Between the Lines

African countries must work more closely together at regional and continental levels if they are to overcome barriers to innovation and drive sustainable development, experts have warned. In this episode of the IDS Between the Lines podcast , IDS Senior MEL Specialist Jo Carpenter interviews Emmeline Skinner, Social Development Adviser, Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office and Brando Okolo...

Social protection is seen as a solution to many problems of development, including poverty, food insecurity and access to services. But we also know that social protection has its limitations. So how do we justify getting Governments to invest in social protection programmes rather than investing in infrastructure or job creation or other services like health and education? In this episode of the...

IDS was recently honoured to welcome the Hon. Prime Minister of Sri Lanka, Dr Harini Amarasuriya to mark the 60th anniversary of IDS. She shared her journey from her career as an academic and an activist before entering politics and being elected as Prime Minister of Sri Lanka in 2024. In this special episode of the IDS Between the Lines podcast we present the Prime Ministers speech and her discus...

Disability is very much part of the human experience, with an estimated 16% of the world’s population experiencing significant disability. Despite this, people with disabilities often remain excluded or underrepresented in development programmes and research. In this new episode of the IDS Between the Lines podcast, researchers - whose articles have been published in the recent IDS Bulletin ‘ Buil...

A just transition is the fair and inclusive process of moving to a low-carbon, sustainable economy while ensuring workers, communities, and industries in carbon-intensive sectors aren't left behind. This Between the Lines podcast features a conversation between IDS Fellow Rosie McGee and authors John Gaventa and Gabe Schwartzman about their new book, Power and Just Transitions: Struggles for...

The term ‘development’ has been central to global conversations for decades, but the way it is understood, practised, and questioned has shifted dramatically. We’re launching our new podcast season by unpacking the evolution of development and tackling the question of what it means in today’s context.  I...

Creating equity in research collaboration sounds straightforward - but it often isn't. Whilst everyone can agree that splitting the power, resources and benefits between all partners is the right thing to do, there is often difficulty in translating aspirations for “equitable partnerships” into practical action. This can be due to complex factors such as colonial legacies and structural power imba...

For the past five years Lebanon has faced crisis upon crisis including; economic collapse, the Beirut Port blast, and Israel’s war. But now the country is entering a new political chapter under a new government, marked by shifts in priorities and a renewed attention to social policy.  In this podcast IDS Research Fellow, Philip Proudfoot, interviews Haneen Sayed, Lebanon’s Minister...

Governments need to focus on local practical delivery, and people focused mechanisms, including dignity to deliver more effective social assistance in crisis contexts, experts explain in  a new episode  of the Between the Lines podcast. In this episode, researchers and policymakers examine why and how and when to use social protection approaches in different crisis contexts so that more...

Caste isn’t just a South Asian issue — it shapes who speaks, who listens, and who is heard in academic and development spaces worldwide. In this episode of Between the Lines, we confront how caste hierarchies continue to influence the production of knowledge, access to opportunity, and the experience of being in higher education. Hosted by Chandni Sai Ganesh, MA Gender and Development alum at the...

What does it mean to navigate motherhood while pursuing a postgraduate degree? How do students balance identity, care, and academia in a world not built with them in mind? In this IDS Between the Lines podcast, MA Gender and Development (GAD) students Patronela Tshuma, Chaltu Merera Fana, and Akinyi Ochieng’ speak about their journeys as mothers pursuing higher education. Hosted by Akinyi Ochieng,...

The development sector proclaims that it values dignity. Yet it often breaks this promise, with people leaving encounters with charities feeling bruised and unseen. In this podcast, drawn from a recent lecture at IDS, research fellow Marina Apgar is in conversation with Tom Wein from the IDinsight Dignity Initiative who examines dignity as a core value around the world. Drawing on his in-progress...

A poverty line of $6.85 a day, as used by the World Bank , indicates a substantial level of deprivation, impacting the lives of billions globally. Indeed, nearly half of the World’s population falls into this category. So, if poverty is something we all want to see less of, why does it prove so difficult to tackle and can empathy help fix it? In this podcast, IDS Research Fellow Stephen Devereux i...

