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Dissertations


The DV410 dissertation is a major component of the MSc programme and an important part of the learning and development process involved in postgraduate education.

Research Design and Dissertation in International Development

The DV410 dissertation is a major component of the MSc programme and an important part of the learning and development process involved in postgraduate education.
The objective of DV410  is to provide students with an overview of the resources available to them to research and write a 10,000 dissertation that is topical, original, scholarly, and substantial. DV410 will provide curated dissertation pathways through LSE LIFE and Methods courses, information sessions, ID-specific disciplinary teaching, topical seminars and dissertation worksops in ST. With this in mind, students will be able to design their own training pathway and set their own learning objectives in relation to their specific needs for their dissertation. From the Autumn Term (AT) through to Summer Term (ST), students will discuss and develop their ideas in consultation with their mentor or other members of the ID department staff and have access to a range of learning resources (via DV410 Moodle page) to support and develop their individual projects from within the department and across the LSE. 


Prizewinning dissertations

The archive of prizewinning dissertations showcases the best MSc dissertations from previous years. These offer a useful guide to current students on how to prepare and write a high calibre dissertation.

2021/2022

2022-OW (PDF) The Politics of Political Conditionality: How theEU Is Failing the Western Balkans
Pim W.R.Oudejans
Joint winner of Mayling Birney Prize for Best Overall Performance
MSc Development Management 

2022-GN (PDF) An Empirical Study of the Impact of Kenya’sFree Secondary Education Policy on Women’sEducation
Nora Geiszl
Winner of Prize for Best Dissertation
MSc Development Management 

2022-JC (PDF) Giving with one hand, taking with the other:the contradictory political economy of socialgrants in South Africa
Jack Calland
Prize for Best Overall Performance
MSc Development Studies

2022-GL (PDF) State Versus Market: The Case of Tobacco Consumption in Eastern European and Former Soviet Transition Economies
Letizia Gazzaniga
Joint winner of Prize for Best Overall Performance

MSc Health and International Development

2022-ER (PDF) Reproductive injustice across forced migration trajectories: Evidence from female asylum-seekers fleeing Central America’s Northern Triangle
Emily Rice
Joint winner of Prize for Best Overall Performance
MSc Health and International Development

2022-LICB (PDF) The effects of Conditional Cash Transfer (CCT) on child nutrition following an adverseweather shock: the case of Indonesia
Liliana Itamar Carillo Barba
Winner Prize for Best Dissertation
MSc Health and International Development

2022-SC (PDF) Fiscal Responses to Conditional Debt Relief:the impact of multilateral debt cancellation on taxation patterns
Sara Cucaro 
Joint winner of Prize for Best Dissertation
MSc International Development and Humanitarian Emergencies

2022-RM (PDF) Navigating humanitarian space(s) to provideprotection and assistance to internally displacedpersons: applying the concept of ahumanitarian ‘micro-space’ to the caseof Rukban in Syria
Miranda Russell 
Joint winner of Prize for Best Dissertation
MSc International Development and Humanitarian Emergencies

2020/2021

2021-CC (PDF) International Remittances and the COVID-19 Pandemic: Investigating Resilient Remittance Flows from Italy during 2020
Carla Curreli
Joint winner of Mayling Birney Prize for Best Overall Performance and Winner of Prize for Best Dissertation
MSc Development Management 

2021-NB (PDF) Reluctant respondents: Early settlement by developing countries during WTO disputes
Nicholas Baxtar
Joint winner of Mayling Birney Prize for Best Overall Performance
MSc Development Management (Specialism: Applied Development)

2021-CD (PDF) One Belt, Many Roads? A Comparison of Power Dynamics in Chinese Infrastructure Financing of Kenya and Angola
Conor Dunwoody 
Winner of Prize for Best Dissertation
MSc Development Studies

2021-NN (PDF) Tool for peace or tool for power? Interrogating Turkish ‘water diplomacy’ in the case of Northern Cyprus
Nina Newhouse
Winner of Prize for Best Overall Performance
MSc Development Studies

