On 6 November 2025, Emma Lynn Dadap-Cantal will defend her PhD thesis entitled 'Backstopping Poverty Targeting in the Periphery: Embedded external influence and transnationalized actors in social protection expansion in the Philippines and Cambodia' in which she reassesses the role of external influence in policy diffusion and social protection expansion in the Philippines and Cambodia.
- PhD student
- Date
- Thursday 6 Nov 2025, 15:00 - 16:00
- Type
- PhD defence
- Spoken Language
- English
- Room
- Aula B
- Location
- International Institute of Social Studies
Over the past 20 years, the Philippines and Cambodia have expanded their social protection systems through conditional cash transfer (CCT) programmes and centralized social registries to identify beneficiaries.
Although officials claim these schemes were tailored to local contexts, Cantal's research shows both countries have adopted strikingly similar, top-down approaches driven by external influence and global policy models.
She finds that international organizations and aid agencies played key roles in shaping these systems – not just during adoption but throughout their evolution – entrenching a poverty-focused, centralized form of social protection that may reinforce social divisions rather than empower communities.
Download the abstracts
Doctoral Board
Chair
Doctoral dissertation supervisors
- Professor Andrew Fischer
- Dr Charmaine Ramos, Utrecht University
Full Doctoral Committee
- Dr Maria Victoria Raquiza, University of the Philippines Diliman
- Professor Huck-ju Kwon, Seoul National University
- Dr Sophal Ear, Arizona State University
- Professor Wil Hout, ISS
- Professor Jun Borras, ISS
- More information
The Public Defence will take place on Thursday, 6 November 2025 in the ISS auditorium (Aula B) and the ceremony will begin promptly at 15:00 hrs. The doors will be closed at the start of the Public Defence.
Children below the age of 7 are not allowed in the auditorium during the first part of the ceremony.
The ceremony will be followed by a reception in the Atrium of the ISS.
Professors are invited to join the academic procession.
- Related links
- ISS PhD programme
