In recent decades women’s political representation has significantly increased in Africa. From 2000 to 2018, the proportion of women parliamentarians almost doubled, and women’s representation in cabinet increased fivefold to 22% between 1980 and 2015. Unfortunately, the numbers do not necessarily imply influence....

Narratives are essential. Humans are, after all, “helpless story junkies”. Business and economic success depend much more than is commonly acknowledged on getting the narrative right. And if there is a narrative where getting it right or wrong matters hugely, it is the narrative about Africa’s industrial development....

“Good morning class!” “Good morning professor, how are you?” With these words teachers generally open teaching sessions in African classrooms, but today they were also the opening words at the Africa-Europe Conference on Higher Education Collaboration at the European Commission, 25 October 2019. In short, education fuels development. In sum, higher education for African Master and PhD students prepares the experts and leaders needed for the sustainable development of African countries. While SDG...

Little is known about what’s happening in Mozambique’s labour market, except that jobs are scarce for young people. Shutterstock Last week we published some initial reactions to the Nobel Prize in Economics 2019, which was jointly awarded to Abhijit Banerjee (MIT), Esther Duflo (MIT) and Michael Kremer (Harvard) for their work to alleviate poverty. There was praise for the latest batch of laureates — but praise with a fair few caveats. Prof. Franziska Gassmann was among those interviewed a...

Capacity building is a term heard frequently in academic and development circles – but what does it actually mean? There are many definitions depending on the background of the user, but one general definition is “the process by which individuals and organizations obtain, improve, and retain the skills, knowledge, tools, equipment and other resources needed to do their jobs competently or to a greater capacity.”  What does that mean in practice, though? And what does that mean when we’re talking...

The male perspective dominates in times of conflict – think of the generals, the diplomats, the doctors. But what about the women? What is a gendered perspective of war and what value can it add? Female narratives in conflict scenarios have long been neglected, overlooked or forgotten. Recently, however, more and more stories have emerged – including Doaa Al Zamel’s incredible story written by UNHCR’s Melissa Fleming – which among other things moved me to share the stories of my own grandmothers...

"Clearly, policy designs can look great on paper but their ultimate success is shaped by many factors. Unlike in Western Uganda, the government does not own the land in the West Nile region. The land belongs to local communities. As a result, the government relies on the willingness of host communities to make land accessible to refugees." Elsemarie Jorissen, MSc. Student, UNU-MERIT ...

This series tracks news and views from our ‘Evidence-Based Policy Research Methods’ (EPRM) course. Many participants work at the highest of levels, both nationally and internationally, including for other parts of the UN system. They come to Maastricht for this unique blended learning programme, covering three weeks in class and 10 weeks online. This time we speak with Agata Petrelli, an award-winning child rights researcher. … Congratulations on winning the Mac Robertson Scholarship from the Un...

In my dissertation, I am looking at the link between a popular form of social protection – cash transfers – and child nutrition. Previous research has shown a mixed effect, sometimes positive, sometimes no effect, so I was interested in investigating this issue in more detail. I was also interested in examining how intra-household dynamics could play a role in the impact of cash transfers on child nutrition. I used data from an impact evaluation of a cash transfer programme in Ghana (LEAP 1000) ...

Charlotte Mueller’s PhD research focuses mainly on the African nations of Ethiopia, Sierra Leone and Somalia — and she has travelled to all these countries over the last three years to collect data. Yet, as a European researching African issues, she is acutely aware of various Eurocentric assumptions, and that African development is still frequently discussed from an external, third person perspective. In this post, Charlotte argues that the 2030 Agenda will only succeed across Afric...