 

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NGOs and Civil Society: The Politics of Crafting a Civic Welfare Infrastructure in the Hu–Wen Period

Howell, Jude
The China Quarterly (2019)

Since 2015 rights-based NGOs, lawyers, feminists and journalists have endured the most stringent crackdown since 1989. Simultaneously the Xi Li administration has pushed forward a series of laws, policies and regulatory changes to enable service-oriented NGOs to apply for government contracts to provide welfare services. This seemingly Janus-like policy of welfarist incorporation can be traced back to the Hu–Wen period, often described as a lacklustre period, despite significant efforts to tackle issues of poverty and inequality. This article argues for a more balanced appraisal of this period by exploring in depth the complex politics underpinning efforts to pluralize welfare provision by involving service-oriented NGOs. It explores three sets of politics influencing this policy process: inter-institutional politics; state/non-state actor politics; and domestic/external politics. Furthermore, it considers processes of gradual institutional change adopted by key political actors to achieve these ends.

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Shades of Authoritarianism and State–Labour Relations in China

Howell, Jude
British Journal of Industrial Relations (2019)

Attempts to analyse authoritarianism in China tend towards a static focus on the state that is homogeneous across time. We argue for a more nuanced approach that captures the dynamism and contours of state–civil society relations, and state–labour relations, in particular, in authoritarian states. Taking state–labour relations as a bellweather, we conceptualize ‘shades of authoritarianism’ as a framework for better understanding the complexities and evolution of state–society relations in authoritarian states. We illustrate this through the case of China, distinguishing different shades of authoritarianism in the Hu‐Wen era (2002–2012) and in the current regime of Xi Jinping.

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Adolescent Sexual and Reproductive Health in Ethiopia and Rwanda: A Qualitative Exploration of the Role of Social Norms

Coast, Ernestina
SAGE open (2019)

This article seeks to address the dearth of evidence on early adolescent understandings and experiences of sexual and reproductive health (SRH) in Ethiopia and Rwanda, drawing on a multisite qualitative research study with 10- to 12-year-old and 14- to 15-year-old male and female adolescents and a range of adult participants.

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Puberty and menstruation knowledge among young adolescents in low- and middle-income countries: a scoping review

Coast, Ernestina
International Journal of Public Health (2019)

This study presents a scoping review of evidence relating to knowledge and experiences of puberty and
menstruation among females aged 10–14 years in low- and middle-income countries.

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Science and Technology Policies and the Middle-Income Trap: Lessons from Vietnam

Wade, Robert
The Journal of Development Studies (2019)

As Vietnam crossed the World Bank’s threshold from ‘low income’ to ‘lower middle-income’ in 2010 the government and aid donors started to speak about ‘the middle-income trap’ as a central problem; and to frame ‘science and technology (S&T) policy’ as a means of sustaining economic growth and thereby avoiding the trap. They identified China and its S&T policy as a model, and pointed to Intel’s $1 billion facility as evidence of a burgeoning technology hub. Yet in the years that followed, Vietnam’s S&T policy has limped along, with efforts simply to boost the number of Silicon Valley-styled start-ups rather than to pursue a ‘Made in China 2025’-like programme. This paper reveals two main reasons. First, the Ministry of Science and Technology is a weak ministry with little budget, unable to persuade other ministries to cooperate in more ambitious and capital-intensive strategies. Second, excitement around S&T policies was fuelled by an influx of high-tech Vietnamese returning home after the 2008 Global Financial Crisis, lending support for building start-up ecosystems. These mechanisms are reinforced by Western aid agencies’ support for this narrow S&T policy conception. Findings are based on policy documents and interviews conducted with S&T policy-makers, aid donor staff, and start-up investors between 2012 and 2018.

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Transparency and mistrust: Who or what should be made transparent?

Roelofs, Portia
Governance (2019)

It is increasingly recognized in public administration that the relationship between trust and transparency is not straightforward. Recently, right‐wing populists have risen to power, rejecting transparency requirements based on documents while claiming that they “hide nothing.” Clearly, existing scholarly conceptualizations are insufficient for understanding how transparency operates as a value in real‐world political contestation. An analysis of state‐ and national‐level politics in Nigeria reveals that, while always retaining a core informational component, there are multiple competing conceptions of transparency. Popular demands for transparency express a belief that not only should data be made transparent, but also the social networks in which politicians are embedded. “Transparency in people” can clash with more traditional, technocratic transparency practices centered on data. By rethinking who or what should be made transparent—data, things, or people—this article offers fresh theoretical insights on the complex politics of transparency and trust.

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The Taliban’s War for Legitimacy in Afghanistan

Weigand, Florian
Current History (2019)

More than seventeen years after their fall from power, the Taliban control large swaths of territory in Afghanistan...

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Understanding the Political Motivations That Shape Rwanda's Emergent Developmental State

Mann, Laura
New Political Economy (2019)

Twenty years after its horrific genocide, Rwanda has become a model for economic development. At the same time, its government has been criticised for authoritarian tactics and the use of violence. Missing from the often polarised debate are the connections between these two perspectives. Synthesising existing literature on Rwanda in light of a combined year of fieldwork, we argue that the Government of Rwanda is using the developmental infrastructure to deepen state power and expand political control. 

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A Dialogue with the Data: The Bayesian Foundations of Iterative Research in Qualitative Social Science

Fairfield, Tasha
Cambridge University Press (2019)

We advance efforts to explicate and improve inference in qualitative research that iterates between theory development, data collection, and data analysis, rather than proceeding linearly from hypothesizing to testing. We draw on the school of Bayesian “probability as extended logic,” where probabilities represent rational degrees of belief in propositions given limited information, to provide a solid foundation for iterative research that has been lacking in the qualitative methods literature. We argue that mechanisms for distinguishing exploratory from confirmatory stages of analysis that have been suggested in the context of APSA’s DA-RT transparency initiative are unnecessary for qualitative research that is guided by logical Bayesianism, because new evidence has no special status relative to old evidence for testing hypotheses within this inferential framework. Bayesian probability not only fits naturally with how we intuitively move back and forth between theory and data, but also provides a framework for rational reasoning that mitigates confirmation bias and ad-hoc hypothesizing—two common problems associated with iterative research. Moreover, logical Bayesianism facilitates scrutiny of findings by the academic community for signs of sloppy or motivated reasoning. We illustrate these points with an application to recent research on state building.

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Deconstructing the policyscape for reducing deforestation in the Eastern Amazon: Practical insights for a landscape approach

Forsyth, Tim
Environmental Policy and Governance (2019)

In international debates on climate change mitigation and forests, there is increased recognition of the importance of a landscape approach to effectively address tropical deforestation. Such an approach, although increasingly promoted, remains only loosely defined and requires further development in order to effectively integrate different interventions at landscape level. In particular, it is important to understand the possible interactions between different landscape interventions at local level—where they are intended to have effect—and the challenges associated with them. Inspired by the complexity of policy mix analysis, this article seeks to shed light on these interactions by analysing how different policies and measures for reducing deforestation and degradation have played out in a jurisdiction with wide‐ranging actors and interventions aimed at shaping their behaviour. 

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Constructed Anarchy: Governance, Conflict, and Precarious Property Rights in Bukavu, Democratic Republic of the Congo

Hoffman, Kasper; Pouliot, Mariève; and Muzalia, Godefroid
The Social Science Research Council (2019)

The Congo research briefs are a joint publication of the Conflict Research Group (CRG) at Ghent University, the Social Science Research Council (SSRC), the Study Group on Conflicts and Human Security (GEC-SH) at the University of Kivu Research Center (CERUKI), and the Governance-in-Conflict Network (GiC). These will provide concise and timely summaries of ongoing research on the Congo that is being undertaken by CRG, SSRC, GEC-SH, GiC, and their partners.

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Is Tunisia Really Democratising?

Gallien, Max
International and Security Affairs (2019)

January 2019 marked the eighth anniversary of the end of the Ben Ali dictatorship – the celebrations however were marred by massive social protests. Opinions both in Tunisia and abroad differ about the state of Tunisia’s political development as it gears up for its second parliamentary and presidential elections since the adoption of the new constitution in 2014. While some consider its democratisation to be virtually complete, others fear a relapse into autocracy. Despite its considerable democratic achievements, Tunisia is in danger of developing into a hybrid system: part democratic, part authoritarian. This is not only due to the difficult economic and regional con­text. Critically, the political, economic and administrative networks of the old system, as well as persistent authoritarian practices and “old” rhetoric in politics and society, complicate the deepening of its fragile democracy. Tunisia’s international partners should make it their explicit objective to weaken these counter-currents.

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Why Not Default? The Political Economy of Sovereign Debt

Roos, Jerome 
Princeton University Press (2019)

Drawing on in-depth case studies of contemporary debt crises in Mexico, Argentina, and Greece, Why Not Default? paints a disconcerting picture of the ascendancy of global finance. This important book shows how the profound transformation of the capitalist world economy over the past four decades has endowed private and official creditors with unprecedented structural power over heavily indebted borrowers, enabling them to impose painful austerity measures and enforce uninterrupted debt service during times of crisis—with devastating social consequences and far-reaching implications for democracy.

