Lídia is a social scientist with training in development economics, social policy and development studies. She has 15+ years of experience in international development and her work has concentrated on the politics of aid and public policy, particularly in relation to agriculture and rural development in Africa. Her latest research looks at Brazil as a development actor and its influence in shaping agricultural policy and research in Africa.

Lídia started her career as a civil servant with the government of Mozambique, working on aid management, sectoral budgetary planning and public financial management. She then worked as a freelance consultant, a consultant for Oxford Policy Management and as a research fellow at the Overseas Development Institute. She has interacted with a range of public, private and not-for-profit organisations, mostly in African countries and Brazil, including the African Development Bank, FAO, the Global Donor Platform for Rural Development, IFAD, NEPAD, the OECD, UNDP-UNEP and several bilateral aid agencies, including DFID, SDC and SIDA.

Lídia is a member of the Future Agricultures network, where she has contributed to research on the political economy of agricultural policy in Africa and Brazil’s engagement in African agriculture. She has co-led the Brazil component of the ESRC-funded research programme China and Brazil in Africa Agriculture. Her research has focused on the discourse politics of Brazilian cooperation policy in relation to agricultural development programmes in Mozambique.

She has published with the following peer-reviewed journals: Development Policy Review, European Journal of Development Research, IDS Bulletin, Globalization and Health, Global Policy Journal, Journal of Agrarian Change and World Development. She has also published extensively with the Overseas Development Institute, Future Agricultures and IDS.