Global Development Institute podcast

In the latest episode of the GDI podcast Professor Stefan Dercon talks to Dr Sophie van Huellen. They discuss Stefan's new book, "Gambling on Development: why some countries win and others lose", his recent departure from the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, and his advice to academics wanting to work with civil servants and policy makers. Stefan Dercon is Professor of Economic Policy at Oxford University. Between 2011 and 2017, he was Chief Economist of the Department of International Development (DFID), and from 20200- 2022, he was the Development Policy Advisor to successive Foreign Secretaries at the UK's Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office. Sophie van Huellen is a Lecturer in Development Economics at the Global Development Institute. Transcript and more information is available here: https://wp.me/p79faF-1Lc

GDI's Resources, Environment, and Development research group have recently organised a series of talks on ‘Red Talks: on the Politics of Resources, Environment and Development' The first event welcomed Dr Maria Christina Fragkou, an environmental scientist currently working as an Associate Professor in the Department of Geography at the University of Chile to discuss ‘Urban metabolism, water scarcity and seawater desalination in Chile under a neoliberal paradigm' In her talk, Maria shared her research on the current water crisis in Chile, and the hydro-social implications of desalination (widely promoted as a solution to the crisis) from an urban socio-economic metabolism perspective. The increasing water shortages along Chile, and the consequent pressure on the country's continental water sources, has resulted in the consolidation of seawater desalination as the Chilean State's main strategy for supplying drinking water to coastal populations in arid areas. Despite the growing expansion of this technology, the social implications of desalinated water distribution for human consumption in Chilean cities have not yet been studied. A transcript of the talk can be found here: https://hummedia.manchester.ac.uk/institutes/gdi/research/transcripts/urban_metabolism_water_scarcity_and_seawater_desalination_in_chile_fragkou.pdf

While the Covid-19 pandemic has caused enormous devastation and disruption in health, social and economic terms, the remarkably quick development of Covid-19 vaccines is an enormous achievement. Yet despite frequent statements that “it's not over anywhere, until it's over everywhere”, the distribution of Covid-19 vaccines has been grossly inequitable – defying what the world needs epidemiologically and economically, as well as ethically. The panel of leading academic and activist experts reflect on one of the biggest immediate problems facing the world – looking back at how global Covid-19 vaccine inequality has emerged and exploring what needs to happen now and in the future to address the ongoing issue, and help prevent similar future problems. It will explore aspects including the roles and limitations of technology transfer, patent protection, vaccine nationalism, COVAX as a multilateral initiative. Speakers: Karrar Karrar is a Senior Advisor – Pharmaceutical Policy, Save the Children Lara Dovifat is Campaign Manager, Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders (MSF) Prof. Ken Shadlen is a Professor of Development Studies, LSE) Chair: Rory Horner Senior Lecturer, Global Development Institute, University of Manchester Read a transcript of the podcast: https://hummedia.manchester.ac.uk/institutes/gdi/research/transcripts/global-covid-19-vaccine-inequality.pdf Intro music Anna Banana by Eaters

Yeling Tan discusses her book, Disaggregating China, Inc: State Strategies in the Liberal Economic Order. China's entry into the World Trade Organization in 2001 represented an historic opportunity to peacefully integrate a rising economic power into the international order based on market-liberal rules. Yet rising economic tensions between the US and China indicate that this integration process has run into trouble. To what extent has the liberal internationalist promise of the WTO been fulfilled? To answer this question, this podcast breaks open the black box of the massive Chinese state and unpacks the economic strategies that central economic agencies as well as subnational authorities adopted in response to WTO rules demanding far-reaching modifications to China's domestic institutions. Tan explains why, rather than imposing constraints, WTO entry provoked divergent policy responses from different actors within the Chinese state, in ways neither expected nor desired by the architects of the WTO. Yeling Tan is Assistant Professor of Political Science at The University of Oregon Read a transcript of the podcast: https://hummedia.manchester.ac.uk/institutes/gdi/research/transcripts/disaggregating_china_inc_yeling_tan.pdf Intro music Anna Banana by Eaters

This podcast focuses on development politics at the United Nations, particularly the period of the so-called New International Economic Order (NIEO) in the 1970s. The NIEO was an effort by Third World countries to pursue a reform agenda that combined global redistribution from North to South with state-led developmentalism at the national level. By revisiting this fascinating and tumultuous period in the global political economy, Bair aims to re-centre the role of Southern states in debates about globalization, human rights and inequality. Jennifer Bair is Professor of Sociology and Department Chair at The University of Virginia Read a transcript of the podcast: https://hummedia.manchester.ac.uk/institutes/gdi/research/transcripts/new_international_economic_order_right_to_development.pdf Intro music Anna Banana by Eaters.