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Institutionalized Intervention: The ‘Bunker Politics’ of International Aid in Afghanistan

Weigand, Florian  
Journal of Intervention and Statebuilding (2019)

Afghanistan has come to be seen as emblematic of the security threats besetting peace and security operations, and in this article we consider the response to such threats via the ‘bunkering’ of international staff. Drawing on an in-depth qualitative survey with aid and peacebuilding officials in Kabul, we illustrate how seemingly mundane risk management procedures have negative consequences for intervening institutions; for the relation between interveners and national actors; and for the purpose of intervention itself. Bunkering, we argue, is deeply political – ‘imprisoning’ staff behind ramparts while generating an illusion of presence and control for ill-conceived modes of international intervention.

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Puberty and menstruation knowledge among young adolescentsin low- and middle-income countries: a scoping review

Coast, Ernestina
International Journal of Public Health (2019)

This study presents a scoping review of evidence relating to knowledge and experiences of puberty and
menstruation among females aged 10–14 years in low- and middle-income countries. Forty-four items from 12 countries were identified from a systematic scoping review and screening of 8083 items. Included studies were quality assessed. A majority (40/44) of studies used school-based samples, and fifteen studies reported on interventions. Girls had inadequate knowledge about menstruation; menarche as a trigger for girls learning about menstruation was common. Adolescents struggled with menstrual hygiene. Negative emotions were associated with menarche and menstrual management. A minority of studies dealt explicitly with puberty. Most girls obtained information about menstruation and/or puberty from their mothers, although mothers were not necessarily girls’ preferred source for learning about these topics. The authors conclude that young adolescent girls are under-prepared for puberty and menstruation. Predominantly school-based studies mean we know little about young out-of-school adolescents. The evidence base lags behind the rise in interest from practitioners as well as the development (and evaluation) of puberty and/or menstruation interventions.

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Rape Without Bodies? Reimagining the Phenomenon We Call “Rape”

Porter, Holly
Social Politics (2018)

FLCA Research Fellow, Dr Holly Porter 's article 'Rape Without Bodies? Reimagining the Phenomenon We Call “Rape” was published in the latest Social Politics Journal. Her article explores where the threshold which separates sex that is okay from sex that is rape, come from. Is it from a deeply embodied sense of being violated, a normative limit that is socially and/or legally constructed—or something else? Ultimately, the article suggests a reimagining of rape as a sexual trespass on the boundaries of being.

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Genetic legacy of state centralization in the Kuba Kingdom of the Democratic Republic of the Congo

Weigel, Jonathan
PNAS (2019)

This study  examines a fundamental, and yet unexplored, consequence of state formation: its genetic legacy. The authors studied the genetic impact of state centralisation during the formation of the eminent precolonial Kuba Kingdom of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) in the 17th century. They analysed genome-wide data from over 690 individuals sampled from 27 different ethnic groups from the Kasai Central Province of the DRC. By comparing genetic patterns in the present-day Kuba, whose ancestors were part of the Kuba Kingdom, with those in neighbouring non-Kuba groups, they show that the Kuba today are more genetically diverse and more similar to other groups in the region than expected, consistent with the historical unification of distinct subgroups during state centralisation. The authors also found evidence of genetic mixing dating to the time of the Kingdom at its most prominent. Using this unique data set, they characterise the genetic history of the Kasai Central Province and describe the historic late wave of migrations into the region that contributed to a Bantu-like ancestry component found across large parts of Africa today. Taken together, The authors show the power of genetics to evidence events of sociopolitical importance and highlight how DNA can be used to better understand the behaviours of both people and institutions in the past. 

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Pax Africana or Middle East Security Alliance in the Horn of Africa and the Red Sea?

De Waal, Alex
World Peace Foundation (2019)

This paper examines current practices of Middle Eastern engagement in the Horn of Africa in historical context. It looks at the enduring paradox whereby the global powers of the day have ensured safety for shipping in the Red Sea/Gulf of Aden alongside tolerating recurrent turmoil in the littoral countries. The paper examines how the regional peace and security architecture and power balances have changed since the 1980s, with the emergence of the norms, principles and institutions of a ‘Pax Africana’ and the entrenchment of security-coalition politics in the Arabian Peninsular, turning to the question of how the encounter between these two regions, with their widely differing capacities and approaches, is playing out.

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Saving ourselves? On rescue and humanitarian action

Radice, Henry
Review of International Studies (2019, First View)

Abstract: This article contributes to the international political theory of humanitarianism by unpicking the politics of humanitarian action’s simplest expression: saving human lives in the name of humanity. Both saving lives and defining notions of common humanity are closely interrelated acts of power. What saving a life means depends on a prior definition of humanity; humanitarians’ acts of rescue are the measure of their commitment to humanity. The politics of rescue and the politics of humanity are inextricably linked. The article explores four facets of this nexus. First, it considers the meanings of rescue, from saving bodies to saving lives, linked to contingent understandings of humanity. Second, it turns to the rescuers, for whom rescue performs particular functions, not least the need to preserve a sense of self. Third, it situates their often narcissistic motives in relation to the consequences of humanitarian action. Fourth, it addresses the power imbalance inherent in rescue and the problem of causing harm. It concludes that rescue is always an act of presumption, but one that can be tempered by humanitarian actors willing to embrace their role as ‘moral politicians’ (Walzer), aware of their power and their dirty hands, and open to contrasting understandings of humanity. 

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Brazil’s Fight against Hepatitis C — Universalism, Local Production, and Patents

Shadlen, Ken
The New England Journal of Medicine (2019)

Brazil has been a pioneer in AIDS treatment, expanding access to key drugs and care. It has served as a model for other developing countries, showing that prevention and care can be extended even in resource-constrained settings. Now, Brazil is, again, paving the way in treatment of Hepatitis C virus (HCV). In a new “Perspective” in the New England Journal of Medicine, we examine three aspects of Brazili’s approach to HCV: treatment guidelines, innovative measures to enhance manufacturing capabilities for local production of key drugs, and key issues related to pharmaceutical patents on these drugs. We show how these dimensions relate to each other. For example, expansion of treatment makes the Ministry of Health acutely concerned with drug prices and the availability of local suppliers. Yet the patent situation complicates the ability of local suppliers to enter the market. A key aspect of Brazil’s strategy is to assure that the capability for local production exists, so to arm the government with an important bargaining chip in price negotiations.

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Shades of Authoritarianism and State-Labour Relations in China

Howell, Jude
British Journal of Industrial Relations (2018)

Attempts to analyse authoritarianism in China tend towards a static focus on the state that is homogeneous across time. We argue for a more nuanced approach that captures the dynamism and contours of state–civil society relations, and state–labour relations, in particular, in authoritarian states. Taking state–labour relations as a bellweather, we conceptualize ‘shades of authoritarianism’ as a framework for better understanding the complexities and evolution of state–society relations in authoritarian states. We illustrate this through the case of China, distinguishing different shades of authoritarianism in the Hu‐Wen era (2002–2012) and in the current regime of Xi Jinping.

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Informal institutions and the regulation of smuggling in North Africa

Gallien, Max
Perspectives on Politics (2018)

Contemporary writing on North African borderlands invokes the idea of a general, unregulated porosity through which small-scale informal traders of food or textiles move alongside drug smugglers and terrorists. This paper challenges that conception, demonstrating that the vast majority of smuggling activity is in fact highly regulated through a dense network of informal institutions that determine the costs, quantity and types of goods that can pass through certain nodes, typically segmenting licit from illicit goods. While informal, the institutions regulating this trade are largely impersonal and contain third party enforcement, hence providing a direct empirical challenge to common characterisations of informal institutions in political science. The paper argues that revisiting the characteristics associated with informal institutions, and understanding them as contingent on their political environment, can provide a new starting point for studying institutions, the politics of informality, state capacity, and the regulation of illegal economies.

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Women’s mid-life health in Low and Middle Income Countries: a comparative analysis of the timing and speed of health deterioration in six countries

Leone, Tiziana
SSM - Population Health (2018)

Mid-life is a neglected stage of women’s lives, particularly in Low and Middle Income Countries (LMICs). Birth injuries, menopause and manual labour can contribute to health problems in the mid-life. This study analyses the relationship between women’s health deterioration and age across socio-economic groups in 6 countries (China, Ghana, Mexico, Russia, South Africa and India). Using constrained cubic splines, the author analysed data from the WHO SAGE survey to examine age and wealth patterns in the onset of deterioration in objective proxies of ageing.

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Contemporary female migration in Ghana: analyses of the 2000 and 2010 censuses

Leone, Tiziana and Coast, Ernestina
Demographic Research (2018)

Knowledge of female migration patterns is scant despite increased recognition and reporting of the feminization of migration. Recent data on female internal migration in Ghana challenge historical assumptions that underestimated female migration. This study presents the first detailed comparative analyses of female migration using microdata from Ghana’s censuses (2000-2010) and exploits these national data to understand gendered dimensions of migration in Ghana. These analyses expand the evidence base on contemporary female migration and refute the out-dated stereotype that girls and women do not participate in migration. Productive female labour losses may negatively impact development efforts and local economies in Ghana’s rural regions, requiring interventions to reduce poverty and develop greater economic opportunities for rural girls and women.

