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The Double Legitimacy Crisis of the Old Aid Order: Four Scenarios for Development Cooperation and their Plausibility

By Nadia Molenaers

Development cooperation is not simply facing another cyclical debate about effectiveness. It is facing something deeper: a crisis of the very roles through which it has historically been justified. For decades, development cooperation drew its legitimacy from two overlapping functions. First, it was seen as an instrument of international influence: a way for states to build relations, project (democratic, human rights) values, and shape the international environment. Second, it was presented as a symbol of international solidarity: an expression of moral responsibility, redistribution, and a concern for global inequality.

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Rethinking “Development”: Why We Must Embrace Uncertainty

By Ian Scoones

When Mark Carney, Prime Minister of Canada, stood on the Davos stage and proclaimed that the current moment is not one of transition but one of rupture, everyone seemed to agree. But what new ways of thinking are needed to navigate this momentous rupture when geopolitical realignment, radical responses to climate change and new economic relations must emerge? Into this heady mix comes the idea of ‘development’, a perspective that emerged in the post-colonial period of the liberal, rules-based order, which is now seemingly gone. How then should ‘development’ be reimagined for a new world?

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The Gendered Cost of Waiting for Justice

By Irma Nugrahanti

In the field of feminist economics, cost extends beyond mere budgetary figures, market prices, or GDP metrics. It encompasses the often-invisible labour of social reproduction, the psychological stress of systemic inequality, and the burdens imposed by institutional delay, all of which disproportionately fall upon women due to patriarchal norms and power structures. The cost of waiting for justice is not only a metaphor, it is a multi-dimensional burden, shaped by gender, class, and geography. When the state neglects to deliver timely justice due to deferred reform, fiscal austerity, or inaction, the gap is not left unfilled. It is disproportionately absorbed by women through unpaid care work, informal labour, and social repair.

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The Two Blind Spots of the ‘Equitable Partnerships’ Debate

By Eyob Balcha Gebremariam

There might be more than two, but I want to focus on these two blind spots, both in the scholarly debate and in the policy domains of “equitable partnerships”. The first is the dominance of the “development frame”. Unless we question the funding of research partnerships through development assistance, our efforts to achieve equity and justice will remain below par.

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Unlocking the Benefits from Conservation? Indigenous Youth and Entrepreneurship in Drakensberg Park

By Jabulile Happyness Mzimela and Inocent Moyo

 The Natal Colonial government initiated the establishment of protected areas in the Drakensberg in 1903, drawing on Eurocentric conservation models that sidelined Indigenous knowledge systems and governance structures. These approaches laid the foundation for the exclusion of Indigenous communities from decision-making over lands they have inhabited for generations. Such exclusions have had material consequences, contributing to marginalisation and the erosion of livelihoods.

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