Institute of Development Studies

Biography

Naomi is a political sociologist specialising in the politics of poverty and pro-poor public services. Key areas of interest over her 15 years of development research have included work on elite perceptions of poverty and the politics of public service provision, while she has more recently conducted research on informal accountability, crime and insecurity, and the impacts of global economic crisis.

Naomi has extensive experience of successfully managing large multidisciplinary, multi-site, comparative research projects, and her academic training includes anthropology, economics and political science. Her professional background spans the range of development work, from operational grassroots NGO work, to high-level policy advisory work. Before joining IDS in 2008 Naomi was at BRAC; she has lived half her life in Bangladesh, which remains a focus of her work. Now settled in the UK, she has recently branched out into research on poverty in the UK.

 

Selected Projects and Recent Work

• The Social Impacts of Crisis
• Impact of the Economic Crisis on women and children in Zambia

Thematic Expertise

Education; Gender; Governance; Participation; Politics and Power; Poverty; Rights; Social Protection; Conflict and Violence.

Geographic Expertise

Bangladesh.

Selected Publications »»

• Hossain, N. and Green, D. (2011) 'Living on a Spike: How is the 2011 Food Price Crisis Affecting Poor People'
• Hossain, N. and Green, D. (2011) 'Living on a Spike Summary Paper'
• Hossain, N. (2010) 'Rude Accountability: Informal Pressures on Frontline Bureaucrats in Bangladesh', Development and Change 41.5:907-928, Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell
• Hossain, N. and Sengupta, A. (2010) 'Thinking Big, Going Global: The Challenge of BRAC’s Global Expansion', IDS Working Paper 339, Brighton: IDS
• Hossain, N., Fillaili, R., Lubaale, G., Mulumbi.M., Rashid, M. and Tadros, M. (2010) 'The Social Impacts of Crisis: Findings from Community-Level Research in Five Developing Countries'
• Hossain, N. (2010) 'School Exclusion as Social Exclusion: the Practices and Effects of a Conditional Cash Transfer Programme for the Poor in Bangladesh', Journal of Development Studies 46.7, Taylor and Francis
• Hossain, N., Rashid, M. and Zuberi, N. (2009) 'The Food and Financial Crises Five Months Later'
• Hossain, N. (2009) 'School Exclusion as Social Exclusion', Working Paper 148, Manchester: Chronic Poverty Research Centre
• Hossain, N., Eyben, R. et al (2009) 'Accounts of Crisis: Poor People's Experiences of the Food, Fuel and Financial Crises in Five Countries' , Brighton: IDS
• Hossain, N. (2009) 'Voices of the Poor in the Current Crises', IDS In Focus Policy Briefing 7.3, Brighton: IDS
• Hossain, N. (2009) 'Rude Accountability in the Unreformed State: Informal Pressures on Frontline Bureaucrats in Bangladesh', IDS Working Paper 319, Brighton: IDS
• Spink, P.K., Hossain, N. and Best, N.J. (2009) 'Hybrid Public Action', IDS Bulletin 40.6, Brighton: IDS
• Hossain, N. and Sengupta, A. (2009) 'Thinking Big, Going Global: the challenge of BRAC’s Global Expansion (Research Summary)', IDS Research Summary of IDS Working Paper 339, Brighton: IDS
• Hossain, N. with Bishop, K., Chambers, R., Carroll, K., Eyben, R., Jolly, R., Melamed, C and Sabates-Wheeler, R. (2009) 'Towards a New Social Justice Agenda: understanding Political responses to crises', IDS InFocus Policy Briefing 11.5, Brighton: IDS
• Hossain, N. and Tavakoli, H. (2008) 'School Choice in Bangladesh'