Institute of Development Studies

1 March 2010

Each month we speak to two people working on development issues across the world, finding out a bit about their work and asking them 'What do you think is the big question that Development Studies needs to answer?'

Recent crises in finance, food, fuel and climate have tested the dominant ideas about international development and found many wanting. At the end of 2009 IDS began a new initiative called Reimagining Development with the aim of constructing an alternative vision for development with sustainability and equity at its core.

The initiative brings together 34 research sites from around the world to identify emerging thoughts and ideas on international development and alternative pathways out of poverty.

In this programme we speak to:

• Naomi Hossain, a research Fellow at the Institute of Development Studies and a member of the Reimagining Development project team, asking what Reimagining Development initiative means to her and about her research site in Dhaka.

• Aziz Rahman, an IDS Alumni, whose research site for Reimagining Development is looking at the values, aspirations and goals of self-help groups and micro credit programmes in India and asking whether recent crises are changing them.