To mark the launch of The Routledge Handbook of Global Development, we have recorded 3 podcasts with the core editorial team. In the final episode, core-editor Kearrin Sims sat down with Albert Salamanca and Pichamon Yeophantong, section editors for the book's section ‘Sustainabilty and Environment'. Kearrin Sims is a lecturer in Development Studies at James Cook University, Australia. Albert Salamanca is a senior research fellow at the Stockholm Environment Institute's Asia Centre, Thailand. Pichamon Yeophantong is a senior lecturer at the University of New South Wales, Canberra. Find out more about the book: http://blog.gdi.manchester.ac.uk/new-handbook-challenges-dominant-development-paradigms/ Read a transcript of the podcast: https://hummedia.manchester.ac.uk/institutes/gdi/research/transcripts/routledge-handbook-global-development-e3.pdf Intro music Anna Banana by Eaters.

In this second podcast to mark the launch of The Routledge Handbook of Global Development, Professor Jonathan Rigg sits down with Dr Nicola Banks, the section editor of 'Game Changers of global development?', to find out what makes a 'game changer' and how development pedagogy can learn from them. Jonathan Rigg is Professor of Development Geography in the School of Geographical Sciences at the University of Bristol. Nicola Banks is Senior Lecturer in Global Urbanism and Urban Development at the Global Development Institute at the University of Manchester. Find out more about the book: http://blog.gdi.manchester.ac.uk/new-handbook-challenges-dominant-development-paradigms/ Read a transcript of the podcast: https://hummedia.manchester.ac.uk/institutes/gdi/research/transcripts/routledge-handbook-global-development-e2.pdf Intro music Anna Banana by Eaters.

To mark the launch of The Routledge Handbook of Global Development, we have recorded 3 podcasts with the core editorial team. In this first episode, core-editor Kearrin Sims sat down with co-editors Susan Engel, Paul Hodge and Naohiro Nakamura, to discuss their motivations behind the book, what makes this volume so special, and how it deals with 'global' development. Kearrin Sims is a lecturer in Development Studies at James Cook University, Australia. Susan Engel is an associate professor in Politics and International Studies at the University of Wollongong, Australia. Paul Hodge is a senior lecturer in Geography and Environmental Studies at The University of Newcastle, Australia. Naohiro Nakamura is a senior lecturer in Geography at the University of the South Pacific, Fiji. Find out more about the book: http://blog.gdi.manchester.ac.uk/new-handbook-challenges-dominant-development-paradigms/ Read a transcript of the podcast: https://hummedia.manchester.ac.uk/institutes/gdi/research/transcripts/routledge-handbook-global-development-e1.pdf Intro music Anna Banana by Eaters.

In the latest episode of the GDI podcast Professor Shuaib Lwasa talks to Dr Seth Schindler. They discuss the recent COP in Glasgow, urban development, African cities and the Urban Action Lab. Dr. Shuaib Lwasa is Professor of Urban Sustainability at Makerere University, Uganda. He has worked extensively on interdisciplinary research projects focused on African cities but also in South Asia. He established and directed an Urban Action Research Lab in 2010 which has championed graduate research and training and incubating novel ideas of urban transformation and sustainability in partnership with low-income communities and vulnerable groups working in three research sites in Uganda. Seth Schindler is Senior Lecturer in Urban Development and Transformation in the Global Development Institute. His research is focused on large-scale urban and regional transformation initiatives that integrate cities into transnational urban systems. Seth is also co-research director of the African Cities Research Consortium, a six-year programme funded by the UK's Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, which seeks to generate new insights and approaches to tackle complex problems in Africa's rapidly changing cities. A transcript of this podcast is available here: https://hummedia.manchester.ac.uk/institutes/gdi/research/transcripts/in-conversation-shuaib-lwasa.pdf

Alexander Pick is Head of New Development Policies and Institutions at the OECD Development Centre. Social unrest is on the rise once more. A surge in discontent in the wake of the global financial crisis was interrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic but is resuming in many places and in many different forms as the pandemic begins to recede. The causes, manifestations and consequences of this discontent is the subject of Perspectives on Global Development 2021: From protest to progress? – a new flagship report by the OECD Development Centre. In this lecture, Alexander Pick, the lead author of the report, will discuss its key findings about the complexities of discontent, what the phenomenon tells us about the world around us, and what needs to be done to address it, at a local, national and international level. Read a transcript of this podcast: https://hummedia.manchester.ac.uk/institutes/gdi/research/transcripts/addressing-global-discontent-essential-build%20back-better-from-covid-19-alexander-pick.pdf

In this podcast, Kristen Hopewell, Canada Research Chair in Global Policy, presents research from her new book analyzing the impact of the growing US-China conflict on the multilateral trading system. Hopewell argues that China's ascent has significantly weakened American control over the governing institutions of the trading system and its power to write the rules of global trade. The US and China are engaged in a pitched battle to set the rules of global economic competition, and the confrontation between these two dominant powers has paralyzed global trade rule-making. The China Paradox – the fact that China is both a developing country and an economic powerhouse – has created significant challenges for global trade governance. While China demands exemptions from global trade disciplines as a developing country, the US refuses to extend special treatment to its rival. The implications of this conflict extend far beyond trade, impeding pro-development and pro-environment reforms of the global trading system. You can find a transcript of this podcast here: https://hummedia.manchester.ac.uk/institutes/gdi/research/transcripts/us-china-rivalry-global-trade-governance-kristen-hopewell.pdf

