Research and Teaching

Associate Professor in Economics of Wellbeing at the Governance and Inclusive Development research programme (GID) of the AISSR.

I am a development economist with over 25 years of research experience in international development studies, mainly in Sub-Saharan Africa (Ghana, Burkina Faso, Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, Malawi, Côte d'Ivoire) and Sri Lanka. My PhD was on the Characterization of Poverty in Rural Uganda.

Currently, I am responsible for leading the following research:

1. Building Inclusive Business Models. Enhancing Women’s Food Entrepreneurship in city slums of Kisumu, Kenya and Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso (2015-2019), which is an interdisciplinary research project in collaboration with the natural sciences (FNWI) at UvA and research partners in Burkina Faso and Kenya, as well as policymakers, CBOs and private sector partners from the Netherlands and Africa.
2. The Vicious Circle between Poverty and Ill-Health in Ghana and Kenya (2015-2017), which is a multidisciplinary research project in collaboration with EADI, research partners and NGOs/CBOs in Ghana and Kenya.
3. Social Exclusion of Vulnerable Youth, for SOS Children's Villages in six countries (2016-2018): Côte d'Ivoire, Kenya, Malawi, Indonesia, Guatemala and the Netherlands.
4. Her Choice, impact assessment component on child marriages community level sensitization programmes, for THP, ICDI, and Kinderpostzegels (2015-2020) - led by Dr Esther Miedema & Dr Winny Koster (UvA).

As part of my international research projects, I collaborate a lot with local governors, ministries, NGOs, CSOs and other stakeholders on the ground. Besides these applied projects, I am deeply engageded in pushing the scientific and public debates on inclusive development and rethinking the economy from a broader wellbeing perspective. I have elaborated upon the basic premises of both in several international peer reviewed publications, special issues (EJDR on 'Inclusive Development', 2015; COSUST on 'Inclusive and Sustainable Development', 2017; COSUST on 'Inclusive Business', upcoming) and two recent books (The Wellbeing of Women in Entrepreneurship: A Global Perspective (Routledge, 2019) and Introduction to Gender and Wellbeing in Microeconomics (Routledge 2017) and provide guest lectures on this topic to a varied audience of scholars, NGOs, public policymakers and politicians. I am currently working on a new book on  The Economics of Wellbeing.

Project Leader

• Breaking the Vicious Circle between Poverty and Ill-Health: Ghana and Kenya – 2-years NWO-WOTRO funded project (Euro 300.000,=), 2015-2017;
• Women Food Entrepreneurship in Ouagadougou and Kisumu: Building inclusive business models - 4 years NWO-WOTRO funded project, including 3 PhDs (Euro 600.000,=), 2015-2019.
• Social Exclusion of Vulnerable Youth in 6 countries - 2 years SOS Chidlren's Villages funded project, 2015-2017.
• Centraal Bureau voor Statistiek - Measuring the Platform Economy, 2018-present

Research Project Collaborations

• PADev (Prof Ton Dietz). Participatory evaluation of development, design and fieldtesting of research methodology in Ghana and Burkina Faso (www.padev.nl), 2012-2014
• Reincorpfish Project (Dr Maarten Bavinck). Managing the Wellbeing Research component including 1 PhD, 2013-ongoing;
• Her Choice (Dr Esther Miedema). Managing the quantitative components of the fieldresearch in Africa and South Asia, including baseline design, monitoring and evaluation, 2015-2020

Other functions

• Chair of the Board The Broker - 2018-present
• Scientific Board Member, African Studies Centre, Leiden University - 2013-2018
• Research Fellow, African Studies Centre, Leiden University - 2012- present
• Visiting Lecturer, UNESCO-IHE, Delft University - 2014-2018 
• Trust Person PhDs at AISSR - 2017- present
• NWO DOVIDI and VENI Selection Committees - 2017, 2018, 2019
• NWO ARF Selection Committees - 2015, 2016, 2017
• External Examinar Board of Examinations, Cardiff University (UK), 2012-2014

