Local Institutions for/in
Development (LID)
This research line focuses on the interaction between
human agency and the evolving institutional environment
(social structure, rules and ideas/culture) which both
enable and constrain people’s livelihood strategies – par-
ticularly among less privileged actors. Our research focus
areas in 2016 are outlined below.
The first focus is an actor-oriented understanding of state
and public service delivery. This research, largely relying
on in-depth qualitative methods, looked at the formation
of public authority and hybrid governance. On a general
level, further theoretical work was conducted to unpack
the notion of hybrid governance, for example, in relation
to the literature on legal pluralism. Most of the work
focuses on fragile states in Sub-Saharan Africa, with par-
ticular attention paid to the Democratic Republic of Congo
(DRC) and additional focus on Somaliland and South
Sudan. Generally, in these countries, research has focused
on how public services are managed in a ‘hybrid’ manner.
This has been studied in the education sector (DRC), the
justice and security sector (DRC), the airport (Somaliland)
and taxation (South Sudan). Related to this research
interest, hybrid governance within mining concessions has
also been studied. This research found its way into both
academic papers and a number of blog posts. It also led
to new research finance: this year, a major research grant
was awarded by the Overseas Development Institute/
Secure Livelihoods Research Consortium, through which
our work on hybrid governance and public services in the
DRC will be extended. This programme will formally start
in 2017, but the preparatory work (including selection of
three postdoc staff) took place in 2016.
The second focus is on the contestation of land and land
access, more specifically, undertaking a number of case
studies on land grabbing, land conflicts and public author-
ity in eastern DRC and Northern Uganda. The latter re-
search is part of an ongoing collaboration with the South,
in the form of a VLIR-UOS TEAM project with the Uni-
versity of Gulu in Uganda (on the theme of post-conflict
reconstruction). In Nicaragua, PhD research is focused on
the problems of land concentration by large cattle ranches
or plantations, and the ensuing loss of access for smaller
peasant farmers. Research has also been conducted on the
gender-sensitive monitoring of land rights.
The third research interest is on natural resources and
climate change research, in which green microfinance,
payments for ecosystem services (both in general and
applied to Nicaragua), and access to natural resources
play an important role. A variety of doctoral projects have
been conducted on this topic (e.g. on green microfinance
in Central America, on REDD+ in the DRC). Research on
Payment for Ecosystem Services continues to be conduct-
ed (one postdoctoral FWO project was completed this
year, but research continues on this issue). A special issue
on Green Microfinance was published in Enterprise Develop-
ment and Microfinance. Central to the outreach to society
under this research topic is the long-standing collabora-
How can education help to improve interethnic relations in Kenya? In
this school in Kibera, teachers shared their insights on this important
topic with Line Kuppens
10 • Annual Report 2016