Civil society, democracy, development, natural resource governance, Algeria and Madagascar.

Dr. Jessica Northey has been a researcher at the Centre for Trust, Peace and Social Relations since 2014 and was Director of Postgraduate Research from 2018-2020. She gained her PhD from the European University Institute, Florence, studying relations between the EU and Algerian charitable associations. Through extensive fieldwork, she examined the impact of external funding on their work and role in political life and this was published as a book “Civil Society in Algeria” in 2018 by I.B.Tauris. As a researcher, Jessica is interested in the work of charities and local activists in different political systems and their potential to contribute to reform. She has carried out numerous research assignments, evaluations and electoral observation missions for national and international organisations, including the British Academy, the Commonwealth Secretariat, Westminster Foundation for Democracy, UK Home Office, the EU and World Bank. She has worked with civil society organisations and institutions in Algeria, Madagascar, Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda and Mauritania. She is a country expert for Algeria with Oxford Analytica and the Bertelsmann Foundation in Germany.

I have worked for over ten years in countries dealing with environmental, political and developmental challenges in Africa and in Europe. My focus is on associations in these societies which strive to provide practical solutions and foster trust between actors. I seek to understand their work and to communicate positive examples of cooperation. I hope to develop further research initiatives to build bridges between researchers, policy makers and activists to create more enabling environments for communities, associations and the political systems in which they work.