Imad Ahmed

Infrastructure Economics and Finance

School Research Theme: Economics and financing of the built environment 
Research supervisors: Prof D'Maris Coffman; Dr Priti Parikh; Prof Michelle Baddeley; Dr Ian Hamilton  
Award of PhD date: 28 February 2021
Thesis title: The political economy of hydropower dependent nations - a case study of Zambia
Funding sources: UCL BSCPM, International Growth Centre, Goodenough College

Current roles:

• Postdoctoral Research Fellow:  I am part of a UCL-wide team investigating the disaster-resilience of WASH interventions in Indonesia.
• Executive Member, Liberal International Climate Justice Committee
• Academic Board Member, Paddy Ashdown Forum

Former roles:

• Senior Economist, Vivid Economics
• Research Project Manager for IGC-funded research assessing the welfare effects of undersupply of power on Zambia's manufacturing firms
• Teaching Fellow to MSc Infrastructure Investment and Finance and MSc Construction Economics and Management students
• Captain, Goodenough Cricket Club
• Violinist, Good Ensemble 

Prior to my PhD, I helped the Rwandan government execute award-winning and innovative infrastructure projects as its PPP Transactions Advisor from 2012-2016, and developed investment presentation and appraisal tools and contributed to Rwanda’s laws on PPPs and investment promotion as a Special Policy Advisor to Rwanda’s Treasury to the Secretary.  

Before that, I worked in African private equity in London. I have a Master of International Business degree from The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Tufts University, where I was a Schmidheiny Global Business Scholar, with an exchange at HEC Paris, and a BA in Economics from UC Berkeley.

Publications and other work

Since PhD and related:

• Upcoming book, Ahmed (2021) The political economy of hydropower dependent nations - a case study of Zambia (Palgrave Macmillan)
• Journal article: Ahmed et al (2020) The impact decades-long dependence on hydropower in El Niño prone Zambia is having on carbon emissions through backup diesel generation, Environmental Research Letters, Vol 15 (12)
• Journal article: Explaining Rwanda's prioritisation of rural electrification over rural clean drinking water through institutional path dependency, Structural Change and Economic Dynamics (Elsevier/Science Direct) Vol 54, September 2020, pp 186-201
• Increasing tariffs to prevent another electricity crisis in Zambia, International Growth Centre blog, 31 March 2020, co-authored with Shivani Haria
• Conference presentation: Ahmed, I (2020), "The cost of power outages to Zambia's manufacturing firms, households and the climate", Energy and Economic Reliability 2020, Grid Reliability & Operations, Movenpick Hotel, Accra, 4-5 February. 
• Working paper: Ahmed, I. et al. (2019), The cost of power outages to Zambia’s manufacturing sector, International Growth Centre. 
• Broadcast economic presentation: Nurturing the Manufacturing Sector, ZNBC News, 5 September, 2019
• Policy Brief: Ahmed, I. et al. (2019). The cost of power outages to Zambia’s manufacturing sector, International Growth Centre. 
• Interview: Powering the Zambian Economy, Bartlett 100, 24 April, 2019
• Interview: On leading Rwandan negotiations for the Kigali Water Supply Project, UCL CPM website, 15 January, 2019
• Journal book review: Ahmed, I. (2018). Chris Huggins, Agricultural Reform in Rwanda: authoritarianism, markets and zones of governance, Africa, 88(4) pp 896-897. Africa (Cambridge University Press), 7 November, 2018
• Seismic costs, Dawn, 7 October, 2018
• Courting disaster, Dawn, 18 August, 2017 
• After off-grid electricity, what chance off-grid water?, Financial Times, 31 July, 2017
• Leapfrogging into the light, Financial Times, 27 March, 2017

Since PhD and unrelated:

• Interview: Final Day of the Election Campaign, BBC Asian Network, 11 December, 2019
• Interview: Muslim vote: Political chat ahead of the election, BBC Stories, 10 December, 2019
• Ahmed, I. What have the Lib Dems ever done for Britain? Lib Dem Voice, 26th November, 2019
• Interview: Populism in Europe, Trialeti TV, 23 October, 2019 
• Interview: The Continuing Story of Brexit, Through the News, 22 October, 2019
• Broadcast economic presentation: Amazon Fires, BBC Parliament, 16 September, 2019
• How British liberals should advocate for the human rights of the citizens of Jammu and Kashmir, Lib Dem Voice, 30 August, 2019
• The case for changing our laws on revoking citizenship, Lib Dem Voice, 19 August, 2019. 
• What’s in a name?, Pakistan Today, 20 March, 2017

Pre-PhD and related:

• PPP success in Rwanda shows potential for greater self-reliance, Financial Times beyondbrics, 2 April, 2015
• Is your economy sharia compliant?, The Guardian Comment is Free, 2 February, 2011
• What is the world had been following Islamic financial practices?, The Guardian Comment is Free, 7 January, 2011
• Pakistan, rebranded, The Boston Globe, 25 March, 2010, co-authored