Global Development Institute podcast

In this episode, GDI's Pritish Behuria discusses his new book, The Political Economy of Rwanda's Rise (Open Access, Cambridge University Press). Pritish explains how the country's economic and political prospects have changed since the genocide in 1994, as well as the development challenges Rwanda currently faces.   Find out more about the Global Development Institute: Website Blog...

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...

In this episode, we chat with some of the authors of a recent intervention published in Transactions 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 schola...

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’...

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.    Find out more about...

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 a...

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 ex...

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 Dow...

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 impa...

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 t...

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...  Find out more about the Global Development Institute: Websi...

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 De...

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 .  Find out more about the Global Development Institute: Website Blog BlueSky   LinkedIn  Facebook...

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 liv...

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...

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.  Find out more about the Global Development Institute: Website Blog BlueSky   LinkedIn  Facebook Instagram  Newsletter   Intro music Anna Banana by Eaters

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.   Find out more...

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 financin...

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 Ro...

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...

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 zone...

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,...

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 u...

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.   Find out more about the Global Development Institute: Website Blog BlueSky   LinkedIn  Facebook Instagram  Newsletter   Intro music Ann...

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://blo...