Keynotes 2018-2019

• Three presentations at Women Food Entrepreneurship Workshop, 12-15 February 2019, Kisumu, Kenya
• Keynote on ‘Social Exclusion of Vulnerable Youth in Kenya, Malawi and Côte d’Ivoire’, 18 January 2019, ANCR Careleaving Conference, University of Johannesburg, South Africa
• Invited presentation on ‘Waithood among Young Careleavers in Kenya, Malawi and Côte d’Ivoire’, 15 January 2019, ANCR Careleaving Workshop, Pretoria, South Africa
• Keynote on ‘Economic Justice’ at AISSR Annual Harvest Day, 22 November 2018, University of Amsterdam
• Invited presentation on ‘Exploring and addressing the exclusion of “invisible” youth: Applying a relational framework to SDG 10.2’, CROP Conference, 11 & 12 October 2018, The New School & UNDP, New York
• Invited presentation on ‘Key Findings of Research on Social Protection and Inclusive Growth and Development in Kenya and Ghana’, 21 November 2018, INCLUDE Knowledge Platform Conference, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, The Hague

International Peer Reviewed Publications

ARTICLES:

• dos Santos, R., Gupta, J., Pouw, N.R.M. & Schwartz, K. (2019). Public water supply and sanitation policies and inclusive development of the urban poor in Brazil. Water Policy.
• Jonkman, T. Jansen, B., Kalbitz, K. & Pouw, N.R.M. (2018). Soil nutrient content in relation to women's agricultural knowledge in the urban gardens of Kisumu, Kenya", to Agronomy for Sustainable Development, Agronomy for Sustainable Development
• Pouw, N., Rohregger, B., Schüring, E., Alatinga, K., Kinuthia, B., & Bender, K. (2018). Social Protection in Ghana and Kenya through an Inclusive Development Lens: complex effects and risks. IZNE Working Paper Series.
• Rohregger, B., Bender, K., Kinuthia, B., Schüring, E., Ikua, G., & Pouw, N.R.M. (2018). The politics of implementation or why institutional interaction matters: The role of traditional authorities in delivering pro-poor social policies in Kenya. IZNE Working Paper Series.
• Pouw, N.R.M. and J. Gupta (2017) ‘Editorial: Sustainability Sciences’ Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability (COSUST), Special Issue on ‘Inclusive Development’, April 2017
• Pouw, N.R.M. and J. Gupta (2017) ‘Inclusive Development: A Multi-Disciplinary Approach’, COSUST, February 2017
• Koralagama, D. Gupta, J. and N.R.M. Pouw (2017) ‘Inclusive Development from a Gender Perspective in Small-scale Fisheries in Sri Lanka’, COSUST, January 2017. [5-year IF: 4.766]
• Gupta, J. and N.R.M. Pouw (2017) ‘Towards a Trans-Disciplinary Conceptualization of Inclusive Development’, COSUST, April 2017.
• Alda Vidal, C., M.Z. Zwarteveen, M. Rusca, N.R.M. Pouw and K. Schwartz (2017) Occupational genders and gendered occupations: The case of water provisioning in Maputo, Mozambique’, Gender, Place and Culture, accepted March 2017.
• Pouw, N.R.M. and K. Janvier (2017) ‘Participatory Assessment of development in rural Burkina Faso. A new methodology for resolving old pains’, RCEjournal (Burkina Faso), February 2017.
• McGregor, J.A. and N.R.M. Pouw (2016) ‘Towards an Economics of Wellbeing’, Cambridge Journal of Economics, accepted 22 April 2016 
• Pouw, N.R.M. et al. (2016) ‘Participatory Assessment of Development: Lessons learned from a new evaluation methodology in Ghana and Burkina Faso’, American Journal of Evaluation, (on-line 12 April 2016).

