Rachel M. Gisselquist is Professor in Governance and Development, and Director of the Governance and Social Development Resource Centre (GSDRC), University of Birmingham (UK). She is also a non-resident senior research fellow with UNU-WIDER, where she was based 2011-2024. Previously, she was a research director at Harvard University, where she co-authored the first several editions of the Ibrahim Index of African Governance, now a standard reference on governance. Her research examines issues of inequality, ethnic politics, state-building, foreign aid, governance, and democracy. She holds a PhD in Political Science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and an MPP from Harvard. Andrea Vaccaro is a postdoctoral research fellow at the Blavatnik School of Government, University of Oxford, and an associate member of St Antony's College. Previously, he was a visiting researcher at UNU-WIDER and a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Insubria. His research interests lie at the crossroads between comparative politics and global development. Recently, he has worked on the interplay between the state, political regimes, and development, as well as international aid, COVID-19 responses, and measurement and indicators. He received his PhD from Sapienza University of Rome.