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Welcome to the September + October 2021 research newsletter from the Department of International Development at the London School of Economics and Political Science. We hope you are all well and keeping safe.
This bi-monthly newsletter gives subscribers the usual run-down of news and updates from research programmes in the Department. It also includes sub-sections for events, podcasts, blogs as well as recent publications, reports and books.
Please send any comments to d.patel20@lse.ac.uk.
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Job opportunity: Assistant Professor of the Political Economy of Development
The Department of International Development is hiring for an Assistant Professor of the Political Economy of Development (Development Management). The successful candidate will contribute to the intellectual life of the School through conducting and publishing outstanding quality research, engaging in high quality teaching as instructed by the Head of Department, and participating in the School and wider Department activities.
The closing date for receipt of applications is 29 November 2021 (23.59 UK time). We are unable to accept any late applications. Interviews will be conducted in early 2022.
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Tiziana Leone on Menarche
On Thursday 30 September 2021, Dr Tiziana Leone, Associate Professor in Health and International Development, gave a talk entitled, "Menarche: a global health indicator?" for a Centre for Population Change webinar. Recent evidence shows that age at menarche in Low and Middle Income Countries is undergoing a transition similar to that of European countries in the nineteenth century and is generally linked to an improvement in nutrition and health of young women. Dr Leone spoke about her research research which analyses the relationship between mean age at menarche and micro factors such as individual wealth, education, and macro ones such as mean age at marriage, total fertility rate, GDP and life expectancy, among others.
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Ernestina Coast on safe abortion in Sub-Saharan Africa
LSE Research for the World published an article about Professor Ernestina Coast’s research and film work on barriers to contraception and safe abortion in Sub-Saharan Africa. Professor Coast’s research team is working with social media organisations to maximise the audience for the three animations, including low-bandwidth versions that can be shared on WhatsApp. The team has received a Changing Policy and Practice Award from the Medical Research Foundation to increase their impact. One of the short animated films, Mwansa’s Story, was also one of a handful of films shortlisted for a prize at the WHO Health for All Film Festival.
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Tim Dyson on the myths, prejudices and actual data behind global population and climate
On Thursday 9 September, an interview with Tim Dyson, Emeritus Professor of Population Studies at the London School of Economics, aired on BBC Radion 4 Women's Hour in which he spoke about the actual facts behind global population growth. In the interview with Emma Barnett, Professor Dyson discussed the trends in family size as well as explaining why having fewer children might not help alleviate the immediate pressures of the climate crisis.
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LSE responds to the fall of the Afghan state
The LSE ID Community has been closely following the collapse of the Afghanistan government. Our community has responded in the following ways:
- After the Fall blog series: With contributions from Professor Jean-Paul Faguet, Dr Kate Meagher, Dr Rajesh Venugopal, Dr Florian Weigand, Aoife McCullough and a guest post from John O'Callaghan (KCL).
- The implosion of the Afghan State: A panel discussion on what the collapse means for Afghan people, especially women. The panel included Antonio Giustozzi, Deniz Kandiyotti, Pashtana Durrani and Dr. Orzala Nemat.
- Undoing of Aid cuts: Kevin Watkins writes for the Guardian in a piece about the threat of the Taliban to 20 years of progress funded by aid.
- Taliban and education: Kevin Watkins also wrote a piece for the Financial Times in which he encourages Western Governments to engage in dialogue with the Taliban about Afghan childrens' education.
- Digital data in the wring hands: Emrys Schoemaker writes for the Guardian in a piece about the misuse of digital ID systems by the Taliban.
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Podcast highlights from the Department:
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Cutting Edge Issues Podcast Series
You can now listen to the latest Cutting Edge Issues in Development Thinking & Practice lectures via all major streaming platforms.
The Cutting Edge Issues is an annual visiting lecture series coordinated by Dr Duncan Green, Professor in Practice in the Department, and Professor James Putzel, Professor of Development Studies. These talks provide students and guests with invaluable insights into the practical world of international development, with guest lecturers from different development organisations and research institutes sharing their expertise and inviting discussion on an exciting range of issues, from responses to the COVID-19 pandemic, to climate change policy, to decolonising academia.
You can listen to the following recent event podcasts:
Listen and subscribe to the series on: Apple, Spotify, Google and Amazon.
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In light of coronavirus, all department events have moved online. For updates, please check our events page. You can also check out our recordings from past events.
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More than money? How Anthropology can offer richer analysis for economists
On Thursday 7 October the Department of International Development and Department of Anthropology hosted an event with Gillian Tett and Deborah Rowland on 'More than money? How Anthropology can offer richer analysis for economists'. The event was chaired by ID's Professor Robert Wade.