• Pouw, N.R.M., Dietz, A.J., Belemvire, A., de Groot, D., Millar, D., Obeng, F., Rijneveld, W., van der Geest, K., Vlaminck, Z. and F. Zaal (2016) Participatory Assessment of Development: lessons learned from a new evaluation methodology in Ghana and Burkina Faso. American Journal of Evaluation:http://aje.sagepub.com/content/early/2016/04/06/1098214016641210.full.pdf+html http://aje.sagepub.com/content/early/2016
• /04/06/1098214016641210.full.pdf+html
• Pouw, N.R.M. (2015) Guest Editor of Special Issue on ‘Strategic Governance and Inclusive Development’, European Journal of Development Research, 17 August 2015.
• Pouw, N.R.M. and G.A. de Bruijne (2015) Editorial. European Journal of Development Research, 17 August 2015
•  Gupta, J., N.R.M. Pouw and M. Ros-Tonen (2015) Towards an Elaborated Theory of Inclusive Development, European Journal of Development Research, 17 August 2015.
• Pouw, N. R. M. and B. Gilmore (2015) ‘Dietary Wellbeing in Mumbai Slums’, European Journal of Development Research (12 February 2015; doi:10.1057/ejdr.2014.69)
• Pouw, N. R. M. and A. J. McGregor (2014) ‘An Economics of Wellbeing: What would economics look like if it were focused on human wellbeing?’ IDS Working Paper Series 436, Sussex University: IDS.
• Thorpe, A. and N. R. M. Pouw (2014) ‘Fishing not Everybody’s Business. A Gender analysis of fishing livelihoods in Sierra Leone’, Feminist Economics, 20(3): 53-77. http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/13545701.2014.895403
• Pouw, N. R. M. and A. L. Noack (2014) ‘A blind spot in food and nutrition security: Where culture and social change shape the local food plate’, Journal of Agriculture and Human Value, 32: 169-182 (DOI 10.1007/s10460-014-9538-y).http://download.springer.com/static/pdf/931/art%253A10.1007%252Fs10460-014-9538-y.pdf
• Dietz, T., R. Bymolt, A. Bélemvire, K. van der Geest, D. de Groot, D. Millar, F. Obeng, N. Pouw, W. Rijneveld & F. Zaal (2013). PADev Guidebook. Participatory Assessment of Development, version 1.1. University of Amsterdam: AISSR.http://www.padev.nl/other_output/PADev_guidebook_2013.pdf
• Pouw, N. R. M. & C. T. M. Elbers (2012) ‘Modeling Sequencing Patterns in Asset Acquisition by Rural Smallholder Farmers in Uganda’, Journal of International Development Studies, 48(9): 1360-1374.
• Pouw, N.R.M. (2011) ‘When Growth is Empty. Toward more inclusive economics’, The Broker, Issue 25: 4-8.

BOOKS & CHAPTERS:

• Lepeley, M.T., N. Beutell, K. Kuschell, N.R.M. Pouw &  (2019). The Wellbeing of Women in Entrepreneurship: A Global Perspective, New York: Routledge [edited book]
• Likoko, E., Pouw, N.R.M., Odame, H.S. & Okeyo-Owuor, J.B. (2019). Rethinking Women in Survival Entrepreneurship and Wellbeing in Kenya. In Lepeley et al. (eds) The Wellbeing of Women in Entrepreneurship: A Global Perspective, New York: Routledge, Chapter 24.
• Pouw, N.R.M. (2017) Introduction to Gender and Wellbeing, New York/London: Routledge [Monograph]
• Altaf, A. and N.R.M. Pouw (2016) Chapter 2: Defining, targeting, and reaching the very poor in Benin, in D. Hulme (2016) Reaching the Ultra-Poor, London: Practical Action Publishing
• Ros-Tonen, M., N.R.M. Pouw and M. Bavinck (2015) Governing beyond Cities. The Urban-Rural Interface. In J. Gupta, K. Pfeffer, H. Verrest, and M. Ros-Tonen (eds.) Geographies of Urban Governance, Chapter 5, Springer International Publishers.
• Pouw, N.R.M. and I.S.A. Baud (eds.) (2012) Local Governance and Poverty in Developing Nations, New York: Routledge.
• Pouw, N. R. M. & I. S. A. Baud (2011) ‘Introduction’, Chapter 1 in N.R.M. Pouw & I. S. A. Baud (eds.) Local Governance and Poverty in Developing Nations, New York: Routledge.
• Pouw, N. R. M. & B. Gilmore (2011) ‘Wellbeing in Theory and in Practice’, Chapter 2 in N. R. M. Pouw and I.S.A. Baud (eds.) Local Governance and Poverty in Developing Nations, New York:Routledge.
• Pouw, N.R.M. (2012) ‘Asset Accumulation among Smallholder Farmers in Uganda’, Chapter 4 in N.R.M. Pouw and I.S.A. Baud (eds.) Local Governance and Poverty in Developing Nations, New York: Routledge.

