Institute of Development Policy

Doctoral research

Ongoing and past PhD research at IOB

The first IOB PhD in Development Studies was awarded in 2011. This page gives an overview of all ongoing and completed PhD research.

Find all IOB doctoral theses registered in the UAntwerp academic bibliography here.

Ongoing PhD research (alphabetical order)

  • Adolphe Epoundè | Policy coherence for development and the SDGs: how do aid‐recipient African governments deal with contrasting donors’ policies | Nadia Molenaers
  • Alder Contreras Hernández | The withering frontier: addressing the complexity of agrarian dynamics and territorial conflicts in north-east Nicaragua | Gert Van Hecken / Pierre Merlet / César García Díaz (Universidad Javeriana, Colombia)
  • Alina Kiel | Changing the means and meanings of citizenship: a comparison of two bottom-up enumeration practices among Black minorities in Rio de Janeiro and Berlin | Moisés Kopper
  • Andrea Alatorre Troncoso | ePEStemology: towards a consolidation of social and ecological integrity for conservation and development in Payments for Ecosystem Services (PES) | Gert Van Hecken / Jerome Dupras (Université du Québec en Outaouais, Canada)
  • Asif (Muhammad) Basar | The Bhola cyclone of 1970: the politics of disaster and aid in the divided nation of Pakistan | Nadia Molenaers
  • Baudoin Koussognon | Sustainable development in floating and flood-prone communities in Benin, with lessons for West-Africa and beyond | Marijke Verpoorten
  • Baudouin Mena Sebu | Power, religion, and the resurgence of customary authority in Haut-Uele (1999-2020) | Kristof Titeca
  • Berta Fernández Nuez | Effects of everyday data tactics in Kenya and Tanzania development policy initiatives through the lens of a capabilities methodology and digital co-creative tools | Moisés Kopper
  • Bienvenu Matungulu | Taxation, hybrid state and inequality in the DRC | Tom De Herdt / Kamala Kaghoma (Université Catholique de Bukavu, DR Congo)
  • Cassandra Vet | The architecture of profit-shifting: state-power and interest for collective action: an analysis in the production and articulation for global governance | Danny Cassimon / Anne Van de Vijver (FRECH, UAntwerp)
  • Danya Nadar | When global threats meet localized practices: Payment for Ecosystem Services (PES) vs. recognition and regeneration of ecosystem knowledge in Nicaragua and Guatemala | Tomaso Ferrando / Jennifer Casolo
  • Denis Augustin Samnick | Social actions and interactions around the daily public governance of prisons in Africa: a comparative ethnography between Cameroon and the DRC | Tom De Herdt / Sara Liwerant (Université de Kinshasa, DR Congo)
  • Diana Tiholaz | Community Based Monitoring and its spillover effects: from anecdote to evidence | Nathalie Holvoet
  • Divin-Luc Bikubanya | (De)industrialisation and supply chain governance in the construction sector in Africa’s Great Lake Region | Sara Geenen
  • Eric Lubangu | Governance and economic upgrading in the global battery and electric vehicle value chains: challenges and opportunities in the Katanga copperbelt in the Democratic Republic of Congo | Sara Geenen / Grevisse Ditend Yav (Université de Lubumbashi, DR Congo)
  • Eugenia Robles Mengoa | An in-depth study of informalization processes in global gold production: case studies on Colombia and the Philippines | Sara Geenen / Boris Verbrugge (KU Leuven)
  • Guilherme Queiroz Alves | Beyond numbers: examining citizen-centric datafication in Brazil’s third sector | Moisés Kopper
  • Hadassah Arian | Questioning legitimacy in the responsible cobalt assemblage | Sara Geenen / Sarah Katz-Lavigne
  • Joseph Bahati Mukulu | Labour in the construction sector and its supply chain: The socio-economic impact of handmade urbanism in Bukavu | Sara Geenen / Marijke Verpoorten / Marie-Rose Bashwira (Université Catholique de Bukavu, DR Congo)
