Communities of Practice: How are different kinds of resilience connected?
On Tuesday, 27th January, we held our final community of practice in a series exploring the role of resilience in maintaining a thriving and impactful development sector. Over the past few months, we’ve been bringing together development practitioners, academics, and students to talk through the difficulties of operating within a development space often troubled by crisis, stagnation, and obstruction. From aid cuts to burnt out workers, there was much to discuss during our one-hour online sessions.
Call for Papers: Services and the Global South: Structural Transformation, Inequality and Development
Call for Workshop Papers
Services have become the dominant source of employment and value added across most low‑ and middle‑income countries. Unlike the historical pattern of agriculture to manufacturing to services, the contemporary trajectory of many countries in the Global South involves a direct transition from agriculture into low‑productivity, often informal, services. At the same time, the prospects for export‑led industrialisation in MICs have weakened, prompting renewed interest in whether service‑led pathways can deliver inclusive, employment‑intensive, and productivity‑enhancing development.
What do GDI academics make of January 2026?
by Louisa Hann
As you’ve probably noticed, 2026 is off to an eventful start – and it’s not promising to slow down any time soon. Donald Trump threatened to invade Greenland, Mark Carney delivered a speech asserting the end of the rules-based international order at the World Economic Forum, and Iran witnessed renewed unrest and the brutal killings of anti-regime protesters. Meanwhile, the ever-present hum of climate breakdown grows louder, with 2025 topping the charts as one of the hottest years on record.
“Beyond Borders, Beyond Books” – Our Cape Town Field Trip Adventure
by Xinyi Zhang
Last year, students enrolled in GDI’s MSc Human Resource Development (International Development) enjoyed a field trip to Cape Town to learn more about putting human resource theories into practice. In this piece, student Xinyi Zhang reflects on lessons learned and demonstrates the vital ways in which field trips can enrich the student experience and equip graduates with the tools they need to hit the ground running after graduation.
Insulation and Inequality: The limits of the Warm Homes Plan
by Jules Buckland, student in PPE
While the Labour government has committed an initial £1.8 billion to its flagship Warm Homes Plan, this policy offers little in the way of transformation, largely expanding upon mechanisms used over the last decade (such as the Energy Company Obligation and Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund). While previous and current efforts to improve the insulation of UK housing stock are often justified by projected health benefits, my analysis of that historical data suggests that without a change in strategy, new funding may fail to deliver in this respect.
Venezuela after Maduro: a country in tense calm
The following blog post by GDI PhD student Mariana Hernández-Montilla recounts her experiences in Venezuela during the recent capture of Nicolás Maduro. Mariana has kindly provided both English and Spanish versions of the piece. Please scroll down to find the Spanish version.
Research for Transformation: Why we need to be intentionally bold and ambitious
by Dr Helen Underhill, Research for Transformation Lab Manager
In November 2025, the Global Development Institute hosted Transformation Lab Week, a series of events and discussions marking the launch of its Research for Transformation Lab. The lab represents a pioneering effort to strengthen links between GDI’s research activities and real-world solutions within the development field. While bridging gaps between academia and impactful practice is complex, Lab Week gave us a valuable opportunity to broach the difficult discussions required to make such ambitions a reality. From the transformative impact of storytelling to unintended consequences of the research impact agenda dominating UK institutions, we covered a broad range of topics and came away with plenty of food for thought.
From the tech sector to One World Together: Alumni Interview with Laura Dempsey
How can a postgraduate degree from the Global Development Institute influence your career during a fragile time for the development sector? As part of our drive to gather stories from across our alumni community, we caught up with Laura Dempsey, GDI alumna and Head of Individual Giving at One World Together to discuss her ambitions, career trajectory, and reasons for studying in Manchester back in 2014…
GDI Conference: What is the future for global development?
GDI is hosting a conference asking ‘What is the future for global development?’, which will take place on 13-14 April 2026 in Manchester. Learn more about the conference and the agenda below.
Swapping metrics for shared values: what we learned from piloting a Cooperatives’ Observatory in Chile
By Luis Camilo Oyarzún, PhD student at the Global Development Institute
What does sustainability really mean for cooperatives beyond reports, indicators, and policy frameworks? This question has guided much of my doctoral research at the Global Development Institute, and over the past year it became the starting point for a practical experiment: piloting a Cooperatives’ Observatory of Sustainability with two cooperatives in southern Chile. Thanks to the support of the GDI Innovation Fund, this idea moved from theory to practice and, more importantly, into real cooperative spaces.