2021-CW (PDF) Exploring Legal Aid Provision for LGBTIQ+Asylum Seekers in the American Southwest from 2012-2021
Claire Wever
Winner of Prize for Best Dissertation
MSc International Development and Humanitarian Emergencies

2021-BP (PDF) Instrumentalising Threat; An Expansion of Biopolitical Control Over Exiles in Calais During the COVID-19 Pandemic
Bethany Plant
Joint winner of Prize for Best Overall Performance
MSc International Development and Humanitarian Emergencies

2021-HS (PDF) A New “Green Grab”? A Multi-Scalar Analysis of Exclusion in the Lake Turkana Wind Power (LTWP) Project, Kenya
Helen Sticklet
Joint winner of Prize for Best Overall Performance
MSc International Development and Humanitarian Emergencies

2021-GM (PDF) Fuelling policy: The Role of Public Health Policy-Support Tools in Reducing Household Air Pollution as a Risk-Factor for Non-Communicable Diseases in LMICs
Georgina Morris
Winner of Prize for Best Dissertation
MSc Health and International Development 

2021-LC (PDF) How do women garment workers employ practices of everyday resistance to challenge the patriarchal gender order of Sri Lankan society?
Lois Cooper
Joint winner of Prize for Best Overall Performance
MSc Health and International Development 

2019/2020

2020-LK (PDF) Can international remittances mitigate negative effects of economic shocks on education? – The case of Nigeria
Lara Kasperkovitz
Best Overall Performance
Best Dissertation Prize
International Development and Humanitarian Emergengies 

“Fallen through the Cracks” The Network for Childhood Pneumonia and Challenges in Global Health Governance 
Eva Sigel
Best Overall Performance
Health and International Development 

2020-AB (PDF) Fighting the ‘Forgotten’ Disease: LiST-Based Analysis of Pneumonia Prevention Interventions to Reduce Under-Five Mortality in High-Burden Countries
Alexandra Bland
Best Dissertation Prize 
Health and International Development  

2020-TP (PDF) Techno-optimism and misalignment: Investigating national policy discourses on the impact of ICT in educational settings in Sub-Saharan Africa
Tao Platt
Best Overall Performance
Development Studies 

2020-HS (PDF) “We want land, all the rest is humbug”: land inheritance reform and intrahousehold dynamics in India
Holly Scott
Best Dissertation Prize
Development Studies  

2020-PE (PDF) Decent Work for All? Waste Pickers’ Collective Action Frames after Formalisation in Bogotá, Colombia 
Philip Edge
Mayling Birney Prize for Best Overall Performance
Development Management

2020-LC (PDF) Variation in Bilateral Investment Treaties: What Leads to More ‘Flexibility for Development’?
Lindsey Cox
Best Dissertation Prize
Development Management

2018/2019

2019-GR (PDF) Political Economy of Industrial Policy: Analysinglongitudinal and crossnationalvariations in industrial policy in Brazil andArgentina
Grace Reeve
Best Overall Performance
Development Studies 

2019-MM (PDF) The Securitisation of Development Projects: The Indian State’s Response to the Maoist Insurgency
Monica Moses
Best Dissertation Prize
Development Studies 

2019-KM (PDF) At the End of Emergency: An Exploration of Factors Influencing Decision-making Surrounding Medical Humanitarian Exit
Kaitlyn Macneil
Best Overall Performance Prize
Health and International Development

2019-KA (PDF) The Haitian Nutritional Paradox: Driving factors of the Double Burden of Malnutrition
Khandys Agnant
Best Dissertation Prize
Health and International Development  

2019-NL (PDF) Women in the Rwandan Parliament: Exploring Descriptive and Substantive Representation
Nicole London
Best Dissertation Prize
Development Management 

2019-CB (PDF) Post-conflict reintegration: the long-termeffects of abduction and displacement on theAcholi population of northern Uganda
Charlotte Brown
Mayling Birney Prize for Best Overall Performance
Development Management 

2019-NLeo (PDF) Making Fashion Sense: Can InternationalLabour Standards Improve Accountabilityin Globalised Fast Fashion?
Nicole Leo
Mayling Birney Prize for Best Overall Performance
Development Management 

