Global Development Institute podcast

The Social Implications of Conservation – with Prof Dan Brockington

Tue, 02 Jun 2026 11:00:00 +0100

In recent decades, conservation science has begun to pay greater attention to local people’s rights, livelihoods, and well-being. Yet the growing availability of data and advanced technologies raises new justice concerns for conservation science. This episode explores the justice dimensions of conservation in a data-driven world.

This episode features Professor Dan Brockington from the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, interviewed by Leverhulme Early Career Fellow Thuy Duong Khuu.

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Geographies of Responsibility, Care and Repair in Digital Worlds of AI

Fri, 29 May 2026 10:00:00 +0100

In this episode, we chat with some of the authors of a recent intervention published inTransactions of the Institute of British Geographers on 'Geographies of Responsibility, Care and Repair in Digital Worlds of AI'. We hear from Jessica McLean, Katarzyna Cieslik, Nikko Stevens, and Jack Gieseking about the threats posed by AI, the blurry definitions of AI, and the critical tools scholars are using to understand our ever-changing technological landscape.

You can read the essays in the intervention here: Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers - Wiley Online Library

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What academic traits create transformative research?

Wed, 27 May 2026 14:00:00 +0100

In her opening session for Research for Transformation Lab week in November 2025, GDI’s Diana Mitlin reflected on five academic personas and their possibilities for transformative research: the shining superstar, the convenor, the subversive persona, the collaborative co-producer, the shapeshifter. In this pod, we follow the recording of Diana’s reflections with a conversation between two of GDI’ researchers, Smith Ouma and Elisa Gambino. Ellie and Smith react to these personas through their own experiences and situate them in the current higher education and academic system of knowledge production. We hope you enjoy their reflections. The episode is hosted by Research for Transformation Lab manager Helen Underhill.

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Alumni Conversation: Taio Gardey on Farming Out of Poverty

Tue, 21 Apr 2026 11:00:00 +0100

In this episode, Taio Gardey, GDI alumnus and Executive Director of Farming Out of Poverty (FOOP), discusses the realities of working on the ground in Sierra Leone. We discuss tricky decisions he's had to make throughout his career, the kinds of skills he's developed in recent years, and how development organisations can adapt and thrive in the current environment.

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Alumni chat: How has the SEED Changemakers programme shaped your university and graduate life?

Tue, 24 Mar 2026 11:00:00 +0000

In this episode, we chat with five recent graduates about their time with the SEED Changemakers programme. Participants include:

Laura Acosta
Ife Agboola
Patrick Caskie
Eddie Groves
Thando Mathe

As well as chatting about their reasons for becoming Changemakers, participants describe their reasons for supporting social enterprise One World Together, the skills they learned as students, and their experiences of navigating a tough graduate jobs market. A must-listen for current and prospective students!

We covered a lot of initiatives and topics during the course of the interview, so we've provided some relevant links below:

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Taxation and Development in Ghana and West Africa

Tue, 24 Mar 2026 11:00:00 +0000

In this episode, Dr Mohammed Ibrahim is joined by Dr Alex Moyem Kombat, Head of Research and Policy of the Ghana Revenue Authority and two GDI PGRs, Anifat Ibrahim and Mohammed Damba to discuss domestic revenue mobilisation in Ghana and in West Africa.

Taxation is crucial to development as it provides states with the necessary funding to provide citizens with public services, such as healthcare and education. Currently, Ghana’s tax-to-GDP ratio is around 13%, just short of the African average of 15%, but far from the OECD average of over 30%.

Listen to learn about what are some of Ghana’s biggest challenges in collecting taxes and how these resonate with broader development concerns in the West Africa region.

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Using data to map forest changes

Mon, 16 Feb 2026 10:00:00 +0000

In this latest episode from the Sustainable Forest Transition Project, Prof Johan Oldekop (GDI) speaks to Sarah Castle (University of Wisconsin-Madison) and Matt Fagan (University of Maryland Baltimore County).

Johan, Sarah and Matt talk about their research and how data can shape forest landscapes and the way we interact with them.

More from Sarah:

Article in One Earth

Bringing Satellites Down to Earth

Politics of Pixels

Robust Evaluation of Carbon Credits

CARE Principles for Indigenous Data Governance

FAIR Principles for data stewardship

AlphaEarth Foundations Model and it’s relatives

“Planting at all costs: Can trees save the planet? (In French)”

Rhett Butler's (Mongabay Editor) Blog

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The Impact of Storytelling, with Uma Kothari

Wed, 21 Jan 2026 14:00:00 +0000

Welcome to a new mini-pod series from the Global Development Institute’s Research for Transformation Lab. Based at the University of Manchester, the Lab is an initiative where we explore all things research impact.

This episode was recorded in November 2025 during Transformation Lab week, a series of face to face sessions designed to initiate a critically engaged conversation around research impact and the idea of research for transformation.

In this episode, our GDI colleague Uma Kothari, Professor of migration and postcolonial studies, explores the role of stories and storytelling in research and research impact.

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How can different ways of understanding the world help us tackle the climate emergency? Blanche de Moidrey and Kalani Foster

Tue, 20 Jan 2026 14:00:00 +0000

In this episode, we catch up with two of GDI's second-year PhD students, Blanche de Moidrey and Kalani Foster, to discuss how their research projects relate to the broad themes of indigeneity and knowledge production. We touch on topics including how to grapple with one's positionality as a researcher, the complex political dimensions of indigeneity as a concept, and the ways in which their projects overlap and diverge.

We also discussed Blanche's motivations for setting up a website for her writing, which you can find here: Blanche de Moidrey/ Stewards of the Land

You can also read Blanche's latest article on the GDI blog: Origins of the Human-Nature Separation in Western Thought - Global Development Institute Blog

Find out more about the project with which Kalani is involved - Just Earth Observation for Conservation - on the project website: About the Just Earth Observation for Conservation project

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Why Study a PhD in Development Economics at GDI?

Tue, 25 Nov 2025 13:00:00 +0000

Listen to a discussion between Dr Osman Ouattara and two of our current PhD researchers, Mahtab Uddin and Matilda Kabutey-Ongor.

In this episode they discuss their own research and the new pathway for development economics at GDI.

Learn more here: https://blog.gdi.manchester.ac.uk/gdi...
Or here: https://www.gdi.manchester.ac.uk/stud...

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Alumni Discussion: Navigating Development Careers in the Twenty-First Century

Wed, 12 Nov 2025 11:00:00 +0000

In this episode, Dr Natalie Cunningham, Senior Lecturer in Leadership for Development at GDI, speaks to three UoM alumni about their experiences navigating the contemporary development and humanitarian landscape. Contributors include Stephanie Lord (Head of Global Emergency at the Danish Refugee Council), Shamilah Perumal (Minister for Economic Affairs in the High Commission of Malaysia in New Delhi), and Anna Spethman (Lecturer and Volunteer Manager at the University of Nebraska, Omaha).

This episode is published as part of our initiative exploring the ways in which global crises are impacting the GDI alumni community. If you're a former GDI student keen to share your story, we'd love to hear from you. Get in touch with louisa.hann@manchester.ac.uk for further information.

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In Conversation: Gindo Tampubolon on healthy ageing around the world

Wed, 05 Nov 2025 11:00:00 +0000

A conversation with Gindo Tampubolon, GDI's Reader in Global Health, to discuss his research on global healthy ageing and his work as a lead expert for the World Health Organization's Life Course & Healthy Ageing expert group as part of the UN's Decade of Healthy Ageing Initiative.

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In Conversation: Luis Eduardo Pérez Murcia on home and internal displacement in Colombia

Thu, 23 Oct 2025 09:00:00 +0100

In this episode, we speak to GDI alumnus and research fellow Luis Eduardo Pérez Murcia about his recent open access book, A Long Journey Home: Losing and Remaking Home Following Conflict and Displacement. The book examines the experiences of those whose sense of home has been disrupted by decades of conflict and violence, highlighting the profound feelings of loss and the enduring struggle of living without a home. Luis Eduardo discusses his findings in depth, including various ways in which home is conceptualised, lost, and remade in the lives of displaced people.

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Flexible Embeddedness: In Conversation with Elisa Gambino

Wed, 01 Oct 2025 14:00:00 +0100

In this episode, Rory Horner speaks with Elisa Gambino about her latest paper 'Flexible embeddedness: how Chinese lead firms internationalise in Africa' with Costanza Franceschini.

The ‘rise of the South’, and particularly that of China, has promoted lively debates around the centrality of Southern firms in shaping the contours of twenty first century economic globalisation. This paper contributes to these debates by examining the internationalisation of Chinese lead firms.

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Unravelling African print textiles value chains - with Dr Fidèle Beletchei Ebia

Tue, 19 Aug 2025 15:00:00 +0100

Dr Elisa Gambino (GDI) interviews Dr Fidèle Beletchei Ebia, a postdoctoral researcher with Duke Africa Initiative, about her recent paper analysing how the rise of South-South value chains disrupts the trade of African print textiles.

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A Feminist Commodity Chain Approach to Disinformation - with Anuradha Ganapathy

Tue, 12 Aug 2025 13:00:00 +0100

In this episode, we speak to PhD researcher Anuradha Ganapathy about her recent think piece 'Beyond Digital Platforms: Unpacking Disinformation Through a Feminist Commodity Chain Approach'.

Anuradha discusses alternative approaches to analysing disinformation, moving away from platform centricity and toward an understanding of gendered commodity chains and unpaid labour.

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Financing the Ghanaian Cocoa Sector

Mon, 21 Jul 2025 12:00:00 +0100

In this episode, Sophie Van Huellen (Senior Lecturer in Development Economics at GDI) and Fuad Mohammed Abubakar (Head of Ghana Cocoa Marketing Company UK LTD and Simon Industrial Fellow) talk to Caroline Cornier (PhD Candidate at GDI) about their recent work on the political economy of the Ghanaian cocoa sector. They discuss the implications of poor harvests, changes to the sector's financing model, impacts on farmers, and more.

Read Sophie and Fuad's policy brief here.

Read their GDI working paper here.

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In Conversation: Monika Verma on Securitisation and the Rohingya Community in India

Mon, 07 Jul 2025 15:00:00 +0100

In this episode, visiting postdoctoral scholar Monika Verma (Palacký University Olomouc) sits down with GDI's Ibrahim Efe to discuss her research on the securitization of migration in India, focusing specifically on the case of the Rohingya community. Monika discusses the background to her research, the meaning of securitization in a migration context, and how it affects the daily lives of Rohingya refugees.

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Could a Global Minerals Trust support the green transition? Interview with Saleem Ali

Thu, 03 Jul 2025 09:00:00 +0100

As the world moves towards more sustainable energy sources and infrastructure projects, demand for critical energy transition minerals is surging. Given the uneven distribution of such resources, how can we support cooperative resource management between countries while curbing heightening geopolitical tensions and potential supply chain disruptions?

In a recent paper published in Science, Saleem Ali and co-authors (including GDI's Jose Antonio Puppim De Oliveira) propose the creation of a Global Minerals Trust as a response to such challenges. In this episode of the GDI Podcast, Saleem joins Tomas Frederiksen to discuss the specifics of the proposal, including how it has been received so far and its potential implications for developing countries.

Read the paper here.

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In Conversation: Noam Leshem interviewed by GDI Students for Palestine

Thu, 19 Jun 2025 11:00:00 +0100

In this episode, GDI students Max Slater, Rosie Rochester, and Armando Caroca Fernandez interview Dr Noam Leshem (Durham University) about his new book, Edges of Care: Living and Dying in No Man's Land (The University of Chicago Press). They discuss the notion of no man's land as a site of radical uncaring, exploring the political dynamics of state abandonment in a range of conflict zones such as Palestine, Syria, and Sudan.

Find out more about GDI Students for Palestine here and check out the CfP for their upcoming conference here.

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In Conversation: Payal Arora on Tech Optimism in the Global South

Tue, 29 Apr 2025 10:00:00 +0100

PhD Researcher Anuradha Ganapathy interviews Payal Arora, Professor of Inclusive AI Cultures at Utrecht University and co-founder of two initiatives, Inclusive AI Lab for Debiasing Tech and Fem Lab. The pair discuss Payal's recent book, From Pessimism to Promise: Lessons from the Global South on Designing Inclusive Tech (MIT Press), digging into the role of academia in discussing Big Tech, the positive potential in technologies such as AI, especially in the Global South, and how to bridge the gap between critique and constructive engagement.

