Nilima Gulrajani

Nilima is a Senior Research Fellow at Overseas Development Institute and Visiting Fellow at King’s College Department of International Development, the G20 Research Centre at the University of Toronto, and the Canadian International Council. She has led and conducted research at several academic institutions, including Cambridge University, London School of Economics and Oxford University.

She is an internationally-recognised authority on the management of official development assistance and bilateral development cooperation. She has been invited on several occasions to provide expert oral and written testimony to the UK Standing Committee on International Development, and regularly responds to international media enquiries on foreign aid, especially its governance and reform.

She is a seasoned senior consultant and evaluator to international organisations, philanthropic foundations and national governments. She has served as a trustee on the Board of Integrity Action and has worked as an economist at the Canadian Ministry of Finance, the World Bank and the International Development Research Centre.

She has published in leading peer-reviewed journals and serves on the editorial board of Public Administration and Development. Nilima enjoys teaching on executive education and graduate-level courses on international public management and global development.

PUBLICATIONS

Peer-reviewed journal articles

• *Sumner, A., Glennie, J., Gulrajani, N. and Wickstead, M.. (2020) ”A Proposal for a New Universal Development Commitment’ Global Policy.

• Gulrajani, N. and Swiss, L. (2019) ‘Donor Proliferation to What Ends? New Donor Countries and the Search for Legitimacy’ Canadian Journal of Development Studies. 40(3): p. 348-368.

• Gulrajani, N. and Faure, R. (2019) “Donors in transition and the future of development cooperation: What does the data from Brazil, India, China and South Korea reveal?” Public Administration and Development. 29: p. 231-244.

• Honig, D. and Gulrajani, N (2018) “Making good on donors ’ desire to Do Development Differently.: Third World Quarterly. 39(1) p. 68-84.

• Gulrajani, N. (2017) “Bilateral Donors and the Age of the National Interset: What Prospects for Challenge by Development Agencies?” World Development. 96: p. 375-389.

• Gulrajani, N. (2015) “Dilemmas in Donor Design: Organisational Reform and the Future of Foreign Aid Agencies.” Public Administration and Development 35(2): 152-164.

• Gulrajani, N. (2014) “Organising for Donor Effectiveness: An Analytical Framework for Aid Effectiveness” Development Policy Review 32(1): 89-112.

• Gulrajani, N. and K. Moloney (2012) “Globalizing Public Administration: Today’s Research and Tomorrow’s Agenda” Public Administration Review. 72(1): 78-86.

• Gulrajani, N. (2011) “Transcending the Great Foreign Aid Debate: Managerialism, radicalism and the search for aid effectiveness“ Third World Quarterly. 32(3): 199-216

• Gulrajani, N. (2010) “New vistas for development management: Examining radical-reformist possibilities and potential” Public Administration and Development. 30(2): 136-148.

• Gulrajani, N., S. Mulley and N. Woods (2006) “Who needs more cooperation? The United Nations and Development Assistance” Journal of International Law and International Relations.

Book chapters

• Calleja, R and Gulrajani, N. (2020) ‘Interest-based development cooperation: Moving providers from parochial convergence to principled collaboration. in Chaturvedi, S., Janus, H., Klingebiel, S.,de Mello e Souza, A., Sidiropoulos, E., Wehrmann, D. and Xiaoyun, L. (eds). Development Cooperation for Achieving the 2030 Agenda: Contested Collaboration. Palgrave MacMillan.

• Gulrajani, N. and Swiss, L. (2019) ‘Donor Norms in Flux.’ in Olivie, I and Perez, A. (eds.) The Politics of Aid Policy. Routledge.

• Gulrajani, N. (2012) “Improving Canada’s performance as a bilateral donor: Assessing the past and building for the future” in Brown, S. ed. Struggling for Effectiveness: CIDA and Canadian Foreign Aid. McGill-Queen’s University Press.

• Gulrajani, N. (2012) “Executive Politics, Governance and International Development” in Lodge, M. and K. Wegrich, eds. Executive Politics and Governance. Palgrave.

• Gulrajani, N. (2007) “Aiding Good Governance? An Examination of Canadian Bilateral Assistance to Vietnam” in Woods, N. and Welsh, J. (eds.) Exporting Good Governance: Temptations and Challenges in Canada’s Aid Program. Wilfred Laurier University Press.

• Gulrajani, N. (2006) “The Art of Fine Balances: The Challenge of Institutionalizing the Comprehensive Development Framework Inside the World Bank” in Wright, C. and Stone, C. (eds.) The World Bank and Governance: A Decade of Reform and Reaction. Routledge.

