Gayatri Sahgal

Gayatri Sahgal is a postdoctoral research fellow at the Center for Africana Studies, University of Pennsylvania. Her work focuses on state capacity, taxation, and the political economy of development in fragile contexts. She holds a PhD in Area Studies from the University of Oxford (2023), an MSc in Public Policy from Brown University, and an MA in Development Studies from the Institute of Development Studies, University of Sussex.

• Education: PhD (Oxford, 2023), MSc (Brown), MA (Sussex)

Her research interrogates fiscal relations in states with contested centralized authority, particularly through Somalia case studies examining private-sector tax compliance and institutional growth. She previously worked as a research and M&E specialist for organizations like the World Bank, EU, and UNDP, managing governance and development projects across Kenya, Tanzania, Ethiopia, Somalia, India, and Afghanistan.

No scientific awards are listed, and her current postdoctoral focus includes preparing publications from her doctoral research. No advising or grant details are explicitly mentioned, though her work spans global development challenges.