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Nigeria's Urban Heritage: In Conversation with Dr Taibat Lawanson

Tue, 08 Apr 2025 15:00:00 +0100

Brought to you by the combined voices of the African Cities Research Consortium and the Global Urban Futures and Environment Policy and Planning research groups, this episode features Dr Taibat Lawanson.

Taibat is an associate professor of urban planning at the University of Lagos and a Leverhulme Professor at the University of Liverpool. In this episode, she explores the past and the future of urban spaces and how essential heritage is to urban planning.

Lean more about Taibat Lawanson here.

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Poverty Amid Conflict | In conversation with Yanchun Zhang

Tue, 25 Mar 2025 13:00:00 +0000

In this episode, GDI's Senior Lecturer Saumik Paul discusses the recently published United Nations Development Programme report on the Multidimensional Poverty Index, 'Poverty Amid Conflict', with Yanchun Zhang, one of the report's authors.

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Students in conversation with Nadia Naser-Najjab: Palestine and decolonisation

Thu, 20 Mar 2025 14:00:00 +0000

GDI students Ellen Logan and Alex Pettifer interview Dr Nadia Naser-Najjab (University of Exeter), covering the discipline of Palestine Studies, how Israel-Palestine can advance our understanding of broader issues surrounding decolonisation, and how people can enrich their understanding of Palestinian histories.

Details of resources mentioned in the episode are accessible on our blog: https://blog.gdi.manchester.ac.uk/recommended-resources-on-palestine-and-decolonisation/

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Tigray war: Modern geographies of mass violence and the invisibilization of populations

Mon, 17 Mar 2025 14:00:00 +0000

In this episode, GDI's very own Tekle Weldemichel discusses his recent paper, 'Tigray war: Modern geographies of mass violence and the invisibilization of populations'. The paper critically examines the strategies and tactics employed by the Ethiopian government and its allies to sustain a “zone of invisibility” around the Tigray war.

Read the paper here: Tigray war: Modern geographies of mass violence and the invisibilization of populations - ScienceDirect

Tekle recently joined GDI as Lecturer in Environment and Development. Read more about Tekle's work: Teklehaymanot Weldemichel - Research Explorer The University of Manchester

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Interdisciplinary Approaches to Conservation | Amy Penfield and Filipe França

Tue, 25 Feb 2025 12:00:00 +0000

In this episode brought to you by the Sustainable Forest Transitions Project, research associate Lucas Alencar speaks with anthropologist Amy Penfield and ecologist Filipe França from the University of Bristol.

Lucas, Amy and Filipe discuss the roles anthropology, ecology and other disciplines can play in conservation both in isolation and in collaboration with one another to build policy, networks and action.

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Decoloniality: Beyond a Metaphor - Lecture with Prof Uma Kothari

Tue, 11 Feb 2025 15:00:00 +0000

Towards the end of 2024, GDI's Professor Uma Kothari delivered a lecture titled 'Decoloniality: Beyond a Metaphor'. We're fortunate enough to have recorded the lecture, in which Uma discusses how metaphor can inhibit attempts to decolonise our societies and institutions, as well as the role of material reparations in addressing past and present injustices. Listen to it here.

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Global Development Today... Whose 'Development' Is It Really?

Fri, 11 Oct 2024 10:00:00 +0100

Chaired by Professor Nicola Banks and Selim Iyirdirli, this episode brings to you a lecture discussion between Deborah Doane, author of ‘The INGO Problem: Power, Privilege and Renewal’, and Nana Asantewa Afadzinu, Executive Director of the West Africa Civil Society Institute.

In the episode, Deborah, Niki, and Nana discuss current challenges within the aid sector, how Southern NGOs are leading calls for structural change in global development, and whether International NGOs are rising to the challenge set.

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In Conversation: Joan Martínez-Alier on Environmentalism

Mon, 03 Jun 2024 13:00:00 +0100

In this episode, GDI's Armando Caroca and Rose Pritchard speak with Joan Martínez-Alier, an economist and emeritus professor of economics and senior researcher at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona.

Throughout his career, Joan has made important contributions to ecological economics and political ecology in his work on environmentalism of the poor. In this episode, we discuss Joan's new book: 'Land, Water, Air, and Freedom: The Making of a World Movement for Environmental Justice' which can be found here.

Armando Caroca is a GDI PhD researcher working on topics of mining waste and territories of extraction in Chile.

Rose Pritchard is a Presidential Fellow in Socio-Environmental Systems at GDI.

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Dr Portia Roelofs & Anna Thurlbeck on Good Governance in Nigeria

Thu, 23 May 2024 11:00:00 +0100

In this episode, GDI PhD researcher Anna Thurlbeck speaks with Dr Portia Roelofs, lecturer in politics at Kings College London.

Dr Roelofs provides an unmissable deep dive into the background and key themes of her new book 'Good Governance in Nigeria: Rethinking Accountability and Transparency in the Twenty-First Century'.

Listen now!

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Dr Roelofs has degrees from Oxford, SOAS and LSE. She has held post-doctoral fellowships at the LSE and St Anne’s College, Oxford. She has been a visiting researcher at the Universities of Maiduguri and Ibadan, Nigeria. She is co-convenor of the Political Studies Association special group on Global Development Politics and sits on the editorial board of the African Arguments book series. She is a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy.

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Sustainable Forest Transitions: In conversation with Dr Pooja Choksi

Thu, 16 May 2024 09:00:00 +0100

In this episode, PhD researcher Mariana C. Hernandez-Montilla continues a new series of podcasts linked to the GDI's Sustainable Forest Transitions project. Mariana chats to Dr Pooja Choksi, Postdoctoral Associate at the University of Minnesota and co-founder of Project Dhvani, about her work monitoring the impacts of ecological restoration, including the use of passive acoustic monitoring to track vocalizing species in Indian landscapes.

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Lwanga Bwalya of Play it Forward Zambia speaks with One World Together

Thu, 18 Apr 2024 10:00:00 +0100

In this episode, One World Together's co-founder Nicola Banks and Community Space Development Lead Asma Bham speak with one of their community partners: Lwanga Bwalya of Play it Forward Zambia.

Lwanga dives into the complexities of navigating projects within the current funding system, as well as his own experiences with community-led initiatives both as a young person and now as a leading member of Play it Forward.

Niki, Asma, and Lwanga then explore how we can rethink the system with new models, such as that of One World Together.

This episode is not to be missed!

You can find out more about Play it Forward Zambia here, and sign up as a global citizen with One World Together here.

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Panel Discussion: Sustainable Forest Transitions Project Launch

Tue, 09 Apr 2024 11:00:00 +0100

Following the launch of the Sustainable Forest Transitions project at Manchester Museum on the 6th March 2024, we bring you a new episode featuring the event's opening remarks and the incredible panel discussion that took place.

In this episode, you will hear from Kieran Dodds, Polyanna da Conceição Bispo, Felipe Melo, Adithya Pradeep and Rose Pritchard, with host and project lead Johan Oldekop guiding the discussion.

If you want to follow the project or learn more, you can do so here.

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In Conversation: Kiya Gezahegne + Oliver Bakewell on Migration

Tue, 02 Apr 2024 16:00:00 +0100

Oliver Bakewell, Impact Director at GDI, discusses migration practices along the Ethiopia-Sudan border with Kiya Gezahegne, an ethnographic researcher from the University of Addis Ababa.

Kiya and Oliver have worked together on multiple projects exploring local migration realities and policy effects. In this episode, they draw interesting observations by setting Ethiopian and European contexts side by side.

Have a listen to their conversation to learn more!

About Kiya Gezahegne:

Kiya Gezahegne is an experienced feminist researcher and lecturer based at the Department of Social Anthropology, Addis Ababa University, Ethiopia. She has been involved in ethnographic research for over eight years on a range of migration related areas including experiences of Ethiopian migrants to and from the Middle East, migration management and livelihoods at the Ethiopia-Sudan border, interlinkages between migration and poverty in Ethiopia, as well as understanding migration and the labour market in Addis Ababa among others.

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Sustainable Forest Transitions: In conversation with Dr Sreeja Jaiswal

Mon, 12 Feb 2024 13:00:00 +0000

In this episode, PhD researcher Sandy Nofyanza kicks off a new series of podcasts linked to the GDI's Sustainable Forest Transitions project. Sandy chats to Dr Sreeja Jaiswal, Humboldt Foundation’s International Climate Protection Postdoc Fellow at the University of Heidelberg, about challenges associated with forest restoration efforts and debates surrounding mitigation measures such as carbon offsets.

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Cash Transfers for Poverty Reduction | Francisco V Ayala

Mon, 15 Jan 2024 12:00:00 +0000

In this episode, Francisco V. Ayala discusses his new book, Cash Transfers for Poverty Reduction: An International Operational Guide (Routledge, 2023), co-authored with GDI’s David Lawson. The book offers the first systematic discussion of the design and implementation of cash transfer programmes, including practical guidance for students and key stakeholders who are – or will be – responsible for designing, implementing, monitoring, and evaluating such programmes.

Francisco is an international social protection consultant and President of Ayala Consulting Corporation/SOPROEN. David Lawson is Senior Lecturer in Development Economics and Public Policy at the Global Development Institute.

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In Conversation: Jon Alexander with Nicola Banks and Chibwe Masabo Henry

Thu, 14 Dec 2023 13:00:00 +0000

Selim Iyidirli hosts a conversation around One World Together and its model for Global Citizenship with Jon Alexander, author of Citizens: How the Key to Fixing Everything is All of Us, and Nicola Banks and Chibwe Masabo Henry, Co-Founders and Chief Stewards of One World Together. Have a listen, and then come and join their wave of change!

More about Jon Alexander
Jon Alexander began his career with success in advertising, winning the prestigious Big Creative Idea of the Year before making a dramatic change. Driven by a deep need to understand the impact on society of 3,000 commercial messages a day, he gathered three Masters degrees, exploring consumerism and its alternatives from every angle. In 2014, he co-founded the New Citizenship Project to bring the resulting ideas into contact with reality.

Citizens: How the Key to Fixing Everything is All of Us

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Unpacking the ‘Developing’ Country Classification | Deborah Barros Leal Farias

Wed, 25 Oct 2023 15:00:00 +0100

The division of the world into ‘developing’ and ‘developed’ countries has grown increasingly problematic in the past decades. Nonetheless, it remains embedded in legal documents, foreign policy discourse, and colloquial use. In this lecture, Dr Deborah explores this complexity by unpacking the different ways in which the ‘developing’ label is used in the international system, arguing that understanding the complexity around its use requires a rigorous analysis of the label’s diverse meanings and consequences.

Deborah Barros Leal Farias is a Brazilian-born Senior Lecturer at UNSW Sydney's School of Social Sciences, where she teaches Politics and International Relations. She has a multidisciplinary background: PhD in Political Science from UBC (Canada), as well as an MA in International Relations, a bachelor degree in Economy and another in Law, all from Brazilian institutions. Her current main areas of interest involve hierarchy in global governance, particularly the interaction of non-great powers in international organizations, and Brazilian politics.

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What role can researchers play in driving urban reform?

Fri, 29 Sep 2023 14:00:00 +0100

This episode comes from the African Cities Research Centre, based at the Global Development Institute.

Urban reform coalitions can play a critical role in building inclusive, sustainable and productive cities. Made up of diverse stakeholders who collaborate to achieve common goals, these coalitions can work to strengthen relationships between disadvantaged groups and influential state/non-state actors. This collective action can be powerful in challenging socioeconomic inequality and enabling marginalised groups to capitalise on political opportunities for inclusive reform.

So where do researchers come in?

This podcast episode is a recording from a webinar ACRC held in September 2023 to discuss the role that academics, action researchers and professionals can play in fostering the formation and functioning of urban reform coalitions. In doing so, they wanted to give special focus to how knowledge and evidence can catalyse urban reform coalitions.

Chaired by ACRC research associate, Ezana Haddis Weldeghebrael, the webinar comprised presentations from three panellists, who talked about their experiences of working with urban reform coalitions and shared valuable lessons learned, followed by a question-and-answer session.

