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Contending Regions? A geographical approach to the 2030 Agenda

What are the most crucial changes brought about by the SDGs? Where does the Agenda 2030 leave Latin America and Africa? What can we as researchers do? And do we need new economic perspectives such as degrowth to achieve sustainable development? 

The panel session at the recent EADI Directors’ Meeting in Cordoba raised more questions than it provided answers – which did not come unexpected, given that the SDGs are far from being implemented in any country of the world. At the same time, all discussants agreed that the world requires more than typical business-as-usual approaches. But as always, the devil is in the detail… Continue reading “Contending Regions? A geographical approach to the 2030 Agenda”

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‘Justice’ not ‘aid’ for the Global South

By Koen Bogaert, Julie Carlier, Brecht De Smet, Marlies Casier, Dorien Vanden Boer and Bernard Mazijn

Development cooperation does not work. It has never worked. So why not flush the European DG Development down the drain? That was the conclusion of a recent piece published by European researchers Jan Orbie and Sarah Delputte. The danger of this conclusion is that Europe would ignore its historic accountability and the problems it has created. This is why we want to engage with some of the points that our colleagues have touched upon. Where does this idea of Europe needing to ‘develop’ the rest of the world come from? What is left unsaid when we talk about development aid? And what would a post development era look like if we would really listen to voices from the Global South? Continue reading “‘Justice’ not ‘aid’ for the Global South”

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Terra Nullius: What is going on in the rural world?

By Mariel Aguilar-Støen 

How can we understand the complexity of the contemporary rural world, and its entanglements with the urban? This is the first blog post of the  Rural transformations in the new century research group at the Centre for Development and the Environmen (SUM), University of Oslo

In the 1990s, scholars had declared the death of “the peasant” as a useful analytical category, but the Zapatista movement made peasant issues such as land visible again.

Continue reading “Terra Nullius: What is going on in the rural world?”

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Small Organisations: A Challenge for Monitoring and Evaluation

By Diego da Silva Rodrigues

To monitor and evaluate public and social policies is a key element of the development agenda. More and more, governments and international organisations tend to make their choices based on evidence, in order to identify the best and most cost-efficient options among a massive amount of programmes which are all aiming to improve people’s lives. Continue reading “Small Organisations: A Challenge for Monitoring and Evaluation”

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5 Things that will Frustrate the Heck out of you when studying International Development

By Stella Yoh

International Development is our passion – that’s why we’re all here. It’s what keeps us going through these late nights and grey London days.

But let’s face it, it’s not always a fun ride. As fulfilling as it is, studying International Development can be a real struggle, and if you haven’t had an existential crisis by now, you sure as hell have one coming your way.

Continue reading “5 Things that will Frustrate the Heck out of you when studying International Development”