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Why “Community-Led” Health Programmes Often Aren’t as Local as They Claim

By Bernabas Petros and Bethelhem Teshome / Shaping Sustainable Futures conference series

Global health policy loves a good success story. Community health workers are constantly praised as the backbone of efforts to achieve SDG 3 — healthy lives and well-being for all. From Ethiopia’s famous Women Development Army to Malawi’s Health Surveillance Assistants and the UK’s Community Health Champions, these initiatives are regularly showcased as shining examples of “localization” in action.

But there’s a problem. Localization is talked about far more than it is genuinely practiced.

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Conservation through Belief: Indigenous Spiritualities and Protected Areas

By Karen Heikkilä and Geethanjali Mariaselvam

It has long been acknowledged in biodiversity conservation and human development circles that local communities have a special role in safeguarding nature. Local religions and stewardship principles and practices have sustained the bond between people and their specific environments, amidst legal, capitalist and modernist pressures. This is supported by our case studies of communities living in protected areas in India and Malaysia that show how nature is interwoven with the society and culture of the communities.

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Building a National Platform for Development and Sustainability – The Czech Experience

By Ondřej Horký-Hlucháň and Tereza Němečková

We have both worked in development research for more than two decades. And yet, again and again we were amazed by stumbling upon great publications and scholars we didn’t know about. They may have worked in a neighbouring faculty in Prague or a smaller regional university. So, as simple as it may sound, this observation became the main motivation behind the creation of a national platform that would become the Czech Research Network for Global Development and Sustainability (CRENDES): to get to know each other. Fast forward, CRENDES celebrated its second anniversary in January 2026, and it is worth reflecting on how the network has grown and what challenges lie ahead.

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Cooking Knowledge Together: Rethinking Collaboration in Academia

By Luca Sára Bródy

In an era of overlapping crises – from climate breakdown to deepening social inequalities – calls for more “impactful” research are everywhere. Universities promise solutions, funding bodies demand relevance, and scholars are expected to produce knowledge that can address urgent societal challenges. But what if the problem is not only what research produces, but how it is done – and why current ways of doing research so often fail to respond to these crises?

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