In this new mini-series three GDI academics talk to The University of Manchester's Dr Nic Gowland about how their research is helping to deliver the UN Sustainable Development Goals for global health, equality and sustainability. More than 80% of South Asia's farmers are cultivating under two hectares, usually in scattered plots. Most lack access to irrigation, credit, technical information, and the means to tackle climate change. A growing proportion of farms are managed by women, but without owning the land they cultivate, as men move to non-farm jobs. For more than a decade, Bina Agarwal, Professor of Development Economics and Environment at the Global Development Institute, has examined whether cultivating in groups by voluntarily pooling land, labour, funds and skills and sharing costs and benefits, would enable small farmers to create larger, more profitable enterprises in South Asia, and beyond. You can read a transcript of this podcast here: http://hummedia.manchester.ac.uk/institutes/gdi/research/transcripts/gdi-and-sdgs-bina-agarwal.pdf

In this new mini-series three GDI academics talk to The University of Manchester's Dr Nic Gowland about how about how their research is helping to deliver the UN Sustainable Development Goals for global health, equality and sustainability. Research shows that nearly 70% of Indonesians aged 40 and over, with moderate to high cardiovascular risk, don't receive cardiovascular care. To address this need, Dr Gindo Tampubolon, joined a new research-policy collaboration. This collaboration included the Universities of Manchester and Brawijaya, the George Institute for Global Health and the Indonesia and the District Government of Malang. The team trained local health workers (kaders)on cardiovascular disease, risk factors and the technical use of an app called SMARThealth. The app analysed samples in real time, producing a simple traffic light system (green-amber-red) to indicate cardiovascular risk, simplifying the World Health Organization's complex five-tiered grading systems. Over two years, doctors and kaders served approximately 48,000 people across eight villages, with 12,000 individuals over the age of 40 screened for heart disease. Results showed a reduction in the risk of cardiovascular deaths by identifying people at risk and then having health professionals prescribe lifestyle and/or drug interventions. Transcript available here: http://hummedia.manchester.ac.uk/institutes/gdi/research/transcripts/gdi-and-sdgs-gindo-tampubolon.pdf

In this new mini-series three GDI academics talk to The University of Manchester's Dr Nic Gowland about how about how their research is helping to deliver the UN Sustainable Development Goals for global health, equality and sustainability. Prof Stephanie Barrientos has been researching the role of workers for over a decade. Her particular focus is on gender in the production of consumer goods sourced by retailers and brands through GVCs. Her work has changed the way a number of large companies deal with issues faced by women workers in the Global South, resulting in improved conditions and rights, enhancing prospects for millions of women worldwide. Transcript available here: http://hummedia.manchester.ac.uk/institutes/gdi/research/transcripts/gdi-and-sdgs-stephanie-barrientos.pdf

In the latest Global Development Institute podcast, Professor David Hulme interviews Dr David Little, an environmental consultant who has worked internationally on oil spills for a major part of his life. They discuss his work and their recent journal article on oil spills and climate change You can find a transcript of this podcast on our website: https://www.gdi.manchester.ac.uk/podcast/ Read David and David's recent paper: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0964569120304166?via%3Dihub

Nick Jepson talks to Ilias Alami and Adam Dixon about their recent talk at the Global Development Institute. The talk blurb is below: The talk contributes to the development of state capitalism as a reflexively critical project focusing on the morphology of present-day capitalism, and particularly on the changing role of the state. We bring analytical clarity to state capitalism studies by offering a rigorous definition of its object of investigation, and by demonstrating how the category state capitalism can be productively construed as a means of problematising the current aggregate expansion of the state’s role as promoter, supervisor, and owner of capital across the world economy. Noting some of the geographical shortcomings of the field, we outline an alternative research agenda – uneven and combined state capitalist development – which aims at spatialising the study of state capitalism and revitalising systemic explanations of the phenomenon. We then offer a geographic reconstruction of the current advent of state capitalism. We identify the determinate historical-geographical capitalist transformations which underpin contemporary state capitalism. Such processes include: the accelerating unfolding of the new international division of labour; technological modernization and industrial upgrading culminating in the Fourth Industrial Revolution; an unprecedented concentration and centralisation of capital; and a secular shift in the centre of gravity of the global economy from the North Atlantic to the Pacific rim. The political mediation of these processes results in new geographies of intervention, which develop in combinatorial and cumulative forms, producing further state capitalist modalities. This is a particularly potent dynamic in contemporary state capitalism, and its tendency to develop in a spiral that both shapes and is shaped by world capitalist development.

Inequality is the crisis of our time. The growing gap between a few at the top and the rest of society damages us all. No longer able to deny the crisis, every government in the world is now pledged to fix it – and yet it keeps on getting worse. This talk focuses on his new book, and Ben Phillips has shown why, in looking for answers, we need to move the spotlight away from the famous faces; how every time inequality has been successfully tackled it has been because of people pushing from below. Most books on inequality are about what other people ought to do about it – this book is about why winning the fight needs you. Sometimes students can feel like they are “preparing” for helping bring change when appointed to a role later. But can they in fact play a transformative role now? Phillips says yes - and explains how. This is not just a bold new historical and sociological study about the politics of inequality - it is a practical action guide for people working for a more equal world. Ben Phillips is co-founder of the Fight Inequality Alliance, civil society activist, and writer. He is the author of the book How to Fight Inequality: (and Why That Fight Needs You) published by Wiley press.

