Governance and Local Development - GLD

About

Governance and Local Development (GLD) is a research program focused on Sub-Saharan Africa and the MENA region.

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The Program on Governance and Local Development aims to explain variation in governance and local development in an effort to promote human welfare globally. It seeks to develop insights into the role of state and non-state actors, to consider the relationship between local level factors (e.g., poverty, gender relations, elite dynamics, ethnic diversity, etc.) and governance, and to provide policy-relevant findings based on scientifically rigorous research.

The program is committed to disseminating findings in the international and domestic communities through academic publications, policy briefs, public presentations, and social media, as well as on-the-ground workshops in cooperation with local partners.

Professor Ellen Lust is the founder and director of GLD since its conception at Yale University in 2013. The program moved to the University of Gothenburg, Sweden, in 2015 and has now grown to include three post-doctoral fellows, a PhD student, a data manager and a program manager as well as a number or research assistants, interns and affiliated scholars.

GLD has developed a tool that allows us to compare governance and development outcomes both sub-nationally and cross-nationally, called the Local Governance Performance Index (LGPI). This tool has so far been implemented Tunisia and Malawi, and in the next few years the LGPI will be used in Tanzania, Kenya, Zambia and other countries providing measures.

GLD research has been supported by The Swedish Research Council, The Swedish Research Council FORMAS, The Moulay Hicham Foundation, The University of Gothenburg, Yale University, The World Bank, The Research Council of Norway, The Chr. Michelsen Institute, and the Carnegie Corporation of New York.

Please turn to GLD’s website (http://gld.gu.se) for more information on our research projects, our team of collaborators, reports, working papers, videos, podcasts, PowerPoint presentations and available data. You also can find information on short-term research grants, open positions (when available) you can apply for to do research, and an opportunity to subscribe to receive updates when new resources are made available. Enjoy! And let us know if you have any questions, suggestions or comments.