The evolution of SOC and Development: Interactions in policy and practice
Project Live
PROJECT TEAM
Dr. Sasha Jesperson
Independent Researcher
Dr Sasha Jesperson has an extensive track record of working with a range of government departments and institutions to deliver technical advice, research and programming on migration, modern slavery, border management and organised crime. This includes working with UK government departments, as well as the European Commission, the Economic Social Research Council and UN University to ensure research is useful for strengthening policymaking and programming.
Most recently Sasha was the Practice Director for Aktis’ Transnational Challenges Practice, leading the technical oversight and thought leadership on Aktis’ projects and methodologies on migration, human trafficking and modern slavery, organised crime and border security. She is also a Deployable Civilian Expert for the Stabilisation Unit focusing on a range of issues related to migration and organised crime.
PROJECT SUMMARY
Serious Organised Crime (SOC) and development have become inherently interrelated. With SOC explicitly referenced in the Sustainable Development Goals, addressing organised crime has now been firmly placed within the mandate of development actors. The role of development has been increasingly recognised in policy circles, with actors such as the World Bank and UNODC reporting on the relationship between the two, and USAID and FCDO acknowledging development responses to SOC in their programming and research, respectively.
However, the actual relationship between SOC and development remains unclear, and frequent turnover within government departments has undermined institutional memory and lesson learning. This research project will unpack the relationship between SOC and development in policy and practice, considering political dimensions that have underpinned the relationship since 2011 and identify a roadmap for future work in this area. Initial research questions inlcude:
Why did the relationship between SOC and Development emerge as a policy agenda?
How has the relationship between the two evolved as a policy agenda in focus regions, and what have been the implications for this as a global agenda (e.g. UN, OECD)?
What explains the evolution of the policy agenda, and what are the underpinning interests of this evolution?
What have been the implications of the changes in policy for the response to SOC and Development?
What are the implications for the future policy agenda on SOC and Development?
Answering these questions, will include:
Policy analysis of the governments (e.g., UK, US, Germany, Norway) focused on SOC through a development lens to track evolution since 2011.
Analysis of policy documents focused on SOC and development to understand their evolution as separate approaches and what impact this has on how they converge.
Interviews with key government officials engaged in the SOC-development policy debate since 2010, to identify government priorities and evolving challenges related to the development/ SOC nexus.
PUBLICATIONS
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Publications from this project will be posted here when available