Development Dissertation Briefs

2024:05

Equality

Valeriya Mechkova

How does an increase in female political representation affect the promotion of women’s interests in politics and policy, and under what conditions can we expect women politicians to positively influence policymaking? This thesis...

2024:04

Democracy and Human Rights

Elizaveta Kopacheva

What are the underlying factors behind limited protest participation in semi-authoritarian regimes? This thesis tests the applicability of political participation theories and the role of individual factors in explaining on- and offline...

2024:03

Democracy and Human Rights

Adea Gafuri

How does aid impact democratization processes and citizens’ attitudes or ideas about democracy? This thesis explores how aid and financial initiatives from democratic and autocratic donors affect the level and quality of democracy in...

2024:01

Economic Development

Tillmann von Carnap

How can people in remote rural regions that live in poverty efficiently get access to income opportunities and essential services? That is one of the questions that this thesis tries to answer. “Markets and marketplaces: Essays on...

2024:02

Business

Blanca González-Mon

How does trade networks in the agriculture and fishing industries manage to respond to challenges and crisis to secure sustainable food systems? This thesis investigates the role of trade networks as social systems in responding to changes...

2023:02

Peace, Security and Conflict

Other

Marie Shellens

What are the mechanisms at play when conflicts related to natural resources become violent? That is one of the questions that this Development Dissertation Brief (DDB) tries to answer. To reverse vicious circles of conflict to virtuous...

2023:01

Peace, Security and Conflict

Other

Ida Rudolfsen

Under what conditions does food insecurity lead to urban unrest? This Development Dissertation Brief answers this question by examining the effect of food insecurity on citizens' willingness to participate in urban unrest in low- and...

2022:07

Peace, Security and Conflict

Analysis, Other

Stefan Döring

A large number of people worldwide face challenges in access to water, which are made more serious by climate change. This Development Dissertation Brief uses statistical modelling to show how drought can both increase violence and lead to...

2022:06

Peace, Security and Conflict

Other

Karin Johansson

Conflict-related sexual violence by state actors has received increasing attention in international politics. This Development Dissertation Brief explores the effects of domestic protests and international condemnations on the occurrence...

2022:05

Democracy and Human Rights

Other

Karin Sundström

National human rights institutions are important for the protection of human rights, though they can serve as both as watchdogs and lapdogs to their governments. This Development Dissertation Brief uses multiple methods to explore why...

2022:04

Peace, Security and Conflict

Other

Måns Muhrbeck

In armed conflicts, access to medical care and surgical resources are often limited. Using records from three different Red Cross hospitals, this Development Dissertation Brief analyses the relationship between types of injuries,...

2022:03

Health and Social Protection

Other

Marwan Mosleh

Non-communicable diseases (NCDs) and war-related injuries constitute major health concerns globally, particularly in low- and middle-income countries. This Development Dissertation Brief describes and analyzes the burden, incidence, and...

2022:02

Democracy and Human Rights

Other

Johanna von Bahr

Children’s rights have risen on many international organisations’ agendas in recent decades. This Development Dissertation Brief explores why international organisations promote children’s rights, which tactics they use to pressure...

2022:01

Health and Social Protection

Mapping, Other

Signe Svallfors

Armed conflicts pose a great challenge to women’s sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR). This DDB explores the effects of conflict on women’s SRHR in Colombia. It points to women’s limited access to health care and...

2021:03

Peace, Security and Conflict

Other

Sanela Bajramović

International peacebuilding in conflict-affected areas entails possibilities as well as challenges. Focusing on the engagement of Swedish foundation Kvinna till Kvinna in Bosnia and Herzegovina between 1993 and 2013, this DDB analyzes...

2021:02

Peace, Security and Conflict

Other

Tomas Cole

In Southeast Myanmar a protracted armed conflict has dragged on for over 70 years. This DDB depicts the struggles of indigenous people and environmental activists to transform a war-torn area into an indigenously run protected zone, the...

2021:01

Peace, Security and Conflict

Other

Pernilla Johansson

Effective peacebuilding requires international actors to listen to local partners, which often fails in practice. Through interviews with practitioners, donors and researchers, this DDB-report identifies how everyday emotions help or...

2020:09

Humanitarian Assistance

Other

Jenni Koivisto

This thesis investigates the uncertainties in disaster risk reduction (DRR) in Mozambique, a low- income country that regularly faces natural hazards that cause heavy loss of life and livelihoods. The thesis focuses on different sets of...

2020:08

Humanitarian Assistance

Other

Anneli Eriksson

Humanitarian aid must be based on needs but is underfunded and unevenly distributed. This DDB report develops a model that estimated needs in the event of disasters. The results were presented during the webinar How to mitigate disasters:...

2020:07

Climate and Environment, Health and Social Protection, Humanitarian Assistance

Other

Dell Saulnier

Resilient health systems have the capacity to maintain their functions and to change when shocked, enabling them to continue delivering health services, yet there is little evidence about what creates resilience. The contribution...

