Fall 2023

"As the pages of the 2023 Annual Report document, this was a banner year for our work at DCID. Our researchers continued to publish cutting-edge research, placing their work in top academic outlets, but also communicating their findings to the broader community through policy briefs, public events, and executive training. We also welcomed one of the most diverse classes of MIDP fellows, who have energized the campus with their expertise and passion for learning. However, as we celebrate these accomplishments, we are paying keen attention to several wicked challenges on the horizon and are preparing DCID to be a leading voice in confronting them." Read the full letter from Director Malesky.

Phyllis Pomerantz, professor emerita and author of "Foreign Aid: Policy and Practice," says now is the time to reexamine foreign aid during an event hosted by the Duke Center for International Development and moderated by Edmund Malesky, director of DCID. Read the recap.

As part of USAID’s Study and Modeling of Management Capacity and System Strengthening Project, Natalia Mirovitskaia and Corinne Krupp, with support from Lisa Moreau and Matthew Bunyi, facilitated a week-long study tour on the management and innovation of higher education for academic administrators from the Lao People's Democratic Republic. Learn about the visit.

Natalia Mirovitskaia and 14 MIDP fellows explored the theme "The Policy Sciences and the Future of Development" during the Policy Sciences Annual Institute hosted by the World Bank. Read about the event.

Kerilyn Schewel facilitated the "Logics of Rural Transformation” workshop" in Uganda, which focused on rural revitalization and community-driven development. It was co-hosted by the Duke Center for International Development, Development Innovations Lab at the University of Chicago and Makerere University. Read about the event.

The Southeast Asia Research Group (SEAREG), a network of scholars in political science and allied disciplines who are working at the forefront of Southeast Asian studies, is funded by the Henry Luce Foundation and now managed by the Duke Center for International Development. DCID will co-host the 2023 Winter Conference with Wake Forest University next month on Duke's campus. The Luce Foundation has awarded DCID $261K for 2024-25 to continue SEAREG activities, including hosting biannual conferences, mentorship for PhD candidates and fellowship support for pre-dissertation research in Southeast Asia. Read the full announcement.

•Video Brief
•Evidence Brief
•Learning Brief

Edmund Malesky served as principal investigator in a study evaluating the impact of management training on the incidence of corruption among Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) in Vietnam’s restaurant industry. The research team found bribery payments could be curbed by implementing broadscale Management and Internal Controls training to increase management's awareness of regulations and compliance within their business. The project was funded by USAID through LASER PULSE.

To better understand the dynamics of political will and its role in anti-corruption efforts, a team of DCID researchers, led by Edmund Malesky and Maureen Lempke, conducted a literature review, evaluation of interventions and in-depth case studies for the USAID Center of Excellence on Democracy, Human Rights, and Governance (the DRG Center) as part of the Learning,
Evaluation, and Research (LER) II Activity.

•About the project
•Summary Brief
•Full report

DCID Director Edmund Malesky co-authored:
 •“Methodological errors in corruption research: Recommendations for future research,” published in Journal of International Business Studies
 •“Facilitating Development: Evidence from a National-Level Experiment on Improving Bureaucratic Performance in Myanmar,” published in the Journal of Politics
 •“Testing the Drivers of Corporate Environmentalism in Vietnam," published in Studies in Comparative International Development

Prof. Malesky also discussed President Biden's historic visit to Vietnam on BBC News.

Lecturing Fellow Maureen Moriarty co-authored “Necessary complexity in the Anthropocene: new approaches in socio-ecological systems thinking, Do No Harm, and fragility integration,” published in Development in Practice.

Senior Fellows Penny Bamber and Karina Fernandez-Stark co-authored "Innovation and competitiveness in the copper-mining GVC: developing local suppliers in Peru,” published in Industrial and Corporate Change.

Professor Emeritus Gary Gereffi authored "Navigating 21st century industrial policy," published in Columbia FDI Perspectives.

Associate Professor Sarah Bermeo co-authored “Strategic donor behaviour and country vulnerability in health aid transitions,” published in BMJ Global Health.