Humanitarian diplomacy is a broad landscape and possibly one with internal contradictions. For example, traditionally humanitarian agencies have sought to distance themselves from mediation and human rights activism. The concept of humanitarian diplomacy requires at least an end to these silos. But how is the distance to be managed? In this special podcast – recorded at a recent Sussex Development...

Significant progress on gender equality has been made in past decades, but in recent years gender and sexual rights have become increasingly under threat from a global wave of backlash. In this special podcast to celebrate International Women’s Day, IDS Fellow Deepta Chopra is in conversation with gender experts Myriam Sfeir, Director of the Arab Institute for Women at the Lebanese American Univer...

Understanding and advancing how evidence can be used to inform decisions to improve people’s lives is a crucial priority for IDS. This is especially important for evidence-led solutions that need to balance between social, economic, and environmental domains to achieve sustainability. In this podcast James Georgalakis, Director of Evidence and Impact at IDS is in conversation with Rob D. van den B...

In this podcast IDS Research Fellow Shilpi Srivastava is in conversation with Professor Ian Scoones who talks about the issues in his new book Navigating uncertainty: Radical rethinking for a turbulent World. In the podcast Ian argues that we need to adjust our modernist, controlling view and to develop new approaches, including some reclaimed and adapted from previous times or different cultures....

Social protection features in numerous country policies and development agency strategies, as well as in several Sustainable Development Goals. However, following more than two decades of considerable expansion in policies, programmes, and research, the sector finds itself at a crossroads. In this podcast Rachel Sabates-Wheeler, IDS Research Fellow and one of the editors of the recent IDS Bulletin...

In this podcast we look at the research findings from the IDS-partnered project The 24-Hour Risk City: A Framework for Thinking About Building Infrastructures of Climate Repair in Nairobi and Karachi. The project aims to investigate, explore and understand the relationship between urban change and intensifying climate impacts as this generates new cycles of “24-hour risks” in the urban global sout...

In this episode of the IDS Between the Lines podcast we look at an ‘accompanied’ approach to sustaining poverty reduction through long-term research. It focuses on work undertaken by the IDS-hosted Chronic Poverty Advisory Network (CPAN) in Zambia, and draws on insights from the project’s funder – the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) and partners from the World Bank and research...

In this episode of the IDS Between the Lines podcast IDS Research Officer Catherine Grant from the IDS-led Pandemic Preparedness project talks to Paul Richards an anthropologist with over forty-five years' experience of living and working in West Africa and author of the book Ebola: How a People’s Science Helped End an Epidemic .  In the podcast and drawing on extensive first-hand experiences...

In this special episode of the IDS Between the Lines podcast, Andy Sumner, Professor of International Development at Kings College London and President of the European Association of Development Research and Training Institutes (EADI) interviews Professor Melissa Leach who leaves IDS after 33 years. This includes the last decade of her being the Director of IDS. In the conversation Melissa talks a...

In this episode of the IDS Between the Lines podcast, Dominic Glover (IDS Research Fellow) interviews Professor Rachel Wynberg (University of Cape Town) about her new book: African Perspectives on Agroecology: Why farmer-led seed and knowledge systems matter .   In the podcast they discuss the critical voices of African farmers, activists, scientists, scholars, and policymakers whose viewpoin...

Uncertainties of all sorts – environmental, market-based and political – are on the rise, as the world faces climate and environmental change. In this episode of the IDS Between the Lines podcast, Rashmi Singh, interviews Professor Ian Scoones from the Institute of Development Studies (IDS) whose book: Pastoralism, Uncertainty and Development – makes the case that recognising how pastoralists make...

In this special episode of the IDS Between the Lines podcast Jigyasa Agarwal, a development practitioner and recent graduate of the Institute of Development Studies, interviews three students from the University of Sussex whom despite coming from diverse socio economic and cultural backgrounds, what unites them is their struggle for accessibility. We interview Dan from the UK who identifies themse...