​The P3A project will advance the understanding of how, and under what conditions, private sector development exacerbates or mitigates conflict in Africa.

This is one out of five PRIO projects that today have received funding from the Research Council of Norway.

Kristian Hoelscher has been granted YRT funding from the Research Council of Norway for the three-year project Political Transformation in African Cities (PACE). As project leader, Kristian will collaborate with Sean Fox from the University of Bristol, Jeffrey Paller from the University of San Francisco, Taibat Lawanson from the University of Lagos and Melanie Phillips from UC Berkeley.

Mauricio Rivera has received FINNUT funding from the Research Council of Norway for the 4-year project The Crime-Reducing Effect of Education: Disaggregating Education and Impact on Violent Crime (CREED). Congratulations to Mauricio and his project team, which includes Kendra Dupuy (PRIO), Kristian Hoelscher (PRIO), Gudrun Østby (PRIO), Kristian Skrede Gleditsch (Essex & PRIO), Barbara Zarate-Tenorio (Essex & Institute for Social Research), as well as Ernesto Cardenas (Universidad Javeriana).

​​PRIO researchers write in The Guardian on the perceived dangers of humanitarian work following the Kunduz attack in Afghanistan.

​​​​​Kristian Hoelscher succesfully defended his PhD thesis at the Department of Political Science, University of Oslo. His thesis is titled Institutions and Social Violence.

The evaluation committee:

* Dr. Sabine Kurtenbach, GIGA, Hamburg
* Prof. Gary LaFree, University of Maryland
* Prof. Carl Henrik Knutsen, ISV

Supervisors​:

* Research Prof. Henrik Urdal, PRIO
* Prof. Anne Julie Semb, Institutt for statsvitenskap, UiO

​​In April, 800 hundred million people began casting their ballots all across India in the largest election the world has ever seen. When we think of voting in India, we often picture a poor elderly villager showing a big ink-stained thumb and boasting a wide smile as proof of democracy in action. But elections in today's India mean big money, big ideas and a growing focus on big urban centers as the drivers of development that will continue to catapult it from a 20th century agrarian laggard to a 21st century global power.