Opinion

Opinion

Kenya drought: Pastoralists suffer despite millions of dollars used to protect them – what went wrong?

Across the arid landscape of northern Kenya, roadside signs proclaim projects aimed at creating “resilience” among pastoralist communities. This is a region where frequent droughts, animal disease, insecurity and structural exclusion all affect pastoral livelihoods. Resilience – the...

Ian Scoones

Tahira Shariff Mohamed

23 March 2023

Opinion

Do not say the planet is dying

“The world is on a highway to climate hell with our foot on the accelerator.” This was the opening statement from António Guterres, the UN Secretary General at COP27. There is no denying that the issue of climate change requires immediate action, but do proclamations such as this lead to...

Sumaiya Jawed

21 March 2023

Opinion

UN Water Conference: It’s time to reset our approach to the global water crisis

The United Nations 2023 Water Conference takes place in New York this week, nearly five decades after the first conference in 1977. That first conference sought to avoid a global water crisis by the year 2000 and produced the Mar del Plata Action Plan - much of which remains relevant to this...

Lyla Mehta

Alan Nicol

21 March 2023

Opinion

Phases of Zimbabwe’s land reform: a shifting political economy

When many people make grand proclamations about Zimbabwe’s land reform, there is often very little specificity – both of where and when they are talking about. For the post-2000 land reform is not an event, but a process – with both a prehistory going back to the colonial era and a future...

Ian Scoones

21 March 2023

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, who studied the MA Development Studies at IDS in 2022/23, 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 marathon....

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

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Showing 301–312 of 2072 results

Kenya drought: Pastoralists suffer despite millions of dollars used to protect them – what went wrong?

Do not say the planet is dying

UN Water Conference: It’s time to reset our approach to the global water crisis

Phases of Zimbabwe’s land reform: a shifting political economy

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

A new narrative for development policy in pastoral areas

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

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

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

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

Crossing the finish line

Breaking the link between ‘polycrisis’ and poverty

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