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Conscientious objection to abortion: Zambian healthcare practitioners' beliefs and practices

Coast, Ernestina  
Social Science and Medicine (2018)

The potential health consequences of limiting access to safe abortion make it imperative to understand how conscience-based refusal to provide legally permitted services is understood and carried out by healthcare practitioners. This in-depth study of conscientious objection to abortion provision in Zambia is based on qualitative interviews (N = 51) with practitioners working across the health system who object and do not object to providing abortion services in accordance with their cadre. Interviews were conducted in September 2015. Regardless of whether practitioners self-identified as providers or non-providers of abortion services, they presented similar religiously-informed understandings of abortion as a morally-challenging practice that is, or not, shifted from iniquity to acceptability based on the reasons for which it has been requested or the likelihood of unsafe abortion if services are not provided. Our results suggest that data on prevalence of claims to conscientious objector status may underestimate the impact of practitioners' religious, moral and ethical beliefs on abortion accessibility. In Zambia, eliminating practitioners' right to conscientious objection alone or conducting rights-based advocacy may therefore not significantly increase access to safe abortion.

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The Lessons of Bolivia

Faguet, Jean-Paul
Journal of Democracy (2018)

Across the West, political-party systems are disintegrating from the bottom up, as economic and social changes cause them to loose their moorings in the major cleavages that defined politics throughout the twentieth century. The experience of Bolivia, where an underinstitutionalized politics disintegrated earlier and faster, may offer analytical hints about the larger future. In societies where industrial workers as a self-conscious group have dwindled, a left-right axis of political competition based on the opposition between workers and capital is probably doomed. Identity politics anchored in ethnicity, religion, and place will most likely replace it. This is dangerous for democracy, as identity politics revolves around exclusive categories and zero-sum games. The rise of identity clashes is a sad turn for the West that may forever change who we are.

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Double games: Success, failure and the relocation of risk in fighting terror, drugs and migration

Keen, David  
Political Geography (2018)

This paper compares the security paradigms for combating terrorism, drugs and irregular migration and argues that while these have largely failed on their own terms, they have also proven rather successful for the actors shaping them. Through a spatial political economy analysis of systems of intervention, the paper shows how vested interests have helped perpetuate counterproductive approaches, while risks (including that of human suffering) have routinely been ‘exported’ into geographical ‘buffer zones’. In analysing the stakes in such systems, we deploy the metaphor of games. This term allows us to highlight divergences between ‘official’ goals, such as ‘winning the war,’ and unstated aims, such as perpetuating security investments, relocating risk or stoking fear for political gain. Equally important, game terminology helps us highlight the spatial and social dynamics of collaboration, conflict and rule-manipulation within the system. In exploring these dynamics, the paper puts focus empirically on the complex collaborations between Western states instigating intervention and poorer ‘partner states,’ showing how a skewed geopolitical distribution of risk may tilt security interventions in the instigators' favour while maintaining ‘skin in the game’ for less powerful actors.

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Integrating Science, Technology and Health Policies in Brazil: Incremental Change and Public Health Professionals as Agents of Reform

Shadlen, Ken  
Journal of Latin American Studies (2018)

Brazil has encouraged an ambitious set of policies towards the pharmaceutical industry, aiming to foster technological development while meeting health requirements. We characterise these efforts, labelled the ‘Complexo Industrial da Saúde’ (Health-Industry Complex, CIS), as an outcome of incremental policy change backed by the sustained efforts of public health professionals within the federal bureaucracy. As experts with a particular vision of the relationship between health, innovation and industry came to dominate key institutions, they increasingly shaped government responses to emerging challenges. Step by step, these professionals first made science and technology essential aspects of Brazil's health policy, and then merged the Ministry of Health's new focus on science, technology and health with industrial policy measures aimed at private firms. We contrast our depiction of these policy changes with a conventional view that relies on a partisan orientation of the executive.

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A Population History of India in the Developing World

Dyson, Tim  
Oxford University Press (2018)

A Population History of India provides an account of the size and characteristics of India's population stretching from when hunter-gatherer homo sapiens first arrived in the country - very roughly seventy thousand years ago - until the modern day. It is a period during which the population grew from just a handful of people to reach almost 1.4 billion, and a time when the fact of death had a huge influence on the nature of life. This book considers the millennia that were characterized by hunting and gathering, the Indus valley civilization, the opening-up of the Ganges river basin, and the eras of the Delhi Sultanate, the Mughal Empire, British colonial rule, and India since independence.

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Nationalism, Development and Ethnic Conflict in Sri Lanka

Venugopal, Rajesh  
Cambridge University Press (2018)

This book examines the relationship between ethnic conflict and economic development in modern Sri Lanka. Drawing on a historically informed political sociology, it explores how the economic and the ethnic have encountered one another, focusing in particular on the phenomenon of Sinhala nationalism. In doing so, the book engages with some of the central issues in contemporary Sri Lanka: Why has the ethnic conflict been so protracted, and so resistant to solution? What explains the enduring political significance of Sinhala nationalism? What is the relationship between market reform and conflict? Why did the Norwegian-sponsored peace process collapse? How is the Rajapaksa phenomenon to be understood? The topical spread of the book is broad, covering the evolution of peasant agriculture, land scarcity, state welfarism, nationalist ideology, party systems, political morality, military employment, business elites, market reforms, and development aid.

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Is resilience to climate change socially inclusive? Investigating theories of change processes in Myanmar

Forsyth, Tim  
World Development (2018)

This paper contributes to analyses of resilience by studying how theories of change (ToC) processes used by development organizations might lead to social exclusions, and seeking ways to make these more inclusive. Adopting insights from participatory monitoring and evaluation, the paper first presents fieldwork from four villages in Myanmar to compare local experiences of risk and resilience with the ToCs underlying pathways to resilience based on building anticipatory, absorptive, and adaptive capacities. The paper then uses interviews with the development organizations using these pathways to identify how ToC processes might exclude local experiences and causes of risk, and to seek ways to make processes more inclusive. 

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Ethnicity, National Identity and the State: Evidence from Sub-Saharan Africa

Green, Elliott  
British Journal of Political Science (2018)

The process by which people transfer their allegiance from ethnic to national identities is highly topical yet somewhat opaque. This article argues that one of the key determinants of national identification is membership in a ‘core’ ethnic group, or Staatsvolk, and whether or not that group is in power. It uses the example of Uganda as well as Afrobarometer data to show that, when the core ethnic group is in power (as measured by the ethnic identity of the president), members of this group identify more with the nation, but when this group is out of power members identify more with their ethnic group. This finding has important implications for the study of nationalism, ethnicity and African politics.

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Urbanization and mortality decline

Green, Elliott  
Journal of Regional Science (2018)

We investigate the relationship between mortality decline and urbanization, which has hitherto been proposed by demographers but has yet to be tested rigorously in a global context. Using cross‐national panel data, we find evidence of a robust negative correlation between crude death rates and urbanization. The use of instrumental variables suggest that this relationship is causal, while historical data from the early 20th century suggest that this relationship holds in earlier periods as well. Finally, we find robust evidence that mortality decline is correlated with urbanization through the creation of new cities rather than promoting urban growth in already‐extant cities.

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Privatisation of water: Evaluating it's performance in the developing world 

Cesar, Sylvia
Annals of Public and Cooperative Economics (2018)

Private‐sector provision of water has been promoted in developing countries since 1990 in order to expand water service coverage to low‐income households. Decades later, the consequences of privatizing water utilities are still disputed. Some scholars have found that areas with privatized water services see positive development effects, while others contend that the private‐sector supply of a social good will always lead to its under‐provision. However, does more privatization of water provision in developing countries actually bring about more access to water? This paper hypothesizes that more private participation in water provision will not ensure more access to water at the national level. The relationship is tested using data on weighted percentages of private ownership of water utilities, and access to improved water sources from 1990 to 2015 across 62 countries. Multivariate OLS results indicate a positive relationship but with no statistical significance. 2SLS results, on the other hand, indicate a positive, small and statistically significant effect of water privatization on water access. Nonetheless, the causal mechanism behind these results must be further explored, given that the measured effect could be capturing the result of an increase in investment that is associated with private ownership of water utilities.

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The impact of bank de-risking on the humanitarian response to the Syrian crisis

Gordon, Stuart; Robinson, Alice and Goulding, Harry
Overseas Development Institute (2018)

The Syrian crisis is a complex environment for aid agencies wishing to move funds for humanitarian purposes into the country, or through neighbouring states supporting regional humanitarian efforts. The combination of counter-terrorist financing legislation and international sanctions have made it very difficult for humanitarian organisations to move and access funds. The largest Syrian banks are under sanctions by the United States, the European Union and other states, and the banking system in areas outside of government control has largely been destroyed.

This research finds that bank de-risking has reduced the cash available to the NGO community at any one point in time by at least 35%, and that these funds remain unavailable for between three and five months longer than has historically been the case. The study analyses the significant challenges faced by humanitarian organisations moving money into Syria, and proposes changes to make the regulatory system work more effectively from both a humanitarian and counter-terrorism perspective.

