Welcome to the August/September 2019 research newsletter from the Department of International Development at the London School of Economics and Political Science.
This bi-monthly newsletter gives subscribers a run down of news and updates from research programmes in the Department as well as the Conflict and Civil Society Research Unit. It also includes sub-sections for recent blogs, publications, and a listing of upcoming events hosted by the Department.
Please send any comments to d.patel20@lse.ac.uk.
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Professor Robert Wade on Trump and the rise of the "Strongman"
Professor Robert Wade was interviewed by New Zealand broadcaster, Kim Hill, for her magazine programme Saturday Morning. In the interview, Professor Wade is asked about his thoughts on the rise of authoritarianism, the effect of AI on the labour markets, and the grievances feeding populism.
You can listen to the full interview here.
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Professor Kate Meagher's "Taxing Times" receives the Dudley Seers Memorial Prize
An article by Professor Kate Meagher entitled “Taxing Times: Taxation, divided societies and the informal economy in Northern Nigeria”, published in The Journal of Development Studies 54(1), has been awarded the journal's Dudley Seers Memorial Prize for the best article of 2018.
The article challenges the popular contention that taxing the informal economy is an effective means of enhancing political voice among informal actors and rebuilding the social contract between the state and society.
You can read the full article here.
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Professor Kathy Hochstetler hosts Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
Professor Kathy Hochstetler hosted a workshop of climate scholars from five continents in July with Indian scholar Navroz Dubash. The aim was to prepare papers on climate institutions that can be used to inform the next international report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
You can read the full report here.
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Professor Naila Kabeer’s Seeds of Change harvest: a ‘simple’ question of respect and equality
In this interview with CGIAR, Kabeer reflects on gender in agriculture, her life lessons on gender and suggestions on areas to explore further and for future scientists to take at heart.
You can read the full interview here.
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Development Studies alumna Emma Smith on LSE's "The Ones to Watch List"
Congratulations to Development Studies alumna Emma Smith who is on LSE's "The Ones to Watch List" for her work at Eversend, which uses blockchain technology to provide a mobile money transfer service in Africa. The application has over 9000 users and has successfully facilitated over $5.5million worth of transactions.
Emma won funding for Eversend from LSE Generate in December 2018 and she has participated in this year’s LSE Festival New World (Dis)Orders.
You can see the full list of LSE's Ones to Watch here.
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Goodbye Professor Dyson and Dr Roelofs!
Professor Tim Dyson, Professor of Population Studies, and Dr Portia Roelofs, LSE Fellow in International Development, will be leaving us this summer. Professor Dyson will be retiring to enjoy his life with his family and dogs, whilst Dr Roelofs will join St Anne's College, Oxford, as a Junior Research Fellow in Politics and Political Theory in October 2019.
The International Development Department would like to say thank you and best wishes to both of them. We wish them the very best on their new journeys!
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Call for consultancy proposals
The development consultancy experience gives students the opportunity to work with organisations in the real-world and on hot topics that have the potential to influence policy. Masters students work in groups of three to four and undertake work for an external organisation, over a period of nine months.
We are looking for organisations to take part in the project (submissions by September 18). Please note that there is no cost to the client. If you are interested in taking part, please contact Dipa Patel (d.patel20@lse.ac.uk).
You can find out more here.
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The British Society for Population Studies annual conference
Three day conference from 9-11 September 2019, University Hall, Cardiff University
The 2019 BSPS Conference will be held at University Hall, Cardiff University, 9-11 September. All conference sessions will be on site, conference catering and accommodation will also be available. Booking forms are now available, together with a provisional timetable. The plenary theme of the conference will be ‘An ageing population: opportunities and challenges’.
Find out more about the event here.
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De-risking the future of Europe: Reforming the macrofinancial architecture
Wednesday 11 September 2019 | 9.30am - 6.30pm
Venue: TBC
Speakers: László Andor, Charles Goodhart, Vítor Manuel Ribeiro Constâncio and Izabella Kaminska
Chairs: Jakob Vestergaard and Daniela Gabor
The conference will be an occasion for policy-makers and academic experts to reflect and exchange on the pros and cons of different models to design further financial integration within the Euro area and the whole of Europe.
Registration is required.
Register on Eventbrite here.
