Our year in review – the changing landscape of digital engagement

Just as Covid-19 and major geopolitical shifts continued to disrupt our global community in 2021, we continued to adapt – reshaping our research and learning environment to promote engagement with the latest knowledge, insights and ideas in international development.

We responded to the rapidly changing needs of global audiences by shifting our focus to providing online and hybrid events and innovating with new digital engagement approaches. At a deeper level, we strengthened our commitment to communications excellence and building capability with our sector, for example through the development and publishing of our ethical content guidelines.

Compared to 2020, our online audience grew by two per cent. This was largely a response to ongoing Covid-19 restrictions on travel and social contact but also reflects the interest in global development issues, from health and the social dynamics of the pandemic to climate change and sustainability.

Below, you can see our most popular content in 2021. For more about our impacts, see our 2021 Annual Review.

Looking ahead we remain committed to building on approaches that worked well to sustain our global audiences while maintaining our sense of community and research excellence. In the coming year, we will apply everything we have learned in order to achieve more equitable and sustainable societies and fulfil our hopes for 2022.

Thank you for all your support this year!

Our most read blogs in 2021

1. How to overcome the challenges of doing research during Covid-19
2. The impact of the Covid-19 lockdown on Zimbabwe’s informal economy
3. Covid-19: a social phenomenon requiring diverse expertise
4. Social impacts of Covid-19 in low- and middle-income countries
5. Seven challenges for accountability 2.0
6. Redressing religious inequalities: development’s glaring blind spot
7. How I got a full Rotary International scholarship for my master degree
8. Covid-19 reflections for participatory research
9. Under the surface – the global politics of ocean plastic pollution
10. Seductive yet empty labels don’t advance debate about future agricultures

Our most read news stories in 2021

1. Religious inequalities and the impact of Covid-19
2. Responding to Covid-19 – the social dynamics
3. IDS alum jailed in India for peaceful protest
4. Sussex world’s best for development studies for fifth year running
5. Applications open for the new SSHAP fellowship programme
6. IDS ranked best international development policy think tank
7. Participation research week events
8. Concern for Afghan Chevening Scholars
9. Development studies top summer reading recommendations
10. IDS response to UK’s international research budget cuts

Our most engaged-with social media post

Our top ten, most-viewed events in 2021

1. Participatory monitoring evaluation and learning: taking stock and breaking new ground
2. Why embracing uncertainty means rethinking development
3. Decolonising development, imagining otherwise
4. Book launch: Handbook of participatory inquiry
5. Youth employment in Africa: critical issues for job creation
6. In conversation with the President of Costa Rica
7. Achieving sustainable development in the Pacific through learning and global research collaboration
8. Action-oriented forms of participatory research
9. The politics of evidence in global emergencies: lessons from the engagement of research with policy during Covid-19
10. Mixing and mashing participatory with other research methods.

Our most downloaded publications

1. Digital Rights in Closing Civic Space: Lessons from Ten African Countries
2. Sustainable Rural Livelihoods: A Framework for Analysis
3. Sustainable rural livelihoods: practical concepts for the 21st century
4. External Evaluation of Mobile Phone Technology-based Nutrition and Agriculture Advisory Services in Africa: Final Tanzania Mixed Methods Evaluation Report
5. The Meaning of Development
6. Central-Local Government Roles and Relationships in Property Taxation
7. Surveillance Law in Africa: a Review of Six Countries
8. Negotiating Gender Equity in the Global South: The Politics of Domestic Violence Policy
9. Learning about Theories of Change for the Monitoring and Evaluation of Research Uptake
10. Transformative social protection

Our most listened-to podcasts in 2021 (Between the Lines)

1. The Routledge International Handbook of Financialization
2. Demanding Development: The Politics of Public Goods Provision in India’s Urban Slums
3. Stuck: How Vaccine Rumors Start and Why They Don’t Go Away
4. Lie Machines
5. Crafty Oligarchs, Savvy Voters
6. The Water-Food-Energy nexus
7. The SAGE Handbook of Participatory Research and Inquiry
8. Political Values and Narratives of Resistance
9. Taxing Africa: Coercion, Reform and Development

Our top ten, most viewed media highlights of the year

1. Vogue: How to keep momentum going on multi-year projects
2. Reuters: Africa urged to wake up to growing state surveillance threat
3. Forbes: How The West’s Climate Campaign Against Meat Could Harm Millions In Developing World
4. Inter Press Service Fundamental Changes Needed at UN Summit to Tackle Global Food Insecurity
5. CNN.com International: Africa’s most populous city is battling floods and rising seas. It may soon be unlivable, experts warn
6. The Hindu: Protect human rights of the marginalised during COVID crisis: academics
7. Telegraph.co.uk: Backlash as UK cuts funding for global health research in half
8. Daily Mail: ‘Digital authoritarianism’ threatening basic rights in Africa, study says
9. NBCNEWScom: World’s richest become wealthier during pandemic as inequality grows
10. Project Syndicate: The Fight for Women’s Rights Beyond #MeToo

Our most watched videos in 2021

1. What is neoliberalism how does it affect development?
2. What is Pastoralism?
3. Neo-liberalism – what is it and why is it crucial to understand for development? part one
4. What is development studies?
5. Trafficking and forced conversion in Pakistan: testimony from a young Hindu woman
6. Introduction to the IDS development-related master’s, with Q&A
7. What is the future of international development research?
8. Bangladesh at 50 – Resilience and Growth: Looking back, moving forward?
9. The first lecture from the IDS Shaping Policy with Evidence course
10. African Digital Rights Network – Atnaf Brhane