Does Social Protection Encourage Informality?

Our latest podcast episode on cash plus programmes features Keetie Roelen, Senior Research Fellow in Poverty and Social Protection at The Centre for the Study of Global Development at The Open University, and Pietro, a Social Protection Specialist at Development Pathways.

This episode explores what cash-plus programmes are and the evidence around their impact. While promising, these initiatives also encounter challenges around cost, coordination, and context-specific implementation that must be carefully navigated to achieve sustainable, scalable results.

Beyond Cash - Exploring Cash Plus Programmes

This episode features a discussion between regular KB host Liz David-Barrett, and Kevin E. Davis, the Beller Family Professor of Business Law at NYU School of Law. Their conversation centres on the international regulation of bribery and corruption, specifically focusing on the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA), following President Trump's recent suspension of its enforcement. The episode explores the potential implications for U.S. companies, foreign entities, and international anti-corruption efforts.

Read Kevin's recent blog post on this issue here: https://wp.nyu.edu/compliance_enforcement/2025/02/21/implications-of-pausing-fcpa-enforcement/

And his paper on international regulation here: https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=4506000

128. Kevin E. Davis on the FCPA enforcement pause

This month we are honoured to be joined by one of our colleagues from Global Development Studies at the University of Helsinki. Tiina Seppälä came to Global Development Studies by way of International Relations. Her work has looked at global inequalities, poverty, war, and social justice issues among many others. Activism is also an area of interest and Tiina has worked with peace activists in the UK, slum and women’s rights activists in South Asia, as well as asylum seekers in the Finnish context. Tiina gives us insight into her trajectory and how she naturally progressed from one project to another and how funding has had an impact on the directions of her career. During her fieldwork she had some interesting encounters with the dark side of development, or what could be called maldevelopment. Tiina speaks openly and honestly about her own positionality within research and some of the mismatches between the theoretical and the real. The role of unlearning can sometimes be just as important as the role of learning. Tiina gives us insight into the ways in which artistic methods have played a role in how she approaches her research. Our conversation is wide ranging and quite compelling!

Want to learn more about Tiina’s work? https://researchportal.helsinki.fi/en/persons/tiina-sisko-sepp%C3%A4l%C3%A4 

Want to learn more about The Finnish Society for Development Research (FSDR)? https://www.kehitystutkimus.fi/?page_id=326

Tiina Seppälä - What are some of the limitations and possibilities of arts-based research?

This event, co-organised with the Department of International Development at LSE, was a discussion with Professor Naila Kabeer and Professor Ragui Assaad based on their co-authored report 'Women's Access to Market Opportunities in South Asia and the Middle East and North Africa: Barriers, Opportunities and Policy Challenges'. 

Despite this paper being written in 2019, the situation of women's access to market opportunities in MENA and South Asia remains a challenge. Kabeer and Assaad will reflect on their findings and discuss the puzzles and paradoxes of women's employment in these regions, which have the lowest rates of women's labour force participation in the world. The conversation will also explore how to unlock the potential of women in these communities.

Meet our speakers and chair 

Naila Kabeer is Emeritus Professor of Gender and Development in the Department of International Development at LSE. Naila is also a Faculty Associate at LSE’s International Inequalities Institute and on the governing board of the Atlantic Fellowship for Social and Economic Equity. Her most recent projects were supported by ERSC-DIFD Funded Research on 'Poverty Alleviation: Gender and Labour Market dynamics in Bangladesh and West Bengal'. 

Ragui Assaad is the Freeman Chair in International Economic Policy at the Hubert H. Humphrey School of Public Affairs, University of Minnesota. He researches education, labor policy, and labor market analysis in developing countries with a focus on the Middle East and North Africa. His current work focuses on inequality of opportunity in education, labor markets, transitions from school-to-work, employment and unemployment dynamics, family formation, informality, labor market responses to economic shocks, international migration, including the effects of forced migration.

Women and Work in MENA And South Asia: Puzzles, Paradoxes and Policy Challenges

Ever wondered why securing affordable housing remains such a complex puzzle in some parts of the world? One key aspect lies beneath our feet – in land titling. In this crucial episode of the Flywheel Economics Affordable Housing miniseries, we dive deep into one of the thorniest, yet most fundamental, issues preventing widespread access to safe and affordable homes.

Join us as we explore why secure land rights are absolutely foundational to unlocking affordable housing development, especially in emerging markets.

Affordable housing is a global concern. The World Bank estimates that lack of safe and affordable housing is a concern for over 330 million people around the world. From the world’s richest population dissatisfied by housing costs to emerging markets facing lower purchasing power, where we get to live is everyone’s business.

Join Flywheel Economics for our Affordable Housing miniseries as we attempt to make sense of this fascinating and critical puzzle. From AI to financing, we’ll explore solutions that bridge affordability with sustainability, ensuring everyone has access to a safe and secure home.

Special thanks to our guest Andrew Smith (Development Consultant and Land Governance Reform Expert) for his valuable insights.

Our website: @flywheeleconomics.com

Socials: @flywheeleconomics



Losing the Plot: Land Titling and Affordable Housing (Part Six)

What happens when the money shrinks, but the challenges don’t? In this podcast episode, we take a deep dive into the messy, political, and deeply human world of international development, with someone who’s spent years inside it.