How did Western imperialism shape the developing world? In Imperialism and the Developing World, Atul Kohli tackles this question by analyzing British and American influence on Asia, Africa, the Middle East, and Latin America from the age of the British East India Company to the most recent U.S. war in Iraq. He argues that both Britain and the U.S. expanded to enhance their national economic prosperity, and shows how Anglo-American expansionism hurt economic development in poor parts of the world. Atul Kohli is the David K.E. Bruce Professor of International Affairs at Princeton University. His principal research interests are in the area of political economy of developing countries. He is the author of Imperialism and the Developing World: How Britain and the U.S. Shaped the Global Periphery; Poverty amid Plenty in the New India; State-Directed Development: Political Power and Industrialization in the Global Periphery; Democracy and Discontent: India's Growing Crisis of Governability and The State and Poverty in India. He has also edited or co-edited ten volumes and published some sixty articles. Through much of his scholarship, he has emphasized the role of sovereign and effective states in the promotion of inclusive development.

Using case studies from research conducted in Nepal, Bangladesh and Uganda, this webinar will reveal how powerful women are critical actors in securing policy change and consolidating policy gains. The webinar explores the different strategies women’s movement actors and women inside the state use behind the scenes to bypass the political gatekeepers and overcome resistance in policy spaces. In all of the case study countries, there is a push-back against women’s rights and the civic space is shrinking. How does the rise of conservative forces also offer insights into how women leaders may continue to matter? Dr Sohela Nazneen is a Research Fellow at IDS and a Principal Investigator for ESID on women’s empowerment. She has 17 years of experience in working on gender and development issues.

Catch up with our webinar which introduced the African Cities Research Consortium (ACRC) and outlined how the ACRC and its international partners is planning to tackle complex, political and systemic problems in some of Africa’s fastest-growing urban areas. ACRC has been awarded a contract of £32 million from the UK’s Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) over the next 6 years. Building on the political settlements analysis established by the Effective States and Inclusive Development research centre, ARCR will adopt a city as systems approach to addressing complex urban problems. Through engaged action research, we aim to catalyse progress for disadvantaged communities in a number of focus cities and beyond. Speakers Professor Diana Mitlin, The University of Manchester Professor Sam Hickey, The University of Manchester Dr Martin Atela Partnership for African Social and Governance Research, Nairobi Chaired by Dr Admos Chimhowu

India and China have responded very differently to the lives and livelihoods threats created by Covid-19 and they have experienced very different outcomes. This webinar explores the different ways in which political factors have shaped policy responses to Covid-19 in China and India and the relationships between scientific/technical analysis of the ‘crisis’ and political forces. Can the different policy choices and outcomes be explained by broad-brush concepts, such as democracy and autocracy, or are the explanatory factors more nuanced and more deeply rooted in the specificities of domestic politics? Prof Prerna Singh, Mahatma Gandhi Associate Professor of Political Science & International Studies at Brown University, USA Professor Yanzhong Huang, Director, Center for Global Health Studies at Seton Hall, & Senior Fellow at the Council for Foreign Relations, USA

What kind of politics help to secure inclusive development? After 9 years of research across 26 countries, summing up ESID findings hasn’t been simple. But Three Cs kept cropping up: Context, Capacity, Coalitions. Watch the first in the ESID webinar series on the Three C’s with ESID’s Research Director Professor Sam Hickey

In this special podcast we sat down for a chat with Chrissie Wellington OBE, who was the 2020 recipient of The University of Manchester Outstanding Alumni Award. The four-time World Ironman Champion and current Global Head of Health and Wellbeing at Parkrun, talked about her time at Manchester, what attracted her to International Development, her remarkable sporting career and why her current work is, even more so since Covid-19, so important. Chrissie Wellington graduated in 2001 with an MA in International Development. She is now the Global Head of Health and Wellbeing at Parkrun.

Mark Anner will share findings from his survey data on the impact of March 2020 order cancellations by major apparel brands and retailers with global supplier factories (USD 40 billion), which left millions of low-income workers (mostly young women) without income. A subsequent campaign to pressure these corporations to ‘#payup” was largely successful. Dr. Anner will then draw on his October 2020 research report to examine how, in the context of new lockdowns, current orders are drying up, factories are being squeezed by buyers on price and payment terms, and more than 10 million garment workers could face dismissals or layoffs. The talk will emphasize how this crisis did not begin with Covid-19, but rather that the Covid-19 pandemic exacerbated dramatic, GVC structural power imbalances that have had deleterious consequences for workers, the environment, and social protection for decades.