Anthropology has often been seen as an academic version of Indiana Jones - namely a discipline devoted to exotic travel that does not have much relevance for the modern world. However, Gillian Tett argues that this image is completely wrong today, and anthropology can make a vital contribution to public policy, corporate and financial life, as well as our communities as we try to "build back better" after COVID-19. Indeed, she argues that a world drowning in Artificial Intelligence and other digital innovations desperately needs a second type of "AI" - Anthropology Intelligence - to enable us to flourish.
But what does this mean for the economics profession? Could economists benefit by embracing this new type of AI?
You can watch the lecture back on YouTube here.
You can listen to the podcast recording of the lecture here.
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Bangladesh’s NGOs at 50: a conversation between David Lewis and Naomi Hossain
25/10/2021
David Lewis and Naomi Hossain, both academics with a longstanding interest in Bangladesh’s state and society, discuss what makes Bangladesh’s NGOs so special and so large – as well as so divisive.
Botswana’s success story is built on disciplining transnational capital
19/10/2021
The ‘good governance’ agenda has often used Botswana as its principal African case study in support of ‘market-friendly’ policy proposals. However, a deeper analysis of Botswana’s history shows that the country’s success has been facilitated by its aggressive stance towards foreign capital. Instead, a demanding tax and royalties regime has allowed Botswana to develop a strong rule of law and conservative fiscal approach. Jorich Johann Loubser tells us more.
Why Europe should take measures to recognize vaccines certificates from the developing world
12/10/2021
Guest bloggers, Eugene Bempong Nyantakyi (Chief Research Economist at the African Development Bank Group) and Jonathan Munemo (Professor of Economics at Salisbury University, Maryland), argue that Europe’s decision not to recognize Covid-19 vaccine certificates from developing countries could undermine the global collaboration in the fight against Covid-19 and increase vaccine tourism from the developing world.
Collateral damage: West African shockwaves from the fall of Afghanistan
14/10/2021
Associate Professor of Development Studies Kate Meagher looks at the ramifications of the Taliban takeover in Afghanistan for countries in West Africa. This article is part of a series on the ID blog, ‘Afghanistan: After the fall‘.
How to destroy a country: does Ethiopia have a future?
08/10/2021
In this article originally published by the Center for Global Development, Professor in Practice in LSE Department of International Development Mark Lowcock examines the ongoing conflict in Tigray, Ethiopia.
Statebuilding failed in Afghanistan but why do we continue to believe that it can succeed?
07/10/2021
PhD candidate in the Department of International Development Aoife McCullough argues that the long history of failure of Western interventionist statebuilding projects should make us reconsider their efficacy. This article is part of a series on the ID blog, ‘Afghanistan: After the fall‘.
Manipulation of the World Bank’s Ease of Doing Business Index
05/10/2021
In 2019, former Masters student in the Department Lisa Shmulyan wrote her dissertation on the gaming of the World Bank’s Ease of Doing Business rankings. On 16 September 2021, the World Bank cancelled its Ease of Doing Business Index after an investigation discovered its manipulation. In this article, she discusses her research and thoughts on what happened, interrogating the problems and biases built into the index, including the questionable indicators used to measure countries’ ‘ease of doing business’.
One year of the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO)
04/10/2021
In this article, graduating student from MSc Health and International Development 2021 Jasmine Birmingham reflects on a year since the closure of the UK’s Department of International Development and actions the new Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office has taken.
Afghanistan: a legitimacy failure
22/09/2021
In response to the insightful and thought-provoking articles by Jean-Paul Faguet and Rajesh Venugopal on democracy in Afghanistan, this piece by Florian Weigand argues that the West failed to build a state with wide-spread legitimacy. Below the surface of democracy, rent seeking and corruption spread, and a bloody ‘War on Terror’ continued, ultimately empowering the Taliban. Nonetheless, it wasn’t all failure.
Technology and social movements against ‘other pandemics’ in Africa
14/09/2021
In this article, International Development and Humanitarian Emergencies MSc candidate Boluwatife Ajibola presents critical reflections on some issues raised at a panel discussion he organised on 11 June 2021 with the support of LSE Department of International Development. The event was titled ‘Technologies and contemporary protest dynamics in Africa: Lessons for the future of collective action’ and you can watch the event recording here.
The dark side of sensitive statistics: The World Bank’s ‘Doing Business’ rankings
09/09/2021
Professor of Global Political Economy Robert Wade responds to an FT opinion piece by Jeffrey Sachs on the World Bank’s decision to discontinue its controversial ‘Doing Business’ report. Professor Wade writes further on the history of the annual report and the manipulation of statistics associated with its ranking system.
From Medellin to Nairobi: the rise of innovation ecosystems in the Global South
06/09/2021
Aurora Cicillini and Eleonora Rella take a look at the hype surrounding innovation hubs. Zooming in on Medellin, Colombia and Nairobi, Kenya, they analyse why these hubs matter from an international development perspective.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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