Working Papers

• Gulrajani, N. and Silcock, E. (2020). ‘Principled Aid in Divided Times: Harnessing values and interests in donor pandemic response‘ Overseas Development Institute Working Paper. London.

• Gulrajani, N. (2020) ‘Post-merger governance in the UK’. Overseas Development Institute Emerging Analysis. London.

• Gulrajani, N., Mawdsley, E. and Roychoudhury, S. (2020) ‘The New Development Diplomacy in Middle Income Countries: The changing role of traditional donors in India’ Overseas Development Institute Working Paper. London.

• *Sumner, A., Glennie, J., Gulrajani, N. and Wickstead, M.. (2020) ‘A Proposal for a New Universal Development Commitment.‘ UNU-WIDER Working Paper. No. 119

• Gulrajani, N. and Mills, L. (2019) ‘Fit for Fragility? An Exploration of Risk Stakeholders and Systems in the Swedish International Development Agency’ Swedish Expert Group on Aid Studies Report. No. 2. London.

• *Gulrajani, N. and Calleja, R. (2019) ‘Understanding donor motivations: Developing the Principled Aid Index.’ Overseas Development Institute Working Paper 548. London.

• *Gulrajani, N. and Calleja, R. (2019) ‘Policy Brief: The Principled Aid Index.’ Overseas Development Institute Briefing Note. London.

• Gulrajani, N. (2018). ‘Merging Development Agencies: Making the Right Choice’. Overseas Development Institute Briefing Note. London.

• Gulrajani, N., Prizzon, A. and Blampied, C. (2018) ‘Written Evidence to the Parliamentary Committee on International Development Inquiry into the Definition and Administration of UK Overseas Development Administration.’ House of Commons Select Committee Publications.

• Gulrajani, N. and Swiss, L. (2017) Why do countries become donors? Assessing the drivers and implications of donor proliferation. Overseas Development Institute Working Paper. London

• Gulrajani, N. and Honig, D. (2016) Reforming donors in fragile states: Using public management more strategically. Overseas Development Institute Working Paper. London.

• Gulrajani, N. (2016) Bilateral versus multilateral aid channels: Strategic choices for donors. Overseas Development Institute Working Paper. London

• Gulrajani, N. (2015) “Bilateral Donors in a ‘Beyond Aid’ Agenda: The Importance of Institutional Autonomy for Donor Effectiveness” Global Economic Governance Working Paper. 2015/106. Oxford.

• Gavas, M., Gulrajani, N. and Hart, T. (2015) Designing the Development Agency of the Future. Overseas Development Institute Working Paper. London

• Gulrajani, N. (2014) Written Evidence of the UK’s Select Committe on International Development Inquiry into Future UK Approaches to Foreign Aid. House of Commons Select Committee Publications. London

• Brain, A., Gulrajani, N. and Mitchell, J. (2014) “Meeting the Challenge: How can enterprise challenge funds be made to work better.” Economic and Private Sector Professional Evidence and Applied Knowledge Services Resource. UK Department of International Development. London.

• Gulrajani, N. (2013) “The challenge fund aid modality: Assessing the potential for tackling gender challenges in development.” United Nations University-WIDER Working Paper.2013/43 [Presentation]

• N. Gulrajani, (2013) An Analytical Framework for Improving Aid Effectiveness Policies. Global Economic Governance Working Paper 2013/87.

• Moloney, K. and Gulrajani, N. (2011) “Globalized World, Globalized Research, Version 20.20.” Public Administration Review. Supplement to Vol. 70: S298-S300.

• Gulrajani, N. (2010) “Challenging Global Accountability: The Intersection of Contracts and Culture in the World Bank” “Global Economic Governance Working Paper No. 2010/56.

• McCourt, W. and Gulrajani, N. (2010) “What Future for Development Management?” in Public Administration and Development. 30(2): 81-90.

• Gulrajani, N. (2010) Re-imagining Canadian development cooperation: A comparative examination of Norway and the UK. Walter and Duncan Gordon Foundation Working Paper. Toronto.

• Gulrajani, N. (2009) The future of development management: Examining possibilities and potential. DESTIN Working Paper. No. 99.

• Gulrajani, N. (2007) “Rejuvenating the Canadian International Development Agency: Searching for Strategic Focus.” Analytical Working Paper Series. Canadian Ministry of Finance, International Trade and Finance Division.

• Gulrajani, N. (2007) “Models of Evaluation in International Development.” Analytical Working Paper Series. Canadian Ministry of Finance, International Trade and Finance Division.