Call for papers: New Leadership for Global Challenges at the DSA2020 conference
The DSA’s annual conference in 2020 will take place at the University of Birmingham from 17-19 June. The conference will focus centrally on “New Leadership for Global Challenges”, while also encompassing the broad range of development studies interests. The conference aims to investigate where and how leadership is emerging at global, regional and local levels to address critical issues such as climate emergency, identity-based inequalities, poverty, violence, ill-health, resource plunder, and digital surveillance.
Researchers from the Global Development Institute will be convening 7 panels during the conference. See the full selection of panels. read more…
Hrishipara daily financial diaries: Education and Occupations
To what extent are occupations shaped by the family’s educational record?
In early 2018 we published a blog called Bangladesh and Education: doing well, could do better. It was based on late 2017 data from the Hrishipara Daily Financial Diaries project, which has been tracking the lives of 70 low-income households in central Bangladesh since May 2015.
Today we return to the theme, partly to take advantage of a further two years of data, and partly to extend the discussion to look at the educational histories of households, and how that relates to the occupations of its current members. read more…
GDI Lecture: Spatial inequality in African political economy with Cathy Boone
Listen or watch Cathy Boone, Professor of Comparative Politics at the London School of Economics and Political Science, discuss spatial inequality in African political economy: rethinking uneven development.
Open access book: The Politics of Social Protection in Eastern and Southern Africa
“The recent creation or expansion of programmes of social protection all across East and Southern Africa raises intriguing and important issues for scholars of the region’s politics. This book, with its admirable combination of empirical substance and analytic clarity, is a landmark contribution to this new field. It will be a key point of reference for our discussions and debates for many years to come.” – James Ferguson, Stanford University
A new, open access book on The Politics of Social Protection in Eastern and Southern Africa has been edited by GDI’s Sam Hickey, Tom Lavers, together with UNU-WIDER’S Miguel Niño-Zarazúa, and Jeremy Seekings of the University of Cape Town.
Closely linked to the Effective States and Inclusive Development research centre’s work on social protection, the book challenges existing accounts of how social protection has spread in Africa. read more…
Uma Kothari announces RGS with IBG 2020 conference theme
Professor Uma Kothari is chairing the Royal Geographical Society (with the Institute of British Geographers) 2020 conference which will be held at the Society in London, from Tuesday 1 to Friday 4 September 2020.
The theme Uma has selected for the conference is borders, borderlands and bordering. The conference programme will include sessions and papers which engage directly with this theme, as well as others focusing on all areas of geography. read more…
Climate action: why developed countries should track imported emissions, and how to make certification and labelling work for developing countries
Aarti Krishnan, Research Fellow, Global Development Institute, The University of Manchester, and Simon Maxwell, Senior Research Associate of ODI
Developed countries are making progress in reducing carbon emissions – and Government regulation of the private sector is playing its part. In the UK, for example, and alongside other measures, the requirement to report energy and carbon emissions has recently been extended to a wide range of quoted and unquoted companies and limited liability partnerships. This is intended to help improve energy efficiency, support companies in cutting costs, and at the same time reduce carbon emissions. Many hundreds of companies have signed up to measurement and certification, and sometimes offset, schemes, like the footprint label from the Carbon Trust, the carbon neutral label from Natural Capital Partners, or Carbon Smart certification from Carbon Smart. The scope and coverage of such schemes is expanding, as indirect emissions and life cycle issues are recognised. read more…
Obituary – Professor Dennis Austin
It is with great sadness that we report the death on October 21, 2019 of Emeritus Professor Dennis Austin at his home in Colchester. Born at the Grove Hospital, Tooting on 14th March, 1922, he was the son of Henry Edmund Austin. After wartime service with the Royal Air Force, he obtained his B.A. degree from King’s College (University of London) in 1949, and that same year was appointed an extra mural tutor at the new University College in the British Gold Coast dependency in West Africa. read more…
Call for Papers: Interrogating regional value chains & their implications for development
University of Johannesburg & University of Manchester Workshop
CCRED, Johannesburg, 6-8 July 2020
![State [in]capacity and national development](https://blog.gdi.manchester.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/3.jpg)
State [in]capacity and national development
Mohammad Kamrul Hasan, PhD Researcher and Teaching Assistant, Global Development Institute
Capacity development has become an important issue in the management of public affairs. It deals with obtaining, strengthening and maintaining individual or organizational capabilities in order to fulfil its goal or objectives. Though capacity development has been the centre of attention in developed nations for long period of time, it has gradually become an issue for both developing and underdeveloped countries in the last decade or so. And it has become an important tool for ensuring inclusive development. read more…
How mega infrastructure projects in Africa, Asia and Latin America are reshaping development