Wind power has expanded quickly in Brazil, while solar power lags there and both wind and solar power have struggled to take off in South Africa. Professor Kathryn Hochstetler argues that four different political economies - climate change, industrial policy, consumption and distribution, and siting - help account for energy transition. However, coalitions are being built on each of these at the same time, potentially interlocking to reinforce or counter-balance each other. Professor Kathryn Hochstetler, LSE, examines how these processes work in Brazil and South Africa to create distinct national political economies of energy transition.

Dr Amani Abou-Zeid of the African Union discusses Africa: 75 years after the Manchester Pan-African Congress. Her talk was part of a symposium to celebrate the 75th anniversary of the 5th Pan-African Congress which was held in Manchester. Dr Amani Abou-Zeid is currently the African Union Commissioner for Infrastructure, Energy, ICT and Tourism. She is an international development expert with more than 30 years’ experience and has a held roles at the United Nations Development Programme and African Development Bank. She has received the Order of Ouissam Alaouite from HM King Mohamed VI of Morocco, been selected as one of the 50 Most Influential Women in Africa, identified as a World Young Leader by the European Union, and recently named Commissioner by the prestigious top global influencers group ‘ICT for Sustainable Development’. Amani is an alumna of The University of Manchester having studied for her PhD at the Global Development Institute

The Covid-19 pandemic created a major shock to the global economy. The ramifications of this shock are reverberating through global value chains to reach workers and sites of production throughout the world. These ramifications are both short and long term. In the short term, the crisis was a major shock for developing economies particularly those who rely on exports through GVCs as global lead firms cancelled orders and workers were terminated often with very little protection. This webinar aims to examine the future of global value chains in a post-Covid world and how could a restructuring of the global economy shape the position of suppliers and workers in developing countries. Stephanie Barrientos (University of Manchester), Dev Nathan (Institute for Human Development, New Delhi). Rory Horner (University of Manchester), Raphael Kaplinsky (University of Sussex), Chair: Shamel Azmeh (University of Manchester).

Charity Mumbi and Jack Makau work for Muungano wa Wanavijiji, a social movement of 'slum' residents and urban poor people in Kenya, affiliated to SDI International. In this podcast they describe the last few months of working through the initial outbreak of Covid-19, outlining how communities and their organisations have been responding. Their agile initial approaches, alongside a longstanding ability to accurately map dense informal settlements has led to new partnerships with the Kenyan Ministry of Health, as part of its coronavirus task force. This work is also being supported by an action research project to track coronavirus responses with GDI’s Professor Diana Mitlin.

In this special podcast, we are lucky to be joined by the editors of the newly published Routledge Handbook of Migration and Development, Tanja Bastia and Ronald Skeldon. In this episode they talk about their long-term collaboration in the fields of migration and development and their wish to build on long-standing research by bringing together established thinkers and new areas of research – an approach which has culminated in this handbook. In addition to their own explanation of why this work is so timely and important, they are joined by four of the contributors to the handbook who give them insights into their particular areas of expertise and the chapters they contributed. Loren B. Landau - The Informalisation of Migration Governance across Africa’s Urban Archipelagos (08:22) Oliver Bakewell - Undocumented Migration and Development (14:15) Gioconda Herrera - Care, Social Reproduction, and Migration (23:08) Melissa Siegel - Migration and Health (32:38) Tanja Bastia is Reader at the Global Development Institute at the University of Manchester. Her research focuses on transnational migration for work, particularly on the relationship between power relations, mobility, and space. She has conducted multi-sited ethnographic research with Bolivian migrants in Bolivia, Argentina, and Spain since the year 2000 and currently holds a Leverhulme Research Fellowship to develop her research into ageing and migration. Ronald Skeldon is an Emeritus Professor at the University of Sussex and an Honorary Professor at Maastricht University. Following a PhD on Peru at the University of Toronto in 1974, he moved to the Asia-Pacific region for over 25 years, where he pursued both academic careers and positions with the United Nations before returning to the United Kingdom in 2000. He has published widely on issues of migration, including his 1997 book Migration and Development: A Global Perspective (Longman). Loren B. Landau is Professor of Migration & Development at Oxford University’s Department of International Development and a Researcher with the University of the Witwatersrand’s African Centre for Migration and Society. His interdisciplinary scholarship explores mobility, multi-scale governance, and the transformation of socio-political community across the global South. Oliver Bakewell is a Senior Lecturer at the Global Development Institute, University of Manchester. His work focuses on the intersections between migration and mobility and processes of development and change, with an empirical focus on migration within Africa. Gioconda Herrera is an Ecuadorian Sociologist and a Professor at the Facultad Latinoamericana de Ciencias Sociales (FLACSO) in Quito. Her research interests concern the effects of globalisation on social inequalities in Latin America. Her work focuses on international migrations from the Andean countries to Europe and the United States from a gender perspective. She has done research on transnational families and care, return migration and deportation. Her current research deals with the Venezuelan exodus in South America. Melissa Siegel is a Professor of Migration Studies and Head of Migration at the Maastricht Graduate School of Governance at Maastricht University and UNU-MERIT. Her research focuses on the causes and consequences of migration with a focus on migration and development and migration policy and programming.

