This lecture given by Ghazala Mansuri and Vijayendra Rao, Lead Economists at the World Bank will draw on findings from their research published in the book, Localizing Development: Does Participation Work? Their research assessed the effectiveness of donor-led efforts to promote local participatory development.
The lecture will be chaired by Professor Robert Chambers and will be followed by a drinks reception.
About the speakers
Vijayendra Rao is a Lead Economist in the Development Research Group of the World Bank. He integrates his training in economics with theories and methods from anthropology, sociology and political science to study the social, cultural, and political context of extreme poverty in developing countries.
Dr. Rao has published widely in leading journals in Economics, and Development Studies, on topics that include gender inequality, participatory development, village democracy, and inter-disciplinary approaches to public policy. He co-edited Culture and Public Action, and History, Historians and Development Policy, co-authored the 2006 World Development Reporton Equity and Development and, with Ghazala Mansuri, co-authored the Policy Research Report on Localizing Development: Does Participation Work? He serves on the editorial boards of Economic Development and Cultural Change, the Journal of Development Studies, and the World Bank Economic Review, and as a member of the Successful Societies Program at CIFAR and affiliated with research institutes and NGOs in India, the US, and the UK.
Ghazala Mansuri is a lead economist in the Poverty Reduction and Equity and Development Research Groups at the World Bank, and is the co-author of the recent report ‘Localizing Development: Does Participation Work?’ Much of Dr. Mansuri’s work focuses on the impact of inequality and social exclusion and spans four broad areas: rural land, labor and credit markets, the economics of household behavior, the political economy of participatory development and institutional and governance reforms for development. Her research on the political economy of local development includes a number of evaluations of participatory development programs. Dr. Mansuri has published extensively in leading journals in economics and development. She holds a Ph.D. in economics from Boston University.
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