Shalini Sinha is the urban Asia lead and home-based work sector specialist at Women in Informal Employment: Globalizing and Organizing (WIEGO). She discusses the “I, Too, am Delhi” campaign, including the importance of having multi-sectoral partnerships and an intersectional perspective, along with the need to “demystify the technical”.

Catherine Sutherland is an associate professor at the University of KwaZulu-Natal. She shares her experiences and lessons from co-producing knowledge with disadvantaged groups in the Palmiet Catchment Rehabilitation Project, aimed at building flood resilience in Durban, South Africa.

Paul Mukwaya is coordinator at the Urban Action Lab and ACRC's city lead for Kampala. He talks about his experiences as part of the Just City and Informality Working Group, led by Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung (FES) Uganda.

Ezana Haddis Weldeghebrael is a research associate at the African Cities Research Consortium, supporting research across the crosscutting themes of finance, gender and climate change.

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Is Development Studies still relevant? A discussion with Sam Hickey, Heloise Weber and Winnie Mitullah

Thu, 29 Jun 2023 14:00:00 +0100

The latest episode of our podcast brings together Sam Hickey, President of the Development Studies Association UK, Heloise Weber, President of the Development Studies Association Australia and special guest Winnie Mitullah from IDS, University of Nairobi. The three discuss the relevance of development studies in the current climate.

Sam Hickey is President of the Development Studies Association UK. He is Head of the Global Development Institute, Professor of Politics and Development and Deputy CEO of the African Cities Research Consortium. His research examines the links between politics and development, including issues of state capacity and elite commitment, natural resource governance, social exclusion and adverse incorporation, citizenship participation and NGOs and the politics of social protection and social justice.

Heloise Weber is President of the Development Studies Association Australia. She is Senior Lecturer in the School of Political Science and International Studies, The University of Queensland, Australia. Her research addresses how knowledge-production and representation shape and justify framings of 'development' at a macro-political level, and what this means for people

Winnie Mitullah is a Research Professor of Development Studies at the Institute for Development Studies, The University of Nairobi (IDS) and UNESCO UNITWIN Chair. She has researched and consulted in the areas of governance, in particular in the area of provision and management of urban services and the role of stakeholders in development.

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In Conversation: Kathy Dodworth + Elisa Gambino

Wed, 21 Jun 2023 12:00:00 +0100

In this episode Elisa Gambino is joined by Kathy Dodworth. They discuss Kathy’s new book, Legitimation as Political Practice, her transition from working at an NGO to academia and the idea of the non-state

Dr Kathy Dodworth is a Wellcome Trust Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Edinburgh's Centre for African Studies. Her current fellowship critically re-examines contemporary community health work in Kenya. She recently published her book Legitimation as Political Practice: Crafting Everyday Authority in Tanzania, which combines ethnographic fieldwork with theoretical innovation, reworking legitimacy as a collection of practices.

More about Kathy Dodworth

Dr Elisa Gambino joined GDI in 2023 as Lecturer in Global Development, with a focus on Global Political Economy. In January 2024, she will begin a three-year Hallsworth Political Economy Fellowship titled “African hubs, Chinese trade, and global circulation,” which focuses on the networks of Chinese companies and entrepreneurs increasingly engaged in cross-border exchanges in West Africa.

More about Elisa Gambino

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South Sudan’s decades of displacement: Understanding return and questioning reintegration

Mon, 12 Jun 2023 12:00:00 +0100

People in South Sudan have experienced decades of forced displacement and cross-border mobility, resulting in families split across the country and neighbouring Sudan, Kenya, Ethiopia and Uganda. According to the United Nations as of 2021, more than four million South Sudanese citizens were displaced either internally or internationally.
Samuel Hall in collaboration with Research and Evidence Facility (REF) explored the experiences of displacement, return, and reintegration among South Sudanese refugees, returnees and internally displaced persons (IDPs). This podcast, based on the report released by Samuel Hall and REF, explores the experiences of displacement, return and reintegration among South Sudanese refugees, returnees, and internally displaced persons. Through their stories, expert insights and our analysis, we understand key systemic and discuss potential durable solutions for sustainable reintegration.

With thanks to, Chris Siracuse, Devyani Nighoskar, Tanya Kathuria, Nassim Majidi and Joseph Malish.

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In Conversation: Lisa Ann Richey + Tanja Müller

Wed, 10 May 2023 13:00:00 +0100

In this episode Tanja Müller talks to Lisa Ann Richey about her career and her recent book, Batman Saves the Congo: How Celebrities Disrupt the Politics of Development.

Lisa Ann Richey is Professor of Globalisation and Development Studies at the Department of Management, Society and Communication Copenhagen Business School. Her research looks at values and international politics of humanitarianism.

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Tanja Müller is Professor of Political Sociology at the Global Development Institute. Tanja has recently completed a research project on the potential role of the business sector in refugee integration andhumanitarian response. She is currently the Principal Investigator of an ESRC-funded project on transnational lived citizenship and political belonging in the Horn of Africa. She is also developing a new cooperation with Prof Adriana Kemp from Tel Aviv University on inscribing mobile lives into urban peripheries.

More about Tanja Müller

Tanja Müller

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In Conversation: Tom Goodfellow + Pritish Behuria

Mon, 27 Feb 2023 15:00:00 +0000

In this episode Tom Goodfellow and Pritish Behuria discuss Tom's career and his new book, Politics and the Urban Frontier: Transformation and Divergence in Late Urbanizing East Africa.

Despite the rise of global technocratic ideals of city-making, cities around the world are not merging into indistinguishable duplicates of one another. In fact, as the world urbanizes, urban formations remain diverse in their socioeconomic and spatial characteristics, with varying potential to foster economic development and social justice. In his book, Tom Goodfellow argues that these differences are primarily rooted in politics, and if we continue to view cities as economic and technological projects to be managed rather than terrains of political bargaining and contestation, the quest for better urban futures is doomed to fail. Dominant critical approaches to urban development tend to explain difference with reference to the variegated impacts of neoliberal regulatory institutions. This, however, neglects the multiple ways in which the wider politics of capital accumulation and distribution drive divergent forms of transformation in different urban places.

Tom Goodfellow is Professor of Urban Studies & International Development at the University of Sheffield. His research focuses on the political economy of urban development and change in Africa, particularly the politics of urban land and transportation, conflicts around infrastructure and housing, and urban institutional change.
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Pritish Behuria is Senior Lecturer in Politics, Governance & Development at the Global Development Institute. His research operates at the intersection of development studies, comparative politics and international political economy. He is a political economist, taking an interdisciplinary approach to studying the challenges associated with late development under 21st Century Globalisation.

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Building inclusive urban reform coalitions | Diana Mitlin

Mon, 13 Feb 2023 15:00:00 +0000

This episode comes from the African Cities Research Consortium podcast.

Diana Mitlin talks to Ezana Haddis Weldeghebrael about her new paper on how reform coalitions can contribute to inclusive equitable urban change in the global South, her experiences of working with coalitions in Africa and Asia, the future of the urban reform agenda in African cities, and an upcoming conference being organised by ACRC.

Diana Mitlin is CEO of the African Cities Research Consortium and professor of global urbanism at The University of Manchester’s Global Development Institute.

Ezana Haddis Weldeghebrael is a postdoctoral research fellow at the African Cities Research Consortium, supporting research across the crosscutting themes of finance, gender and climate change.

The African Cities Research Consortium is a major six-year investment by FCDO to fund new, operationally-relevant research to address intractable development challenges in African cities.

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Community-led planning and transformation with Charity Mumbi and Jane Wairutu

Mon, 19 Dec 2022 15:00:00 +0000

This episode comes from the African Cities Research Consortium podcast.

“It’s not our data as SDI, it’s not ACRC data, it’s not their data. It’s the community’s data. So you have to have that understanding that, at the end of the day, it has to benefit the community.”

In this episode, Miriam Maina talks to Charity Mumbi and Jane Wairutu from SDI-Kenya about community-led mapping and data collection, participatory planning processes, and the role of research in inclusive urban transformation.

Charity Mumbi is an urban and regional planner and a project officer at SDI-Kenya, supporting community-led planning, research and data management activities.

Jane Wairutu is a sociologist and programme manager at SDI-Kenya, working closely with data and project implementation teams.

Miriam Maina is from Nairobi and is a postdoctoral research fellow at the African Cities Research Consortium, working on the housing domain.

The African Cities Research Consortium is a major six-year investment by FCDO to fund new, operationally-relevant research to address intractable development challenges in African cities.

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In Conversation: Amani Abou-Zeid

Fri, 04 Nov 2022 13:00:00 +0000

In the latest Global Development Institute podcast Amani Abou-Zeid, African Union Commissioner in charge of infrastructure, energy and ICT, talks to Seth Schindler about energy security and infrastructural development in Africa.

Ahead of COP27 in Egypt, they reflect on Africa’s energy “evolution” in relation to climate change, why integration is key to bridging the continent’s infrastructure gap, the impact of rising interest rates on foreign and local investment, and the regional innovation and cooperation that has emerged in response to multiple crises, including Covid-19 and the war in Ukraine.

Amani Abou-Zeid is the twice-elected African Union Commissioner in charge of infrastructure, energy and ICT, and is also chair of African Cities Research Consortium's advisory group, which is based at GDI. She holds a PhD in social and economic development from the Global Development Institute at The University of Manchester.

Seth Schindler is senior lecturer in urban development and transformation at The University of Manchester’s Global Development Institute and co-research director of the African Cities Research Consortium.

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In Conversation: Basma Albanna + Richard Heeks

Mon, 24 Oct 2022 10:00:00 +0100

Development studies often focuses on the negative: constraints, challenges, negative impacts, etc. But what if we could use new digital datasets to identify positive deviants: outlier individuals, households, districts and others that outperform their peers in achievement of development goals?

In this episode, Basma Albanna and Richard Heeks discuss the “Data-Powered Positive Deviance” (DPPD) programme. The programme built on an original idea by GDI researcher, Basma Albanna, that was fleshed out in a paper co-authored with Richard Heeks, GDI’s Professor of Digital Development. It argued that traditional methods of identifying positive deviants relied on costly and time-consuming primary data-gathering from the field. Instead, it might be possible to identify outliers in the growing number of digital datasets already available.

Basma Albanna studied for her PhD at the Global Development Institute. She is now a lecturer at Ain Shams University and a Consultant for the GIZ Data Lab

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Richard Heeks is Professor of Digital Development in the Global Development Institute, part of the School of Environment, Education and Development. He is Director of the Centre for Digital Development.

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In Conversation: Stefano Ponte

Thu, 29 Sep 2022 10:00:00 +0100

In this episode, Stefano Ponte talks to Aarti Krishnan about his research into sustainability, the wine and seafood value chains in South Africa and his recent book Business, Power and Sustainability in a World of Global Value Chains

Dr Stefano Ponte is a Professor of International Political Economy at Copenhagen Business School. His research looks at transnational economic and environmental governance, with a focus on overlaps and tensions between private authority and public regulation. Dr Aarti Krishnan is a Hallsworth Research Fellow at the Global Development Institute

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Shifting South: Horticulture regional value chains and decent work in Africa

Tue, 23 Aug 2022 16:00:00 +0100

In the second of our Shifting South series, Stephanie Barrientos talks to Margareet Visser and Maggie Opondo. They reflect on the project and their research into horticultural value chains.

Shifting South investigated:

the rise of South-South trade through regional and domestic markets
what this means for decent work – especially women in precarious jobs
and looked at specific commodities and value chains in the horticulture and garment sectors in South Africa, Lesotho and Kenya.

Panel

Prof. Stephanie Barrientos, Global Development Institute, The University of Manchester
Dr Maggie Opondo, The Institute for Climate Change and Adaptation, The University of Nairobi
Margareet Visser, Institute of Development and Labour Law, University of Cape Town

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Shifting South: Regional garment value chains and decent work in Southern Africa

Wed, 27 Jul 2022 14:00:00 +0100

In the first of our Shifting South series, Stephanie Barrientos talks to Khalid Nadvi and Shane Godfrey. They reflect on the project and their research into regional garment value chains, and decent work in Southern Africa.

Shifting South investigated:

the rise of South-South trade through regional and domestic markets
what this means for decent work – especially women in precarious jobs
and looked at specific commodities and value chains in the horticulture and garment sectors in South Africa, Lesotho and Kenya.