2019-AS (PDF) Who Controls Whom? Evaluating theinvolvement of Development FinanceInstitutions (DFIs) in Build Own-Operate (BOO)Energy Projects in relation to Market Structures& Accountability Chains: The case of theBujagali Hydropower Project (BHPP) in Uganda
Aya Salah Mostafa Ali
Best Dissertation Prize
African Development 

2019-NG (PDF) Addressing barriers to treatment-seekingbehaviour during the Ebola outbreak in SierraLeone: An International Response Perspective
Natasha Glendening India
Best Overall Performance Prize
African Development 

2019-SYJ (PDF) The Traditional Global Care Chain and the Global Refugee Care Chain: A Comparative Analysis
Sana Yasmine Johnson
Best Dissertation Prize
Best Overall Performance Prize
International Development and Humanitarian Emergengies 

2017/2018

2018-JR (PDF) Nudging, Teaching, or Coercing?: A Review of Conditionality Compliance Mechanisms on School Attendance Under Conditional Cash Transfer Programs
Jonathan Rothwell
Best Dissertation Prize
African Development 

2018-LD (PDF) A Feminist Perspective On Burundi's Land Reform
Ladd Serwat
Best Overall Performance
African Development 

2018-KL (PDF) Decentralisation: Road to Development or Bridge to Nowhere? Estimating the Effect of Devolution on Infrastructure Spending in Kenya
Kurtis Lockhart 
Best Dissertation Prize and Mayling Birney Prize for Best Overall Performance
Development Management 

2018-OS (PDF) From Accountability to Quality: Evaluating the Role of the State in Monitoring Low-Cost Private Schools in Uganda and Kenya
Oceane Suquet
Mayling Birney Prize for Best Overall Performance
Development Management 

2018-LN (PDF) Water to War: An Analysis of Drought, Water Scarcity and Social Mobilization in Syria
Lian Najjar
Best Dissertation Prize
International Development and Humanitarian Emergencies

2018-IS (PDF) “As devastating as any war”?: Discursive trends and policy-making in aid to Central America’s Northern Triangle
Isabella Shraiman 
Best Overall Performance 
International Development and Humanitarian Emergencies

2016/17

2017-AR (PDF) Humanitarian Reform and the Localisation Agenda:Insights from Social Movement and Organisational Theory
Alice Robinson
Winner of the Prize for Best Overall Performance
International Development and Humanitarian Emergencies (IDHE)

2017-ACY (PDF) The Hidden Costs of a SuccessfulDevelopmental State:Prosperity and Paucity in Singapore
Agnes Chew Yunquian
Winner of the Prize for Best Overall Performance
Development Managament 

2017-HK (PDF) Premature Deindustrialization and Stalled Development, the Fate of Countries Failing Structural Transformation?
Helen Kirsch
Winner of the Best Dissertation in Programme
Development Studies

2017-HZ (PDF) ‘Bare Sexuality’ and its Effects onUnderstanding and Responding to IntimatePartner Sexual Violence in Goma, DemocraticRepublic of the Congo (DRC)
Heather Zimmerman
Winner of the Best Dissertation in Programme
International Development and Humanitarian Emergencies (IDHE)

2017-KT (PDF) Is Good Governance a Magic Bullet?Examining Good Governance Programmes in Myanmar
Khine Thu
Winner of the Best Dissertation in Programme
Development Managament 

2017-NL (PDF) Persistent Patronage? The DownstreamElectoral Effects of Administrative Unit Creationin Uganda
Nicholas Lyon 
Winner of the Best Dissertation in Programme
African Development 

2015/16

2016-MV (PDF) Contract farming under competition: exploring the drivers of side selling among sugarcane farmers in Mumias            
Milou Vanmulken 
Winner of the Prize for Best Dissertation                                                     
Development Management               

2016-JS (PDF) Resource Wealth and Democracy: Challenging the  Assumptions of the Redistributive Model             
Janosz Schäfer 
Winner of the Prize for Best Overall Performance
Development Studies               