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Prospects for Democracy in Sudan
Friday 11 October 2019 | 6:30 - 8:00pm
Venue: Old Theatre, Old Building
Speakers: Alex de Waal and Raga Makawi
Chair: Dr Rim Turkmani
The panel will discuss the dynamics of the 2019 Sudanese revolution, characterised by both non-violent civic mobilisation and the fast-evolving transnational and mercenarised political marketplace.
Registration is required.
Register on Eventbrite here.
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Biometric refugee registration: between benefits, risks and ethics
Guest bloggers, Claire Walkey, Dr. Caitlin Procter and Dr. Nora Bardelli from Oxford University, explore the potential benefits, risks and ethical challenges of biometric refugee registration.
Taxing Times: Taxation, divided societies and the informal economy in Northern Nigeria
Dr Kate Meagher summaries her recent article published in The Journal of Development Studies 54(1) for which she has been awarded the journal’s Dudley Seers Memorial Prize for the best article of 2018.
Hyperinflation in Zimbabwe
Zimbabwe’s inflation rates continue to grow exponentially year-on-year, as does the distrust over the government’s handling of the situation. Alum, Nathan Hayes, examines what lies ahead for the country.
Parental involvement in schools: powerful potential, compounded challenge
Anushna Jha and Mehrin Shah explore how parental involvement in schools can enhance the positive effects on student performance during elementary and secondary education.
Absence of Local Government in Balochistan: Where is Government of the People?
Social Policy and Development Expert, Asmat Kakar, reports on the role of local government in delivering Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in Balochistan. |
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Latest publications from the Department.
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Publication:
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.
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Publication:
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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Publication:
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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Publication:
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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Working Paper:
Ethnic favouritism in Kenyan education reconsidered: When a picture is worth more than a thousand regressions
Green, Elliott
Does the 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 gain more years of education. In this paper we revisit this empirical evidence and show that it rests on problematic assumptions. Using Kenya as a test case, we argue that there is no conclusive evidence of ethnic favouritism in primary and secondary education, but rather a marked process of educational convergence among the country’s larger ethnic groups. This evidence matters, as it shapes how we understand the ethnic calculus of leaders.
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Working Paper:
Decentralization’s effects on education and health: Evidence from Ethiopia
Faguet, Jean-Paul
We explore the effects of decentralization on education and health in Ethiopia using an original database covering all of the country’s regions and woredas (local governments). Ethiopia is a remarkable case in which war, famine and chaos in the 1970s-80s were followed by federalization, decentralization, rapid growth and dramatic improvements in human development. Did decentralization contribute to these successes? We use time series and panel data analyses to show that decentralization improved net enrollments in primary schools and access to antenatal care for pregnant women. The main channel appears to be institutional, not fiscal. We offer the database as an additional contribution.
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CRP Publications:
Sudan: A Political Marketplace Analysis by Alex de Waal (this is a joint output from the CRP and our partners, WFP (World Peace Foundation).
A process in its own right: the Syrian Civil Society Support Room by Dr Rim Turkmani and Marika Theros. The Civil Society Support Room (CSSR) was pioneered by the former UN Special Envoy to Syria, Staffan de Mistura. It was the first formal mechanism to allow Syrian civil society actors to contribute to the UN- led political talks in Geneva. The paper collated survey results, interviews and focus group responses from the participants in the CSSR and provides insight into the value of inclusive civil society mechanisms formally linked to Track One negotiations.
A Fragmented Landscape: Barriers to Independent Media in Iraq by Aida Al-Kaisy.The Iraqi media landscape has been characterised by partisan ownership, mainly based on political and religious affiliations. Within this challenging environment, there have been some attempts to develop media platforms that carve out spaces which can contribute to better journalism and, ultimately, better local and national governance. Aida’s report explores, in the context of this environment, the challenges that these platforms face. It examines a number of barriers to the development of independent media in Iraq, providing some recommendations as to how these obstacles might be tackled.
Satellite Sectarianisation or Plain Old Partisanship? Inciting Violence in the Arab Mainstream Media by Jessica Watkins (Research Fellow at the Middle East Centre, conducting research on MENA for the CRP). This report assesses widespread claims that pan-Arab satellite news channels have been responsible for inciting sectarian violence during the Arab uprisings. Based on an empirical study of how three of the most popular channels – Al-Jazeera Arabic, Al-Arabiya and Al-Mayadeen - have framed seminal events involving violence between sects in Syria and Iraq, the report finds that while often geo-politically charged, some of these claims are valid.
You can also listen to the event podcast: Listen to the podcast
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