POPULAR SCIENTIFIC:

• Pouw, N.R.M. (2016) ‘Wellbeing economics: guiding inclusive development beyond obsolete thinking’, The Broker, 16 November 2016. http://www.thebrokeronline.eu/Blogs/Inclusive-Economy-Africa/Wellbeing-economics-guiding-inclusive-development-beyond-obsolete-thinking
• Pouw, N.R.M. (2016) Participatory Assessment of Development’,  SAGE Methods, April 11 2016.
• Pouw, N.R.M. and A. Altaf (2015) 'Inclusive Development the New Buzzowrd?'INCLUDE Knowledge Platform, 30 November 2015: http://includeplatform.net/inclusive-development-the-new-buzzword/
• Pouw, N.R.M. and A. Altaf (2015) 'Inclusieve Ontwikkeling het nieuwe Buzzword?', ViceVersa, 19 November 2015: http://www.viceversaonline.nl/2015/11/inclusieve-ontwikkeling-het-nieuwe-buzzword/
• Pouw, N.R.M. and M. Mendez-Beck (2015) 'Special Issue EJDR on Inclusive Development', INCLUDE Knowledge Platform, 4 November 2015: http://includeplatform.net/special-issue-ejdr-inclusive-development/
• Pouw, N.R.M. and J. Gupta (2015) 'Inclusive Development in Search of Political Will', INCLUDE Knowledge Platform, 10 March 2015: http://includeplatform.net/contribution/inclusive-development-search-political-will/
• Pouw, N.R.M. (2013) 'Shifting Gears', The Broker, 5 July 2013: http://www.thebrokeronline.eu/Blogs/Spurring-economic-transition/Shifting-gears
• Pouw, N.R.M. (2011) 'Inclusieve Visie op Ontwikkeling', The Broker, 23 November 2011: http://www.thebrokeronline.eu/Blogs/Een-nieuw-kennisbeleid/Inclusieve-visie-op-ontwikkeling
• Pouw, N.R.M. (2011) 'The Gist of the Matter is in the Interconnections', The Broker, 15 September 2011: http://www.thebrokeronline.eu/Blogs/Bellagio-Initiative/The-gist-of-the-matter-is-in-the-interconnections
• Pouw, N.R.M. (2011) 'When Growth is Empty', The Broker, 10 June 2011: http://www.thebrokeronline.eu/Articles/When-growth-is-empty

RESEARCH REPORTS:

• Heerschap, N., Pouw, N.R.M. & Atmeh, C. (2018). Measuring Online Platforms. The Hague: Centraal Bureau voor de Statistiek (CBS).
• Koster, W., Miedema, E., Sotirova, A., Pouw, N.R.M. & Meyer, P. (2019) Her Choice Midline Evaluation Synthesis Report. University of Amsterdam: AISSR & Her Choice.

POLIC BRIEFS:

• Pouw, N.R.M. & team (2018) Policy Brief #1 Kisumu Food and Nutrition Security
• Pouw, N.R.M. & team (2018) Policy Brief #2 Food and Nutrition Survey in Nyalenda and Kisumu Informal Settlements 

• Pouw, N.R.M. & team (2019) Policy Brief #3 Female farmer associations as adaptation strategies to climate variability in Ouagadougou’s peri-urban agriculture

INTERVIEWS/You Tube:

• Pouw, N.R.M. & team (2019) Video on Agrofood Broker of the Year Contest in Women Food Entrepreneurship project: https://knowledge4food.net/congratulations-to-zuhura-abdallah/
• Nicky Pouw on Governance and Societal Notions of Equality and Inequality, AISSR Harvest Day 2017: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tpXIK7Sr3f0 
• Nicky Pouw Presents the Work of Amartya Sen (2016) AISSR, UvA: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aXR1pIVJKCo
• Evidence Based Research on Social Protection in Ghana and Kenya (2016): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aDB4I30sklE
• MeJudice (2016) '' Over Welvaart en Welzijn", 18 January 2016: http://www.mejudice.nl/video/detail/nicky-pouw-over-welvaart-en-welzijn
• INCLUDE (2015) "Women Entrepreneurship in Development", November 2015: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e0Jgzb38lyY

Rethinking the Economy from Ground Up

07/02/2019 by Christiane Kliemann

By Nicky Pouw

 In the global policy and research debates on inclusive growth and inclusive development  increasing emphasis is put on the need to rethink the economy. The expiration date of the neoliberal growth model seems nearly over. False assumptions have led to false policy prescriptions, with detrimental impacts on society and nature. Instead of greater human wellbeing for all, inequality, social-economic, political and climatic risks have increased. Another great concern is that the poorest of the poor are excluded from neoliberal growth, or are at best adversely incorporated. They are not even effectively reached by development interventions.