2016-LK  (PDF) Shiny Happy People: A study of the effects income relative to a reference group exerts on life satisfaction            
Lajos Kossuth
Winner of the Prize for Best Overall Performance                                     Development Studies 

2014/15


2015-MP (PDF) "Corruption by design" and the management of infrastructure in Brazil: Reflections on the Programa de Aceleração ao Crescimento - PAC.            
Maria da Graça Ferraz de Almeida Prado                                                         
Winner of the Prize for Excellent Dissertation                                         
Development Managment                                                                                 

2015-IE (PDF) Breaking Out Of the Middle-Income Trap: Assessing the Role of Structural Transformation.                                                                              
Ipek Ergin                                                                                                  
Winner of the Prize for Best Dissertation
Development Studies

2015-AML (PDF) Labour Migration, Social Movements and Regional Integration: A Comparative Study of the Role of Labour Movements in the Social Transformation of the Economic Community of West African States and the Southern African Development Community.            
Anne Marie Engtoft Larsen                                                                               
Winner of the Prize for Excellent Dissertation                                  
Development Management

2015-MM (PDF) Who Bears the Burden of Bribery? Evidence from Public Service Delivery in Kenya                    
Michael Mbate                                                                                                  
Winner of the Prize for Best Dissertation and Best Overall Performance
Development Management

2015-KK (PDF) Export Processing Zones as Productive Policy: Enclave Promotion or Developmental Asset? The Case of Ghana.
Kilian Koffi
Winner of the Prize for Best Dissertation
African Development

2015-GM (PDF) Forgive and Forget? Reconciliation and Memory in Post-Biafra Nigeria.
Gemma Mehmed
Winner of the Prize for Best Dissertation
International Development and Humanitarian Emergencies (IDHE)

2015-AS (PDF) From Sinners to Saviours: How Non-State Armed Groups use service delivery to achieve domestic legitimacy.
Anthony Sequeira
Winner of the Prize for Excellent Dissertation and Best Overall Performance
International Development and Humanitarian Emergencies (IDHE)

2013/14

2014-NS (PDF) Anti-Corruption Agencies: Why Do Some Succeed and Most Fail? A Quantitative Political Settlement Analysis.
Nicolai Schulz
Winner of the Prize for Excellent Dissertation
Development Studies

2014-MP (PDF) International Capital Flows and Sudden Stops: a global or a domestic issue?
Momchil Petkov
Winner of the Prize for Excellent Dissertation
Development Studies

2014-TC (PDF) Democracy to Decline: do democratic changes jeopardize economic growth?
Thomas Coleman
Winner of the Prize for Excellent Dissertation
Development Management

2014-AK (PDF) Intercultural Bilingual Education: the role of participation in improving the quality of education among indigenous communities in Chiapas, Mexico.
Anni Kasari
Excellent Dissertation and Best Overall Performance
Development Management

2014-EL (PDF) Treaty Shopping in International Investment Arbitration: how often has it occurred and how has it been perceived by tribunals?
Eunjung Lee
Joint Winner of the Prize for Best Dissertation
Development Management

2012/13

2013-SB (PDF) Refining Oil - A Way Out of the Resource Curse?
Simon Baur
Winner of the Prize for Excellent Dissertation
Development Management

2013-NI (PDF) The Rise of ‘Murky Protectionism’: Changing Patterns of Trade-Related Industrial Policies in Developing Countries: A case study of Indonesia.
Nicholas Intscher
Joint Winner of the Prize for Best Dissertation and Best Overall Performance
Development Studies

2013-JF (PDF) Why Settle for Less? An Analysis of Settlement in WTO Disputes.
Jillian Feirson
Joint Winner of the Prize for Best Dissertation
Development Studies

2013-LH (PDF) Corporate Social Responsibility in Mining: The effects of external pressures and corporate leadership.
Leah Henderson
Joint Winner of the Prize for Best Dissertation
Development Studies

2013-BM (PDF) Estimating incumbency advantages in African politics: Regression discontinuity evidence from Zambian parliamentary and local government elections.
Bobbie Macdonald
Excellent Dissertation and Best Overall Performance
Development Studies

