Laura Guibert Lacasa, PhD student of the project "Poverty and development" of the ICS, will present her thesis of Master's Degree at the lecture inter-university OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development development ), which is organized in Paris every two years, and which will take place the first week of July.

Laura Guibert's study seeks to measure the economic cost that the 2007 post-election violence had on Kenya's Economics . Using a control method for comparative case programs of study , the researcher has compared the economic evolution of Kenya "without post-election violence" (model controlled) with the actual experience of the country. Laura Guibert has found that during the period 2007-2011, GDP per capita declined by an average of $70 per year, equivalent to about 5% of the 2007 level of reference letter . In 2009, GDP per capita in today's Kenya is estimated to be about 6% less than in its counterpart. 

Despite the data, the researcher stresses that "poverty should not be seen as a huge problem that cannot be addressed, without the possibility of dealing with it. We have to think about the concrete problems that a country has, and once identified and understood, solve them one by one". For Laura Guibert, "talking about the world's problems instead of presenting accessible solutions is a way of paralyzing instead of facilitating progress".

The thesis already participated in the lecture 2013 on the development economic in Africa, which took place between March 17 and 19, at the Centre for the Study of African Economies in Oxford (England).

Laura Guibert is the founder of EDUKEN, an NGO created in 2013 for promote the Education and equal opportunities for university access in Kenya: "Every year there is an increase in inequality due to the Kenyan system educational . The government funds students who get good grades to go to university, but many suffer from lack of resources and do not have a continuous Education due to lack of income. They find it more difficult to get good grades and therefore it is very difficult, if not impossible, for them to have funded access to university."

EDUKEN funds students from Kibera, the second largest slum in Africa, through scholarships for students to attend Strathmore University in Nairobi, Kenya. "We give them a chance to evolve staff and professionally, being able to get a paid work , with a continuous salary. We not only secure a future for them, but also for their family and community." Three Kenyan students have benefited from a scholarship and are currently studying at the university.