Dr Sameen A. Mohsin Ali

Dr Sameen Ali

International Development Department
Lecturer in International Development

Contact details

Email
s.a.m.ali@bham.ac.uk
Address
IDD - School of Government
Muirhead Tower
University 麻豆精选
Edgbaston
Birmingham
B15 2TT
UK

Sameen’s research focuses on the impact of bureaucratic politics on state capacity and service delivery. She is particularly interested in the dynamics of bureaucratic reform, the implementation and impact of donor programs, and the intersection of party politics, citizens’ interests, and bureaucratic incentives. In published work, she centres bureaucratic politics in understanding the distribution of public goods, the success or failure of donor-led reform packages, the ups and downs of party politics, and in citizens’ experience of state services such as immunization.

Qualifications

  • PhD in Politics and International Studies, SOAS University of London, 2018
  • MSc in Comparative Politics (Research), London School of Economics and Political Science, 2010
  • BSc (Hons) in Social Sciences, Lahore University of Management Sciences, 2008

Biography

Sameen completed her PhD in Politics and International Studies from SOAS University of London in 2018. Her dissertation investigated relationships of patronage amongst politicians and bureaucrats in Pakistan as a means of targeting service delivery.

Sameen is a member of the , an AHRC GCRF funded project investigating the teaching and learning of violent pasts in Pakistan, the UK, Cambodia, Colombia, and Uganda. She is Co-Director of the Women in Public Service in Pakistan Oral History Archive Project and a fellow at the Mahbub-ul-Haq Research Centre (MHRC), both based at the Lahore University of Management Sciences.

Teaching

  • Public Sector Reform 

Research

Research interests

  • Bureaucratic politics and state capacity
  • The politics of bureaucratic reform
  • Citizen-bureaucrat interactions
  • Immunization and public health education
  • Teaching and learning about violent pasts

Current and recent projects

  • Co-Investigator - Zaffar, F., S.A.M. Ali, A. Zaffar, and S. Shahid. Dynamic Financial Data Analytics-PIFRA. Innovation Challenge Fund, Sub National Governance Program, Foreign and Commonwealth Development Office (FCDO).
  • Co-Director - Women in Public Service in Pakistan Oral History Archive Project
  • Co-Investigator - Paulson, J., et al. Education, Justice and Memory Network (EdJAM). Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) UKRI GCRF Network Plus 2021.
  • Primary Investigator - Understanding Pakistan's Immunization Problem: A transactional approach II, Shahid Hussain Foundation Public Health Research Grant 2018-2019; 2019-2020.

Other activities

  • Consultant – Pakistan expert, COVID-19 and Federalism’s First Wave Response, Forum of Federations (August-October 2020)
  • Consultant – Governance and the Pandemic Expert Survey, Working Paper Series for the Governance Programme at the Aga Khan University, Institute for the Study of Muslim Civilisations, London. May 2020.
  • Reviewer - Bertelsmann Transformation Index, Bertelsmann Stiftung, December 2020-February 2021.
  • Consultant - SAFE-App Project. Shirkat Gah and Democratic Commission for Human Development, with Dr Suleman Shahid and Dr Fareed Zaffar, 2020-2021.
  • Consultant - Political Economy specialist, Scoping Study, DFID Pakistan Water and Natural Resources Governance Programme, July-August 2019.

Publications

Recent publications

Book

Mcloughlin, C (ed.), Ali, S (ed.), Xie, K, Cheeseman, N (ed.) & Hudson, DE (ed.) 2024, . SAGE Publications, London. <>

Article

Mufti, M & Ali, SAM 2025, '', Regional and Federal Studies.

Ali, SAM & Moule, T 2025, '', Public Administration and Development.

Haroon, S & Ali, SAM 2024, '', Oral History Review.

Ali, SAM 2023, '' Discourse, vol. 2023, no. 6, pp. 63-65. <>

Ali, SAM & Altaf, SW 2021, '', Journal of Behavioral Public Administration, vol. 4, no. 1, 184, pp. 1-17.

Ali, SAM 2021, '', European Journal of Development Research.

Chapter (peer-reviewed)

Ali, S, Hudson, D & Mcloughlin, C 2024, . in C Mcloughlin, S Ali, K Xie, N Cheeseman & DE Hudson (eds), The Politics of Development. SAGE Publications, pp. 75-91. <>

Mcloughlin, C & Ali, S 2024, . in C Mcloughlin, S Ali, K Xie, N Cheeseman & DE Hudson (eds), The Politics of Development. SAGE Publications, pp. 239-258. <>

Mcloughlin, C, Hudson, D, Cheeseman, N, Ali, S & Xie, K 2024, in C Mcloughlin, S Ali, K Xie, N Cheeseman & DE Hudson (eds), The Politics of Development. SAGE Publications, pp. 3-32. <>

Abdul Majid, M & Ali, SAM 2023, . in SM Zavattaro, JE Sowa, AC Henderson & LH Edwards (eds), Portraits of Public Service : Untold Stories from the Front Lines. SUNY Press. <>

Book/Film/Article review

Ali, SAM 2025, '', Commonwealth and Comparative Politics.

Commissioned report

Buehler, M, Schatz, E, Ali, SAM, Greene, C & Sombatpoonsiri, J 2022, . SSRN.

Web publication/site

Ali, SAM, , 2023, Web publication/site. <>

Ali, SAM & Saeed, T, , 2021, Web publication/site. <>

Expertise

Pakistan politics, bureaucracy, and governance; bureaucratic politics; public sector reform