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Counter-terrorism, bank de-risking and humanitarian response: a path forward

Gordon, Stuart
Overseas Development Institute (2018)

Following the events of 11 September 2001, many countries have adopted strict Anti-Money Laundering and Combatting the Financing of Terror (AML-CFT) regulations for fund transfers. This process – ‘de-risking’ – has increased the costs of complying with regulatory requirements, and imposed significant penalties for non-compliance. 

While preventing or stemming flows of funds to designated terrorist organisations is clearly in the interests of the states that have adopted these measures, they have also had ‘far-reaching and unintended consequences’, including for the ability of humanitarian organisations to reach people in need, particularly in areas under the control of proscribed groups.

This HPG study looked at the operation and implications of bank de-risking measures for humanitarian NGOs in four contexts: the occupied Palestinian territory (OPT), Somalia, Syria and Yemen. While each has features particular to itself, the research highlighted a number of common aspects, synthesised in this policy brief, along with a set of recommendations for action.

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Wholly local? Ownership as philosophy and practice in peacebuilding interventions

Bojicic-Dzelilovic, Vesna  
Peacebuilding (2018)

This paper engages with the theme of local ownership in peacebuilding from a practice-based perspective which suggests that the way in which the external actors reach out and work with local constituencies shows conceptual and practice gaps that limit the applicability of local ownership in day-to-day peacebuilding operations. We examine how, in the case of EU peacebuilding policies, such gaps impair the potential for effective, inclusive and sustainable peacebuilding. Using a whole-of-society (WOS) lens, the paper demonstrates how current modalities of EU engagement fail to embrace the diversity of local society and its authentic forms of mobilisation and action in order to pursue peacebuilding objectives that resonate with locally relevant forms of peace. The paper further reflects on how WOS perspective can provide pointers for enhancing peacebuilding practices in this area. 

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Mind the gaps. A Whole-of-Society approach to peacebuilding and conflict prevention

Bojicic-Dzelilovic, Vesna  
Peacebuilding (2018)

External peacebuilding interventions have moved towards comprehensive strategies to tackle the complex problems of peace, security and development. This paper proposes a ‘Whole-of-Society’ (WOS) approach which seeks to enhance the effectiveness of externally led peacebuilding and conflict prevention through recourse to the social contexts within which they are implemented. The aim of WOS is to see complexity, both within local society and in the relations between external peacebuilders and local society, as an opportunity to be grasped, as much as an impediment to effective outcomes. A WOS approach adds a practice dimension to debates on ownership, local peace and hybridity, trust-in-peacebuilding and their conceptualisations of local agency and dynamics. It seeks to address the operational gaps that emerge within a societal perspective to peacebuilding, in particular by suggesting ways of achieving appropriate configurations of external and local resources, agency and initiatives.

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Humanitarianism, a dictionary of concepts

Allen, Time; Macdonald, Anna; Radice, Henry
Routledge (2018)

Tim Allen, Anna Macdonald and Henry Radice have recently published Humanitarianism: A Dictionary of Concepts(London: Routledge, 2018) a collection of 24 pithy and provocative essays engaging with a selection of established and emerging topics crucial to the understanding of contemporary humanitarianism. Most of the contributions are by current and former LSE staff within and beyond ID, including Mary Kaldor (‘War’), Lilie Chouliaraki (Post-humanitarianism’), Christine Chinkin (‘Violence against women and girls’), Alex de Waal (‘Famine’), Duncan Green (Advocacy’), Stuart Gordon (‘Terrorism’) and Dorothea Hilhorst (‘Arenas’).

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Financializing Poverty: Labor and Risk in Indian Microfinance reveals

Kar, Sohini
Stanford University Press (2018)

Assistant Professor of International Development, Dr Sohini Kar's, new book Financializing Poverty: Labor and Risk in Indian Microfinance reveals how microfinance institutions (MFIs) have restructured debt relationships in new ways: on the one hand, they have opened access to new streams of credit. On the other, as the network of finance increasingly incorporates the poor, the "inclusive" dimensions of microfinance are continuously met with rigid forms of credit risk management that reproduce the very inequality the loans are meant to alleviate.

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Cycles in World Politics 

Kaldor, Mary
International Studies Review (2018)

This article argues that we are living through a period when political institutions are out of step with dramatic, economic and social changes. In similar periods in the past, war has often played a key restructuring role. But contemporary wars are much less likely to achieve this. The main agents of change are social movements and new forms of communication. The article concludes that we need new forms of global governance and some critical rethinking of academic discipline.

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Helping to make safe abortion a reality in Zambia

Coaste, Ernestina
The Impact Initiative (2018)

Zambia has one of the most liberal abortion laws in sub-Saharan Africa. However, in spite of this, unsafe abortion continues to contribute to high rates of maternal mortality. Stigma, poverty, conscientious objectors, and lack of knowledge all contribute to why many adolescent girls and women do not and cannot access safe abortions in Zambia. Through ground-breaking research led by the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), political, media, and charitable organisations are now making changes to raise awareness and shape their frameworks to ensure women can take up their right to access safe abortion services. 

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Indian pharmaceutical patent prosecution: The changing role of Section 3(d)

Kenneth, Shadlen
PLoS ONE (2018)

India, like many developing countries, only recently began to grant pharmaceutical product patents. Indian patent law includes a provision, Section 3(d), which tries to limit grant of “secondary” pharmaceutical patents, i.e. patents on new forms of existing molecules and drugs. Previous research suggests the provision was rarely used against secondary applications in the years immediately following its enactment, and where it was, was redundant to other aspects of the patent law, raising concerns that 3(d) was being under-utilized by the Indian Patent Office. This paper uses a novel data source, the patent office’s first examination reports, to examine changes in the use of the provision. We find a sharp increase over time in the use of Section 3(d), including on the main claims of patent applications, though it continues to be used in conjunction with other types of objections to patentability. More surprisingly, see a sharp increase in the use of the provision against primary patent applications, contrary to its intent, raising concerns about potential over-utilization.

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War Economy, Governance and Security in Syria’s Opposition-Controlled Areas

Bojicic-Dzelilovic, Vesna & Turkmani, Rim
Stability: International Journal of Security and Development (2018)

This paper explores links between the war economy and civilian security by using evidence from the three opposition-held areas in Syria. The study of Eastern Ghouta, Daraa and Atareb shows how different type of behavior by non-state armed groups engaged in criminal war economy, shaped by the broader war economy conditions, impacts on the ability of the local populations to address their security predicaments. Our findings will challenge the assumption prevalent in the scholarship on the war economy that civilian security is unequivocally undermined by insurgents’ criminal war economy dealings. We show that in some local contexts a diverse range of economic choices and actors provide the local population with more opportunities to develop coping strategies by engaging in different parts of the war economy.

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Gender, sexuality, and violence in humanitarian crises

Hilhorst, Dorothea; Porter, Holly; and Gordon, Rachel
Disasters (2018)

Gender, sexuality, and violence have attracted significant attention in the sphere of humanitarianism in recent years. While this shift builds on the earlier ‘Gender and Development’ approach and the ‘Women, Peace, and Security Agenda’, analytical depth is lacking in practice. Notably, ‘gender’ often means a singular concern for women, neglecting questions of agency and the dynamic and changing realities of gendered power relations. This introductory paper examines why this neglect occurs and proposes a more relational approach to gender. It explores how the contributions to this special issue of Disasters revisit classic gender issues pertaining to violence, livelihoods, and institutions in different settings of humanitarian emergencies, while expanding one's vision beyond them. It draws from the seven papers a number of lessons for humanitarianism, concerning the entangled nature of gender relations, the risks of the unintended effects of gender programming, and the importance of paying sustained attention to how gender relations unfold in a time of crisis.

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Rethinking the double movement: expanding the frontiers of Polanyian analysis in the Global South

Goodwin, Geoff
Development and Change (2018)

Over the last two decades a rich and diverse body of literature has emerged which uses the ‘double movement’ to analyse social, political and economic change in the Global South. The main aims of this article are to expand the boundaries of this scholarship and improve our understanding of how to use the concept to analyse capitalist development in the region. It seeks to achieve this by explaining and extending the original formulation of the double movement, creating a dialogue between scholars who follow alternative readings of the concept, and proposing a revised formulation, which builds on the existing literature while moving in new directions. The article concludes by signposting potentially fruitful areas of Polanyian analysis in the Global South.

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The promise and peril of paralegal aid

Swenson, Geoffrey
World Development (2018)

Strengthening the rule of law and promoting access to justice in developing countries have been longstanding international policy objectives. However, the standard policy tools are routinely criticized for failing to achieve their objectives. The rare exception is paralegal aid, which is almost universally lauded by policymakers and scholars as effective in promoting the rule of law and access to justice.