In the latest episode of our ‘In Conversation’ podcast we caught up with Shamima and Alicya; two Manchester Alumni whose fashion business was recently highly commended for social innovation at the Manchester Making A Difference Awards 2020. Listen here to find out how they came up with the idea, what empowerment and sustainability means to them, their goals for the future and how studying at the GDI, in particular the Poverty, Inequality and Development pathway, helped to shape their business approach.

Seth Schindler & Tom Gillespie discuss their new research on deindustrialisation in the Global South. Seth and Tom have recently published an article on 'Deindustrialization in cities of the Global South' with Nicola Banks, Mustafa Kemal Bayırbağ, Himanshu Burte, J. Miguel Kanai & Neha Sami.

In this episode Dr Rory Horner talked to Dr Siobhán McGrath about her research into forced labour and the marketising anti-slavery. Siobhán McGrath is Assistant Professor in Human Geography at Durham University Rory Horner, Senior Lecturer in Globalisation and Political Economy in the Global Development Institute.

In this episode, GDI's Nicola Banks talks to Jelmer Kamstra and Zoe Abrahamson about the political role of NGOs and how donor funding can support those. Jelmer Kamstra has been Senior Policy Officer at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands in the Civil Society Division since 2015. Starting January 2020, Jelmer has taken up a new position as Senior Researcher at the Policy and Operations Evaluation Department (IOB) of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Zoe Abrahamson is Bond’s senior funding adviser. She coordinates Bond’s funding stream, acting as conduit between funders and NGOs. Nicola Banks is a Senior Lecturer in Urban Development and Deputiy Managing Director of the Global Development Institute.

In this episode, Nicholas Jepson talks to Seth Schindler about his new book ‘In China’s wake: how the commodity boom transformed development strategies in the global south. In China’s Wake reveals the surprising connections among these three phenomena. Nicholas Jepson shows how Chinese demand not only transformed commodity markets but also provided resource-rich states with the financial leeway to set their own policy agendas, insulated from the constraints and pressures of capital markets and multilateral creditors such as the International Monetary Fund. Nicholas Jepson is a Hallsworth Research Fellow in Chinese Political Economy at the Global Development Institute. Seth Schindler is a Senior Lecturer in Urban Development & Transformation at the Global Development Institute.

Luis Eduardo Perez Murcia, University of Trento, recently visited the GDI to give a talk entitled 'I am afraid of dying without seeing my daughter again': Looking at the Aging-Home-Migration Nexus Scholarly research exploring the aging-migration nexus has significantly increased in the last decade. The role of home in this nexus, however, has received considerably less academic attention. Against this background, this paper explores whether and how migration shapes the experiences of home of those on the move and the elderly members of their families left behind in their countries of origin. Drawing on ethnographic research with transnational Ecuadorian and Peruvian migrants in Manchester, London and Madrid and the elder members of their families back in Ecuador and Peru, the paper argues that migration mutually shapes ideas and attitudes towards home of those who migrate and those who are left behind. An in-depth analysis of the empirical material reveals that many of those elderly left behind struggle to feel at home largely because they experience isolation and even abandonment. Their struggles for home tend to be accentuated when they perceived that the end of their lives is approaching. On the side of those who are on the move, attitudes towards home are often shaped by the sense of not being able to look after the elder members of their families left behind or even visiting them. In some cases, especially for those who work caring after the elderly in their transnational settings, a sense of regret becomes part of their everyday experiences of home because strangers or nobody looks after their own parents and grandparents in their countries of origin. Those who could not attend their parents and grandparents’ funerals tend to see their sense of home irreversibly affected. The presentation ends by discussing how a material and symbolic notion of home may help to advance contemporary debates on ageing and migration.

Kaxton Siu recently visited the Global Development Institute to discuss his new forthcoming book 'Chinese Migrant Workers and Employer Domination: Comparisons with Hong Kong and Vietnam’. Kaxton Siu is an Assistant Professor at the Department of Applied Social Sciences, Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong. This talk explores three major changes in the circumstances of the migrant working class in south China over the past three decades, from historical and comparative perspectives. It examines the rise of a male migrant working population in the export industries, a shift in material and social lives of migrant workers, and the emergence of a new non-coercive factory regime in the industries. Drawing on fieldwork regarding Hong Kong-invested garment factories in south China, Hong Kong and Vietnam, alongside factory-gate surveys in China and Vietnam, this talk examines how and why the circumstances of workers in these localities are dissimilar even when under the same type of factory ownership. In analyzing workers’ lives within and outside factories, and the expansion of global capitalism in East and Southeast Asia, the talk contributes to research on production politics and everyday life practice, and an understanding of how global and local forces interact.

In this talk, Dr Glennerster discusses how technology has driven improvements in income and health in poor countries, why there is too little innovation designed to meet the needs of the poor, and the promise of the data revolution.