2020:05

Health and Social Protection

Other

Suvi Kokko

Social entrepreneurship and innovation are expected to take on a growing role in solving global problems of sustainability. This DDB examines the case of a social entrepreneur in the sanitation sector in Kenya. By studying the dynamics of...

2020:06

Health and Social Protection

Other

Stefan Granlund

Cash transfer programs have become a significant tool in efforts to reduce poverty. Focusing on the Child Support Grant (CSG), this DDB report explores the material and socio-relational implications of state cash transfers in rural South...

2020:04

Education and Research

Other

Helena Kraff

Participatory processes are typically viewed as democratic and transparent. This DDB report explores the pitfalls of participation. By addressing when, how and why participatory practices lead to unjust forms of participation, it offers...

2020:03

Health and Social Protection

Other

Nelson Ekane

Sanitation is high on the international development agenda, but how is sanitation policy actually put into practice on the ground? This DDB examines governance structures in sanitation on multiple levels across Rwanda and Uganda. The...

2020:02

Equality

Other

Helena Hede Skagerlind

Global performance indicators are now-common tools for global Development governance. This DDB gives an account of the influences of such indicators, studying the mechanisms of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and their effects on...

2020:01

Democracy and Human Rights, Economic Development, Organisation and Management of Aid

Other

Linda Engström

Large agricultural investment projects have been popular in African development for almost 20 years. The results of these investments however, have often failed to materialize. This DDB explores the consequences for people living where...

2019:03

Climate and Environment

Other

Stefan Linde

The objective of this thesis is to investigate how communication affects public preferences for cooperation in large-scale collective action dilemmas. By merging theories on collective action and political communication the thesis...

2019:02

Climate and Environment

Other

Marcus Wangel

For the past three decades the policy discourse on forest governance in low- income countries has come to increasingly emphasise collaborative ideals and practices. Overall, the outcome has not been as intended: genuine...

2019:01

Climate and Environment

Other

Elin Jakobsson

This dissertation development brief provides further insights into how new norms become or do not become accepted in the international political system. It puts particular emphasis on how contingencies and windows of opportunity...

2018:05

Health and Social Protection

Other

Damian Clarke, Hanna Mühlrad

This Development Dissertation Brief (DDB) is a summary of an article written by Hanna and Damian Clarke, Associate Professor of Economics at The University of Santiago of Chile. The article was included as the third chapter of...

2018:04

Health and Social Protection

Other

Dorcus Kiwanuka Henriksson

Well-functioning health systems are key to the reduction of treatable, preventable and premature deaths, ensuring healthy lives and promoting well-being for all at all age This thesis contributes with knowledge on the utility of...

2018:03

Health and Social Protection

Other

Ulrika Baker

Maternal and newborn deaths and stillbirths remain high in Sub Saharan Africa. Despite the large increases achieved in access to care, the expected gains in survival for mothers and newborns have therefore not materialised, giving...

2018:02

Organisation and Management of Aid

Other

Janet Vähämäki

The search for results or effectiveness of aid has been of major concern for Sida and Swedish public aid since the “birth” of public development aid in the 1960s. One way in which Sida (Swedish International Development Agency)...

2018:01

Health and Social Protection

Other

Josephine Sundqvist

Public Private Partnerships (PPPs) have become increasingly common in global health. Since health systems in development contexts tend to be weak and fragile, they are still dependent on receiving contributions from faith-based...

2017:10

Organisation and Management of Aid

Other

Therese Brolin

The increased focus on results within international development cooperation is a consequence of the assumption that development cooperation must be more effective and efficient. However, these approaches present diverging and...

2017:09

Peace, Security and Conflict

Other

Emma Elfversson

Each year, a number of violent communal conflicts take place around the world. Because they do not directly challenge the central state, communal conflicts often receive less media attention than civil wars. This dissertation seeks...

2017:08

Peace, Security and Conflict

Other

Mathilda Lindgren

As a first of its kind, this thesis deals with a specific aspect of the micro dynamics of international mediation, namely developing possible explanations for variations in mediator style among individual mediators working for...

2017:04

Education and Research, Health and Social Protection

Other

Elina Elveborg Lindskog

This thesis deals with the relationship between violent conflict and sexual and reproductive behavior in Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). The aim is to contribute to the literature on how war affects demographic...

2017:07

Education and Research, Peace, Security and Conflict

Other

Sara Gehlin

In situations of conflict, religions appear with different faces. The same religion that motivates destruction and violence can motivate peace, forgiveness, tolerance, and hope. The dissertation brings light to the way theology can...

2017:06

Health and Social Protection

Other

Susanne Sjöström

Increased knowledge and awareness as well as changes in the legal framework has contributed to decreased maternal mortality caused by unplanned pregnancies and unsafe abortion. Despite this progress access to abortion and...

2017:05

Health and Social Protection

Other

Jessica Påfs

Since 1990, maternal deaths have decreased by nearly half – but with stark disparities between countries. In sub-Saharan Africa, a woman’s lifetime risk of dying as a result of pregnancy or childbirth is estimated to be more...