Panel

Prof. Stephanie Barrientos, Global Development Institute, The University of Manchester
Dr Shane Godfrey, Institute of Development and Labour Law, University of Cape Town
Prof. Khalid Nadvi, Global Development Institute, The University of Manchester

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In Conversation: Stefan Dercon

Fri, 17 Jun 2022 12:04:56 +0100

In the latest episode of the GDI podcast, Professor Stefan Dercon talks to Dr Sophie van Huellen.

They discuss Stefan's new book, "Gambling on Development: why some countries win and others lose", his recent departure from the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, and his advice to academics wanting to work with civil servants and policymakers.

Stefan Dercon is Professor of Economic Policy at Oxford University. Between 2011 and 2017, he was Chief Economist of the Department of International Development (DFID), and from 20200- 2022, he was the Development Policy Advisor to successive Foreign Secretaries at the UK’s Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office.

Sophie van Huellen is a Lecturer in Development Economics at the Global Development Institute.

Transcript and more information

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Urban metabolism, water scarcity & seawater desalination in Chile | Maria Christina Fragkou

Wed, 18 May 2022 15:33:02 +0100

GDI’s Resources, Environment, and Development research group have recently organised a series of talks on ‘Red Talks: on the Politics of Resources, Environment and Development'

The first event welcomed Dr Maria Christina Fragkou, an environmental scientist currently working as an Associate Professor in the Department of Geography at the University of Chile to discuss ‘Urban metabolism, water scarcity and seawater desalination in Chile under a neoliberal paradigm’

In her talk, Maria shared her research on the current water crisis in Chile, and the hydro-social implications of desalination (widely promoted as a solution to the crisis) from an urban socio-economic metabolism perspective. The increasing water shortages along Chile, and the consequent pressure on the country’s continental water sources, has resulted in the consolidation of seawater desalination as the Chilean State’s main strategy for supplying drinking water to coastal populations in arid areas. Despite the growing expansion of this technology, the social implications of desalinated water distribution for human consumption in Chilean cities have not yet been studied.

A transcript of the talk

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Global Covid-19 vaccine inequality | Karrar Karrar, Lara Dovifat & Ken Shadlen

Tue, 03 May 2022 16:07:46 +0100

While the Covid-19 pandemic has caused enormous devastation and disruption in health, social and economic terms, the remarkably quick development of Covid-19 vaccines is an enormous achievement. Yet despite frequent statements that “it's not over anywhere, until it’s over everywhere”, the distribution of Covid-19 vaccines has been grossly inequitable – defying what the world needs epidemiologically and economically, as well as ethically.

The panel of leading academic and activist experts reflect on one of the biggest immediate problems facing the world – looking back at how global Covid-19 vaccine inequality has emerged and exploring what needs to happen now and in the future to address the ongoing issue, and help prevent similar future problems. It will explore aspects including the roles and limitations of technology transfer, patent protection, vaccine nationalism, COVAX as a multilateral initiative.
Speakers:
Karrar Karrar is a Senior Advisor – Pharmaceutical Policy, Save the Children
Lara Dovifat is Campaign Manager, Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders (MSF)
Prof. Ken Shadlen is a Professor of Development Studies, LSE)
Chair:
Rory Horner Senior Lecturer, Global Development Institute, University of Manchester

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Disaggregating China, Inc: State Strategies in the Liberal Economic Order | Yeling Tan

Tue, 19 Apr 2022 11:18:51 +0100

Yeling Tan discusses her book, Disaggregating China, Inc: State Strategies in the Liberal Economic Order. China’s entry into the World Trade Organization in 2001 represented an historic opportunity to peacefully integrate a rising economic power into the international order based on market-liberal rules. Yet rising economic tensions between the US and China indicate that this integration process has run into trouble. To what extent has the liberal internationalist promise of the WTO been fulfilled? To answer this question, this podcast breaks open the black box of the massive Chinese state and unpacks the economic strategies that central economic agencies as well as subnational authorities adopted in response to WTO rules demanding far-reaching modifications to China’s domestic institutions. Tan explains why, rather than imposing constraints, WTO entry provoked divergent policy responses from different actors within the Chinese state, in ways neither expected nor desired by the architects of the WTO.

Yeling Tan is Assistant Professor of Political Science at The University of Oregon

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The New International Economic Order & the Right to Development | Jennifer Bair

Tue, 05 Apr 2022 13:00:00 +0100

This podcast focuses on development politics at the United Nations, particularly the period of the so-called New International Economic Order (NIEO) in the 1970s. The NIEO was an effort by Third World countries to pursue a reform agenda that combined global redistribution from North to South with state-led developmentalism at the national level. By revisiting this fascinating and tumultuous period in the global political economy, Bair aims to re-centre the role of Southern states in debates about globalization, human rights and inequality.

Jennifer Bair is Professor of Sociology and Department Chair at The University of Virginia

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The Routledge Handbook of Global Development: Episode 3

Mon, 28 Mar 2022 14:32:49 +0100

To mark the launch of The Routledge Handbook of Global Development, we have recorded 3 podcasts with the core editorial team.In the final episode, core-editor Kearrin Sims sat down with Albert Salamanca and Pichamon Yeophantong, section editors for the book’s section ‘Sustainabilty and Environment’.Kearrin Sims is a lecturer in Development Studies at James Cook University, Australia.Albert Salamanca is a senior research fellow at the Stockholm Environment Institute’s Asia Centre, Thailand.Pichamon Yeophantong is a senior lecturer at the University of New South Wales, Canberra.Find out more about the book: http://blog.gdi.manchester.ac.uk/new-handbook-challenges-dominant-development-paradigms/Read a transcript of the podcast: https://hummedia.manchester.ac.uk/institutes/gdi/research/transcripts/routledge-handbook-global-development-e3.pdfIntro music Anna Banana by Eaters.

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The Routledge Handbook of Global Development: Episode 2

Fri, 25 Feb 2022 11:32:40 +0000

In this second podcast to mark the launch of The Routledge Handbook of Global Development, Professor Jonathan Rigg sits down with Dr Nicola Banks, the section editor of 'Game Changers of global development?', to find out what makes a 'game changer' and how development pedagogy can learn from them.Jonathan Rigg is Professor of Development Geography in the School of Geographical Sciences at the University of Bristol.Nicola Banks is Senior Lecturer in Global Urbanism and Urban Development at the Global Development Institute at the University of Manchester.Find out more about the book: http://blog.gdi.manchester.ac.uk/new-handbook-challenges-dominant-development-paradigms/Read a transcript of the podcast: https://hummedia.manchester.ac.uk/institutes/gdi/research/transcripts/routledge-handbook-global-development-e2.pdfIntro music Anna Banana by Eaters.

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The Routledge Handbook of Global Development: Episode 1

Thu, 24 Feb 2022 11:34:59 +0000

To mark the launch of The Routledge Handbook of Global Development, we have recorded 3 podcasts with the core editorial team.In this first episode, core-editor Kearrin Sims sat down with co-editors Susan Engel, Paul Hodge and Naohiro Nakamura, to discuss their motivations behind the book, what makes this volume so special, and how it deals with 'global' development.Kearrin Sims is a lecturer in Development Studies at James Cook University, Australia.Susan Engel is an associate professor in Politics and International Studies at the University of Wollongong, Australia.Paul Hodge is a senior lecturer in Geography and Environmental Studies at The University of Newcastle, Australia.Naohiro Nakamura is a senior lecturer in Geography at the University of the South Pacific, Fiji.Find out more about the book: http://blog.gdi.manchester.ac.uk/new-handbook-challenges-dominant-development-paradigms/Read a transcript of the podcast: https://hummedia.manchester.ac.uk/institutes/gdi/research/transcripts/routledge-handbook-global-development-e1.pdfIntro music Anna Banana by Eaters.

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In Conversation: Shuaib Lwasa

Wed, 26 Jan 2022 13:18:14 +0000

In the latest episode of the GDI podcast Professor Shuaib Lwasa talks to Dr Seth Schindler. They discuss the recent COP in Glasgow, urban development, African cities and the Urban Action Lab.

Shuaib Lwasa is a Professor of Urban Sustainability at Makerere University, Uganda. He has worked extensively on interdisciplinary research projects focused on African cities but also in South Asia. He established and directed an Urban Action Research Lab in 2010 which has championed graduate research and training and incubating novel ideas of urban transformation and sustainability in partnership with low-income communities and vulnerable groups working in three research sites in Uganda.

Seth Schindler is Senior Lecturer in Urban Development and Transformation in the Global Development Institute. His research is focused on large-scale urban and regional transformation initiatives that integrate cities into transnational urban systems. Seth is also co-research director of the African Cities Research Consortium, a six-year programme funded by the UK’s Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, which seeks to generate new insights and approaches to tackle complex problems in Africa’s rapidly changing cities.

Read a transcript of this podcast.

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Why addressing global discontent is essential to build back better from Covid-19 | Alexander Pick

Thu, 13 Jan 2022 16:04:37 +0000

Social unrest is on the rise once more. A surge in discontent in the wake of the global financial crisis was interrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic but is resuming in many places and in many different forms as the pandemic begins to recede. The causes, manifestations and consequences of this discontent is the subject of Perspectives on Global Development 2021: From protest to progress? – a new flagship report by the OECD Development Centre. In this lecture, Alexander Pick, the lead author of the report, will discuss its key findings about the complexities of discontent, what the phenomenon tells us about the world around us, and what needs to be done to address it, at a local, national and international level.

Alexander Pick is Head of New Development Policies and Institutions at the OECD Development Centre.

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US-China rivalry in global trade governance | Kristen Hopewell

Thu, 18 Nov 2021 16:08:18 +0000

In this podcast, Kristen Hopewell, Canada Research Chair in Global Policy, presents research from her new book analyzing the impact of the growing US-China conflict on the multilateral trading system. Hopewell argues that China’s ascent has significantly weakened American control over the governing institutions of the trading system and its power to write the rules of global trade. The US and China are engaged in a pitched battle to set the rules of global economic competition, and the confrontation between these two dominant powers has paralyzed global trade rule-making. The China Paradox – the fact that China is both a developing country and an economic powerhouse – has created significant challenges for global trade governance. While China demands exemptions from global trade disciplines as a developing country, the US refuses to extend special treatment to its rival. The implications of this conflict extend far beyond trade, impeding pro-development and pro-environment reforms of the global trading system.You can find a transcript of this podcast here: https://hummedia.manchester.ac.uk/institutes/gdi/research/transcripts/us-china-rivalry-global-trade-governance-kristen-hopewell.pdf

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GDI & the SDGs: Creating sustainable livelihoods through group farming | Bina Agarwal

Tue, 06 Jul 2021 14:55:16 +0100

In this new mini-series three GDI academics talk to The University of Manchester’s Dr Nic Gowland about how their research is helping to deliver the UN Sustainable Development Goals for global health, equality and sustainability.More than 80% of South Asia’s farmers are cultivating under two hectares, usually in scattered plots. Most lack access to irrigation, credit, technical information, and the means to tackle climate change. A growing proportion of farms are managed by women, but without owning the land they cultivate, as men move to non-farm jobs.For more than a decade, Bina Agarwal, Professor of Development Economics and Environment at the Global Development Institute, has examined whether cultivating in groups by voluntarily pooling land, labour, funds and skills and sharing costs and benefits, would enable small farmers to create larger, more profitable enterprises in South Asia, and beyond.You can read a transcript of this podcast here: http://hummedia.manchester.ac.uk/institutes/gdi/research/transcripts/gdi-and-sdgs-bina-agarwal.pdf

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GDI & the SDGs: Preventing cardiovascular disease through smart technologies | Gindo Tampubolon

Wed, 30 Jun 2021 11:39:17 +0100

In this new mini-series three GDI academics talk to The University of Manchester’s Dr Nic Gowland about how their research is helping to deliver the UN Sustainable Development Goals for global health, equality and sustainability.Research shows that nearly 70% of Indonesians aged 40 and over, with moderate to high cardiovascular risk, don’t receive cardiovascular care.To address this need, Dr Gindo Tampubolon, joined a new research-policy collaboration. This collaboration included the Universities of Manchester and Brawijaya, the George Institute for Global Health and the Indonesia and the District Government of Malang. The team trained local health workers (kaders)on cardiovascular disease, risk factors and the technical use of an app called SMARThealth. The app analysed samples in real time, producing a simple traffic light system (green-amber-red) to indicate cardiovascular risk, simplifying the World Health Organization’s complex five-tiered grading systems.Over two years, doctors and kaders served approximately 48,000 people across eight villages, with 12,000 individuals over the age of 40 screened for heart disease. Results showed a reduction in the risk of cardiovascular deaths by identifying people at risk and then having health professionals prescribe lifestyle and/or drug interventions.Transcript available here: http://hummedia.manchester.ac.uk/institutes/gdi/research/transcripts/gdi-and-sdgs-gindo-tampubolon.pdf

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GDI & the SDGs: Gender equality in global value chains | Stephanie Barrientos

Tue, 22 Jun 2021 16:00:48 +0100

In this new mini-series three GDI academics talk to The University of Manchester’s Dr Nic Gowland about how their research is helping to deliver the UN Sustainable Development Goals for global health, equality and sustainability.Prof Stephanie Barrientos has been researching the role of workers for over a decade. Her particular focus is on gender in the production of consumer goods sourced by retailers and brands through GVCs.Her work has changed the way a number of large companies deal with issues faced by women workers in the Global South, resulting in improved conditions and rights, enhancing prospects for millions of women worldwide.Transcript available here: http://hummedia.manchester.ac.uk/institutes/gdi/research/transcripts/gdi-and-sdgs-stephanie-barrientos.pdf

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Oil: from a lifetime of damage-limitation to outrage | David Little

Mon, 10 May 2021 16:54:34 +0100

In the latest Global Development Institute podcast, Professor David Hulme interviews Dr David Little, an environmental consultant who has worked internationally on oil spills for a major part of his life. They discuss his work and their recent journal article on oil spills and climate change. You can find a transcript of this podcast on our website.