This belief, however, rests on a very limited empirical foundation regarding what paralegal programs accomplish and under what theory they operate. This paper critically examines the conventional wisdom surrounding paralegal initiatives through case studies of two successful paralegal programs in Timor-Leste that are broadly representative of the initiatives commonly implemented in developing countries. These programs did improve access to justice services, bolster choice between dispute resolution forums, and increase local knowledge of progressive norms on human rights and women’s rights. Yet, as this article shows, even successful programs can expect to achieve only incremental gains in promoting the rule of law because advances largely depend on alignment with the priorities of powerful state and non-state actors, donors, program implementers, and paralegals themselves. This demonstrates that paralegal aid faces multiple challenges that mean paralegals cannot necessarily transcend or modify deep seated norms and power structures. These issues include principal agent-problems, internal limitations resulting from paralegals’ limited authority and independence, and external constraints from state and non-state justice actors. Paralegal programs also face program design, implementation, and sustainability challenges. 

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Connectivity, Clientelism and Public Provision

Shami, Mahvish

British Journal of Political Science (2018)

In many developing countries the rural poor often depend on patrons to act as brokers in order to get public provision from the government. The broker facilitates provision in return for securing peasants’ votes for politicians. Yet, low bargaining power of peasants allows patrons to appropriate public resources for themselves. I propose increasing peasants’ bargaining power by connecting them to markets outside their village. Making use of a natural experiment found in the construction of a motorway in Pakistan, I find public provision to be significantly higher in connected villages when compared to those which are isolated. Moreover, I find that the beneficial impact of connectivity is felt most strongly by the lower classes, who are most vulnerable to exploitation when isolated.

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The Logics of Public Authority: Understanding Power, Politics and Security in Afghanistan, 2002–2014

Kaldor, Mary and Theros, Marika 
Stability: International Journal of Security and Development (2018)

This paper applies the three logics of public authority – the political marketplace, moral populism and civicness – to the case of Afghanistan in 2001–2013. It shows how the logic of the political marketplace offers an apt interpretation of the Karzai regime, while the logic of moral populism is more relevant as a way of categorizing the Taliban. Based on a civil society dialogue project, the paper discusses the way that civil society actors characterize the situation and envisage a logic of civicness. The paper argues that the mutually reinforcing nature of the two dominant logics explains pervasive and rising insecurity that has been exacerbated by external interventions. The implication of the argument is that security requires a different logic of authority that could underpin legitimate and inclusive institutions.

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Legal Pluralism in Theory and Practice

Swenson, Geoffrey
International Studies Review (2018)

Legal pluralism has vast policy and governance implications. In developing countries, for instance, non-state justice systems often handle most disputes and retain substantial autonomy and authority. Legal pluralism, however, remains decidedly under theorized. This article proposes a new typological framework for conceptualizing legal pluralism through four distinct archetypes – combative, competitive, cooperative, and complementary – to help clarify the range of relationships between state and non-state actors. It posits five main strategies used by domestic and international actors in attempts to influence the relationship between state and non-state justice systems: bridging, harmonization, incorporation, subsidization, and repression. As post-conflict situations are fluid and can feature a wide range of relationships between state and non-state actors, they are particularly instructive for showing how legal pluralism archetypes can be shifted over time. Case studies from Timor-Leste and Afghanistan highlight that the most promising approaches are culturally intelligible and constructively engage non-state justice networks of authority and legitimacy. While the case studies focus on post-conflict states, the theory presented can help understand and improve efforts to promote the rule of law as well as good governance and development more broadly in all legally pluralist settings.

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The political path to universal health coverage: Power, ideas and community-based health insurance in Rwanda

Chemouni, Benjamin
World Development (2018)

Rwanda is the country with the highest enrolment in health insurance in Sub-Saharan Africa. Pivotal in setting Rwanda on the path to universal health coverage (UHC) is the community-based health insurance (CBHI), which covers more than three-quarters of the population. The paper seeks to explain how Rwanda, one of the poorest countries in the world, managed to achieve such performance by understanding the political drivers behind the CBHI design and implementation. Using an analytical framework relying on political settlement and ideas, it engages in process-tracing of the critical policy choices of the CBHI development. The study finds that the commitment to expanding health insurance coverage was made possible by a dominant political settlement. CBHI is part of the broader efforts of the regime to foster its legitimacy based on rapid socio-economic development. Yet, CBHI was chosen over other potential solutions to expand access to healthcare because it was also the option the most compatible with the ruling coalition core ideology.

The study shows that pursuing UHC is an eminently political process but explanations solely based on objective “interests” of rulers cannot fully account for the emergence and shape of social protection programme. Ideology matters as well. Programme design compatible with the political economy of a country but incompatible with ideas of the ruling coalition is likely to run into political obstructions. The study also questions the relevance for poor countries to reach UHC relying on pure CBHI models based on voluntary enrolment and community management.

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Trajectories of women's abortion-related care: A conceptual framework

Coast, Ernestina

Social Science & Medicine (2018)

We present a new conceptual framework for studying trajectories to obtaining abortion-related care. It assembles for the first time all of the known factors influencing a trajectory and encourages readers to consider the ways these macro- and micro-level factors operate in multiple and sometimes conflicting ways. Based on presentation to and feedback from abortion experts (researchers, providers, funders, policymakers and advisors, advocates) (n = 325) between 03/06/2014 and 22/08/2015, and a systematic mapping of peer-reviewed literature (n = 424) published between 01/01/2011 and 30/10/2017, our framework synthesises the factors shaping abortion trajectories, grouped into three domains: abortion-specific experiences, individual contexts, and (inter)national and sub-national contexts. Our framework includes time-dependent processes involved in an individual trajectory, starting with timing of pregnancy awareness. This framework can be used to guide testable hypotheses about enabling and inhibiting influences on care-seeking behaviour and consideration about how abortion trajectories might be influenced by policy or practice. Research based on understanding of trajectories has the potential to improve women's experiences and outcomes of abortion-related care.

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Adaptation to climate change: A review through a development economics lens

Lopez-Uribe, Maria del Pilar
World Development (2018)

This paper looks at adaptation to climate change from the point of view of (poor) households. Since the development literature has firmly established the role of weather risk as a source of income volatility for the poor, and climate change is expected to increase this risk, we review the range of risk-coping mechanisms available to poorer households, with a focus on possible barriers to adaptation. We ask both how government interventions affect the set of options available for adaptation and risk coping, and also what these adaptive responses imply for the prospects of sustainable development. Support for adaptation can involve efforts to make existing locations, livelihoods and forms of production more resilient to climate risk (in-situ adaptation), or reductions in vulnerability through the geographical and sectoral mobility of the poor (transformational adaptation). Our review shows how successful adaptation will need to strike a balance between the two forms of adaptation, avoiding locking-in unsustainable practices in locations that are already marginal from an economic perspective, and taking account of broader socio-economic trends already taking place in many developing countries (such as population growth and urbanisation). We also highlight important considerations for policy-makers, which to date have been relatively neglected in the literature, in particular related to the dynamic interaction between adaptation and sustainable development.

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Urbanization and mortality decline

Green, Elliott
Stability: Journal of Regional Science (2018)

We investigate the relationship between mortality decline and urbanization, which has hitherto been proposed by demographers but has yet to be tested rigorously in a global context. Using cross-national panel data, we find evidence of a robust negative correlation between crude death rates and urbanization. The use of instrumental variables suggest that this relationship is causal, while historical data from the early 20th century suggest that this relationship holds in earlier periods as well. Finally, we find robust evidence that mortality decline is correlated with urbanization through the creation of new cities rather than promoting urban growth in already-extant cities.

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Industrialization and ethnic change in the modern world

Green, Elliott
Signs: Ethnic and Racial Studies (2017)

Despite the large recent attention given to ethnicity within the social sciences, the sources of modern ethnic change have remained opaque. Drawing upon social theory from Marx and Gellner, I argue here that industrialization incentivizes ethnic homogenization by lowering the relative value of land. Using carbon emissions per capita as a proxy for industrialization, I show that cross-country changes in ethno-linguistic fractionalization between 1961 and 1985 are negatively correlated with industrialization, and that this result is robust to the use of a variety of control variables, sub-samples and alternative measures of industrialization such as cement production, urbanization and agriculture as a percentage of GDP. In particular, I find no evidence for the direct role of the state in promoting ethnic homogenization, which adds to other recent evidence on how economic incentives may trump political ones as regards identity change, at least in the short- to medium term.

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Transnational Activist Networks and Rising Powers: Transparency and Environmental Concerns in the Brazilian National Development Bank

Hochstetler, Kathryn  
International Studies Quarterly (2017)

This article studies how transnational advocacy networks can influence international development finance. Transnational activists shaped the World Bank's lending by increasing its transparency and limiting its socioenvironmental impacts. Developing countries can now look toward rising powers’ national development banks to finance their infrastructure and energy projects. The national development banks’ weak transparency and socioenvironmental standards pose a new challenge for transnational activism. Can activists leverage strategies used in World Bank reform to influence emerging power national development banks? We argue that whether a target is a supranational or national institution shapes the deployment and effectiveness of the strategies activists can use for influence. A supranational mandate and structure facilitates the deployment and effectiveness of a direct strategy focused on the transnational level, targeting the bank itself, and an indirect strategy focused on the national contexts of the bank's shareholders and borrowers. In contrast, a national mandate and structure encourages activists to deploy influence strategies solely in the context of the lending state. They furthermore make indirect strategies more effective than direct ones. We illustrate our argument by exploiting variation in the success across campaigns of a transnational network created to reform the Brazilian National Development Bank.