2011/12

WP145 (PDF) Is History Repeating Itself? A Critical Discourse Analysis of the Representation of Women in Climate Change Campaigns.
Catherine Flanagan
Joint Winner of the Prize for Excellent Dissertation
Development Studies

WP144 (PDF) Disentangling the fall of a 'Dominant-Hegemonic Party Rule'. The case of Paraguay and its transition to a competitive electoral democracy.
Dominica Zavala Zubizarreta
Joint Winner of the Prize for Excellent Dissertation
Development Management

WP143 (PDF) Enabling Productive Entrepreneurship in Developing Countries: Critical issues in policy design.
Noor Iqbal
Joint Winner of the Prize for Excellent Dissertation
Development Studies

WP142 (PDF) Beyond 'fear of death': Strategies of coping with violence and insecurity - A case study of villages in Afghanistan.
Angela Jorns
Joint Winner of the Prize for Best Dissertation
Development Studies

WP141 (PDF) What accounts for opposition party strength? Exploring party-society linkages in Zambia and Ghana.
Anna Katharina Wolkenhauer
Joint Winner, Best Overall Performance
Development Studies

WP140 (PDF) Between Fear and Compassion: How Refugee Concerns Shape Responses to Humanitarian Emergencies - The case of Germany and Kosovo.
Sebastian Sahla
Joint Winner, Best Overall Performance
Development Management

WP139 (PDF) Worlds Apart? Health-seeking behaviour and strategic healthcare planning in Sierra Leone.
Thea Tomison
Joint Winner of the Prize for Excellent Dissertation
Development Studies

WP138 (PDF) War by Other Means? An Analysis of the Contested Terrain of Transitional Justice Under the 'Victor's Peace' in Sri Lanka.
Richard Gowing
Best Overall Performance and Best Dissertation
International Development and Humanitarian Emergencies (IDHE)

WP137 (PDF) Social Welfare Policy - a Panacea for Peace? A Political Economy Analysis of the Role of Social Welfare Policy in Nepal's Conflict and Peace-building Process.
Annie Julia Raavad
Joint Winner, Best Overall Performance and Excellent Dissertation Development Studies

WP136 (PDF) Women and the Soft Sell: The Importance of Gender in Health Product Purchasing Decisions.
Adam Alagiah
Joint Winner, Best Overall Performance
Development Management

WP135 (PDF) Human vs. State Security: How can Security Sector Reforms contribute to State-Building? The case of the Afghan Police Reform.
Florian Weigand
Joint Winner of the Prize for Excellent Dissertation
Development Management

WP134 (PDF) Evaluating the Impact of Decentralisation on Educational Outcomes: The Peruvian Case.
Siegrid Holler-Neyra
Winner of the Prize for Best Dissertation
Development Management

WP133 (PDF) Democracy and Public Good Provision: A Study of Spending Patterns in Health and Rural Development in Selected Indian States.
Sreelakshmi Ramachandran
Joint Winner of the Prize for Excellent Dissertation
Development Management

WP132 (PDF) Intellectual Property Rights and Technology Transfer to Developing Countries: a Reassessment of the Current Debate
Marco Valenza
Joint Winner of the Prize for Excellent Dissertation
Development Studies

WP131 (PDF) Traditional or Transformational Development? A critical assessment of the potential contribution of resilience to water services in post-conflict Sub-Saharan Africa.
Christopher Martin
Winner of the Prize for Excellent Dissertation
International Development and Humanitarian Emergencies (IDHE)

2010/11

WP128 (PDF) The demographic dividend in India: Gift or curse? A State level analysis on differeing age structure and its implications for India's economic growth prospects.
Vasundhra Thakurd
Joint Winner of the Prize for Excellent Dissertation
Development Management

WP127 (PDF) When Passion Dries Out, Reason Takes Control: A Temporal Study of Rebels' Motivation in Fighting Civil Wars.
Thomas Tranekaer
Joint Winner of the Prize for Excellent Dissertation