Read David and David's recent paper.

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Uneven and combined (state) capitalism | Ilias Alami & Adam Dixon

Wed, 14 Apr 2021 11:20:05 +0100

Nick Jepson talks to Ilias Alami and Adam Dixon about their recent talk at the Global Development Institute. The talk blurb is below:The talk contributes to the development of state capitalism as a reflexively critical project focusing on the morphology of present-day capitalism, and particularly on the changing role of the state. We bring analytical clarity to state capitalism studies by offering a rigorous definition of its object of investigation, and by demonstrating how the category state capitalism can be productively construed as a means of problematising the current aggregate expansion of the state’s role as promoter, supervisor, and owner of capital across the world economy. Noting some of the geographical shortcomings of the field, we outline an alternative research agenda – uneven and combined state capitalist development – which aims at spatialising the study of state capitalism and revitalising systemic explanations of the phenomenon. We then offer a geographic reconstruction of the current advent of state capitalism. We identify the determinate historical-geographical capitalist transformations which underpin contemporary state capitalism. Such processes include: the accelerating unfolding of the new international division of labour; technological modernization and industrial upgrading culminating in the Fourth Industrial Revolution; an unprecedented concentration and centralisation of capital; and a secular shift in the centre of gravity of the global economy from the North Atlantic to the Pacific rim. The political mediation of these processes results in new geographies of intervention, which develop in combinatorial and cumulative forms, producing further state capitalist modalities. This is a particularly potent dynamic in contemporary state capitalism, and its tendency to develop in a spiral that both shapes and is shaped by world capitalist development.Transcript available here: http://hummedia.manchester.ac.uk/institutes/gdi/research/transcripts/uneven-combined-state-capitalism.pdf

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How to fight inequality(and why that fight needs you) | Ben Phillips

Wed, 31 Mar 2021 15:56:31 +0100

Inequality is the crisis of our time. The growing gap between a few at the top and the rest of society damages us all. No longer able to deny the crisis, every government in the world is now pledged to fix it – and yet it keeps on getting worse.This talk focuses on his new book, and Ben Phillips has shown why, in looking for answers, we need to move the spotlight away from the famous faces; how every time inequality has been successfully tackled it has been because of people pushing from below.Most books on inequality are about what other people ought to do about it – this book is about why winning the fight needs you.Sometimes students can feel like they are “preparing” for helping bring change when appointed to a role later. But can they in fact play a transformative role now? Phillips says yes - and explains how.This is not just a bold new historical and sociological study about the politics of inequality - it is a practical action guide for people working for a more equal world.Ben Phillips is co-founder of the Fight Inequality Alliance, civil society activist, and writer. He is the author of the book How to Fight Inequality: (and Why That Fight Needs You) published by Wiley press.Transcript available here: http://hummedia.manchester.ac.uk/institutes/gdi/research/transcripts/how-to-fight-inequality-ben-phillips-transcript.pdf

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Imperialism and the Developing World | Atul Kohli

Fri, 12 Mar 2021 12:15:00 +0000

How did Western imperialism shape the developing world? In Imperialism and the Developing World, Atul Kohli tackles this question by analyzing British and American influence on Asia, Africa, the Middle East, and Latin America from the age of the British East India Company to the most recent U.S. war in Iraq. He argues that both Britain and the U.S. expanded to enhance their national economic prosperity, and shows how Anglo-American expansionism hurt economic development in poor parts of the world.Atul Kohli is the David K.E. Bruce Professor of International Affairs at Princeton University. His principal research interests are in the area of political economy of developing countries. He is the author of Imperialism and the Developing World: How Britain and the U.S. Shaped the Global Periphery; Poverty amid Plenty in the New India; State-Directed Development: Political Power and Industrialization in the Global Periphery; Democracy and Discontent: India's Growing Crisis of Governability and The State and Poverty in India. He has also edited or co-edited ten volumes and published some sixty articles. Through much of his scholarship, he has emphasized the role of sovereign and effective states in the promotion of inclusive development.

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How women matter in making change with Sohela Nazneen

Tue, 23 Feb 2021 13:33:05 +0000

Using case studies from research conducted in Nepal, Bangladesh and Uganda, this webinar will reveal how powerful women are critical actors in securing policy change and consolidating policy gains. The webinar explores the different strategies women’s movement actors and women inside the state use behind the scenes to bypass the political gatekeepers and overcome resistance in policy spaces. In all of the case study countries, there is a push-back against women’s rights and the civic space is shrinking. How does the rise of conservative forces also offer insights into how women leaders may continue to matter?Dr Sohela Nazneen is a Research Fellow at IDS and a Principal Investigator for ESID on women’s empowerment. She has 17 years of experience in working on gender and development issues.

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Introduction to the African Cities Research Consortium

Fri, 05 Feb 2021 14:59:32 +0000

Catch up with our webinar which introduced the African Cities Research Consortium (ACRC) and outlined how the ACRC and its international partners is planning to tackle complex, political and systemic problems in some of Africa’s fastest-growing urban areas.ACRC has been awarded a contract of £32 million from the UK’s Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) over the next 6 years. Building on the political settlements analysis established by the Effective States and Inclusive Development research centre, ARCR will adopt a city as systems approach to addressing complex urban problems. Through engaged action research, we aim to catalyse progress for disadvantaged communities in a number of focus cities and beyond.SpeakersProfessor Diana Mitlin, The University of ManchesterProfessor Sam Hickey, The University of ManchesterDr Martin Atela Partnership for African Social and Governance Research, NairobiChaired by Dr Admos Chimhowu

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The politics of managing Covid-19 in China & India with Prerna Singh & Yanzhong Huang

Mon, 25 Jan 2021 15:03:11 +0000

India and China have responded very differently to the lives and livelihoods threats created by Covid-19 and they have experienced very different outcomes. This webinar explores the different ways in which political factors have shaped policy responses to Covid-19 in China and India and the relationships between scientific/technical analysis of the ‘crisis’ and political forces. Can the different policy choices and outcomes be explained by broad-brush concepts, such as democracy and autocracy, or are the explanatory factors more nuanced and more deeply rooted in the specificities of domestic politics?Prof Prerna Singh, Mahatma Gandhi Associate Professor of Political Science & International Studies at Brown University, USAProfessor Yanzhong Huang, Director, Center for Global Health Studies at Seton Hall, & Senior Fellow at the Council for Foreign Relations, USA

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How politics shapes development with Sam Hickey

Wed, 06 Jan 2021 15:13:22 +0000

What kind of politics help to secure inclusive development? After 9 years of research across 26 countries, summing up ESID findings hasn’t been simple. But Three Cs kept cropping up: Context, Capacity, Coalitions.Listen to the a lecture on the Three C’s with ESID’s Research Director Professor Sam Hickey

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In Conversation: Chrissie Wellington OBE

Wed, 16 Dec 2020 10:14:27 +0000

In this special podcast we sat down for a chat with Chrissie Wellington OBE, who was the 2020 recipient of The University of Manchester Outstanding Alumni Award.The four-time World Ironman Champion and current Global Head of Health and Wellbeing at Parkrun, talked about her time at Manchester, what attracted her to International Development, her remarkable sporting career and why her current work is, even more so since Covid-19, so important.Chrissie Wellington graduated in 2001 with an MA in International Development. She is now the Global Head of Health and Wellbeing at Parkrun.

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Covid-19, garment workers & the development challenges in the Global South with Mark Anner

Mon, 23 Nov 2020 16:42:38 +0000

Mark Anner will share findings from his survey data on the impact of March 2020 order cancellations by major apparel brands and retailers with global supplier factories (USD 40 billion), which left millions of low-income workers (mostly young women) without income. A subsequent campaign to pressure these corporations to ‘#payup” was largely successful.Dr. Anner will then draw on his October 2020 research report to examine how, in the context of new lockdowns, current orders are drying up, factories are being squeezed by buyers on price and payment terms, and more than 10 million garment workers could face dismissals or layoffs.The talk will emphasize how this crisis did not begin with Covid-19, but rather that the Covid-19 pandemic exacerbated dramatic, GVC structural power imbalances that have had deleterious consequences for workers, the environment, and social protection for decades.

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Political Economies of energy transition with Kathryn Hochstetler

Wed, 11 Nov 2020 16:41:35 +0000

Wind power has expanded quickly in Brazil, while solar power lags there and both wind and solar power have struggled to take off in South Africa. Professor Kathryn Hochstetler argues that four different political economies - climate change, industrial policy, consumption and distribution, and siting - help account for energy transition. However, coalitions are being built on each of these at the same time, potentially interlocking to reinforce or counter-balance each other.Professor Kathryn Hochstetler, LSE, examines how these processes work in Brazil and South Africa to create distinct national political economies of energy transition.

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Africa- 75 years after the Manchester Pan-African Congress with Amani Abou-Zeid

Tue, 27 Oct 2020 18:26:02 +0000

Dr Amani Abou-Zeid of the African Union discusses Africa: 75 years after the Manchester Pan-African Congress. Her talk was part of a symposium to celebrate the 75th anniversary of the 5th Pan-African Congress which was held in Manchester.Dr Amani Abou-Zeid is currently the African Union Commissioner for Infrastructure, Energy, ICT and Tourism. She is an international development expert with more than 30 years’ experience and has a held roles at the United Nations Development Programme and African Development Bank. She has received the Order of Ouissam Alaouite from HM King Mohamed VI of Morocco, been selected as one of the 50 Most Influential Women in Africa, identified as a World Young Leader by the European Union, and recently named Commissioner by the prestigious top global influencers group ‘ICT for Sustainable Development’. Amani is an alumna of The University of Manchester having studied for her PhD at the Global Development Institute

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Covid-19 and the Future of Global Value Chains

Mon, 03 Aug 2020 11:06:15 +0100

The Covid-19 pandemic created a major shock to the global economy. The ramifications of this shock are reverberating through global value chains to reach workers and sites of production throughout the world.These ramifications are both short and long term. In the short term, the crisis was a major shock for developing economies particularly those who rely on exports through GVCs as global lead firms cancelled orders and workers were terminated often with very little protection.This webinar aims to examine the future of global value chains in a post-Covid world and how could a restructuring of the global economy shape the position of suppliers and workers in developing countries.Stephanie Barrientos (University of Manchester),Dev Nathan (Institute for Human Development, New Delhi).Rory Horner (University of Manchester),Raphael Kaplinsky (University of Sussex),Chair: Shamel Azmeh (University of Manchester).