2017:03

Education and Research, Health and Social Protection

Other

Anna Kågesten

Early adolescence is a time of rapid and interconnected physical, cognitive and social changes that has special salience for sexual development. The norms and behaviors adopted during these formative years can carry lifelong sexual...

2017:02

Education and Research, Health and Social Protection

Other

Malin Bogren

The past decades have seen significant achievements in global development goals and targets. Some have led to better access to sexual and reproductive health care. However, for women from poor, marginalized communities, and those...

2017:01

Organisation and Management of Aid

Other

Karl Bruno

This study is organized around the central institutions for the agrarian sciences in postwar Sweden: the Agricultural College (Lantbrukshögskolan), the Veterinary College (Veterinärhögskolan), and the College of...

2016:10

Public Administration

Other

Rasmus Broms

The existence of political systems characterized by well-functioning governance and high institutional quality has come to be one of the most discussed fields within the social sciences. Research focusing on developing countries highlights...

2016:09

Education and Research

Other

Johanna Malm

How does China challenge the power of Western donors in Africa? This question has been raised by policy makers, scholars and pundits alike ever since the Chinese presence in Africa started to grow at the turn of the 21st century....

2016:07

Democracy and Human Rights, Public Administration

Other

Aksel Sundström

In most low-income countries, the problem of bureaucratic or small-scale corruption is relatively widespread. This report is based on the premise that the dominant view of what drives officials' choice to engage in corruption is in need of...

2016:08

Democracy and Human Rights, Public Administration

Anders Sundell

Corruption is one of the major obstacles to development in the world. The causes are, however, less understood. A proposed explanation for the failure of anti-corruption reform is that corruption is a collective action problem....

2016:06

Equality

Other

Anja Tolonen

Promoting natural resource extraction as a strategy for economic development is controversial, although a common reality in many developing countries. The research summarized in this brief explores the local welfare effects of largescale...

2016:05

Democracy and Human Rights, Equality, Humanitarian Assistance

Other

Elisabeth Olivius

Considerations of gender have today entered the mainstream of international policymaking and governance to an unprecedented degree. Drawing on an analysis of key humanitarian policy texts and interviews with about 60 humanitarian...

2016:04

Democracy and Human Rights, Economic Development, Education and Research

Other

Elin Vimefall

Most poor people in the world live in rural communities, and they are more likely to be women, children, or members of a minority ethnic group. The research presented in this brief focus on these individuals, the most vulnerable in...

2016:03

Education and Research

Other

Montserrat López Jerez

Several issues remain to be settled before conclusions can be drawn about how colonial institutions interact with long-term development dynamics.What does it mean and how can it be measured? How does it influence the development...

2016:02

Organisation and Management of Aid

Other

Arvid Erlandsson

Within the fields of experimental psychology and behavioral economy, helping decisions has mostly been investigated at the individual level but helping decisions can also occur at the organizational level. This dissertation...

2016:01

Education and Research

Other

Yumiko Yasuda

Nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) have increasingly become important agents in environmental governance. Many studies discuss the way civil society actors attempt to influence rules and norms. There is limited research, however,...

2015:07

Peace, Security and Conflict

Other

Michael Jonsson

As the number and scope of peace operations has grown since the early 1990s, the question of how to ensure that ex-combatants do not resort to renewed violence has grown in prominence. The answer has predominantly been to create...

2015:06

Peace, Security and Conflict

Other

Johan Brosche

In some regions communal conflicts lead to a few deaths or are solved before they cause any fatalities. In others, these conflicts become very violent and dozens, hundreds, or even thousands of people are killed. The Ituri region...

2015:05

Equality, Peace, Security and Conflict

Other

Angela Muvumba Sellström

Which conditions lead to armed group impunity for sexual violence? This dissertation focuses on African armed actors that have been exposed to settlement processes in the post-Cold War period. It is composed of two components. First, a...

2015:04

Democracy and Human Rights

Other

Abrak Saati

Scholarly work has not attempted to analytically differentiate between different types of participation. The term public participation is currently being used in a very wide sense and the proposed link between...

2015:03

Health and Social Protection, Public Administration

Other

Johan Sandberg

Conditional cash transfers (CCTs) have been widely promoted for their ability to simultaneously pursue the twin objectives of short-term poverty alleviation and long-term poverty reduction. Yet, CCTs’ alleged capabilities concerning...

2015:02

Education and Research

Other

Veronica Brodén Gyberg

This dissertation investigates how Swedish official aid policy constructed the role of research for development in low-income countries between 1973 and 2008. The overarching purpose of the study is to contribute to an understanding of how...

2015:01

Democracy and Human Rights

Other

Agnes Cornell

This Development Dissertation Brief (DDB) summarizes Agnes Cornell’s dissertation Institutional Impediments and Reluctant Actors - The Limited Role of Democracy Aid in Democratic Development. The dissertation examines why and under what...