Opinion

Opinion

UK Spending Review: government needs to fix mixed messaging on research

The Spending Review was published in the UK this week, with the Chancellor Rachel Reeves setting out the government’s spending plans for the next few years. It is of course dismaying to see the reduction in funds associated with the Overseas Development Assistance (ODA) budget, and...

Peter Taylor

13 June 2025

Opinion

Uganda’s tax system is a drain on small businesses: how to set them free

Uganda is one of the countries most exposed to recent cuts in international aid, particularly with the dissolution of the US Agency for International Development (USAID). In 2023, about 5 per cent of gross national income – a measure of a country’s total income, including income from...

Adrienne Lees

11 June 2025

Opinion

How to finance social protection finance in protracted crises: Five lessons

These turbulent times strengthen the case for social protection – when there’s so much precarity, a solid floor is all the more important. And it’s clearer than ever that we can’t dodge the difficult questions: how do we deliver on global social protection promises in places where crises...

Sophia Swithern

11 June 2025

Opinion

It is genocide: Humanitarian law must be enforced in Gaza

On 30 May 2025, IDS Honorary Associate and former UN Humanitarian Chief Martin Griffiths described the situation in Gaza as genocide. Alongside IDS Research Fellow Philip Proudfoot, here he calls for a decisive realignment of humanitarian law and humanitarian action to halt genocide and other...

Martin Griffiths

Philip Proudfoot

10 June 2025

Student Opinion

Life after IDS: setting up a think tank in Sri Lanka

Yolani Fernando, MA Governance, Development & Public Policy, Class of 2022-23, is the Co-Founder and Executive Director of Arutha, (Arutha on Instagram) a Colombo-based policy think tank focused on economic research and communication with a special interest in public debt and taxation. In this...

Yolani Fernando, MA Governance, Development & Public Policy Class of 2022-23

10 June 2025

Opinion

The dynamics of ‘success’ in A1 land reform areas of Zimbabwe

There are many different versions of ‘success’ in Zimbabwe’s A1 land reform areas as we found out across 11 different ‘success ranking’ exercises in our sites in Mazowe, Gutu, Masvingo and Matobo districts. A total of 208 people (113 men, 95 women) were involved in different workshops,...

Ian Scoones

9 June 2025

Opinion

Why tax and customs administrations should do more to address gender issues

Domestic revenue mobilisation (taxation, tariffs, etc.) is recognised as the most sustainable way of financing development. For lower-income countries, this mode of financing is all the more important today, in a context of reduced development aid. An effective tax system is based, among...

Eugénie Ribault

5 June 2025

Opinion

Pathways to agricultural sustainability in Ghana

Farmers in Ghana are beginning to feel the consequences of decades of environmentally unsustainable practices such as soil degradation, loss of biodiversity, and dwindling household resources, yet their national agricultural policy remains focused on short-term economic gains. A recent panel...

Imogen Bellwood-Howard

5 June 2025

Opinion

Former farm workers in Mvurwi: structural constraints on success

Former farm workers living in compounds on resettlement farms in Mvurwi are some of the most marginalised people across the land reform farms. ‘Success’ is limited by a set of major structural constraints that individuals cannot overcome by themselves. We conducted success rankings in two...

Ian Scoones

2 June 2025

Opinion

Understanding success in the villagised land reform farms in Masvingo province, Zimbabwe

Villagised farms, with allocated homestead areas and fields and common grazing, are the most common type of land reform farm across the country, including in Masvingo province. We have three such case study sites – Lonely Farm (Gutu), Wondedzo Wares (Masvingo) and Sanangwe (Masvingo). Across...

Ian Scoones

27 May 2025

Opinion

Negotiating demographic change: sustaining land reform success in Masvingo, Zimbabwe

The challenges of managing generational change within farm households was highlighted by the A1 self-contained land reform sites in Masvingo province. Here we have two such sites – Clare farm in Gutu district and Wondedzo extension in Masvingo district. In these sites, people were allocated...

Ian Scoones

19 May 2025

Opinion

Climate justice and disability: Why including lived experience matters

Disability and climate justice are important development themes, yet research on their intersection is lacking. More evidence that centres the lived experiences of people with disabilities is needed to help drive action and to ensure people with disabilities are more visible in climate policies...

Roz Price & 3 others

15 May 2025

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Showing 1–12 of 2256 results

UK Spending Review: government needs to fix mixed messaging on research

Uganda’s tax system is a drain on small businesses: how to set them free

How to finance social protection finance in protracted crises: Five lessons

It is genocide: Humanitarian law must be enforced in Gaza

Life after IDS: setting up a think tank in Sri Lanka

Yolani Fernando, MA Governance, Development & Public Policy Class of 2022-23

The dynamics of ‘success’ in A1 land reform areas of Zimbabwe

Why tax and customs administrations should do more to address gender issues

Pathways to agricultural sustainability in Ghana

Former farm workers in Mvurwi: structural constraints on success

Understanding success in the villagised land reform farms in Masvingo province, Zimbabwe

Negotiating demographic change: sustaining land reform success in Masvingo, Zimbabwe

Climate justice and disability: Why including lived experience matters

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