Reflections on building on resilience in the development sector
Recently, Dr Natalie Cunningham ran a microcredential series – short, online courses exploring the personal, organisational and societal implications of resilience.
As part of the final assessment, course participants were asked to reflect on an aspect of resilience they wanted to share with others. With their permission, we have collated an edited selection of people’s insights, which provide thoughtful and practical advice for others working in the development sector at the moment.
GDI Digest: Environmental Justice and the Role of Development Studies
by Louisa Hann
There’s no doubt we’re living through an urgent chapter of the climate crisis. With 2024 now confirmed the hottest year on record – recording a sobering global average temperature of 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels – things are only set to get hotter. A recent World Meteorological Organization report posits an 80% chance of at least one of the next five years exceeding 2024’s record, as well as a 70% chance that the five-year average warming for 2025-29 will exceed 1.5°C. With every fraction of a degree driving additional heatwaves, flooding events, droughts, ocean heating, and rising sea levels, the challenges facing decision-makers, academics, and civil society more broadly have never been greater.
So, how are GDI academics putting their interdisciplinary expertise into practice to grasp and address such challenges? We’ve collated some of the key themes to have emerged in recent months, as well as some handy reading lists to help you explore the topic in depth.
Waiting as method: reflections on access, positionality, power and scheduling during fieldwork
By Edwin Rwigi and Anifat Ibrahim
Africa’s Path to Sustainability: Combating Plastic Pollution for a Sustainable Future
By Rabiatu Adamu Saleh
World Environment Day, observed annually on June 5th, is a global celebration and call to action for environmental protection. It’s a day dedicated to raising awareness about pressing environmental issues and inspiring collective action to build a sustainable future. As an African, I believe that environmental issues often receive insufficient attention within Africa, despite their significant contribution to the ongoing climate crisis. This blog focuses on Africa, a continent often associated with vast deserts, yet surprisingly rich in biodiversity and capable of remarkable resilience. It explores Africa’s unique environmental challenges, particularly plastic pollution, and highlights the potential for sustainable solutions that can benefit the entire continent.
“We Keep Planting”: Seeds of Hope and Healing in Rwanda’s Thousand Hills
by Mariana C. Hernández-Montilla
I woke to the sound of chickens outside my dormitory window at the Akagera Community Centre. Their morning concert, an unexpected alarm clock during my stay, became a surprisingly perfect example of Rwanda’s new beginning. There was something persistent, vital, and remarkably ordinary about those chickens, which felt especially meaningful in a country where ordinary life had once disappeared.
When the world turned its back on Rwanda in 1994, the unimaginable happened. On the ground, Rwandans were left to face the tragedy alone. After ten UN peacekeepers were killed, the international community pulled out most troops, as documented at the Kigali Genocide Memorial and other sources. What followed was one of the worst genocides in modern history, a tragedy that shocked the world and left a lasting scar on humanity. Yet, 31 years later, under the slogan “Kwibuka 31” meaning “remember, unite, renew” in Kinyarwanda, I witnessed a nation that had transformed itself through extraordinary resilience and determination. To learn more about Rwanda’s recovery in my capacity as a teaching assistant, I joined my class of students enrolled in GDI’s Environment, Climate Change, and Development Master’s on a trip to Kigali.
The economic geographical challenges of 21st century capitalism
by Yuko Aoyama, Dan Haberly, Rory Horner and Seth Schindler
The contemporary global economy is undergoing considerable turbulence. The state is resurgent, in multiple domains. Unpredictability is seemingly the name of the game amidst geopolitical and military tensions, unprecedented tariffs, the recent and continued threat of pandemics, technological and climatic change. Researchers must face up to what appears to be an unstable and rapidly changing context. In our newly released, edited collection – ‘A Research Agenda for Economic Geography: Reframing 21st Century Capitalism’ – we showcase analyses of 21st century capitalism ranging from globalization, platformization, and green transitions to geopolitics.
Migration, Markets, and Minds: Why International Students Matter
by Mahtab Uddin
Doctoral Researcher, GDI, the University of Manchester, & Assistant Professor, Economics, University of Dhaka
I still remember my first day at Manchester Piccadilly Gardens. The sun was dazzling in the sky, a quite unusual sight in Manchester during winter. This was my first time in a cosmopolitan city. I mixed well amidst the people of all colours. It felt inclusive; it felt global.
Call for Papers: The Migrant Body in South-South Migrations
The Migrant Body in South-South Migrations
University of Manchester, UK
Monday 15th and Tuesday 16th December 2025
MSc Human Resource Management (International Development) students explore England
This April, students on our MSc Human Resource Management (International Development) took part in a residential visit as part of their study in the MSc Human Resource Management Enhancement Programme (HRMEP).
Call for Submissions – GDI Conference on “Palestine & Social Justice: Decolonisation and Development Studies”