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Covid-19 in Kenya’s informal settlements with Charity Mumbi & Jack Makau

Fri, 17 Jul 2020 12:24:06 +0100

Charity Mumbi and Jack Makau work for Muungano wa Wanavijiji, a social movement of 'slum' residents and urban poor people in Kenya, affiliated to SDI International. In this podcast they describe the last few months of working through the initial outbreak of Covid-19, outlining how communities and their organisations have been responding. Their agile initial approaches, alongside a longstanding ability to accurately map dense informal settlements has led to new partnerships with the Kenyan Ministry of Health, as part of its coronavirus task force. This work is also being supported by an action research project to track coronavirus responses with GDI’s Professor Diana Mitlin.

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Migration and development with Tanja Bastia and Ronald Skeldon

Tue, 16 Jun 2020 15:16:21 +0100

In this special podcast, we are lucky to be joined by the editors of the newly published Routledge Handbook of Migration and Development, Tanja Bastia and Ronald Skeldon.In this episode they talk about their long-term collaboration in the fields of migration and development and their wish to build on long-standing research by bringing together established thinkers and new areas of research – an approach which has culminated in this handbook.In addition to their own explanation of why this work is so timely and important, they are joined by four of the contributors to the handbook who give them insights into their particular areas of expertise and the chapters they contributed.Loren B. Landau - The Informalisation of Migration Governance across Africa’s Urban Archipelagos (08:22)Oliver Bakewell - Undocumented Migration and Development (14:15)Gioconda Herrera - Care, Social Reproduction, and Migration (23:08)Melissa Siegel - Migration and Health (32:38)Tanja Bastia is Reader at the Global Development Institute at the University of Manchester. Her research focuses on transnational migration for work, particularly on the relationship between power relations, mobility, and space. She has conducted multi-sited ethnographic research with Bolivian migrants in Bolivia, Argentina, and Spain since the year 2000 and currently holds a Leverhulme Research Fellowship to develop her research into ageing and migration. Ronald Skeldon is an Emeritus Professor at the University of Sussex and an Honorary Professor at Maastricht University. Following a PhD on Peru at the University of Toronto in 1974, he moved to the Asia-Pacific region for over 25 years, where he pursued both academic careers and positions with the United Nations before returning to the United Kingdom in 2000. He has published widely on issues of migration, including his 1997 book Migration and Development: A Global Perspective (Longman).Loren B. Landau is Professor of Migration & Development at Oxford University’s Department of International Development and a Researcher with the University of the Witwatersrand’s African Centre for Migration and Society. His interdisciplinary scholarship explores mobility, multi-scale governance, and the transformation of socio-political community across the global South.Oliver Bakewell is a Senior Lecturer at the Global Development Institute, University of Manchester. His work focuses on the intersections between migration and mobility and processes of development and change, with an empirical focus on migration within Africa. Gioconda Herrera is an Ecuadorian Sociologist and a Professor at the Facultad Latinoamericana de Ciencias Sociales (FLACSO) in Quito. Her research interests concern the effects of globalisation on social inequalities in Latin America. Her work focuses on international migrations from the Andean countries to Europe and the United States from a gender perspective. She has done research on transnational families and care, return migration and deportation. Her current research deals with the Venezuelan exodus in South America.Melissa Siegel is a Professor of Migration Studies and Head of Migration at the Maastricht Graduate School of Governance at Maastricht University and UNU-MERIT. Her research focuses on the causes and consequences of migration with a focus on migration and development and migration policy and programming.

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In conversation: Alicya Mamo and Shamima Khonat founders of Electric Bazaar

Thu, 04 Jun 2020 15:39:27 +0100

In the latest episode of our ‘In Conversation’ podcast we caught up with Shamima and Alicya; two Manchester Alumni whose fashion business was recently highly commended for social innovation at the Manchester Making A Difference Awards 2020.Listen here to find out how they came up with the idea, what empowerment and sustainability means to them, their goals for the future and how studying at the GDI, in particular the Poverty, Inequality and Development pathway, helped to shape their business approach.

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Deindustrialisation in the Global South with Seth Schindler & Tom Gillespie

Mon, 04 May 2020 10:36:57 +0100

Seth Schindler & Tom Gillespie discuss their new research on deindustrialisation in the Global South. Seth and Tom have recently published an article on 'Deindustrialization in cities of the Global South' with Nicola Banks, Mustafa Kemal Bayırbağ, Himanshu Burte, J. Miguel Kanai & Neha Sami.

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In conversation: Siobhan McGrath on forced labour and marketising anti-slavery

Mon, 02 Mar 2020 12:03:43 +0000

In this episode Dr Rory Horner talked to Dr Siobhán McGrath about her research into forced labour and the marketising anti-slavery.Siobhán McGrath is Assistant Professor in Human Geography at Durham University Rory Horner, Senior Lecturer in Globalisation and Political Economy in the Global Development Institute.

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In conversation: Jelmer Kamstra and Zoe Abrahamson discuss donor funding, NGOs and governance

Tue, 18 Feb 2020 16:15:43 +0000

In this episode, GDI's Nicola Banks talks to Jelmer Kamstra and Zoe Abrahamson about the political role of NGOs and how donor funding can support those.Jelmer Kamstra has been Senior Policy Officer at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands in the Civil Society Division since 2015. Starting January 2020, Jelmer has taken up a new position as Senior Researcher at the Policy and Operations Evaluation Department (IOB) of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.Zoe Abrahamson is Bond’s senior funding adviser. She coordinates Bond’s funding stream, acting as conduit between funders and NGOs.Nicola Banks is a Senior Lecturer in Urban Development and Deputiy Managing Director of the Global Development Institute.

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In Conversation: Nicholas Jepson on China's impact on the Global South

Mon, 03 Feb 2020 15:54:13 +0000

In this episode, Nicholas Jepson talks to Seth Schindler about his new book ‘In China’s wake: how the commodity boom transformed development strategies in the global south.In China’s Wake reveals the surprising connections among these three phenomena. Nicholas Jepson shows how Chinese demand not only transformed commodity markets but also provided resource-rich states with the financial leeway to set their own policy agendas, insulated from the constraints and pressures of capital markets and multilateral creditors such as the International Monetary Fund.Nicholas Jepson is a Hallsworth Research Fellow in Chinese Political Economy at the Global Development Institute. Seth Schindler is a Senior Lecturer in Urban Development & Transformation at the Global Development Institute.

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Lecture: Luis Eduardo Perez Murcia on migration, ageing and home

Fri, 17 Jan 2020 11:47:25 +0000

Luis Eduardo Perez Murcia, University of Trento, recently visited the GDI to give a talk entitled 'I am afraid of dying without seeing my daughter again': Looking at the Aging-Home-Migration NexusScholarly research exploring the aging-migration nexus has significantly increased in the last decade. The role of home in this nexus, however, has received considerably less academic attention. Against this background, this paper explores whether and how migration shapes the experiences of home of those on the move and the elderly members of their families left behind in their countries of origin.Drawing on ethnographic research with transnational Ecuadorian and Peruvian migrants in Manchester, London and Madrid and the elder members of their families back in Ecuador and Peru, the paper argues that migration mutually shapes ideas and attitudes towards home of those who migrate and those who are left behind. An in-depth analysis of the empirical material reveals that many of those elderly left behind struggle to feel at home largely because they experience isolation and even abandonment. Their struggles for home tend to be accentuated when they perceived that the end of their lives is approaching. On the side of those who are on the move, attitudes towards home are often shaped by the sense of not being able to look after the elder members of their families left behind or even visiting them. In some cases, especially for those who work caring after the elderly in their transnational settings, a sense of regret becomes part of their everyday experiences of home because strangers or nobody looks after their own parents and grandparents in their countries of origin. Those who could not attend their parents and grandparents’ funerals tend to see their sense of home irreversibly affected. The presentation ends by discussing how a material and symbolic notion of home may help to advance contemporary debates on ageing and migration.

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Lecture: Kaxton Siu on Chinese migrant workers and employer domination

Wed, 11 Dec 2019 12:41:05 +0000

Kaxton Siu recently visited the Global Development Institute to discuss his new forthcoming book 'Chinese Migrant Workers and Employer Domination: Comparisons with Hong Kong and Vietnam’. Kaxton Siu is an Assistant Professor at the Department of Applied Social Sciences, Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong.This talk explores three major changes in the circumstances of the migrant working class in south China over the past three decades, from historical and comparative perspectives. It examines the rise of a male migrant working population in the export industries, a shift in material and social lives of migrant workers, and the emergence of a new non-coercive factory regime in the industries. Drawing on fieldwork regarding Hong Kong-invested garment factories in south China, Hong Kong and Vietnam, alongside factory-gate surveys in China and Vietnam, this talk examines how and why the circumstances of workers in these localities are dissimilar even when under the same type of factory ownership. In analyzing workers’ lives within and outside factories, and the expansion of global capitalism in East and Southeast Asia, the talk contributes to research on production politics and everyday life practice, and an understanding of how global and local forces interact.

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Lecture: Rachel Glennerster on Can technology solve global poverty?

Thu, 31 Oct 2019 11:50:52 +0000

In this talk, Dr Glennerster discusses how technology has driven improvements in income and health in poor countries, why there is too little innovation designed to meet the needs of the poor, and the promise of the data revolution.

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In conversation: Raquel Rolnik on the financialisation of housing

Tue, 15 Oct 2019 12:27:38 +0100

In this episode, Raquel Rolnik talked to Tom Gillespie and Isaac Rose about the financialisation of housing and her new book 'Urban Warfare: housing under the empire of finance'.Raquel Rolnik is a professor of Urban Planning at the University of São Paulo. She was National Secretary for Urban Programmes of the Brazilian Ministry of Cities (2003–2007). From 2008 to 2014, she held the mandate of UN Special Rapporteur on adequate housing. Tom Gillespie is Lecturer in International Development at the Global Development Institute. Isaac Rose is a a campaign coordinator at Greater Manchester Housing Action.

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In conversation: Rhys Jenkins discusses China’s economic involvement in the Global South

Tue, 08 Oct 2019 01:00:00 +0100

Professor Rhys Jenkins talks to GDI Researcher Dr Nick Jepson about China’s growing economic involvement in Africa and Latin America and his book 'How China is Reshaping the Global Economy: Development Impacts in Africa and Latin America'

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Lecture: Stephanie Barrientos on gender & work: capturing the gains in Global Value Chains

Thu, 26 Sep 2019 12:16:59 +0100

Professor Stephanie Barrientos discusses her new book 'Gender and Work: Capturing the Gains in Global Value Chains'Building on years of detailed empirical research across different industries and in several countries, Barrientos examines how global values chains are reshaping the gender profile of work across many middle- and low-income countries. Gendered patterns of work in these global value chains can both relegate women workers to poorly paid and unrecognised labour or lead to economic empowerment and enhanced worker rights.

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In conversation: Laila Iskander on recycling & informal settlements

Thu, 28 Mar 2019 13:00:56 +0000

In this episode, Diana Mitlin talks to former Egyptian Minister Laila Iskander about her career, recycling and informal settlements in Egypt.Laila Iskander served as Minister for the Environment and Minister for Urban Renewal and Informal Settlements in Egypt. She has worked as a researcher, speaker and consultant with governmental and international agencies as well as with the private sector in the fields of gender, education and development, environment, child labour and governance. Her consultation work encompasses grassroots' issues and policy matters. She received the Goldman Environmental Prize, also known as the 'Green Nobel', for her work with the Zabbaleen garbage collectors of Cairo.Diana Mitlin is Professor of Global Urbanism and Managing Director of the Global Development Institute.

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Lecture: Bina Agarwal on agrarian crises, institutional innovation and gender

Thu, 21 Mar 2019 15:14:39 +0000

The Global Development Institute and the Post Crash Economics Society is pleased to host Prof Bina Agarwal part of the GDI Lecture Series, talking about: Agrarian crisis and institutional innovation: Can group farming provide an answer?In efforts by developing countries to address agrarian distress arising from persisting rural poverty, unviable land holdings, and climate change, little attention has been paid to the institutional transformation of agriculture. The debate on farm types has focused mainly on small family farms vs. large commercial farms. Here experiments in two Indian states—Kerala and Telangana—stand out for their innovative institutional form, namely group farming by women (involving pooling land, labour and capital and cultivating jointly). Can this provide an alternative model?Based on her primary surveys, Prof. Bina Agarwal provides some answers, comparing the economic outcomes of group and individual family farms, as well as outlining the impact on social and political empowerment.