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Securitizing Women: Gender, Precaution, and Risk in Indian Finance

Kar Sohini
Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society (2017)

In 2013, the government of India announced the creation of the Bharatiya Mahila Bank (BMB), or the Indian Women’s Bank, offering financial services largely to women. The bank was a financialized response to the 2012 New Delhi rape case that mobilized mass protests against sexual violence and harassment in public spaces. The author argues that banking for women and women bankers stabilize the economic order under financialization rather than challenging the conservatism of patriarchal capitalism and the gendered production of public space.

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Community Security and Justice under United Nations Governance: Lessons from Chiefs’ Courts in South Sudan’s Protection of Civilians Sites

Pendle, Naomi
Stability: International Journal of Security and Development (2017)

This article examines the public authority of chiefs’ courts within the United Nations Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) Protection of Civilians Sites (PoCs). The authors demonstrate that justice remains central to the provision of security in contexts of war and displacement. International peace interventions are rightly wary of ‘customary’ justice processes that prioritise communities and families at the expense of individual rights, but the unique case in this paper shows that they are sources of trust and consistency that are resilient, adaptable and can contribute to human security.

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Men's Roles in Women's Abortion Trajectories in Urban Zambia

Coast, Ernestina
International Perspectives on Sexual and Reproductive Health (2017)

Given that maternal morbidity and mortality from unsafe abortion persist, especially in Africa, there is a pressing need to understand the abortion decision-making process. However, little is known about men's influence on and involvement in women's abortion decision making and care seeking. This paper concludes that increasing knowledge about the legality and availability of safe abortion is vital not only among sexually active women, but also among those they confide in, including men.

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Bonds and restructurings: corporate bond considerations in the design of debt restructuring frameworks in emerging market economies

Brodie, Simon
Law and Financial Markets Review (2017)

The design of corporate debt restructuring frameworks requires careful attention. However, the existing literature is extremely limited in its coverage of considerations relating specifically to the restructuring of corporate bonds. Issuance of corporate bonds by firms in emerging market economies has expanded significantly in recent years, and restructurings dealing with such bonds are likely to be much more numerous in the future. In this light, the article first outlines key features of corporate bonds, and discusses the nature of engagement with bondholders as a stakeholder group in the restructuring context. It then sets out considerations regarding the design of restructuring frameworks in emerging market economies relating to corporate bonds, explaining their importance in the design of such frameworks.

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Coalitions and Compliance
The Political Economy of Pharmaceutical Patents in Latin America

Shadlen, Kenneth
Oxford University Press

This 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. It also provides systematic comparative analysis of pharmaceutical patent politics in Latin America's three largest countries over two time periods.

Order your copy here. 

November 2017 

Outside the net: Intersectionality and inequality in the fisheries of Trincomalee, Sri Lanka

Lokuge G and Hilhorst D
Asian Journal of Women's Studies (2017)

Inequality and conflict in Sri Lanka have frequently been analyzed along ethnic lines. However, many scholars have stressed the importance of other dimensions of identity, such as gender, caste and class, in studying social tension. This study uses intersectionality theory to examine how a combination of the social categories of gender, race, ethnicity and location creates structural inequality.

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Developing a forward-looking research agenda and methodologies for self-use of medical abortion

Coast, Ernestina
Contraception (2017)

In December 2016, following the “Africa Regional Conference on Abortion: From Research to Policy,” a group of 20 global abortion researchers, representing nine different international organizations and universities, convened to discuss current and future research on medical abortion self-use (http://abortionresearchtopolicy.org). While recognizing the meaning of “self-use” to be evolving, the authors considered women's self-use of medical abortion as provision of drugs from pharmacies, drug sellers or through online services or other outlets, without a prescription from a clinician, followed by a woman's self-management of the abortion process, including care-seeking for any complications.

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Exploring Rwandan adolescents' gendered experiences and perspectives

Coast, Ernestina
GAGE Research (2017)

This brief summarises the findings of GAGE’s formative qualitative work in Rwanda—which took place in 2016 in three contrasting communities. They were: urban (Musanze), peri-urban (Rwamagana), and rural (Nyaruguru).  Based on individual and group interviews with just over 500 people, 300 of whom were adolescents between the ages of 10 and 15, we found that despite significant recent progress, much of which is due to the governments' commitment to adolescent wellbeing, girls' capabilities continue to be truncated.

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Environmental Impact Assessment: Evidence-based policy-making in Brazil

Hochstetler, Kathryn
Contemporary Social Science (2017)

Environmental impact assessment (EIA) procedures aim prospectively to collect evidence about the environmental impacts of economic projects and to avoid or compensate for the costs incurred. This article asks whether such procedures have been effective in Latin America after many regional countries returned to some version of the developmental state after 2000. It does so by surveying the procedural effectiveness of Latin American regulations comparatively before turning to a deeper study of the Brazilian case. 

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Cultural norms, economic incentives and women’s labour market behaviour: empirical insights from Bangladesh

Kabeer, Naila
Oxford Development Studies (2017)

This paper sets out to explore a seeming puzzle in the context of Bangladesh. There is a considerable body of evidence from the country pointing to the positive impact of paid work on women’s position within family and community. Yet, according to official statistics, not only has women’s labour force participation risen very slowly over the years, but also a sizeable majority of women in the labour force are in unpaid family labour. We draw on an original survey of over 5000 women from eight different districts in Bangladesh to explore some of the factors that lead to women’s selection into the labour force, and into different categories of labour market activity, with a view to gaining a better understanding of the combination of cultural norms and economic considerations that explain these findings.

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Women’s health in the occupied Palestinian territories: Contextual influences on subjective and objective health measures

Leone, Tiziana
PLoS ONE (2017)

The links between two commonly used measures of health—self-rated health (SRH) and self-reported illness (SRI)–and socio-economic and contextual factors are poorly understood in Low and Middle Income Countries (LMICs) and more specifically among women in conflict areas. This study assesses the socioeconomic determinants of three self-reported measures of health among women in the occupied Palestinian territories; self-reported self-rated health (SRH) and two self-reported illness indicators (acute and chronic diseases).

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Cannibalizing the Informal Economy:  Frugal Innovation and Informal Economic Inclusion in Africa

Meagher, Kate
The European Journal of Development Research (2017)

This paper argues that, far from collaborating with informal economic systems and actors,frugal innovation tends to treat informal economies as a pool of workers and organizational resources to be tapped for the benefit of corporate actors. 

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“In the interests of justice?” The International Criminal Court, peace talks and the failed quest for war crimes accountability in northern Uganda

Macdonald, Anna
Journal of Eastern African Studies (2017)

This article analyzes the first peace talks to take place against the backdrop of an International Criminal Court (ICC) investigation: the Juba Talks between the Lord’s Resistance Army and the Government of Uganda (2006–2008). Drawing on field research and original source material, it departs from well-worn peace versus justice debates and provides new empirical material to explore how the presence of the court shaped domestic political dynamics at Juba. It argues that at the level of broad rhetoric, the presence of the court created significant discord between negotiating parties. In findings relevant to other contexts, the article presents in-depth analyses of how domestic political dynamics around the ICC intervention produced a national transitional justice framework designed to protect both parties from war crimes accountability.

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Austerity Welfare: Social Security in the Era of Finance

Kar, Sohini
Anthropology Today (2017)

With the launch of the new financial inclusion programme in 2015, the government of India claimed that more than 90 per cent of households now have access to bank accounts. The programme sought not only to link the poor in India to financial services such as credit and savings, but also to insurance-based welfare payments. This article examines how the expansion of welfare programmes – a seeming alternative to austerity – in India has simultaneously hinged on arguments of fiscal conservatism. In other words, financial inclusion has also served to curtail government expenditure through payment systems and financial infrastructures. However, as the poor are drawn into new financial products, it raises the question of ‘who benefits’ when welfare systems are streamlined through the banking system.

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Crisis, Again: On Demonetisation and Microfinance

Kar, Sohini
Cultural Anthropology (2017)

Every morning, poor women across India attend microfinance group meetings to repay their small loans. Piles of cash are sorted by the microfinance institution (MFI) for the loan officer who comes to register and collect the repayments. Demonetization of ₹500 and ₹1000 notes in 2016 significantly affected the cash-based microfinance sector. The inadequate supply of cash meant that borrowers—many working in the informal economy—were unable to repay their loans. Simultaneously, MFIs struggled to keep up with new loan disbursals. Demonetization, however, was not the first crisis to hit the microfinance sector; rather, it reflected the ways in which the poor have been entangled into networks and crises of formal finance...

