On 6 November 2025, Emma Lynn Dadap-Cantal successfully defended her PhD thesis reassessing the role of external influence on policy diffusion and social protection in the Philippines and Cambodia.
During her defence Emma argued that ver 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, her research showed both countries have adopted strikingly similar, top-down approaches driven by external influence and global policy models.
She found 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.
Photos of the defence
Take a look at the photos taken during Emma's defence
- Researcher
