The Department of Political Science at the University of Amsterdam (UvA) is looking for two PhD’s in Political Science: Understanding the Allocation of Climate Finance in the Global South.
The impact of climate change on people’s lives and livelihoods is increasingly hard to ignore and is moreover characterized by trenchant inequities. In response, wealthy nations have pledged to mobilize US$100 billion annually in “climate finance” to help their more vulnerable counterparts. The past decade has seen climate finance double, but we know very little about what happens when these resources reach their intended beneficiaries in the Global South. As such, we lack information about where and how climate finance can have the greatest impact, and what constitutes the greatest areas of unmet need.
ClimateFiGS develops new theory and methods to understand the allocation and spending of climate finance within Global South countries. The project aims to generate new global data on the mobilization of climate finance, while also studying detailed patterns of budget allocation and expenditure in three purposefully selected African countries. The project further adapts methods from social activism to map the power dynamics that drive climate finance decision making within countries and traces the processes that lead certain sectors and districts to be prioritized.
Two PhD students with complementary skills and interests are sought to lead two subprojects that aim to understand allocation decisions in Tanzania, South Africa, and a third African country to be determined in earlier stages of the project. PhD1 will lead a subproject that employs qualitative methods and focuses on decision-making within African governments and civil society. PhD2 will lead a subproject that generates quantitative data through surveys of local government bureaucrats, using an instrument that includes an experimental intervention.
What are you going to do? - Conduct PhD research on subnational climate finance allocation in Africa, using ethnographic or survey methods. The PhDs will be affiliated with the AISSR and will participate in its organized PhD training. The academic work is to result in a doctoral dissertation that will be defended at the Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences at the University of Amsterdam with the goal of obtaining a PhD degree;
- Write academic articles with other team members (including the PI, a postdoctoral research fellow, and other associated researchers at the UvA and other institutions);
- Engage with government officials, practitioners, and civil society organizations in the three African study countries and in the Netherlands;
- Take active part in the research environment at the AISSR, including project group meetings and research seminars;
- teach Bachelor-level (undergraduate) courses, depending upon availability and as is suitable for the PhD schedule;
- Assist with administrative responsibilities related to the project (~10% of the time), such as project management, organization of workshops, or other project events;
- Make Amsterdam (or a location within commuting distance) their primary residence for the duration of the PhD project. The AISSR will assist with finding adequate housing and with applying for visa and residence permits.