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Removing user fees for health services: a multi-epistemological perspective on access inequities in Senegal

Mladovsky, Philipa and Bâ, Maymouna
Social Science & Medicine (2017)

Plan Sésame (PS) is a user fee exemption policy launched in 2006 to provide free access to health services to Senegalese citizens aged 60 and over. However, analysis of a household survey evaluating PS echoes findings of other studies showing that user fee removal can be highly inequitable. 34 semi-structured interviews and 19 focus group discussions with people aged 60 and over were conducted in four regions in Senegal (Dakar, Diourbel, Matam and Tambacounda) over a period of six months during 2012. They were analysed to identify underlying causes of exclusion from/inclusion in PS. These point to three steps at which exclusion occurs: (i) not being informed about PS; (ii) not perceiving a need to use health services under PS; and (iii) inability to access health services under PS, despite having the information and perceived need. In this paper, the authors identify lay explanations for exclusion at these different steps. 

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Taking stock of Rwanda’s decentralisation: cTaking it Personally: the Effect of Ethnic Attachment on Preferences for Regionalism

Green, Elliott
Studies in Comparative International Development (2017)

This article presents three related findings on regional decentralization. We use an original dataset collected in Uganda to establish, for the first time in a developing country context, that individuals have meaningful preferences over the degree of regional decentralization they desire, ranging from centralism to secessionism. Second, multilevel models suggest that a small share of this variation is explained at the district and ethnic group levels. The preference for regional decentralization monotonically increases with an ethnic group or a district’s average ethnic attachment. However, the relationship with an ethnic group or district’s income is U-shaped: both the richest and the poorest groups desire more regionalism, reconciling interest-based and identity-based explanations for regionalism. Finally, we show that higher individual ethnic attachment increases preferences for regionalism using fixed effects and a new matching method.

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Afghanistan’s Taliban – Legitimate Jihadists or Coercive Extremists?

Weigand, Florian
Journal of Intervention and Statebuilding (2017)

The military intervention in Afghanistan in 2001 was portrayed as a fight to oust the extremist Taliban. But the Taliban have long been regaining influence, with the military victory of the Afghan government and its foreign allies now seeming less likely than ever. In light of these developments, this article investigates what the affected people – rather than the foreign interveners – think about the Taliban, and whether they perceive them as coercive or legitimate. Building on a conceptual understanding of legitimacy that has been adjusted to the dynamics of conflict-torn spaces, the article suggests that people judge the Taliban on the basis of how their day-to-day behaviour is perceived. While the Taliban are a coercive threat in urban centres and other areas where they launch attacks, they nonetheless manage to construct legitimacy in some of the places which they control or can access easily. A major source of their legitimacy in these areas is the way in which they provide services – such as conflict resolution – which some people consider to be faster and fairer than the state’s practices.

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Why U.S. Efforts to Promote the Rule of Law in Afghanistan Failed

Swenson, Geoffrey 
International Security (2017)

Promoting the rule of law in Afghanistan has been a major U.S. foreign policy objective since the collapse of the Taliban regime in late 2001. Policymakers invested heavily in building a modern democratic state bound by the rule of law as a means to consolidate a liberal post-conflict order. Eventually, justice-sector support also became a cornerstone of counterinsurgency efforts against the reconstituted Taliban. Yet a systematic analysis of the major U.S.-backed initiatives from 2004 to 2014 finds that assistance was consistently based on dubious assumptions and questionable strategic choices. These programs failed to advance the rule of law even as spending increased dramatically during President Barack Obama's administration. Aid helped enable rent seeking and a culture of impunity among Afghan state officials. Despite widespread claims to the contrary, rule-of-law initiatives did not bolster counterinsurgency efforts. The U.S. experience in Afghanistan highlights that effective rule-of-law aid cannot be merely technocratic. To have a reasonable prospect of success, rule-of-law promotion efforts must engage with the local foundations of legitimate legal order, which are often rooted in nonstate authority, and enjoy the support of credible domestic partners, including high-level state officials.

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Afghanistan’s Taliban – Legitimate Jihadists or Coercive Extremists?

Weigand, Florian
Journal of Intervention and Statebuilding (2017)

The military intervention in Afghanistan in 2001 was portrayed as a fight to oust the extremist Taliban. But the Taliban have long been regaining influence, with the military victory of the Afghan government and its foreign allies now seeming less likely than ever. In light of these developments, this article investigates what the affected people – rather than the foreign interveners – think about the Taliban, and whether they perceive them as coercive or legitimate. Building on a conceptual understanding of legitimacy that has been adjusted to the dynamics of conflict-torn spaces, the article suggests that people judge the Taliban on the basis of how their day-to-day behaviour is perceived. While the Taliban are a coercive threat in urban centres and other areas where they launch attacks, they nonetheless manage to construct legitimacy in some of the places which they control or can access easily. A major source of their legitimacy in these areas is the way in which they provide services – such as conflict resolution – which some people consider to be faster and fairer than the state’s practices.

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Studying political settlements in Africa              

Behuria, Pritish. Buur, Lars and Gray, Hazel.                
African Affairs (2017)              

The political settlements approach emerged out of a critique of new institutional economics developed by Mushtaq Khan in the 1990s. Since then, the political settlements approach has proliferated in donor programming and academic scholarship on African countries. This has led to some confusion about its core conceptual and methodological features. This Research Note starts by setting out our understanding of political settlements and provides an overview of existing political settlements literature on African countries. The overall contribution of the note is to illustrate the varied strategies used in studying political settlements and to place them in conversation with one another.              

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Blending Top-Down Federalism with Bottom-Up Engagement to Reduce Inequality in Ethiopia              

Faguet, J.P., Q. Khan and A. Ambel                 
World Development (2017)              

Donors increasingly fund interventions to counteract inequality in developing countries, where they fear it can foment instability and undermine nation-building efforts. To succeed, aid relies on the principle of upward accountability to donors. But federalism shifts the accountability of subnational officials downward to regional and local voters. What happens when aid agencies fund anti-inequality programs in federal countries? Does federalism undermine aid? Does aid undermine federalism? Or can the political and fiscal relations that define a federal system resolve the contradiction internally? The authors explore this paradox via the Promotion of Basic Services program in Ethiopia, the largest donor-financed investment program in the world. Using an original panel database comprising the universe of Ethiopian woredas (districts), the study finds that horizontal (geographic) inequality decreased substantially.               

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Relative indemnity: risk, insurance, and kinship in Indian microfinance              

Kar, Sohini                 
J R Anthropol Inst (2017)              

With the growth of commercial microfinance in India, the poor have been increasingly enfolded into circuits of global finance. In making these collateral-free loans, however, microfinance institutions (MFIs) engage in new forms of risk management. While loans are made to women with the goal of economic and social empowerment, MFIs require male kin to serve as guarantors. Drawing on fieldwork in the city of Kolkata, I argue that through the requirement of male guarantors, MFIs hedge on kinship, even as they speculate on the bottom of the pyramid as a new market of accumulation.              

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The American paradox: ideology of free markets and the hidden practice of directional thrust              

Wade, Robert                
Cambridge Journal of Economics (2017)              

This essay reviews the history of US industrial policy, with an emphasis on ‘network-building industrial policy’ over the past two decades. At the end, it draws a lesson for policy communities in other countries and interstate development organisations such as the World Bank and IMF.              

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Tracking presidents and policies: environmental politics from Lula to Dilma              

Hochstetler, Kathryn                  
Policy Studies (2017)               

Does the Brazilian presidential system shape environmental policy there? The comparative literature on environmental policy offers few reasons to think that it might. This article examines environmental policies and outcomes in three successive presidential administrations in Brazil to develop hypotheses about whether institutional factors should gain a larger place in comparative studies of environmental policies and outcomes.              

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Contesting the militarization of the places where they met: the landscapes of the western Nuer and Dinka (South Sudan)              

Pendle, Naomi                 
Journal of East African Studies (2017)               

Decades of militarized, violent conflict and elite wealth acquisition have created a common rupture in shared landscapes between communities of the western Dinka and Nuer (South Sudan). Through the remaking of these landscapes, governments and their wars have indirectly reshaped political identities and relationships. Networks of complex relationships have used this space for migration, marriage, trade and burial. Since the government wars of the 1980s, people from both Dinka and Nuer communities have participated in a myriad of cross-cutting political alliances with a lack of ethnic homogeneity. Yet, the recreation of this landscape as a militarized no-man’s land has stopped Nuer and Dinka meeting and is etching into the landscape naturalized visions of ethnic divisions.              

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Transitional Justice and Political Economies of Survival in Post-conflict Northern Uganda              

Macdonald, Anna                
Development and Change (2017)              

This article explores the interplay between transitional justice and ‘everyday’ political economies of survival in post-conflict Acholiland, northern Uganda. Based on extensive fieldwork in Acholiland in the period 2012–14, using a range of qualitative research methods, the author examines the means through which people negotiate social and moral order in the context of post-conflict life and analyses the tensions between these forms of ‘everyday’ activity and current transitional justice policy and programming in the region.              

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Legal Pluralism and Women's Rights After Conflict: The Role of CEDAW              

Swenson, Geoffrey. and Campbell, Meghan                  Columbia Human Rights Law Reveiw (2016)              

Protecting and promoting women’s rights is an immense challenge after conflict, especially when non-state justice systems handle most disputes. However, legal pluralism’s implications for gender equality remain under-theorized. This Article examines the potential of the Convention for Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination (CEDAW) and analyses how the CEDAW Committee to can more effectively promote gender equality in legally pluralistic, post-conflict states.              