  • Laura Fournier | Twa and police institutions’ perspectives on the security of the Twa, in local rural communities in Burundi and Uganda | Stef Vandeginste
  • Lucy Apiyo Adundo | The relationship between the food environment (FE) and the nutritional status of urban individuals in Nairobi, Kenya | Tomaso Ferrando
  • Maria José Cordero Fernandez | Challenging the dominant food production: alternative food systems knowledges within everyday resistance | Gert Van Hecken
  • Mark Marvin Kadigo | Policy responses and coping strategies in refugee-hosting populations in Africa: a multidisciplinary and multidimensional study on the refugees and their hosts in Sub-Saharan Africa | Olivier Sterck / Jean-François Maystadt (UCLouvain)
  • Milagros Romero López | Heterogeneities of farmers rationalities and territorial development pathways: perspectives for ‘microfinance plus’ models in Nicaragua | Johan Bastiaensen / Gert Van Hecken / Pierre Merlet
  • Mollie Gleiberman | Predict and control: mobilizing the past and future to shape development policy, planning, and scholarship | Nadia Molenaers
  • Nathalie Nsimire Bavurhe (joint PhD met UGent) | Analyse dialectique de la résilience sociale et de la réparation des survivantes des violences sexuelles à l’Est de la RDC: un processus de guérison individuelle et collective | Stef Vandeginste / Karen Buscher (UGent) / María Martín de Almagro (UGent) / Pierrot Chambu (UOB Bukavu, DR Congo)
  • Olivier Bahati Mastaki | Civil servants’ payment and recruitment in donor darling sectors: the case of the ministries of environment and planning in the DRC | Tom De Herdt / Kristof Titeca / Stylianos Moshonas
  • Paola de Meo | The United Nation Food System Summit and the Committee on World Food Security (CFS): food system transformation in a time of crisis and food governance fragmentation | Tomaso Ferrando 
  • Paulin Balungwe Shamavu | Civil servants' human resource management practices and administrative work in Congolese public administration | Tom De Herdt / Stylianos Moshonas / Albert Malukisa Nkuku
  • Philippe Dunia Kabunga | ‘Social Protection in Informal Economies: how to protect mine workers and enhance their associational power’ | Sara Geenen / Francine Iragi Mukotanyi (UCB)
  • René Rodriguez Fabilena | Towards a power-sensitive and socially-informed analysis of Payments for Ecosystem Services (PES): comparative case studies in Nicaragua and Guatemala | Gert Van Hecken / Jennifer Casolo
  • Roos Derrix | The multi-levelled politics of national refugee policies: a case study of Uganda | Kristof Titeca / Milena Belloni (FSW, UAntwerp)
  • Samuel Opono | Effectiveness of Climate Resilience Interventions in Refugee Settlements and the Surrounding Host Communities. Case Studies of Rhino Camp and Nakivale Refugee Settlements in Uganda | Kristof Titeca / Frank T. Ahimbisibwe (MUST, Tanzania & IOB) / Specioza Twinamasiko (MUST, Tanzania)
  • Serge Mugisho | Beyond the mine: people’s vulnerability to mining-induced changes in southeastern and eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo | Bossissi Nkuba  / Caroline Michelier (RMCA/UCLouvain)
  • Solomon Mwije  | Towards extreme participatory M&E? Assessing Global South Community Based Monitoring and Citizen Science (CMCS) initiatives from an inclusion lens: perspectives from Uganda | Nathalie Holvoet / Sara Dewachter
  • Stephanie Garcidueñas Nieto | Green municipal bonds as a climate finance instrument: a comparative analysis of its issuance process and implementation from a North and South context  | Nadia Molenaers
  • Thaís Gonçalves Cruz (Incoming joint PhD with Rio de Janeiro State University) | The act of quantifying in peripheral territories in Brazil | Moisés Kopper
  • Valentin Poponete | Evaluating the effectiveness of international security force assistance in conflict-affected countries | Nadia Molenaers

Completed PhD research (chronological order)