Lecturing Fellow Kerilyn Schewel was a guest on the "What Exactly Is Climate Migration?" episode of the Changing Climate, Changing Migration podcast.

Manoj Mohanan, Creed C. Black Professor, co-authored "Does the market reward quality? Evidence from India," published in International Journal of Health Economics and Management.

Anirudh Krishna, Edgar T. Thompson Distinguished Professor, co-authored "Uneven Gains and Bottom-50 Districts: Intergenerational Educational Mobility in India," published in Economic and Political Weekly.

Assistant Professor Eric Mvukiyehe co-authored “With or without him? Experimental evidence on cash grants and gender-sensitive trainings in Tunisia,” published in the Journal of Development Economics.

Professor Erica Field co-authored "Measuring time use in rural India: Design and validation of a low-cost survey module," published in Journal of Development Economics.

Dayne Hamrick, director of MIDP admissions, presented “Learning Global, Acting Local: Academia’s role in locally led development,” at the Partners of the Americas 2023 What Works Conference.

This fall we welcomed an MIDP cohort with an average of 8 years of work experience and representing 19 countries: Afghanistan, Albania, Cameroon, Colombia, Democratic Republic of Congo (Kinshasa), Ecuador, India, Indonesia, Japan, Mexico, Myanmar, Palestine, Peru, Philippines, Poland, South Korea, Turkey, United States and Venezuela. 

Adebimpe "Bimpe" Femi-Oyewo MIDP ’18 was featured in EduTimes Africa's October 2023 issue. In the article, Bimpe discusses her background, career path and passion for impact-driven work. Since founding Edward Consulting four years ago, her firm has secured more than $12.9m in foreign scholarships for African students' undergraduate and graduate studies abroad. 

Read more alumni updates.

During the North Carolina Global Health Alliance annual conference, Solomon Ayehu MIDP '24 presented his research examining access to oral pre-exposure prophylaxis among black Africans in the UK and African countries.

Coverdell Peace Fellow Kate Fox MIDP '24 received the Suzanne E. Olive Award for Exemplary Leadership in National Equal Employment Opportunity from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

Venezuelan Fulbright Scholar Antonella Di Ciano MIDP '25 served as the Latin America youth representative at the Intersection of Climate, Health and Equity forum during the 78th session of the United Nations General Assembly and World Economic Forum Sustainable Development Meeting.

This semester we welcomed two of our partners for a campus visit - a delegation from Seoul National University Graduate School of Public Administration and our Fulbright partner. We also joined in the celebration of the Government of Kazakhstan's Bolashaq Program's 30th anniversary of international education and exchange. View our congratulatory video.

We're pleased to welcome the following people to DCID:

Sebastian James joins Duke as a professor of the practice of public policy after working as a senior economist at the World Bank, where he advised several countries around the world on the design of tax policy and tax administration with an emphasis on economic growth and fiscal adequacy. He has been a regular guest speaker in DCID’s executive education programs and has a history of collaborating with DCID's Public Finance Group faculty. 

Jack Daly serves as the research manager for DCID as well as the World Food Policy Center (WFPC). He previously worked in research positions at the WFPC, with a focus on food systems and global institutions, and the Duke Global Value Chains Center, examining supply chain and firm dynamics across multiple sectors.

Lucas Falcão is a visiting researcher this semester, with sponsorship from the Coordination for the Improvement of Higher Education Personnel (CAPES/Brazil). Under the guidance of Prof. Marcos Rangel, his research examines the impacts of river seasonality on public health in the Brazilian Amazon. He is a PhD candidate in the Public Administration program at the Getulio Vargas Foundation (FGV/Brazil). 

Huong Vu is a Fulbright Visiting Scholar for the academic year 2023-24 and an associate professor of economics at Vietnam National University. His primary research interests encompass topics such as corruption, firm performance, livelihoods and household welfare.

Ting Zhou is a visiting researcher for the 2023-24 academic year, with sponsorship from the China Scholarship Council. Under the guidance of Prof. Alexander Pfaff, her research examines the causal mechanisms of the forest payment for ecosystem services program on forest regulating services in China. She is a PhD candidate in the Environmental and Resources School of Zhejiang University.