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.

Ongoing PhD research (alphabetical order)

Name PhD student
Title PhD
Supervisor(s)
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
Benjamin Muhoza Kanze
Drivers of unequal development in the Democratic Republic of Congo
Tom De Herdt / Kamala Kaghoma (Université Catholique de Bukavu, DR Congo) / Tim Soens (FLW, UAntwerp)
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
Eliane Giezendanner 
From combatant to loyal party member or disillusioned defector? A case study on CNDD-FDD ex-combatants in Burundi
Kristof Titeca
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)
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)
Juan Sebastian Velez Triana 
Neoliberal conservation and hybrid resistances in Colombia: a scalar political ecology of environmental governance and social-ecological change in the Andean-Amazonian conservation corridor
Gert Van Hecken
Mahar  Musleh  
A comparative study of Miskito Indigenous Community and Bedouin communities at Beer el-Sebe: space construction and forced urbanization as a colonial tool
Gert Van Hecken
Mark 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
Sara Geenen
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
Paulin Balungwe Shamavu
Civil servants' human resource management practices and administrative work in Congolese public administration
Tom De Herdt / Stylianos Moshonas / Albert Malukisa
Réginas Ndayiragije 
Post-conflict institutional engineering and political representation in Burundi
Stef Vandeginste / Marijke Verpoorten
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 (UGent)
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
Valentin Poponete
Evaluating the effectiveness of international security force assistance in conflict-affected countries
Nadia Molenaers

Completed PhD research (chronological order)

Name PhD student
Date public PhD defence
Title PhD thesis
Supervisor(s)
Héctor Herrera
13/12/2024
Municipal green bonds: climate finance amidst climate injustices
Tomaso Ferrando
Hanne Van Cappellen
21/10/2024
Joachim De Weerdt
Elie Lunanga
26/09/2024
Marijke Verpoorten / Nik Stoop
Filippo Grisolia
24/09/2024
Nathalie Holvoet / Sara Dewachter
Ivan Ashaba
8/07/2024
Kristof Titeca / Esther Marijnen (Wageningen University & Research)
Aloysius Ssennyonjo
25/03/2024
Kristof Titeca / Bart Criel (ITG) / Sara Van Belle (ITG) / Freddie Ssengooba (Makerere University) 
Doreen Kyando
15/02/2024
Nathalie Holvoet / Sara Dewachter / Christina Shitima (Mzumbe University)
Simon Marijsse
8/05/2023
Sara Geenen / Boris Verbruggen (KU Leuven) / Filip De Boeck (KU Leuven)
Evert Waeterloos
2/05/2023
Nadia Molenaers
Fergus Simpson
3/10/2022
Sara Geenen / Kristof Titeca
Francine Iragi Mukotanyi
9/06/2022
Sara Geenen / Marijke Verpoorten / Alice Mufungizi Nabintu (Université catholique de Bukavu)

Sarah Vancluysen
30/11/2021
Bert Ingelaere / Kristof Titeca
Pierre Merlet
18/11/2021
Johan Bastiaensen 
Antea Paviotti
17/09/2021
Bert Ingelaere / Stef Vandeginste
Lisa Popelier
18/01/2021
Nathalie Holvoet
Tobias Gandrup
23/10/2020
Tom De Herdt / Kristof Titeca
Micha Wiebusch
28/09/2020
Stef Vandeginste 
Catherine Windey
7/09/2020
Johan Bastiaensen / Gert Van Hecken
Mathias De Roeck
10/10/2019
Nadia Molenaers / Ronan Van Rossem (UGent)
Frédéric Huybrechs
30/11/2018
Johan Bastiaensen / Gert Van Hecken
Christina Shitima
16/11/2018
Nathalie Holvoet / Romanus Dimoso (Mzumbe University)
Dimitri Renmans
29/08/2018
Nathalie Holvoet / Bart Criel / Christopher Garimoi Orach (Makerere University)
Francis Mbunya
7/06/2018
Tom De Herdt / Tom Vanwing / George Chuyong  
Janvier Kilosho
5/04/2018
Marijke Verpoorten / Jean-Baptiste Ntagoma Kushinganine
Ntagahoraho Burihabwa
17/03/2017
Filip Reyntjens / Stef Vandeginste
Klara Claessens
6/03/2017
Filip Reyntjens / Tom De Herdt / An Ansoms 
Albert Malukisa
16/02/2017
Tom De Herdt / Kristof Titeca / Philémon Muamba 
Patricia Bamanyaki
20/12/2016
Nathalie Holvoet / Henry Manyire 
Katrien Van Aelst
3/10/2016
Nathalie Holvoet / Ann Crabbé
Nanneke Winters
24/03/2016
Johan Bastiaensen 
Selmira Flores
17/12/2015
Johan Bastiaensen 
Tri Ha Minh
16/02/2015
Nathalie Holvoet
Marie Gildemyn
20/11/2014
Nathalie Holvoet
Inge Wagemakers
17/06/2014
Tom De Herdt
Sara Geenen
5/05/2014
Filip Reyntjens
Bert Ingelaere
19/12/2012
Filip Reyntjens
Gert Van Hecken
17/05/2011
Johan Bastiaensen