Our guest, Peter J. Evans, (probably not the one you’re thinking), is a seasoned adviser on governance, inclusion, and aid strategy. He joins us for a reflective and nuanced conversation about the future of aid in an era of constraint. Drawing on his work with major donors like FCDO and his deep experience in political economy, Peter unpacks the realities behind the rhetoric and asks how we can still make aid matter.

Together, we explore the tensions between foreign policy and development goals, the risks of radical simplification, and why we need to treat context as more than just a slogan. From the legacy of “fat aid” to the fragility of anti-corruption efforts, this episode invites listeners to reconsider how effectiveness is defined and what a more grounded, politically aware model could look like going forward.

If you're a policymaker, donor, practitioner, or simply tired of one-dimensional aid debates, this conversation is for you. Lend your voice by signing a petition to reverse these cuts and push for a smarter, more responsible aid strategy. https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/719301

Special thanks to Peter J. Evans for sharing his insight and candour.

Website: @flywheeleconomics.com
Socials: @flywheeleconomics

Thin Aid, Thick Politics: Rethinking Aid Effectiveness with Peter J. Evans

Flywheel Economics is proud to present this episode on Mafita, a programme that transformed lives by equipping some of Northern Nigeria’s most vulnerable groups with skills, dignity, and opportunity.

At its heart, Mafita was about practical empowerment rooted in context. We heard stories like the young woman with a disability who could finally pursue catering once small adjustments were made to her training space. A boy once scavenging through dustbins who now has access to meaningful opportunities. A child bride who became a skilled seamstress and opened doors for her sisters.

These are not just anecdotes, they’re ripple effects, the flywheel in action. By providing tailored training and respecting cultural realities, Mafita showed how inclusion creates momentum that lifts families and entire communities.

In this episode, Umar Nuhu and Hauwa Umar, reflect on what it takes to design programmes that listen, adapt, and spark positive change without erasing people’s identities.

This isn’t only a story about skills training. It’s about resilience, dignity, and the power of opportunity to set lasting change in motion.

Special thanks to our guests.

Our website: @flywheeleconomics.com

Socials: @flywheeleconomics

A Way Out: Women's Economic Empowerment in Northern Nigeria

Can a nation's economic power be a powerful tool for international development? Or is it primarily a strategy for advancing a country's own interests?

On this episode of the Flywheel Economics Podcast, we’re navigating this complex world with a former UK High Commissioner to Nigeria. He has seen firsthand how foreign policy and economic strategy intersect on the ground.

Join us as we explore the core of economic diplomacy: how it has evolved, the true purpose of foreign aid, and how a nation can balance its own agenda with the development needs of another. This is a conversation about the real-world impact of diplomatic dollars on the global stage.

Special thanks to our guest, Paul Arkwright, former UK High Commissioner to Nigeria.

Sign this petition to reverse the aid cuts in the UK: https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/719301

Our website: @flywheeleconomics.com

Social media: @flywheeleconomics

A Diplomat's Guide to Economic Diplomacy and Development

Why does monitoring in development often feel like an administrative chore instead of a powerful learning tool? The truth is, many aid organisations are stuck in a "compliance culture," treating monitoring and evaluation (M&E) as a bureaucratic exercise that fails to provide the real-time learning and adapting managers need.

In this deep-dive episode of our Value for Money and Aid Effectiveness miniseries, we challenge the status quo with thought leader Daniel Ticehurst. We explore the essential new framework that merges Value for Investment (VfI) with Thoughtful Monitoring (TM) and discuss how this integrated approach could potentially transform M&E systems for real impact.

Special thanks to our guest, Daniel Ticehurst (Monitoring and Evaluation Specialist), for his invaluable insights.

Subscribe to the Flywheel Economics Podcast and share your thoughts with us on social media @flywheeleconomics.

Go deeper with the topics we cover by visiting our website @flywheeleconomics.com.

Beyond Indicators: Designing Monitoring and Evaluation Systems for Real Impact

At Flywheel Economics, we explore economies as ecosystems. The Flywheel Economics podcast is your gateway to a world of innovative thinking and creative problem-solving. Our podcast series examines the intricate relationships within economic ecosystems, highlighting successes, challenges, and lessons learned from experts and trailblazers across various industries. Join us for inspiring stories, expert analysis, provocative discussions and practical wisdom that give unconventional insights for a changing world.

Welcome to the LSE Middle East Centre's podcast feed.

The MEC builds on LSE's long engagement with the Middle East and North Africa and provides a central hub for the wide range of research on the region carried out at LSE.

Follow us and keep up to date with our latest event podcasts and interviews!

This podcast series features in-depth interviews with a wide range of corruption experts, on questions such as:
What have we learned from 20+ years of (anti)corruption research? 
Why and how does power corrupt?
Which theories help to make sense of corruption?
What can we do to manage corruption?
How to recovery stolen assets?

Resource extraction impacts our daily lives and has helped push the climate to the brink, but there are people around the world living and fighting for alternative ways forward. Join hosts Christopher Chagnon and Sophia Hagolani-Albov and their guests on the last Friday of each month for a discussion of the impacts of extractivisms, alternative ways forward, and stories from people living the struggle every day. If you are someone who is interested in how our environment and societies have come to their current state, or learning about different ways we can move forward, this is the podcast for you.

New tracks tagged #international development