In this episode, Raquel Rolnik talked to Tom Gillespie and Isaac Rose about the financialisation of housing and her new book 'Urban Warfare: housing under the empire of finance'. Raquel Rolnik is a professor of Urban Planning at the University of São Paulo. She was National Secretary for Urban Programmes of the Brazilian Ministry of Cities (2003–2007). From 2008 to 2014, she held the mandate of UN Special Rapporteur on adequate housing. Tom Gillespie is Lecturer in International Development at the Global Development Institute.  Isaac Rose is a a campaign coordinator at Greater Manchester Housing Action.

Professor Rhys Jenkins talks to GDI Researcher Dr Nick Jepson about China’s growing economic involvement in Africa and Latin America and his book 'How China is Reshaping the Global Economy: Development Impacts in Africa and Latin America'

Professor Stephanie Barrientos discusses her new book 'Gender and Work: Capturing the Gains in Global Value Chains' Building on years of detailed empirical research across different industries and in several countries, Barrientos examines how global values chains are reshaping the gender profile of work across many middle- and low-income countries. Gendered patterns of work in these global value chains can both relegate women workers to poorly paid and unrecognised labour or lead to economic empowerment and enhanced worker rights.

In this episode, Diana Mitlin talks to former Egyptian Minister Laila Iskander about her career, recycling and informal settlements in Egypt. Laila Iskander served as Minister for the Environment and Minister for Urban Renewal and Informal Settlements in Egypt. She has worked as a researcher, speaker and consultant with governmental and international agencies as well as with the private sector in the fields of gender, education and development, environment, child labour and governance. Her consultation work encompasses grassroots' issues and policy matters. She received the Goldman Environmental Prize, also known as the 'Green Nobel', for her work with the Zabbaleen garbage collectors of Cairo. Diana Mitlin is Professor of Global Urbanism and Managing Director of the Global Development Institute.

The Global Development Institute and the Post Crash Economics Society is pleased to host Prof Bina Agarwal part of the GDI Lecture Series, talking about: Agrarian crisis and institutional innovation: Can group farming provide an answer? In efforts by developing countries to address agrarian distress arising from persisting rural poverty, unviable land holdings, and climate change, little attention has been paid to the institutional transformation of agriculture. The debate on farm types has focused mainly on small family farms vs. large commercial farms. Here experiments in two Indian states—Kerala and Telangana—stand out for their innovative institutional form, namely group farming by women (involving pooling land, labour and capital and cultivating jointly). Can this provide an alternative model? Based on her primary surveys, Prof. Bina Agarwal provides some answers, comparing the economic outcomes of group and individual family farms, as well as outlining the impact on social and political empowerment.

The Global Development Institute is pleased to present Prof Franklin Obeng-Odoom, University of Helsinki, talking about: Property, institutions, and social stratification in Africa While it is intrinsically important to explain and, ultimately, try to address social stratification in Africa, these aspirations have not yet been satisfactorily executed. Human capital explanations can be enticing, especially when they appear to explain the meteoric rise of the Asian Tigers in terms of their so-called cultures of hard work. Attempting to explain Africa’s unequal position in the world system this way is common, as is conceptualising the problem in terms of the absence of physical capital and the presence, or dominance, of natural resources. In turn, it is quite usual to posit the need to reduce the transaction costs of transnational corporations, which presumably work to resolve the challenges of development in Africa. In practice, however, neither African culture, poor human capital, inadequate physical capital, nor the natural resource curse explains Africa’s underdevelopment. None of these can sufficiently explain the startling economic inequalities in Africa between various social groups, nor those between Africa and the rest of the world. In this regard, the idea that certain cultures of land either hinder, or would enable ‘Africa’s catch up’, are also mistaken. Although the reverse case – that African cultures are pristine – is sometimes used to counter this central thesis, it is similarly unconvincing. The spectre of Manicheanism, that is, expressing the African condition according to a dichotomy of either cultural pessimism or cultural triumphalism, is limiting. Franklin Obeng-Odoom is with Development Studies at the University of Helsinki, where he is Associate Professor of Sustainability Science. He is also a Member of the Helsinki Institute of Sustainability Science, where he leads the Social Sustainability of Urban Transformations in the Global South theme. Previously, he taught at various universities in Australia, including the University of Technology Sydney where he was Director of Higher Degree Research Programmes.

The Global Development Institute is pleased to present Prof Kate Brickell, Royal Holloway, University of London, talking about: Blood Bricks: Untold Stories of Modern Slavery and Climate Change from Cambodia Cambodia is in the midst of a construction boom. The building of office blocks, factories, condominiums, housing estates, hotels, and shopping malls is pushing its capital city upwards. But this vertical drive into the skies, and the country’s status as one of Asia’s fastest growing economies, hides a darker side to Phnom Penh’s ascent. Building projects demand bricks in large quantities and there is a profitable domestic brick production industry using multi-generational workforces of debt-bonded adults and children to supply them. Moving from the city, to the brick kiln, and finally back to the rural villages once called home, the talk traces how urban ‘development’ is built on unsustainable levels of debt taken on by rural families struggling to farm in one of the most climate vulnerable countries in the world. Phnom Penh is being built not only on the foundation of blood bricks, but also climate change as a key driver of debt and entry into modern slavery in brick kilns. Blood bricks embody the converging traumas of modern slavery and climate change in our urban age. The study was co-funded by the Economic and Social Research Council & Department for International Development. For more information see www.projectbloodbricks.org.

