Introducing more skilled employees into the economy is an important path to development for many middle income countries. That’s why increased and improved training at the top end of the education level – PhDs – is considered so vital. Many countries encourage students to pursue their PhDs abroad in nations with well-ranked universities, particularly in Europe and North America, on the presumption that what’s offered in the developed world is better quality. They know that some of those students...

The number of families migrating via the central Mediterranean, the world’s most dangerous migration route, is actually quite low. In 2017, 74% of arrivals in Italy were men, 11% women and 15% children; a striking 91% of children arriving were unaccompanied. There are several reasons why so few families arrive together in Italy. In this post I will focus on examining one particular country of origin group: Eritreans. Most Eritreans are granted refugee status upon arrival in Europe and were one o...

‘Leave no one behind’ is one of the boldest commitments in the UN’s 2030 Agenda. But what exactly does this mean? UNU-MERIT’s Prof. Shyama Ramani and Dr. Maty Konte joined the Global Festival of Action for Sustainable Development in Bonn, March 2018, to explain our work and efforts in this regard. In so doing they stressed the importance of research, outreach, and evidence-based policymaking to ensure that truly no one is left behind....

A joint post by Bruno Martorano, Laura Metzger, and Marco Sanfilippo. An ‘earth-shaking rise’ is how The Diplomat magazine describes China’s evolution from a poor country to a global superpower. The international community, however, is torn between admiration for the country’s achievements and criticism for its authoritarian leadership, both at home and abroad. Against this conflicting backdrop our research strikes a hopeful note, at least for China’s role in sub-Saharan Africa. China may be the...

There’s no disputing that many African countries’ education systems are in trouble. Despite significant investment and some improvements linked to the push to achieve the Millennium Development Goals, children in large parts of Africa are simply not being well taught or learning what is needed as they progress through the school system....

West Africa is known for its diversity: from the island nation of Cape Verde deep in the Atlantic, to the regional giant of Nigeria. One might expect a region of barriers, at least in terms of language and logistics. Yet our latest ‘DEIP’ workshop demonstrated clear and consistent engagement among a dozen West African nations — testament to regional partnerships built up in recent years at government and senior policy officer levels. … Policy Brief now available to downlo...

Why and how do some female child carers in Lesotho manage to stay in school despite being responsible for running a household? This was the question that researcher Brenda Yamba, originally from Zambia, wanted to answer. She defended her PhD at Maastricht University last June. “Brenda was what you might call a model student”, her supervisor Melissa Siegel says immediately. “In addition to being disciplined and eager to learn, she also dealt extremely well with feedback. She was hugely motivated ...

Information and communication technology is developing rapidly in Africa – but there are worrying trends, such as a growing digital divide between men and women, and between urban and rural areas. These are the basic findings of a new policy note by Prof. Samia Nour, an affiliated researcher at UNU-MERIT. The author investigates some of the main causes of the digital divide, including differences in economic development, literacy, schooling and education levels. She then delves into the major ch...

Continuing our drive to ensure research is both understood and applied globally, we travelled to Ghana for the second round of our science reporting workshop ‘Reach & Turn’. Along with our sister institute UNU-INRA and the UN Info Centre Accra we led two days of learning and debate with around 50 researchers, communications officers, and journalists from five mainly West African countries (Ghana, Liberia, Nigeria, Togo and Rwanda). For some this was a real innovation: the first time they had sha...

PhD fellow Jennifer Waidler recently returned from a visiting fellowship at the University of Western Cape, South Africa. There she worked with Prof. Stephen Devereux, Research fellow at the Institute of Development Studies, University of Sussex and Professor at the University of Western Cape. They wrote two papers during her fellowship, including the policy paper featured below. This explains how, although 17 million South Africans receive government grants, children’s malnutrition levels...