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What COVID-19 can tell us about the statePart of Book How States Respond to Crisis
Rachel M. Gisselquist
Non-Resident Senior Research Fellow
Rachel M. Gisselquist is Professor in Governance and Development, and Director of the Governance and Social Development Resource Centre (GSDRC), at the University of Birmingham (UoB), UK.
Prior to joining UoB in September 2024, she was a Senior Research Fellow with UNU-WIDER. She joined UNU-WIDER in 2011 and served as a member of the Senior Management Team from 2019–23.
Professor Gisselquist is a political scientist with two decades of experience in academia, applied policy research, and the leadership of international research projects. Her work focuses on issues of governance and development, inequality, ethnic and identity politics, state capacity, aid and development cooperation, and democratization and autocratization. She has published 30+ articles and chapters, 2 edited books (with 2 co-edited books forthcoming), and over a dozen journal special issues and sections in well-regarded academic outlets such as World Development and the Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies. In 2007–09, she co-authored the first two editions of the Ibrahim Index of African Governance, which has become a standard reference on governance.
As a UNU-WIDER Non-Resident Senior Research Fellow, she is involved in the Strengthening safety nets in post-conflict and humanitarian contexts project.
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Book
How States Respond to CrisisBOOK IN PRODUCTION | SCHEDULED FOR PUBLICATION FEBRUARY 2025We expect the state to matter in times of crisis to better provide for and protect their populations. But how is it, precisely, that the quality of the state matters? This book speaks to...
Working Paper
Legal identity and access to the state in South AfricaLegal identity is an important aspect of securing access to public services, such as education, healthcare, and social protection services, including child support grants. In the South African context, in the post-apartheid period, many poor South...
Working Paper
Statebuilding in fragile countriesSupporting state capacity is a priority for the international community, yet the record of internationally supported statebuilding to date has been mixed at best. A key question for continuing research concerns the factors influencing more versus...
Working Paper
Affirmative action around the world: insights from a new dataset (update)Affirmative action, or positive discrimination favouring the members of marginalized populations, is a key policy approach to addressing group-based inequalities. It is adopted in dozens of countries around the world in the areas of, for instance...
Journal Article
Clientelist politics and development – EditorialPart of Journal Special Issue Clientelist Politics and Development
Journal Special Issue
Clientelist Politics and DevelopmentPolitical clientelism — which reflects strategic, discretionary, and targeted exchange of private goods and services for political support to the incumbent — has characterised distributive politics in the Global South for decades. The conditional...
Working Paper
Inequality and institutional outcomes in Viet NamBetter understanding of inequality, including its relationship to governance and other key outcomes, is relevant both to academic researchers and to policy-makers. Nevertheless, efforts to establish causal relationships empirically remain hampered by...
Blog
Affirmative action policies to increase diversity are successful, but controversial, around the worldIn a landmark judgment in June 2023, the US Supreme Court ruled against the use of race-conscious admissions in colleges and universities. This...
Blog
Taking localisation beyond labels and lip serviceDonors increasingly speak of locally led aid response, but often do not walk the walk. Case in point is the United States Agency for International...
Journal Article
Do the principles of effective development co-operation improve development outcomes?Elaborated in their current form in Busan in 2011, and reiterated in Geneva in 2022, the four Principles of Effective Development Co-operation comprise country ownership, focus on results, inclusive partnerships, and transparency and mutual...
Blog
Local governance in Ghana is more complicated than central versus regionalMeasuring the effectiveness of local government in Ghana is hampered by incomplete records, but despite that there are still visible patterns, write...
Blog
Why the Aid Effectiveness Principles are important for developmentDemonstrating empirically the Aid Effectiveness Principles' global impact on development is a challenge. But according to Rachel M. Gisselquist...
Journal Article
COVID-19 and the stateDuring the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic, it was wealthier countries with stronger institutions that suffered the highest numbers of cases and fatalities. Many weaker countries were instead praised for more effective pandemic response. What...
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