Ahmed El Assal is a visiting postdoctoral researcher with the Crisis, Law, and Politics (CLA) research group at the International Institute of Social Studies (ISS), Erasmus University Rotterdam, the Netherlands. He specializes in governance, public policy, and political economy. He recently completed his PhD in International Development as part of a European joint doctorate funded by the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions, jointly undertaken at Erasmus University Rotterdam and Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam in the Netherlands, through the ADAPTED programme (Eradicating Poverty: Pathways Towards Achieving the Sustainable Development Goals). His research focuses on critical social policy in Africa, civil society and accountability, the political economy of development, and Southern epistemologies.