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Lecture: Franklin Obeng-Odoom on Property, institutions, and social stratification in Africa

Mon, 11 Mar 2019 17:13:38 +0000

The Global Development Institute is pleased to present Prof Franklin Obeng-Odoom, University of Helsinki, talking about: Property, institutions, and social stratification in AfricaWhile it is intrinsically important to explain and, ultimately, try to address social stratification in Africa, these aspirations have not yet been satisfactorily executed. Human capital explanations can be enticing, especially when they appear to explain the meteoric rise of the Asian Tigers in terms of their so-called cultures of hard work. Attempting to explain Africa’s unequal position in the world system this way is common, as is conceptualising the problem in terms of the absence of physical capital and the presence, or dominance, of natural resources. In turn, it is quite usual to posit the need to reduce the transaction costs of transnational corporations, which presumably work to resolve the challenges of development in Africa. In practice, however, neither African culture, poor human capital, inadequate physical capital, nor the natural resource curse explains Africa’s underdevelopment. None of these can sufficiently explain the startling economic inequalities in Africa between various social groups, nor those between Africa and the rest of the world. In this regard, the idea that certain cultures of land either hinder, or would enable ‘Africa’s catch up’, are also mistaken. Although the reverse case – that African cultures are pristine – is sometimes used to counter this central thesis, it is similarly unconvincing. The spectre of Manicheanism, that is, expressing the African condition according to a dichotomy of either cultural pessimism or cultural triumphalism, is limiting.Franklin Obeng-Odoom is with Development Studies at the University of Helsinki, where he is Associate Professor of Sustainability Science. He is also a Member of the Helsinki Institute of Sustainability Science, where he leads the Social Sustainability of Urban Transformations in the Global South theme. Previously, he taught at various universities in Australia, including the University of Technology Sydney where he was Director of Higher Degree Research Programmes.

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Lecture: Katherine Brickell on blood bricks: modern slavery & climate change in Cambodia

Tue, 05 Mar 2019 14:41:52 +0000

The Global Development Institute is pleased to present Prof Kate Brickell, Royal Holloway, University of London, talking about: Blood Bricks: Untold Stories of Modern Slavery and Climate Change from CambodiaCambodia is in the midst of a construction boom. The building of office blocks, factories, condominiums, housing estates, hotels, and shopping malls is pushing its capital city upwards. But this vertical drive into the skies, and the country’s status as one of Asia’s fastest growing economies, hides a darker side to Phnom Penh’s ascent. Building projects demand bricks in large quantities and there is a profitable domestic brick production industry using multi-generational workforces of debt-bonded adults and children to supply them.Moving from the city, to the brick kiln, and finally back to the rural villages once called home, the talk traces how urban ‘development’ is built on unsustainable levels of debt taken on by rural families struggling to farm in one of the most climate vulnerable countries in the world. Phnom Penh is being built not only on the foundation of blood bricks, but also climate change as a key driver of debt and entry into modern slavery in brick kilns. Blood bricks embody the converging traumas of modern slavery and climate change in our urban age.The study was co-funded by the Economic and Social Research Council & Department for International Development. For more information see www.projectbloodbricks.org.

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In conversation: Armando Barrientos on social assistance

Fri, 22 Feb 2019 12:55:44 +0000

In this episode Chris Jordan, GDI’s Communications & impact Manager, talks to social assistance expert Professor Armando Barrientos. They discuss why Armando decided to specialise in social assistance and how it has changed over the last 20 years. Professor Barrientos also explains his new social assistance explorer which is the first database to bring together data on low and middle income countries and allow researchers to study and compare programmes at a cross-national, regional and global basis. Finally Armando looks forward to how he thinks social assistance will develop over the next 5 to 10 years.

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Lecture: Stephan Haggard on Developmental states

Fri, 08 Feb 2019 11:47:03 +0000

Listen to our lecture from Professor Stephan Haggard who discussed development states.The concept of the developmental state emerged to explain the rapid growth of East Asia in the postwar period. Yet the developmental state literature also offered a heterodox theoretical approach to growth. Arguing for the distinctive features of developmental states, its proponents emphasised the role of government intervention and industrial policy as well as the significance of strong states and particular social coalitions. Comparative analysis explored the East Asian developmental states to countries that were decidedly not developmentalist, thus contributing to our historical understanding of long-run growth. Prof. Haggard provides a critical but sympathetic overview of this literature and ends with a look forward at the possibilities for developmentalist approaches, in both the advanced industrial states and developing world.

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Lecture: Helen Clark on Women-Equality-Power

Mon, 03 Dec 2018 11:18:49 +0000

Rt. Hon Helen Clark, former Administrator of UNDP and former Prime Minister of New Zealand presents the Global Development Institute Annual Lecture. Helen Clark addresses the issues of women's leadership and gender equality and their importance to a sustainable world.Helen Clark has been a political leader for more than 40 years; she held the post of first elected female Prime Minister of New Zealand for nine years and was the first female Administrator of the United Nations Development Programme. A key focus of her career has been the empowerment of women and leadership at all levels. According to the World Bank, 155 countries have at least one law that discriminates against women. Given the extent of unpaid work and care burdens, violence against women and gender pay gaps, Clark says women’s leadership is urgently needed to create a more equal world. She will draw on her own experiences in senior leadership but also her observations of women being leaders at all levels around the world and how this can create a more sustainable and just future.

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In conversation: Helen Clark and Uma Kothari

Thu, 22 Nov 2018 15:29:04 +0000

As part of her visit to the Global Development Institute Rt Hon Helen Clark sat down with Prof Uma Kothari to discuss her career, the UN, Hillary Clinton and intersectionality. Helen Clark was Prime Minister of New Zealand from 1999 to 2008, and was the Administrator of the United Nations Development Programme from 2009 to 2017.

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In conversation: Radically rethinking aid with Jonathan Glennie & Pablo Yanguas

Tue, 13 Nov 2018 14:38:47 +0000

We have been taught to understand aid as a temporary injection of support for struggling countries. This is wrong. It should be seen as a permanent fixture, as part of continued investment in global public goods and internationally agreed objectives. This realisation will have major implications for how we raise and manage funds, and how we communicate to different audiences.

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Lecture: Yuen Yuen Ang on how the west got China wrong

Thu, 08 Nov 2018 15:04:30 +0000

Dr Yuen Yuen Ang, Associate Professor of Political Science at the University of Michigan delivers the Adrian Leftwich Memorial Lecture. For decades, Western policymakers and observers assumed that as China’s economy prospers, it will eventually and inescapably democratize. Today, however, the West is alarmed that not only does China appear more authoritarian than before, the new leadership is perceived to harbor ambitions to compete with Western powers for world dominance. This turn of events has triggered fear around the world. Today, the so-called “China model” is seen as a fundamental threat to liberal-democratic values.How did the West get China wrong? Yuen Yuen Ang argues that many observers have misunderstood the political foundation underlying China’s rise. Her research reveals that since market opening, China has in fact pursued significant political reforms, just not in the manner that Western observers expected. Instead of introducing multiparty elections, the reformist leadership realized some of the key benefits of democratization through bureaucratic reforms, thereby creating a unique political hybrid: autocracy with democratic characteristics. In other words, it is not autocracy but rather the injection of democratic, adaptive qualities into a single-party regime that drives China’s economic dynamism. But, Ang cautions, bureaucratic reforms cannot substitute for political reforms forever. Going forward, China must release and channel the immense creative potential of civil society, which would necessitate greater freedom of expression, more public participation, and less state intervention.

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Lecture: Emma Mawdsley on the Southernisation of Development

Wed, 17 Oct 2018 14:39:53 +0100

The Global Development Institute Lecture Series is pleased to present Dr Emma Mawdsley, Reader in Human Geography and Fellow of Newnham College to discuss "The Southernisation of Development? Who has 'socialised' who in the new millennium?"A more polycentric global development landscape has emerged over the past decade or so, rupturing the formerly dominant North-South axis of power and knowledge. This can be traced through more diversified development norms, institutions, imaginaries and actors. This paper looks at one trend within this turbulent field: namely, the ways in which ‘Northern’ donors appear to be increasingly adopting some of the narratives and practices associated with ‘Southern’ development partners. This direction of travel stands in sharp contrast to expectations in the early new millennium that the (so-called) ‘traditional’ donors would ‘socialise’ the ‘rising powers’ to become ‘responsible donors’. After outlining important caveats about using such cardinal terms, the paper explores three aspects of this ‘North’ to ‘South’ movement. These are (a) the stronger and more explicit claim to ‘win-win’ development ethics and outcomes; (b) the (re)turn from ‘poverty reduction’ to ‘economic growth’ growth as the central analytic of development; and related to both, the explicit and deepening blurring and blending of development finances and agendas with trade and investment.

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Lecture: Nic Cheeseman on how to rig an election (and get away with it)

Mon, 15 Oct 2018 15:59:54 +0100

Contrary to what is commonly believed, authoritarian leaders who agree to hold elections are generally able to remain in power longer than autocrats who refuse to allow the populace to vote.Calling upon first-hand experiences, hundreds of interviews and election reports from Kenya, India, Nigeria, Russia, the United States, Zimbabwe and more, Professor Cheeseman discusses the limitations of national elections as a means of promoting democratisation, revealing the six essential strategies that dictators use to undermine the electoral process in an attempt to guarantee victory. How to Rig an Election has been described as “essential reading for everyone who wants to get democracy right again” by A.C. Grayling, “clear, punchy and potentially revolutionary” by Michela Wrong and the “one of the books of the year” by the Centre for Global Development.

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Lecture: Indrajit Roy on democratic deepening in an Indian state

Wed, 10 Oct 2018 11:38:35 +0100

The Global Development Institute is pleased to present Dr Indrajit Roy, Department of Politics, the University of York to discuss "Dignifying development: Democratic deepening in an Indian State."The lecture draws on Indrajit’s prior work on poor people’s negotiations with democratic institutions and public policy as well as their ideas about citizenship and membership in its political community. It also signals his future research plans of investigating the intersections of democracy and development in the Rising Powers and other emerging markets.

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In conversation: SDGs three years on with David Hulme and Jennifer O'Brien

Tue, 18 Sep 2018 13:50:02 +0100

As the 73rd session of the UN General Assembly convenes to review the world's three year progress against the Sustainable Development Goals, Jennifer O'Brien, Director of Social Responsibility for the School of Environment, Education and Development talks to Prof David Hulme, Executive Director of GDI.

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In conversation: Farmer-led irrigation with Phil Woodhouse & Dan Brockington

Thu, 02 Aug 2018 14:54:32 +0100

Phil Woodhouse and Dan Brockington discuss their research project Studying African Farmer-led Irrigation.The project brings together social science researchers from the UK and irrigation scientists from the Netherlands to work with African researchers in Mozambique and Tanzania.Find out more about the project: http://www.safi-research.org

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Rising Powers Special: The BRICs uncovered

Wed, 06 Jun 2018 14:49:58 +0100

Stephen Sackur speaks to Global Development Institute academics and other leading thinkers about the state of the BRIC economies today and the issues and challenges facing these emerging powers

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In conversation: The future of development studies

Wed, 30 May 2018 16:05:23 +0100

To celebrate the end of the academic year we brought together leading academics from the Global Development Institute in a lively session. Fielding questions from the class of 17-18 our academics answer questions on the reality of development theory vs practice, the future of disruptive tech and ICT4D, and the concept of inequality.The session was compared by Dr Pablo Yanguas and features Prof Diana Mitlin, Prof David Hulme, Prof Richard Heeks, Prof Khalid Nadvi and Dr Helen Underhill.

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Rising Powers Special: Stephen Sackur interviews Russian economist Sergei Guriev

Thu, 24 May 2018 10:54:37 +0100

This week BBC Hardtalk’s Stephen Sackur interviews leading Russian economist Sergei Guriev, for the latest in the Rising Powers and Interdependent Futures podcast series.They talk about the problem that Russian economy is facing with corruption and the need for deep structural reform, alongside the potential Russia has given its educated citizens and natural resources.

