Global Development Institute podcast

The Reciprocal Learning Exchange Project is a collective endeavour set up by the Muungano wa Wanavijiji Kisumu Federation and students from the Global Development Institute, supported by GDI’s Innovation Fund. Designed to better understand the benefits, challenges, and underexplored opportunities that come about when developing relationships between researchers and grassroots movements, the project involved several workshops to facilitate open exchange and reciprocal learning. This podc...

In this episode of the GDI podcast, David Fielding, Professor of Development Economics, interviews Farzana Munshi, Professorial Research Fellow, about her latest book, The Labour Market in Bangladesh: Emerging Challenges, Future of Work, and Policy Direction (Routledge). The pair discuss the fourth industrial revolution, potential upcoming transformations to the labour market in Bangladesh, some of the deep puzzles for researchers exploring the country's labour market, and much more. &n...

In this episode we hear GDI undergraduate students Evelyn Taylor, Olivia Thornburrow and Cheryl Loh in conversation with Cecilia Milesi. Cecilia has over 25 years of experience advising multilateral organizations, United Nations agencies such as UNOSSC, and international NGOs including Amnesty International and Oxfam. She is the founder of the Global Change Center and the youth participation initiative Subir al Sur, in addition to serving as an Asia Global Fellow and a fellow of the Glo...

The Oxford Handbook of Social Policies in the Global South has just been published, bringing together the latest research on social policies and institutions in place outside the advanced capitalist countries. In this episode of the GDI Podcast, one of the handbook's co-editors, Professor Armando Barrientos, discusses the rationale behind publishing the book and the contributions it makes to the broad field of social policy studies. Read the book here: The Oxford Handbook of Social...

Three of our recently-graduated undergrad students - Amelia Campion, Alex Dannreuther and Niamh Keogan - speak with Chibwe Masabo Henry about the breakdown of aid structures and the ways we can shift our giving to a flexible, community-grounded model. Chibwe Masabo Henry is Shifting the Power Programme Lead at Comic Relief, and is also Chief Steward of One World Together. Find out more about the Global Development Institute: WebsiteBlogBlueSky LinkedIn FacebookIn...

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: WebsiteBlogBlueSky LinkedIn FacebookInstagram Newsletter Intro music Anna Banana by Eaters

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. Find...

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 interve...

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 ...

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 the Global Development Institute: WebsiteBlogBlueSky LinkedIn FacebookInstagram&n...

In this episode, we chat with five recent graduates about their time with the SEED Changemakers programme. Participants include: Laura AcostaIfe AgboolaPatrick CaskieEddie GrovesThando MatheAs 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 studen...

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 a...

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...

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...

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 fo...

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: WebsiteBlogBlueSky LinkedIn FacebookInstagram Newsletter Intro music Anna ...

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).&nbs...

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: WebsiteBlogBlueSky LinkedIn FacebookInstagram Newsletter Intro music Anna Banana by Eaters

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 ...

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. Find o...

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: WebsiteBlogBlueSky LinkedIn FacebookInstagram 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 about the Global Development Institute: WebsiteBlogBlueSky LinkedIn FacebookInstagram&n...

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 thei...

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. Find out more about the Global Development Institute: WebsiteBlogBlueSky&...

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 o...

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 ...

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 bridg...

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 La...

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: WebsiteBlogBlueSky LinkedIn FacebookInstagram Newsletter Intro music Anna Banana by Eaters

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/ Read more abou...

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 ...

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

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. Find out more about the Global Development Institute: WebsiteBlogBlueSky LinkedIn FacebookInstagr...

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 ...

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' w...

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 LSE. She has held post-doctoral fellowships at the LSE and St Anne’s College, Oxford. She has been a visit...

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. Music I Use: Bensound.com/free-music-for-videos...

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 wi...

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.&nbs...

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 Gezaheg...

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. Music I Use: Bensound.com/free-music-for-videos License code: QVPSSG18TYB4DVRS  ...

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 internati...

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...

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 ...

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 enabli...

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 Dep...

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 Ever...

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 Sudane...

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. More about Lisa Ann Richey Batman Saves the Congo: How Celebrities Disr...

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...

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 ...

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 transformatio...

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 ...

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...

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 ...

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 marketswhat this means for decent work – especially women in precarious jobsand looked at specific commodities and value chains in the horticulture and garment sectors in South Africa, Lesotho and Kenya.Panel Pr...

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 marketswhat this means for decent work – especially women in precarious jobsand looked at specific commodities and value chains in the horticulture and garment sectors in South Africa...

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 Inte...

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 h...

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 ref...

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 fulf...

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 a...

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.Pic...

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...

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 Po...

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 ...

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 th...

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 confro...

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...

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 Universi...

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 ...

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. Find out more about the Global Development Institute: WebsiteBlogBlueSky LinkedIn FacebookIn...

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 stat...

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 belo...

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 w...

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...

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 Develo...

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...

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 Find out more about the Global Development Institute: WebsiteBlogBlueSky LinkedIn FacebookInstagram Newsletter Intro music Anna Banana by Eaters

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...

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, fac...

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 H...

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 Afr...

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 ai...

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 Min...

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 wor...

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 ...

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. Find out more about the Global Development Institute: WebsiteBlogBlueSky LinkedIn FacebookInstagram Newsletter Intro music Anna Banana by Eaters

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. Find out more about the Global Development Institute: WebsiteBlogBlueSky LinkedIn FacebookInstagram Newsletter Intro music Anna Banana by Eaters

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 ...

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...

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 t...

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...

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. Find out more about the Global Development Institute: WebsiteBlogBlueSky LinkedIn FacebookInstagram Newsletter Intro music Anna Banana by Eaters

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 Deve...

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' Find out more about the Global Development Institute: WebsiteBlogBlueSky LinkedIn FacebookInstagram Newsletter Intro music Anna Banana by Eaters

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 e...

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 con...

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 fo...