Deq (Arabic: دەق) or xal (Kurdish: خاڵ) are the Arabic and Kurdish words for tattoo respectively. Traditional Deq (tattoo) or Xal has long been a part of cultural heritage in Kurdistan and Iraq, it is shared by multiple ethnic and religious groups in Kurdistan, such as Yazidis, Shabaks,...
15 April 2025
The first budget speech of Ghana’s new government on 11 March painted a picture of an economy in crisis, facing high debt and fiscal mismanagement. The finance minister, Cassiel Ato Forson, acknowledged that key International Monetary Fund performance targets would be missed and announced...
15 April 2025
Research on and in the Indian subcontinent has historically been embroiled in the same caste power dynamics of the environments that scholars attempt to study. Development, both as a practice and as a field of knowledge, including within UK Higher Education (HE), remains dominated by...
14 April 2025
How might evaluation research respond to the complex and emergent nature of holistic community-led development? What does an equitable living partnership between evaluators and researchers, funders and programme implementers look and feel like? What are the highs and lows of navigating...
14 April 2025
With limited assets and multiple constraints to access to land, accumulation by young people in our A1 land reform sites is challenging. This blog looks at the multiple pathways followed, highlighting how livelihoods, gender relations and styles of farming are being reinvented in the...
14 April 2025
On 28 March 2025, a 7.7 magnitude earthquake hit central Myanmar, a country going through a civil war and an already worsening humanitarian crisis under the military junta. The earthquake was the most powerful earthquake to hit Myanmar in decades, causing widespread devastation across...
14 April 2025
Urban areas are critical for human development. They are often viewed as key places for the pursuit of economic growth, for addressing epidemics, for modern day warfare, or for adapting to and mitigating for climate change hazards, amongst others. An oft cited UN statistic noted that in...
9 April 2025
Poor countries are reeling from the sudden and wide-ranging US aid cuts. Among the worst affected is South Sudan, a poor country which gained independence in July 2011. South Sudan relies on international assistance to provide basic services to its people. These cuts will devastate South...
7 April 2025
“We actually are still colonised. White people are the ones who know how long we will live and how far they can go in helping us... How can the government lead the fight when they can’t pay the health workers?” This statement was made in 2008 by a staff member in an organisation working...
7 April 2025
Our studies of young people across our A1 land reform sites in Zimbabwe show the real challenges that young people face in getting established as independent economic actors. This requires putting together a portfolio of activities, diversifying opportunistically while also seeking a stable...
7 April 2025
Young people’s urban lives are often riddled with inequalities and everyday obstacles inhibiting their full societal participation, to negatively affect their health and wellbeing. Findings from a study in intermediary cities in six countries show that programming interventions that support...
3 April 2025
The Raising Learning Outcomes (RLO) Programme emerged as a response to the global learning crisis. Launched in 2014 as a strategic partnership between the UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) and the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC), a number of RLO researchers...
2 April 2025