Development Management

WP126 (PDF) Micro-credit - More Lifebuoy than Ladder? Understanding the role of micro-credit in coping with risk in the context of the Andhra Pradesh crisis.
Anita Kumar
Best Overall Performance and Best Dissertation
Development Management

WP124 (PDF) Welfare Policies in Latin America: the transformation of workers into poor people.
Anna Popova
Winner of the Prize for Excellent Dissertation
Development Studies

WP123 (PDF) How Wide a Net? Targeting Volume and Composition in Capital Inflow Controls.
Lucas Issacharoff
Best Overall Performance and Excellent Dissertation
Development Studies

2009/10

WP117 (PDF) Shadow Education: Quantitative and Qualitative analysis of the impact of the educational reform (implementation of centralized standardised testing).
Nataliya Borodchuk
Best Overall Performance and Excellent Dissertation
Development Management

WP115 (PDF) Can School Decentralization Improve Learning? Autonomy, participation and student achievement in rural Pakistan.
Anila Channa
Joint Winner of the Prize for Excellent Dissertation
Development Management

WP114 (PDF) Good Estimation or Good Luck? Growth Accelerations revisited.
Guo Xu
Best Overall Performance and Best Dissertation
Development Studies

WP113 (PDF) Furthering Financial Literacy: Experimental evidence from a financial literacy program for Microfinance Clients in Bhopal, India.
Anna Custers
Winner of the Prize for Excellent Dissertation
Development Studies

WP112 (PDF) Consumption, Development and the Private Sector: A critical analysis of base of the pyramid (BoP) ventures.
David Jackman
Winner of the Prize for Best Disseration
Development Management

2008/09

WP106 (PDF) Reading Tea Leaves: The Impacy of Mainstreaming Fair Trade.
Lindsey Bornhofft Moore
Joint Winner of the Prize for Excellent Dissertation
Development Studies

WP104 (PDF) Institutions Collide: A Study of "Caste-Based" Collective Criminality and Female Infanticide in India, 1789-1871.
Maria Brun
Joint Winner of the Prize for Excellent Dissertation

Development Studies

WP102 (PDF) Democratic Pragmatism or Green Radicalism? A critical review of the relationship between Free, Prior and Informed Consent and Policymaking for Mining.
Abbi Buxton
Joint Winner of the Prize for Excellent Dissertation
Development Management

WP100 (PDF) Market-Led Agrarian Reform: A Beneficiary perspective of Cédula da Terra.
Veronika Penciakova
Joint Winner of the Prize for Best Overall Performance
Development Studies

2007/08

WP98 (PDF) No Business like Slum Business? The Political Economy of the Continued Existence of Slums: A case study of Nairobi.
Florence Dafe
Joint Winner of the Prize for Best Dissertation
Development Studies

WP97 (PDF) Power and Choice in International Trade: How power imbalances constrain the South's choices on free trade agreements, with a case study of Uruguay.
Lily Ryan-Collins
Joint Winner of the Prize for Best Overall Dissertation
Development Management

WP96 (PDF) Health Worker Motivation and the Role of Performance Based Finance Systems Africa: A Qualitative Study on Health Worker Motivation and the Rwandan Performance Based finance initiative in District Hospitals.
Friederike Paul
Joint Winner of the Prize for Best Overall Dissertation

Development Management

WP95 (PDF) Crisis in the Countryside: Farmer Suicides and the Political Economy of Agrarian Distress in India.
Bala Posani
Winner of the Prize for Best Overall Performance
Development Management

WP94 (PDF) From Rebels to Politicians. Explaining Rebel-to Party Transformations after Civil War: The case of Nepal.
Dominik Klapdor
Winner of the Prize for Excellent Dissertation
Development Management

WP92 (PDF) Guarding the State or Protecting the Economy? The Economic factors of Pakistan's Military coups.
Amina Ibrahim
Winner of the Prize for Best Dissertation
Development Studies

WP91 (PDF) Man is the remedy of man: Constructions of Masculinity and Health-Related Behaviours among Young men in Dakar, Senegal.
Sarah Helen Mathewson
Winner of the Prize for Best Overall Performance
Development Studies