Global Development Institute podcast

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 geogr...

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, networ...

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.   ...

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 ca...

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...

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! ---- Dr Roelofs has degrees from Oxford, SOAS and...

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...

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 me...

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 Oldek...

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 si...

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 car...

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 fo...

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...

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 understa...

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 a...

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...

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...

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 Faci...

 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 humanitarian...

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...

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...

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 collectio...

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,...

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) prog...

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 gover...