PhD Thesis
Title: Measuring the Elusive "Local": 3 essays on the Political Economy of Aid Allocation
PhD Supervisor and Co-Supervisor: David Sylvan (IR/PS) and Jean-Louis Arcand (Economics)
Expected completion date: June 2024
Swetha's dissertation comprises of 3 essays which connect contemporary debates on foreign aid allocation with themes of aid localization, power, local ownership, and colonial origins of aid. She uses mixed methods approaches and primary data to empirically understand how donor preferences and incentives influence the targetting of aid funding, and its downstream effects on local actors.
Profile
Swetha is a doctoral researcher at The Geneva Graduate Institute (IHEID). Her PhD research on the policy economy of foreign aid allocation is multi-disciplinary and draws on concepts/methods from Political Science, International Development and Economics. The research is heavily rooted in and informed by ground-level development practice. She has also served as a Consultant for international organizations including the ILO and UNU-WIDER. Before the PhD, she worked as a Monitoring and Evaluation professional in Sierra Leone, Lesotho, South Sudan and DRC. She holds a Masters in International Economics and Conflict Management from Johns Hopkins University, SAIS and a Bachelors in Social Sciences from Tata Institute of Social Sciences.
Academic Work experience
Teching:
- 2022 to Present: Geneva Centre for Humanitarian Studies (CERAH)
- 2020 to 2021: MINT Programs
Research:
- Spring 2023: Visiting PhD Fellow, UN University World Institute for Development Economics Research (UNU-WIDER)
- 2021 to 2022: SNSF-funded project ""Apomediated Peace: The Role of Digital Technologies in International Peacebuilding"" at the CCDP"
Research Interests
- International development and humanitarianism
- Aid financing
- Aid localization
- Power and agency of local actors
OTHER WORK EXPERIENCES
- Fall 2023: Research Consultant, UN University World Institute for Development Economics Research (UNU-WIDER)
- 2021 to 2023: External Consultant, RESEARCH Department, ILO Geneva
- 2019 to 2020: Research Officer, Forcier Consulting (based in DRC, Lesotho, South Sudan)
- 2019 TO 2019: Research Associate, Wageningen University (Based in Kono, Sierra Leone)
FELLOWSHIPS, GRANTS AND AWARDS
- 2023: ISA Dissertation Completion Fellowship
- 2023: UACES Dissertation Scholarship
- 2022: PhD Fellow, New Era Workshop, Bridging the Gap
AFILIATIONS
- Global Shaper
- World Economic Forum