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In conversation: What makes aid effective with Pablo Yanguas & Daniel Honig

Thu, 17 May 2018 11:47:00 +0100

What limits the impact of foreign aid programmes? If frontline workers had freedom to experiment could aid effectiveness be improved? What in the aid bureaucracy and political environment constrains flexibility? David Hulme & Nicola Banks lead this exciting discussion with ESID’s Pablo Yanguas, author of new book 'Why we lie about aid' and Daniel Honig of Johns Hopkins University, author of new book 'Navigation by judgement: why and when top down management of foreign aid doesn’t work'.

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Rising Powers Special: Stephen Sackur interviews Kaushik Basu

Wed, 16 May 2018 15:33:56 +0100

This week BBC Hardtalk’s Stephen Sackur interviews Kaushik Basu, the former chief economist at the World Bank and economics advisor to the Indian government for the latest in the Rising Powers and Interdependent Futures podcast series.Basu discusses the implications of India’s incredible growth, but ballooning inequality. At the top end, salaries are close to those in OECD countries, while the country is still home to more people living in poverty than any other. He talks about the culture of corruption within India, the enduring bureaucratic legacies of British rule and the effects of de-monetisation on society.

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Rising Powers Special: Stephen Sackur talks Brazil with economist Alex Schwartsman

Wed, 09 May 2018 15:57:33 +0100

In this week’s Rising Powers and Interdependent Futures podcast series, BBC Hardtalk’s Stephen Sackur interviews Alex Schwartsman is a Brazilian economist and former Director of International Affairs of the Central Bank of Brazil.The interview examines the genesis of Brazil’s recent economic and political crisis. Schwartsman argues that Brazil is trapped by a large government apparatus where policy making has captured by special interest groups, both in the private and public sector. While he supports the Bolsa Familia anti-poverty transfer programme, he’s extremely critical of Brazil’s bloated social security system, arguing that the country is a “European social democracy trapped in the body of an emerging economy.”

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Rising Powers Special: Stephen Sackur talks China with Yukon Huang, former World Bank Director

Wed, 02 May 2018 13:33:14 +0100

In the latest Rising Powers and Interdependent Futures podcast series, BBC Hardtalk’s Stephen Sackur interviews Yukon Huang, a former director World Bank Director for China and Russia.They discuss China’s economic prospects and its role in galvanising international action on climate change. How do other members of the BRICs view China and will the Belt and Road initiative upset the current geo-political balance?This weekly podcast mini-series explores the issues and implications of the Rising Powers and Interdependent Futures research programme.

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Rising Powers Special: Stephen Sackur interviews Lord Jim O’Neill

Wed, 25 Apr 2018 15:04:08 +0100

Lord Jim O’Neill talks to BBC Hardtalk presenter Stephen Sackur about where the BRIC acronym came from, it’s real world repercussions and where the BRICs go next.This weekly podcast mini-series explores the issues and implications of the Rising Powers and Interdependent Futures research programme.

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In conversation: Informal settlements in Zimbabwe with Beth Chitekwe-Biti & Ezana Weldeghebrael

Mon, 09 Apr 2018 17:04:35 +0100

Beth Chitekwe-Biti and Ezana Weldeghebrael discuss the recent political changes in Zimbabwe and what they mean for the urban poor. Beth Chitekwe-Biti, an alumna of Global Development Institute, recently joined the SDI secretariat as Deputy Director. Before moving to SDI, Beth was the Founder Director of Dialogue on Shelter, a Zimbabwean NGO that's working in a unique alliance with the Zimbabwe Homeless People's Federation a movement organised in urban poor neighbourhoods to push for secure tenure and inclusive human settlements. Ezana Weldeghebrael is currently studying for a PhD in Planning and Environmental Management at The University of Manchester. His PhD is entitled ‘The Relation between Residents and a Government Aspiring to Build a Developmental State: The Case of Addis Ababa Inner-city Redevelopment’

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In conversation: The new face of global trade with Khalid Nadvi & Rory Horner

Mon, 26 Mar 2018 10:37:56 +0100

A growing body of research points to the ‘Rise of the South’ and the growth of South–South trade. Rory and Khalid consider the implications of the shifting dynamics of global trade and the greater prominence of Southern actors for the conceptualization of global value chains and global production networks.

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In conversation: Why we lie about aid - Pablo Yanguas & Diana Mitlin

Fri, 16 Feb 2018 13:55:00 +0000

Diana Mitlin interview Pablo Yanguas about his new book Why We Lie About Aid which is out now on Zed books. They discuss the aid sector, accountability and the Department for International Development. Professor Diana Mitlin is the Managing Director of the Global Development Institute. Dr Pablo Yanguas is a research fellow with the Effective States and Inclusive Development Research CentreOrder your copy of his new book here: bit.ly/lieaboutaid

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In conversation: Youth participatory development with Nicola Banks, Fikiri Elias & Sadala Ismail

Mon, 12 Feb 2018 16:53:27 +0000

Nicola Banks, Global Development Institute, talks to Fikiri Elias and Sadala Ismail of the youth participatory development NGO Tamasha Vijana.

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In conversation: The future of economics with Ha-Joon Chang, David Hulme & Mihai Codreanu

Fri, 09 Feb 2018 12:37:11 +0000

Listen to Ha-Joon Chang, The University of Cambridge, in conversation with David Hulme, Executive Director of the Global Development Institute, and Mihai Codreanu, Chair of the Post-Crash Economics Society. They discuss pluralist economics, the need for a curriculum revolution, the future of economics and Ha-Joon Chang’s influential works including 23 Things They Don’t Tell You About Capitalism and Economics.

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Lecture: Ha-Joon Chang on are some countries destined for under-development?

Tue, 06 Feb 2018 14:58:30 +0000

As part of the Global Development Institute Lecture Series and in collaboration with the Post-Crash Economics Society Dr Ha-Joon Chang, University of Cambridge, delivered a lecture entitled: Are some countries destined for under-development?

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Lecture: Irene Guijt on Oxfam's use of evidence for influencing

Wed, 20 Dec 2017 11:46:53 +0000

As part of the Global Development Institute Lecture Series Dr Irene Guijt, Head of Research at Oxfam GB, delivered a lecture entitled: Evidence for Influencing: Balancing research integrity and campaign strategy in OxfamWhen using evidence to influence, what compromises have to be made in different contexts due to practical, political and strategic reasons?Dr Guijt presents on challenges and successes, using examples of Oxfam research and campaign strategies from across the world.

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In conversation: Economics and collective action problems with Bill Ferguson & Pablo Yanguas

Wed, 06 Dec 2017 12:34:07 +0000

Effective States and Inclusive Development’s Dr Pablo Yanguas engages Grinnell University’s Professor Bill Ferguson in a thought-provoking discussion about the role of economics in both creating and addressing collective action problems. Bill, the Gertrude B. Austin Professor of Economics, delivered this year’s Adrian Leftwich memorial lecture on a Political Economy approach to collective action, inequality and development. Having begun his career as a neighourhood community organiser in Seattle, Bill believes that, “Economics is fundamentally a social science. It’s fundamentally an attempt to understand human behaviour,” and is a strong advocate for rethinking the way the discipline is understood and taught – in order to deepen its contribution to addressing social ills like poverty and inequality.

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In conversation: Community organising in informal settlements with SDI & Diana Mitlin

Mon, 27 Nov 2017 15:40:36 +0000

Prof Diana Mitlin talks to Kenyan representatives of Shack/Slum Dwellers International who recently visited Global Development Institute

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In conversation: Mapping development NGOs in the UK with Dan Brockington & Nicola Banks

Fri, 10 Nov 2017 13:58:03 +0000

Dan Brockington, Director of Sheffield Institute for International Development, and Nicola Banks, Global Development Institute, discuss their new research project on development NGO income and expenditure.The conversation is moderated by Chris Jordan.

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In conversation: Globalisation, inequality and trade with Dani Rodrik & David Hulme

Fri, 03 Nov 2017 12:04:30 +0000

Be a fly on the wall as GDI's Executive Director, Prof David Hulme, interviews Prof Dani Rodrik, Ford Foundation Professor of International Political Economy at Harvard's John F. Kennedy School of Government, about globalisation, the sociology of economics and economists, how the decay of liberal norms in the West might impact the rest of the world, what to be concerned about for India, and why China is always a surprise. They also discuss how Prof Rodrik's research has led to examining populism, how populism differs in the developed and developing worlds, and how in most of the latter, populism is not populism in its historical sense or definition.

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Lecture: Dani Rodrik on the economics of populism

Fri, 27 Oct 2017 11:36:14 +0100

Prof Dani Rodrik, Harvard University, gave the Global Development Institute Annual Lecture.Populism seems to have come out of nowhere, but economic history and theory provide ample grounds for anticipating that globalisation will produce political backlash. But while the backlash may have been predictable, the specific form it took was less so. Prof Dani Rodrik will distinguish between left-wing and right-wing variants of populism - the first predominant in Latin America and the second in Europe - and how and why these reactions differ.

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Lecture: Richard Heeks on the digital gig economy

Fri, 20 Oct 2017 12:08:46 +0100

To coincide with his recent Development Informatics Working Paper Professor Richard Heeks discusses the decent work and the digital gig economy. In this seminar he provides a developing country perspective on employment impacts and standards in online outsourcing, crowdwork and other areas.Read the DI Working Paper: https://www.gdi.manchester.ac.uk/research/publications/di/di-wp71/

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Lecture: Diana Mitlin on urban development and inequalities

Thu, 05 Oct 2017 15:02:57 +0100

As part of the Global Development Institute Lecture Series Prof Diana Mitlin discusses urban development and inequalities."Housing in the Global South faces a number of challenges, including poor construction quality, citizen exclusion, and (in)appropriate standards, leading to significant inequalities. What lessons emerge for tackling urban shelter inequalities from experiences in the Global South? Prof Mitlin will share findings from research in India where civil society organisations have been working with municipal and state governments to address housing needs through innovation."

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Lecture: Uma Kothari on migration and development

Mon, 18 Sep 2017 15:52:28 +0100

In August 2017 Prof Uma Kothari, Global Development Institute, spoke at the EADI NORDIC 2017 conference on ‘Contesting Reconfigured Boundaries: Migration and Development’. The conference was a joint partnership between EADI (European Association of Development Research and Training Institutes), NFU (Norwegian Association of Development Research), the University of Bergen (UiB) and the Chr. Michelsen Institute (CMI).

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In conversation: Trump, the Daily Mail & aid with Pablo Yanguas & Chris Jordan

Wed, 30 Aug 2017 11:13:39 +0100

Dr Pablo Yanguas, Research Associate at ESID, sat down with GDI's Communications and Impact Manager Chris Jordan, to talk about the politics of aid and whether DFID fund Obamacare if the US was a developing country. They also chat about Trump, the Daily Mail, internationalism, pedagogy of aid, political courage, and of course Dr Yanguas's upcoming book, Why We Lie About A

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In conversation: Poverty and vulnerability in Mexico Mercedes González de la Rocha & Diana Mitlin

Mon, 14 Aug 2017 12:12:07 +0100

In this episode, Prof Diana Mitlin, Managing Director of GDI, and Dr Mercedes González de la Rocha, an anthropologist and sociologist at CIESAS and an alumna of the University of Manchester, discuss inequalities, clustered disadvantages, urban social isolation, why Mercedes loves Immanuel Wallerstein's definition of income. They also discuss Dr González de la Rocha’s research on poverty and vulnerability in Mexico, including the ten-year research project she led to evaluate the impact of Mexico's conditional cash transfer programme Oportunidades (now called Prospera).

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Lecture: Richard Heeks on from ICT4D to digital development

Tue, 01 Aug 2017 16:05:50 +0100

Professor Richard Heeks spoke as part of the Commonwealth Scholarship Commission lecture series. The event was entitled Information and Communication Technologies (ICTS) for Development.Richard Heeks is Professor of Development Informatics in the Global Development Institute, at The University of Manchester. He is Director of the Centre for Development Informatics, which is also based at The University of Manchester.

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Lecture: Saleemul Huq on the least developed countries negotiating climate change

Tue, 25 Jul 2017 17:06:04 +0100

Dr Saleemul Huq from International Center for Climate Change and Development, Dhaka discusses the power of Least Developed Countries at UN climate talks.

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Lecture: Should rich nations help the poor? - David Hulme

Mon, 24 Jul 2017 01:00:00 +0100

Professor David Hulme, Executive Director of the Global Development Institute discusses his book, Should Rich Nations Help the Poor?This podcast was recorded as part of the Global Development Institute Lecture Series.

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