Director's Office

War and Reconstruction in Ukraine – an Academic Workshop

It is more important than ever that academic research informs and positively impacts policy. To develop academic research and policy solutions for the crisis in Ukraine, HiCN, NEPS, and UNU-WIDER are seeking papers for a two-day workshop in Helsinki, Finland, in early May. A full-day academic workshop (tentatively on 8th May) hosted by UNU-WIDER will […]

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Usefulness and misrepresentation of phone surveys on COVID-19 and food security in Africa

We survey efforts that track food security in Africa using phone surveys during the COVID-19 pandemic. Phone surveys are concentrated in a few countries mostly focusing on a narrow theme. Only a few allow heterogeneous analyses across socioeconomic, spatial, and intertemporal dimensions across countries, leaving important issues inadequately enumerated. We recommend that the scientific community […]

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Women’s Action Committees and Local Services

How can women be better mobilized to participate in consultative processes that would likely improve public services provision? The Women’s Action Committees and Local Services Metaketa round seeks to answer this question by coordinating five research projects in diverse contexts that assess how the act of participation affects women in these settings and how the […]

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Dorian Lötzer

As Communications Manager, Dorian is responsible for the websites and social media presence of ISDC and developing ISDC’s larger communications strategy. Dorian received his Master’s Degree in International Political Economy from the University of Manchester in 2018 and has since been active in non-profit projects, funded by different German federal ministries. His research included reports […]

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Ethnic inequality and forced displacement

How does ethnic inequality shape victimization in violent conflicts? Our case study of the 2010 conflict in Kyrgyzstan tests whether communities with higher ethnic inequalities in education experienced more intense displacement. We find that local inequality in education between Kyrgyzstan’s ethnic majority and its largest minority robustly predicts patterns of forced displacement, controlling for alternative […]

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McGovern-Dole Food for Education and Child Nutrition in Kyrgyzstan: Study on Nutritional and Learning Variables, Phase II – Final Report

This report presents findings from a comprehensive study on the interplay between nutrition and education in Kyrgyzstan, focusing on the impact of the McGovern-Dole Food for Education Program. The study examines the evolution of nutrition status, the influence of nutritional practices on child health and education, and the overall effects of the program. Through a […]

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Social Cohesion, Ethnicity and Well-Being: Results from an Intervention Study in Kyrgyzstan

When looking at important indicators of well-being, there is extensive evidence that levels of life satisfaction differ between ethnic groups, such that minority groups by and large tend to report lower levels of life satisfaction than majority ethnic groups. A growing body of literature has begun investigating the relationship between an individual’s community and their […]

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Damir Esenaliev

Dr Damir Esenaliev is a Senior Researcher at ISDC. His research interests include quantitative microeconomic research related to social cohesion, labor markets, inequality, rural development, and intergenerational mobility. He has published in Journal of Comparative Economics, Economics of Transition, Social Indicators Research, and International Journal of Psychology. In addition, he has a number of working papers and reports published at […]

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Tilman Brück

Professor Tilman Brück is the Founder and Director of ISDC. He is also Professor for Economic Development and Food Security at Humboldt-University of Berlin and Team Leader – Development Economics and Food Security at IGZ near Berlin. Tilman is also the Co-Founder and Co-Director of the „Households in Conflict Network” (HiCN) and the Principal Investigator […]

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Sophie Zschäbitz

Sophie Zschäbitz is the Head of Administration at ISDC. She supervises all administration-related matters at the institute, including especially Finance, Human Resources, Legal and Compliance. Sophie received her Bachelor’s degree in International Business from HTW Dresden and spent exchange semesters in Finland and Slovakia. During and after her studies, she did several internships in the […]

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