Kasse B nicco, Tina

During her PhD Fellowship at UNU-CRIS, Tina will work within the Re-LAB Cluster, focusing on how African states navigate international financial subordination to advance green macro-financial strategies, both nationally and through multilateral development banks. Centring the notion of ‘constrained agency’, her research aims to uncover how structural financial constraints intersect with state-led efforts to shape development finance for a just energy transition. Her work is situated within the broader set of systemic challenges that the UN’s Financing for Development agenda seeks to address, particularly those concerning the need for more equitable, inclusive, and sustainable global financial structures.

Tina holds a Master’s degree in Political Science from Ghent University (summa cum laude) and a Master’s degree in International Political Economy from the London School of Economics (first-class distinction), where she studied as a Fayat Scholar. Under the supervision of Dr. Prof. Mattias Vermeiren and Dr. Prof. Dries Lesage, her PhD research combines approaches from international political economy, development studies, and critical macro-finance. She employs a mixed-methods design — including comparative case studies, index construction, and qualitative content analysis — to explore how African states can strategically engage development finance in the pursuit of climate-compatible and socially just economic transformation.