Image: Alexander Grey / Unsplash
The Development Research School invites applications to the new PhD course: “Making foreign aid work: Managing tensions between top-down and bottom-up approaches”.
The goal of the course is to build knowledge about the essential and longstanding question why and when development cooperation is successful, and for whom. The course zooms in on donor-recipient relations and the tensions between top-down and bottom-up approaches in the management, delivery and implementation of foreign aid.
The course is divided into two parts. The first is made up of four online seminars and deals with the most important top-down and bottom-up approaches that currently dominate the debate in both the academic and policy-making communities. In the second part of the course all participants will gather for an exciting on-site workshop in Stockholm, which aims to provide hands-on and concrete knowledge why and under what contextual circumstances different top-down and bottom-up approaches to foreign aid are likely to be effective or not across different policy fields, contexts, types of donors as well as aid instruments.
Practical information
The course is free of charge; participants are however responsible for covering their own travel and hotel costs. There are a limited number of stipends to cover hotel accommodation (but not travel costs) during the workshop in May in Stockholm.
Fredrik Söderbaum is leading the course together with a team of lecturers and practitioners.
Application
The course is open to doctoral students from all fields of social sciences and related fields of study. To be eligible for the course, applicants must meet the general eligibility requirements for postgraduate studies. A good knowledge of English is essential.
Please note that priority will be given to doctoral students in the Development Research School. Other applicants will be assessed and accepted on the basis of the relevance of their doctoral project to the course theme. The deadline to apply is 31 January 2025.
For any enquiries regarding the course, please contact Fredrik Söderbaum ()