In this episode Chris Jordan, GDI’s Communications & impact Manager, talks to social assistance expert Professor Armando Barrientos. They discuss why Armando decided to specialise in social assistance and how it has changed over the last 20 years. Professor Barrientos also explains his new social assistance explorer which is the first database to bring together data on low and middle income countries and allow researchers to study and compare programmes at a cross-national, regional and global basis. Finally Armando looks forward to how he thinks social assistance will develop over the next 5 to 10 years.

Listen to our lecture from Professor Stephan Haggard who discussed development states. The concept of the developmental state emerged to explain the rapid growth of East Asia in the postwar period. Yet the developmental state literature also offered a heterodox theoretical approach to growth. Arguing for the distinctive features of developmental states, its proponents emphasised the role of government intervention and industrial policy as well as the significance of strong states and particular social coalitions. Comparative analysis explored the East Asian developmental states to countries that were decidedly not developmentalist, thus contributing to our historical understanding of long-run growth. Prof. Haggard provides a critical but sympathetic overview of this literature and ends with a look forward at the possibilities for developmentalist approaches, in both the advanced industrial states and developing world.

Rt. Hon Helen Clark, former Administrator of UNDP and former Prime Minister of New Zealand presents the Global Development Institute Annual Lecture. Helen Clark addresses the issues of women's leadership and gender equality and their importance to a sustainable world. Helen Clark has been a political leader for more than 40 years; she held the post of first elected female Prime Minister of New Zealand for nine years and was the first female Administrator of the United Nations Development Programme. A key focus of her career has been the empowerment of women and leadership at all levels. According to the World Bank, 155 countries have at least one law that discriminates against women. Given the extent of unpaid work and care burdens, violence against women and gender pay gaps, Clark says women’s leadership is urgently needed to create a more equal world. She will draw on her own experiences in senior leadership but also her observations of women being leaders at all levels around the world and how this can create a more sustainable and just future.

As part of her visit to the Global Development Institute Rt Hon Helen Clark sat down with Prof Uma Kothari to discuss her career, the UN, Hillary Clinton and intersectionality. Helen Clark was Prime Minister of New Zealand from 1999 to 2008, and was the Administrator of the United Nations Development Programme from 2009 to 2017.

We have been taught to understand aid as a temporary injection of support for struggling countries. This is wrong. It should be seen as a permanent fixture, as part of continued investment in global public goods and internationally agreed objectives. This realisation will have major implications for how we raise and manage funds, and how we communicate to different audiences.

Dr Yuen Yuen Ang, Associate Professor of Political Science at the University of Michigan delivers the Adrian Leftwich Memorial Lecture. For decades, Western policymakers and observers assumed that as China’s economy prospers, it will eventually and inescapably democratize. Today, however, the West is alarmed that not only does China appear more authoritarian than before, the new leadership is perceived to harbor ambitions to compete with Western powers for world dominance. This turn of events has triggered fear around the world. Today, the so-called “China model” is seen as a fundamental threat to liberal-democratic values. How did the West get China wrong? Yuen Yuen Ang argues that many observers have misunderstood the political foundation underlying China’s rise. Her research reveals that since market opening, China has in fact pursued significant political reforms, just not in the manner that Western observers expected. Instead of introducing multiparty elections, the reformist leadership realized some of the key benefits of democratization through bureaucratic reforms, thereby creating a unique political hybrid: autocracy with democratic characteristics. In other words, it is not autocracy but rather the injection of democratic, adaptive qualities into a single-party regime that drives China’s economic dynamism. But, Ang cautions, bureaucratic reforms cannot substitute for political reforms forever. Going forward, China must release and channel the immense creative potential of civil society, which would necessitate greater freedom of expression, more public participation, and less state intervention.

The Global Development Institute Lecture Series is pleased to present Dr Emma Mawdsley, Reader in Human Geography and Fellow of Newnham College to discuss "The Southernisation of Development? Who has 'socialised' who in the new millennium?" A more polycentric global development landscape has emerged over the past decade or so, rupturing the formerly dominant North-South axis of power and knowledge. This can be traced through more diversified development norms, institutions, imaginaries and actors. This paper looks at one trend within this turbulent field: namely, the ways in which ‘Northern’ donors appear to be increasingly adopting some of the narratives and practices associated with ‘Southern’ development partners. This direction of travel stands in sharp contrast to expectations in the early new millennium that the (so-called) ‘traditional’ donors would ‘socialise’ the ‘rising powers’ to become ‘responsible donors’. After outlining important caveats about using such cardinal terms, the paper explores three aspects of this ‘North’ to ‘South’ movement. These are (a) the stronger and more explicit claim to ‘win-win’ development ethics and outcomes; (b) the (re)turn from ‘poverty reduction’ to ‘economic growth’ growth as the central analytic of development; and related to both, the explicit and deepening blurring and blending of development finances and agendas with trade and investment.