Ahmed El Assal (ESR 13) successfully defended his PhD thesis titled "Accountability Contested: The politics of citizens’ claims-making in education, social protection, and NGO sectors in Uganda" on July 7, 2026, at the International Institute of Social Studies (ISS) in The Hague. He has been awarded the degree of a Philosophiae Doctor (Ph.D.) from Erasmus University Rotterdam and Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam (VUA).
Ahmed's PhD project was jointly supervised by Prof. Wil Hout of the ISS and Prof. Azza Karam as well as Prof. Dion Forster (both VUA). All supervisors were part of the examination committee as well as Dr. Karim Kniou (ISS), Prof. Anuradha Joshi (IDS), Dr. Flavio Eiró de Oliveira (VUA), Dr. Sylvia Bergh (ISS), Prof. Ben Crum (VUA) and Prof. Shuaib Lwasa (ISS). The committee was chaired by Prof. Ruard Ganzevoort (ISS). The successful completion of Ahmed's PhD project also marks the first first completed project of the third work package of the ADAPTED programme: "Optimising the impact of poverty reduction-related policies."
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