Dr Damir Esenaliev joined ISDC as a Senior Researcher in January 2019. He brings topical expertise on peace-building, social cohesion, human development, labor markets, inequality, and rural development, and regional expertise in Central Asian and transition economies. Damir also has extensive experience designing and conducting panel data collection and impact evaluations. He will continue his […]
Analysis, Design, Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning (ADMEL): Designing a Process for Learning from Employment for Stability Programming
Often, development organisations engage in “big push” ex post impact evaluations, where significant amounts of bespoke data are collected at the end of the programme. In this short paper, we argue that such funds can be used better by integrated an on-going learning component into standard ADME.
Jobs Aid Peace: Review of the Theory and Practice of the Impact of Employment Programmes on Peace in Fragile and Conflict-affected Countries
Over $10bn has been spent on programmes that assume that building employment also builds peace. We show that while there are good reasons to think this money is not spent fruitlessly, there remains a structural lack of empirical confirmation of these theories.
The Impact of Job Quality on Wellbeing: Evidence from Kyrgyzstan
The theories that explain relationships between welfare and work do not provide clear insight for developing countries. In this paper, we confirm that hours worked and income are insufficient to explain the relationship between jobs and wellbeing in a developing country.
Impact Evaluation of UNHCR’s Engagement in Humanitarian-Development Cooperation
This project provides quantitative estimates of the impact of humanitarian-development cooperation on refugees and host communities in Ethiopia and Jordan.
Analyzing the Link Between Employment Programs and Social Stability – Phase II
A short- and medium-term impact evaluation of Mercy Corps’ DSH-ARC funded TVET programs for host and displaced communities in Lebanon and Syria, with the dual focus on boosting the employment prospects and improving intergroup perceptions of program beneficiaries.
Rural Youth in the Context of Fragility and Conflict
Conflict disproportionately takes place in countries with large numbers of young people living in rural areas. Yet, this group is seldom the specific focus of analysis in the conflict or rural development literatures. The project outlines what can be learned from prior literature and how it can be applied to rural youth.
Analysis, Design, Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning (ADMEL): Designing a Process for Learning from Employment for Stability Programming
This project develops a new “Learning Component” that compliments traditional Analysis, Design, Monitoring and Evaluation (ADME) in the development and analysis of third-party interventions.
Analyzing the Link Between Employment Programs and Social Stability – Phase I
This seed project brings together members of Mercy Corps field teams with ISDC researchers to generate jointly a research design for an impact evaluation of employment for peacebuilding programs in the Middle East.
Does Opportunity Reduce Instability? A Meta-Analysis of Skills and Employment Interventions in LMICs
The idea that employment can build peace underpins over USD 10bn of development spending in fragile countries. By contrast, the evidence base that employment programming delivers on this promise is scant. In this project, we aim to close some of the knowledge gaps inherent within this delineation.
Employment Interventions and Peace
A study on the role of employment programs for peace in conflict-affected and fragile countries, based on an evaluation of such interventions by the ILO, PBSO, UNDP and the World Bank.
Sami Miaari
Sami Miaari is currently a Lecturer at the Department of Labor Studies in Tel-Aviv University and a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Fellow at the Blavatnik School of Government, Oxford University and an ISDC Affiliate. Dr. Miaari’s research focuses on labor economics, the economic causes and consequences of conflict, including the economic costs of political instability and the […]
Simple statistical tools fail to describe jobs well in developing countries, new research by Damir Esenaliev and Neil Ferguson shows
In November 2018, Social Indicators Research published an original research article by Damir Esenaliev and Neil Ferguson on the relationship between good jobs and personal wellbeing. This study is one of the first conducted in a development context that looks beyond simple measures of job quality suggested by the classical labour supply model. This research […]
ISDC co-hosts the Fourth Annual Life in Kyrgyzstan conference in Bishkek
The Fourth Annual Life in Kyrgyzstan (LiK) conference took place in Bishkek on 17-18 October 2018. The academic event was attended by over 150 participants from 11 countries. The conference was organised by the University of Central Asia’s (UCA) Institute of Public Policy and Administration (IPPA), Leibniz Institute of Vegetable and Ornamental Crops (IGZ), and ISDC – International Security and Development Center. […]
Neil Ferguson
Dr Neil Ferguson is a Senior Researcher at ISDC and a Senior Research Associate at BIGS in Potsdam. He obtained his PhD in Economics in July 2013 from Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh, focusing on theoretical and empirical analysis about the role of multiple aggressors in civil conflicts. His current research interests address a broad cross-section of […]
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 […]
Tilman Brück
Professor Tilman Brück is the Founder and Director of ISDC. He is also Visiting Professor at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) 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 […]