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Promoting and regulating generic medicines: Brazil in comparative perspective              

Shadlen, Kenneth C. and Fonseca, Elize Massard da   PAHO (2017)              

Promoting the use of generic drugs can constitute a core instrument for countries’ national pharmaceutical policies, one that reduces drug expenditure while expanding health care access. Despite the potential importance of such policy measures and the differences among national practices, scholars embarking on comparative analysis lack a roadmap for determining which dimensions of generic drug policy to assess and compare. This report fills that gap by considering national rules and regulations across four dimensions deemed crucial to any evaluation.              

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Secondary pharmaceutical patenting: A global perspective                      

Shadlen, Kenneth C. and Sampata, Bhaven N.                 Research Policy (2017)              

Pharmaceutical firms’ use of secondary patents to extend periods of exclusivity generates concerns among policymakers worldwide. In response, some developing countries have introduced measures to curb the grant of these patents. While these measures have received considerable attention, there is limited evidence on their effectiveness. We follow a large sample of international patent applications in the US, Japan, the European Patent Office, and corresponding filings in three developing countries with restrictions on secondary patents, India, Brazil, and Argentina.              

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Explicit Bayesian analysis for process tracing: guidelines, opportunities, and caveats            

Fairfield, Tasha and Charman, Andrew                 
Political Analysis (2017)              

Bayesian probability holds the potential to serve as an important bridge between qualitative and quantitative methodology. Yet whereas Bayesian statistical techniques have been successfully elaborated for quantitative research, applying Bayesian probability to qualitative research remains an open frontier. This paper advances the burgeoning literature on Bayesian process tracing by drawing on expositions of Bayesian “probability as extended logic” from the physical sciences, where probabilities represent rational degrees of belief in propositions given the inevitably limited information we possess.              

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The politics of natural disasters in protracted conflict: the 2014 flood in Kashmir              

Venugopal, Rajesh and Yasir, Sameer                
Oxford Development Studies (2017)              

This paper explores the politics of the 2014 floods in the contentious and conflict-prone Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir. The September 2014 floods were the most serious natural disaster in the state in the past 60 years, and affected some two million people in the Kashmir valley. Drawing on qualitative interview evidence from 50 flood victims in south, central and north Kashmir, the paper examines the extent to which the disaster transformed existing political narratives. In doing so, it examines the role of the state and central governments, the army, local volunteers, and the media. The paper engages with the politics of disaster literature, exploring how disasters can serve as a lens rather than as a catalyst, and stressing the relevance of understanding the social construction of disaster narratives.              

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Rural bias in African electoral systems: Legacies of unequal representation in African democracies              

Boone, Catherine and Wahman, Michael                
Electoral Studies (2017)              

Although electoral malapportionment is a recurrent theme in monitoring reports on African elections, few researchers have tackled this issue. Here we theorize the meaning and broader implications of malapportionment in eight African countries with Single Member District (SMD) electoral systems. Using a new dataset on registered voters and constituency level election results, we study malapportionment's magnitude, persistence over time, and electoral consequences. The analysis reveals that patterns of apportionment institutionalized in the pre-1990 era established a long-lasting bias in favor of rural voters. This "rural bias" has been strikingly stable in the post-1990 era, even where the ancien regime has been voted out of power. These findings underscore the importance of the urban-rural distinction in explaining electoral outcomes in Africa    

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Industrial policy in response to the middle-income trap and the Third Wave of the digital revolution              

Wade, Robert                 
Global Policy (2016)              

The ‘middle-income trap’ (MIT) is ‘real enough’ for policy makers in developing countries to take it as a serious threat to prospects for achieving ‘high’ average income. In light of this, the Third Wave, and other conditions in the world economy, this essay discusses some of the big issues in the design of industrial policy, on the theme of how to do it well rather than how to do it less.              

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After Rape: Violence, Justic and Social Harmony in Uganda              

Porter, Holly                
Cambridge University Press (2016)              

Following the ICC intervention in 2005, northern Uganda has been at the heart of international justice debates. The emergent controversy, however, missed crucial aspects of Acholi realities: that the primary moral imperative in the wake of wrongdoing was not punishment but, instead, the restoration of social harmony. Drawing upon abundant fieldwork and in-depth interviews with almost 200 women, Holly Porter examines issues surrounding wrongdoing and justice, and sexual violence and rape, among the Acholi people in northern Uganda.              

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The Quest to Bring Land under Social and Political Control: Land Reform Struggles of the Past and Present in Ecuador

Goodwin, Geoff 
Journal of Agrarian Change (2016)

Land reform was one of the most important policies introduced in Latin America in the twentieth century and remains high on the political agenda due to sustained pressure from rural social movements. Improving our understanding of the issue therefore remains a pressing concern. This paper responds to this need by proposing a new theoretical framework to explore land reform and providing a fresh analysis of historical and contemporary land struggles in Ecuador. Drawing on the pioneering work of Karl Polanyi, the paper characterizes these struggles as the attempt to increase the social and political control of land in the face of mounting commodification. The movement started in the 1960s and remains evident in Ecuador today. Exploring land reform in Ecuador from this theoretical perspective provides new insight into land struggles in the country and contributes to debates over land reforms of the past and present elsewhere in the Global South.

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The Trial of Thomas Kwoyelo: Opportunites or spectre? Reflections from the ground on the first LRA prosecution

Macdonald, Anna and Porter, Holly
Africa (2016)

The trial of Thomas Kwoyelo – the first war crimes prosecution of a former Lord's Resistance Army fighter, and the only domestic war crimes prosecution in Uganda at the time of writing – has been packed with drama, intrigue and politics. The article considers what Kwoyelo's trial means for those most affected by the crimes he allegedly committed, and, more broadly, what it means for the ‘transitional justice’ project in Uganda. The article is concerned primarily with how the trial has been interpreted ‘on the ground’ in Acholiland: by local leadership; by those with a personal relationship to Kwoyelo; by direct victims of his alleged crimes; and by those who were not. Responses to the trial have been shaped by people's specific wartime experiences and if or how his prosecution relates to their current circumstances – as well as by the profound value of social harmony and distrust of higher authorities to dispense justice. We conclude with a discussion of the relevance of our findings for the practice of ‘transitional justice’ across the African continent.

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Countering threats, stabilising politics and selling hope: examining the Agaciro  concept as a response to a critical juncture in Rwanda

Behuria, Pritish
Journal of Eastern African Studies (2016)

The political settlements literature has assigned a privileged role to rents as instruments used by ruling elites to maintain political stability. Since then, there has been some attempt to highlight how ideas may play a similarly important role in contributing to political stability. This article explores how ruling elites in Rwanda responded to a ‘critical juncture’ in 2012 when donors withdrew foreign aid after they alleged that the Rwandan Patriotic Front government was supporting rebel groups in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

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Precolonial Political Centralization and Contemporary Development in Uganda

Green, Elliott and Sanghamitra, Bandyopadhyay                    
Economic Development and Cultural Change Vol 64.3 (April 2016)

The role of precolonial history on contemporary development has become an important field of study within development economics. In this article the authors examine the role of precolonial political centralization on contemporary development outcomes with detailed subnational data from Uganda.

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Structuralism, The Oxford Handbook of Politics of Development

Green, Elliott                                        
Structuralism, forthcoming in the Oxford Handbook of Politics of Development, edited by Carol Lancaster and Nicolas van de Walle (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2016)

This article examines the structural origins of developmental politics by focusing on the argument that “bad politicians” are the reason for the problem with politics in developing countries, or that great leaders are responsible for development.

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Decentralization and Development in Contemporary Uganda

Green, Elliott                                        
Regional & Federal Studies Vol 25.5 (Nov 2015)

There has long been an emphasis on the importance of decentralization in providing better quality public services in the developing world. In order to assess the effectiveness of decentralization I examine here the case study of Uganda, which has seen major decentralization of power over the last quarter-century. 

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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

Centralising rents and dispersing power while pursuing development? Exploring the strategic uses of military firms in Rwanda

Behuria, Pritish                                    
Review of African Political Economy (Feb 2016)

The Rwandan Patriotic Front has achieved significant economic progress while also maintaining political stability. However, frictions among ruling elites have threatened progress. This paper explores the use of military firms in Rwanda. Such firms are used to invest in strategic industries, but the use of such firms reflects the vulnerability faced by ruling elites. Military firms serve two related purposes. First, ruling elites use such firms to centralise rents and invest in strategic sectors. Second, the proliferation of such enterprises and the separation of party- and military-owned firms contribute to dispersing power within a centralised hierarchy.

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Europe's failed ‘fight’ against irregular migration: ethnographic notes on a counterproductive industry

Andersson, Ruben                              
Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies (Feb 2016)

Despite Europe's mass investments in advanced border controls, people keep arriving along the continent's shores under desperate circumstances. European attempts to ‘secure’ or ‘protect’ the borders have quite clearly failed, as politicians themselves increasingly recognise – yet more of the same response is again rolled out in response to the escalating ‘refugee crisis’. Amid the deadlock, this article argues that we need to grasp the mechanics and logics of the European ‘border security model’ in order to open up for a change of course.

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