Sarah Burns, who was awarded the OMERS scholarship, is pursing a DPhil in International Development at the University of Oxford where she is a Rhodes Scholar.
Once a devastating conflict ends, the process for peace-building and reconstruction begins. Often, the focus in post-conflict reconstruction is to use foreign aid to accelerate growth. However, the private sector often is neglected by aid programs and struggles to gain momentum in post-conflict countries, leaving many people stuck in poverty. Private investment represents an alternative strategy but the impact of private investment, including foreign direct investment (FDI), in these settings has received little attention and is poorly understood.
The role played by FDI is complex. It can transfer knowledge and technology, increase management skills, open doors to global markets and stimulate the impetus for good governance. However, FDI can also distance locals from their economies, exploit natural resources, exacerbate inequalities and local tensions and weaken or even destroy local businesses. In fact, the capital boost from FDI can result in a net negative on the economic recovery process if it is not brought into the country in a thoughtful and meaningful way. Sarah’s research explores how to use FDI in post-conflict arenas as a means to support the establishment of peace, local inclusivity, employment and sustainable development.
Sarah’s thesis is titled: How does Foreign Direct Investment Impact the Probability of Conflict Relapse in Low-Income Countries? She is doing primary research in Liberia, where she is working with a small impact investor and interviewing companies in receipt of their investments to examine how these investments impact on the companies’ performance in Liberia’s post-conflict economy. This research has important implications both for public sector and private sector partners and it will help advise Canadian multi-national corporations, such as natural resources companies, and the government on how to allocate capital into post-conflict countries in a way that promotes local private sector development and peace building.
An active member of the Oxford community, Sarah works as a research and teaching assistant and is an Oxford Blues Basketball Player. Sarah travels to Liberia to do fieldwork with her trusty companion, a Norfolk Terrier named Milo, who is well behaved and welcomed wherever he goes.
Prior to embarking on her DPhil studies Sarah, who hails from Markham, Ontario, completed an M.Sc. in Economics for Development at Oxford and a B.A. Honours at the University of King’s College in Halifax, Nova Scotia.
Sarah plans to pursue a career in social financing, taking what she has learned at Oxford and applying it to a field where little is known and there is much to learn about its impact on post-conflict countries. London is a hub of impact investing in Africa and this is where Sarah plans to start her post-DPhil career. Eventually she would like to go back to Canada and start her own social financing organisation.
