Opinion

Opinion

We need a unified water movement. Here are 5 ways we can achieve it

There must be a unified water movement if we are to avoid the global water crisis getting far worse. The 2023 UN Water Conference in New York City is our opportunity to reimagine a new form of global collective action – but it’s taken 46 years of waiting to get here. ‘We will need a more...

Janine Shaw

Ben O’Donovan-Iland

20 March 2023

Opinion

A new narrative for development policy in pastoral areas

The failures of development policies in pastoral areas are well known. But what are the alternatives? How can we shift the narrative – of both the diagnosis of the problems and the definition of the solutions?

Ian Scoones

17 March 2023

Opinion

Decidim: why digital tools for democracy need to be developed democratically

New digital platforms for citizens' initiatives, such as Decidim, are becoming more popular. Adrian Smith and Pedro Prieto Martín argue that the technology itself should also be developed in a democratic way, thereby ensuring such instruments can establish themselves as tools for democracy in...

Pedro Prieto Martín

Adrian Smith

17 March 2023

Opinion

Civic action in difficult settings: Taking a citizen-eye view

In early March, the Varieties of Democracy (V-Dem) Institute released its seventh annual democracy report. The report updated the now repeated and discouraging litanies from previous reports. Democracy is backsliding. Closed autocracies outnumber liberal democracies, for the first time in more...

Jenny Edwards

15 March 2023

Opinion

Engaging China on global challenges: responding to the Integrated Review 2023

The long-awaited refresh to the UK Integrated Review of Security, Defence, Development and Foreign Policy (the Integrated Review, or IR) was published yesterday, two years on from the first version. The IR is the preeminent guiding document on the way the UK sees relations with China at a time...

Lewis Husain

James Keeley

14 March 2023

Opinion

Conversations on Zimbabwe’s land reform: “well, it’s a bit more complex than that….”

I am often involved in conversations with people who are intrigued that I work on land issues in Zimbabwe. Such conversations frequently lead off with something along the lines ‘Oh it was such a terrible thing, wasn’t it?’. Their assumptions and biases are clear from the start and the lack...

Ian Scoones

13 March 2023

Student Opinion

Crossing the finish line

Kenta Matsumoto, currently studying MA Development Studies with IDS, recently featured in the Argus newspaper after completing the Brighton Half Marathon. He shares his insights into running has helped him with his studies. I started running three years ago, and this was my second half...

Kenta Matsumoto

13 March 2023

Opinion

Breaking the link between ‘polycrisis’ and poverty

This year marks the halfway point— eight years in and eight years out— of the UN Sustainable Development Goals to end poverty and reduce inequalities. Yet we are a long way off from these commitments, and multiple crises - now known as ‘polycrisis’ – such as conflict, disaster and...

Vidya Diwakar

10 March 2023

Opinion

Embracing equity in different contexts this International Women’s Day

This International Women's Day (8 March) falls after a year in which we have seen the continuation of gender backlash forces around the world. Women's reproductive rights are being increasingly targeted, online gender based violence is multiplying in diverse contexts, and in many settings...

10 March 2023

Opinion

Child marriage in Pakistan: Conversations with activists

International Women's Day is an important day for raising awareness of the challenges for achieving gender equality and to recognise the accomplishments of gender activists around the world. To unpack key debates around child marriage law and its implementation in Pakistan, Mahnaz Shujrah, a...

Mahnaz Shujrah

8 March 2023

Opinion

The changing life of transhumant pastoralists in central and northern Chile

In Chile, a country more than 4,000 km long, few things are constant. Its people, climate, and landscape present an ever-changing array of differences. But there is one thing that you can find everywhere you look: the Andes. This massive mountain range crosses our country and, to some extent,...

Juan Pablo del Valle

Matías Hargreaves

6 March 2023

Opinion

Royal campaign won’t work unless early years funding is viewed as critical infrastructure

Last month in the UK, the Princess of Wales launched a campaign labelled ‘Shaping Us’ to focus on the importance of early childhood.  She is right to focus on the early years. It’s a critical period in which we lay down the foundations for the rest of our lives. Good nutrition in this...

Nicholas Nisbett

1 March 2023