Opinion

Opinion

Reflecting and re-casting: a decade as IDS Director – Part one

At the end of April I finish my ten year term as Director of the Institute of Development Studies, the wonderful, extraordinary Institute which has been my base for more than a third of a century. Here, in part one of two blogs, I reflect on my time at IDS. I joined as a Fellow in 1990 to...

Melissa Leach

16 April 2024

Student Opinion

Five reflections from a writing retreat

Two of ICTD’s PhD students, Adrienne Lees and Sripriya Srivatsa, recently spent three days at Gladstone’s Library in North Wales on a writing retreat. The library was built in 1902, following a bequest from William Gladstone, and has hosted a long list of distinguished writers and...

Adrienne Lees

Sripriya Iyengar Srivatsa

15 April 2024

Opinion

Five years of Shaping Policy with Evidence

Five years after the inception of our Shaping Policy with Evidence training course, Director of Evidence and Impact and Course Convenor James Georgalakis reflects on how the learning process has evolved. Back in 2019 IDS launched this specialist short course which built on many years of support...

8 April 2024

Opinion

El Niño drought hits Zimbabwe hard

In the last week, Zimbabwe, following both Malawi and Zambia, has declared a drought emergency, requesting US$2 billion in support for purchasing food supplies in the face of large predicted deficits. The total cereal harvest is expected to be around one million tonnes, about half amount of the...

Ian Scoones

8 April 2024

Opinion

World Health Day: new technologies to accelerate action for global health

This year, World Health Day marks 76 years since the World Health Organisation (WHO) was founded. The theme for 2024 is “my health, my right”. The message comes in light of recent health disasters such as famine, conflict and dangers created by climate change to health. Looking back...

Gerald Bloom

5 April 2024

Opinion

Five ways participatory action research (PAR) can improve your research or social change work

At IDS we are passionate about our rich legacy of participatory methods, and we believe that PAR is more important than ever in the current context of complex and polarising challenges. It is a methodology that brings different perspectives into dialogue, helps to identify systemic issues and...

Joanna Howard

Danny Burns

27 March 2024

Student Opinion

Support for first-generation learners

Rachna Vyas came to IDS in September 2023 to study MA Governance, Development & Public Policy. She shares how she was supported to set up a space for other first-generation learners (students whose parents did not attend university), and the difference this has made to her time at IDS. Before...

Rachna Vyas, IDS student, MA Governance, Development & Public Policy

27 March 2024

Opinion

Why policy makers need to stop treating climate change in isolation

Climate change is perhaps the greatest challenge facing humanity, set to reverse the gains made in human development. Yet policy discussions are too often reduced to physical impacts and technical or economic fixes. In the process, root causes and wider development priorities are often...

Lars Otto Naess & 4 others

26 March 2024

Opinion

G20 members must take radical action to reform agrifood systems

Many IDS members, including my colleagues from the Food Equity Centre, are participating in G20 and T20 processes – running alongside the G20. IDS is a member of the International Advisory Council and is participating actively with leadership roles within task forces, as well as through policy...

Stephen Devereux

25 March 2024

Opinion

The power of the collective: lessons for research partnerships

In the middle of the Covid-19 pandemic and its associated massive upheaval, what enabled research findings to influence policy in real-time? What kind of funding and partnership model could support the rapid generation of evidence such as the research that informed the South Africa National AIDS...

Peter Taylor

Joe Taylor

21 March 2024

Opinion

New priorities for humanitarian assistance, livelihoods and resilience

Linking short-term relief and long-term sustainable development has long been an important policy ambition. Yet too often, humanitarian responses in the face of disasters become detached from building and strengthening livelihood systems. How can this disconnection be solved in...

Jeremy Lind & 2 others

19 March 2024

Opinion

The politics of Zimbabwe’s land reform: winners and losers

The political debates about the rights and wrongs of Zimbabwe’s land reform continue to occupy many. The tired, old obsession about how the land was taken and the associated focus on so-called ‘cronies’ persists, despite much evidence to suggest that the process was highly varied and...

Ian Scoones

18 March 2024

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Showing 1–12 of 2013 results

Reflecting and re-casting: a decade as IDS Director – Part one

Five reflections from a writing retreat

Five years of Shaping Policy with Evidence

El Niño drought hits Zimbabwe hard

World Health Day: new technologies to accelerate action for global health

Five ways participatory action research (PAR) can improve your research or social change work

Support for first-generation learners

Why policy makers need to stop treating climate change in isolation

G20 members must take radical action to reform agrifood systems

The power of the collective: lessons for research partnerships

New priorities for humanitarian assistance, livelihoods and resilience

The politics of Zimbabwe’s land reform: winners and losers

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