Niheer Dasandi

MPhil/PhD Candidate in Political Science

• Name: Niheer Dasandi
  
• Email: niheer.dasandi@ucl.ac.uk

Provisional Dissertation Title

Poverty, Inequality, and Dependency: An Analysis of the Effects of Inequality on Poverty in the Context of the Millennium Development Goals.

This thesis focuses on the inadequate attention paid to inequality between and within countries, by the Millennium Development Goal framework, and examines whether sustainable poverty eradication can be achieved without addressing issues of inequality. As such, the question this thesis explores, within the framework of the Millennium Development Goals, is: to what extent do economic and political inequalities between and within countries perpetuate poverty?

International development, both in theory and practice, has tended to take a national/local approach to poverty – in which poverty is viewed as being predominantly caused by factors endogenous to a particular country. This thesis will take a more structural approach to poverty analysis, focusing in particular on how the current global system impacts world poverty. Specifically, I will look at the relationship between inequality, between and within countries, and poverty. Inequality will be defined in broad way, looking at inequality in terms of relations and power, as well as more traditional notions of inequality, such as income and wealth distribution. This thesis will examine poverty and international development relationships in the context of the Millennium Development Goals.

General Research Interests

• International Development/ Political Economy of Development
• Globalisation
• Imperialism and Neo-colonialism
• Protest Politics and Social Movements
• Human Security

Niheer has worked as a consultant for the United Nations Development Programme for the past two years on poverty reduction, poverty monitoring, and human security issues. He also works as an analyst for Populari, a think-tank based in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Niheer holds a BSc. in Mathematics with Economics and an MSc. in International Public Policy, both from UCL.

Publications

• “Poverty Reductionism: The Exclusion of History, Politics, and Global Factors from Mainstream Poverty Analysis”, British International Studies Association (BISA) IPEG Papers in Global Political Economy Series, (Working Paper), July 2009.
  http://www.bisa-ipeg.org/papers/39_dasandi.pdf
  
• “Fragile, but Stable” – The Guardian (online edition), October 2008