Both from within the economics discipline and from the outside, new proposals are being put forward to rethinking the econonomy. These range from encompassing measurements of societal progress, re-orienting the economytowards human wellbeing, towards putting a price on nature, and alternative framings of the economy.  From an inclusive development perspective, investments in 1. voice and empowerment,  2. social and environmental sustainability and 3.  human wellbeing are paramount.

The economy is never neutral

However, these are typically juxtaposed as costly afterthoughts in neoliberal growth models. Only under the condition that there is money left, societies might show benevolent enough to invest in their fellow citizens and in nature on which they depend. Therefore I argue for rethinking the economy from the ground up, starting with redressing its basic premises. To begin with, I define the economy as a socially and politically instituted process of resource allocation, from and to economic agents. This is by far not a neutral process. Power inequities twist and turn economic processes and outcomes to the benefits of the rich and better off. The above definition of the economy creates room for integrated power analysis. Neither is the economy a closed, nor a controlable physiological system. On the contrary, the economy is embedded in nature and a socially and politically instituted process, and as such open to influences from outside. The ‘economy’ is interconnected  via sub-systems of internal relations and allocation mechanisms, for example in the form of market mechanisms, reciprocity and redistribution. It consists of structures and layers, but these are temporal and context specific. Cultural values, past and future priorities, play a role in making economic decisions in the presence. Economic agents engage in (more or less) purposeful (not ‘rational’) behaviour to make economic decisions. As such, economic change is not a series of stable idiosyncratic events, but subject to emergent change, shocks and unexpected events.

10 Reasons why economics should change

Following from the above epistemological premises, I propose a list of 10 reasons why economics should change:

1. Economics has lost touch with the daily realities of people on the ground;
2. Economics is based on a misguided view of the human being. The underlying assumptions are not representative of the human being as a social human being;
3. Economics should be more about human wellbeing, and less about money;
4. The economy is embedded in a constellation of social and political institutions. Their influence on economic processes and outcomes is endogenous;
5. The economy is modelled as if it is a closed and controllable system. However, in reality it is an open process with emergent and evolving features;
6. The economy defines itself as seperate from nature. However, in reality mutual interdependencies exist between the economy and nature;
7. The current economic growth model is short-sighted. It overlooks the long term importance of social cohesion and inclusive economy;
8. The current economic growth model prefers growth over stability and overlooks the added value of sustainability;
9. Power is an underestimated factor in economics. The economic analysis of distribution should problematice power relations sine qua non;
10. The economy needs new performance indicators. Economic performance should be measured in terms of more than economic growth alone.

Once we see the economy as embedded in society, politics and nature, we can understand the complex interactions between, for example, resource use, nature and the economy, or between empowerment, social cohesion and the economy. Whether economies embark on a degenerative, environmentally unsustainable and exlusive  development pathway or a regenerative, sustainable and  inclusive one ultimately remains a matter of political choice.

Nicky Pouw is Associate Professor in the Governance and Inclusive Development programme at the University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands. She is a development economist with 25 years of research experience on poverty, inequality, gender, inclusive development and economics of wellbeing, notably in African economies. She is Chair of The Broker and author of multiple international peer reviewed books and articles.

Image by Sharmin Akther Amy

Project description

This is a study commissioned by SOS Children's Villages on the Social Exclusion of Vulnerable Youth and conducted by Nicky Pouw and Katie Hodgkinson at AISSR, University of Amsterdam. The study aims to understand the mechanisms behind the social exclusion and self-exclusion of vulnerable youth in four different countries: Indonesia, Guatemala, Cote d'Ivoir and the Netherlands. The study runs from 2015-2017.

Literature Review

Literature Review is available below.

Research Design

The Research Design is available below.