Laura Guibert will present her thesis at an OECD conference in Paris | Navarra Center for International Development

By: Isabel Teixeira

Laura Guibert Lacasa, Research Assistant at the NCID, will be presenting the results of her Masters research in an Interuniversity Conference held by the OECD (Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development). This event, which is organized every two years, will be gathering in Paris many specialists in Development from all over the world. Guibert’s study seeks to measure the economic cost of the 2007 post-election violence in Kenya. Through the use of controlled models, Guibert has managed to compare the development of Kenya under a "no post-election violence" situation with the actual experience faced by the country during that year. Laura Guibert has found that, during the period 2007-2011, per capita GDP fell by an average of $ 70 per year, equivalent to about 5% of the reference level of 2007. In 2009, GDP per capita in the current Kenya is estimated at about 6% less than in its counterpart.

Despite the data, the Guibert notes that "one should not look at poverty as a huge problem that cannot be addressed without the possibility of treating it. You have to think about the specific problems that a country has, and once one is able to identify and understand them, then the moment comes to try to solve them one by one". To Laura Guibert, "talk about the world's problems instead of presenting accessible solutions is a way to paralyze rather than facilitate progress". Last March, Laura presented the findings from her research at the 2013 Oxford University Conference on economic development in Africa (CSAE).

In addition to researching in development policies, Laura is also the founder of EDUKEN, an NGO established in 2013 to promote education and equal opportunities for access to university studies in Kenya: "Every year there is an increase in inequality due to defects the Kenyan education system’s design. The government funds students who get good grades, but many suffer from lack of resources and have no possibility of having a good elementary and high school education for lack of income. For these, it is more difficult to get good grades and therefore it is very difficult, if not impossible, to gain access to funds for college."

EDUKEN is intended to fund students from Kibera, the second largest slum in Africa, to gain university education at Strathmore University (Nairobi, Kenya). "We give them a chance for personal and professional development. This will allow them to get a paid job with a steady paycheck. We want them to have a future not only for themselves, but also for their family and their community." Three Kenyan students have benefited from a scholarship already and are currently studying at the university.