Blogs

• As development thinkers challenge the construct of “the South”, research by Nikita Sud and Diego Sanchez-Ancochea explores its layered origins and argues that it can play a constructive role in understanding and addressing global power asymmetries.
• New modelling explores the medium-term macroeconomic impact of the COVID pandemic in low-income countries and shows the need for significant and sustained concessional external financing to reverse loss-of-learning effects on labour productivity. 
• New research from Young Lives on foundational cognitive skills provides ground-breaking evidence that children from households benefitting from Ethiopia’s Productive Safety Net Programme (PSNP) have better long-term memory and implicit learning skills than children from similar households that do not receive PSNP support.
• From supporting widows to promoting comedy acts, innovative YouTube channels launched by refugees in Nairobi are helping them gain both an income and a sense of belonging. Read the post by Marie Godin and Ghislain Bahati.
• Analysis of social media posts during two recent periods of intense contestation – the Brexit referendum and the election of Trump – sheds light on how political actors make use of emotion to mobilise support.
• And don’t miss this recording of the launch of the latest release in the VoxDevLit series, Issue 2 of Microfinance, in which Jing Cai, Muhammad Meki and Simon Quinn outline the key takeaways for policy from recent research on microfinance in developing countries

Publications

• Open access: Forced Migration Review 71 –  focused on ‘Socio-economic integration: towards solutions for displaced people’
• Open access: James, Myfanwy (with Joseph Grace Kasereka, Benjamin Kasiwa, Hugo Kavunga-Membo, Kasonia Kambale, Rebecca Grais, Jean-Jacques Muyembe-Tamfum, Daniel G Bausch, Deborah Watson-Jones, Shelley Lees) (2023) ‘Protection, health seeking, or a laissez-passer: Participants’ decision-making in an EVD vaccine trial in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo‘, Social Science & Medicine 323 115833
• Open access; Meki, Muhammad (2023) ‘Levelling the Debt-Equity Playing Field: Evidence from a Belgian Policy Change‘, European Economic Review

News