Debating Development Research

20/10/202620/10/2026

The “Equitable Partnerships” Conundrum: Reflecting on how Aspirations for Equity in Large Research Consortia Can Lead to Action

By Peter Taylor / Third post in a mini-series on large grant-funded research centres: read the previous ones here and here)

For many years, I have had the opportunity to work in large grant funded initiatives in different forms – projects, programmes and centres – as well as in many smaller collaborations. Often I have been a partner within an initiative, and at times I’ve had the privilege to lead large programmes. There is rarely time to pause and reflect amidst the hectic nature of these collaborations, but a recent initiative with Southern Voice has encouraged me to take the time needed to reflect on my experiences.

13/10/202613/10/2026

Your Country is Doing Fine on Average

By Albertino Francisco

On 13 December 2024, São Tomé and Príncipe left the list of least developed countries. Its gross national income per head had reached $2,271 against a graduation threshold of $1,306. Its Human Assets Index stood at 91.4 against a threshold of 66. However, its Economic and Environmental Vulnerability Index stood at 40.0, which should have been at 32 or below to pass. Two out of three. Under the rule the Committee for Development Policy applies, two out of three is enough, and so a small island state graduated with exactly the indicator that measures its exposure to shocks sitting eight points on the wrong side of the line.

06/10/202612/10/2026

Decolonising Grant-Funded Development Consortia: Some Reflections

By Kibui Edwin Rwigi / Second post in a mini-series on large grant-funded research centres: read the first one here)

In November 2019, I sat across the table from an older African professor — a well accomplished intellectual, the quintessential renaissance man: poet, philosopher, scholar-activist. “How is decolonisation different from what my generation was doing through post-colonial work?” he asked, after I had too exuberantly recounted work I had been part of in a North-South research consortium with a Dutch university as lead partner.

29/09/202629/09/2026

Why the Next DSA and EADI Conferences Should Be Hosted in the Global South

By Luqman Ọpẹ́yẹmí Muraina and Aysha Valery

The Development Studies Association (DSA) conference held annually and the European Association of Development Research and Training Institutes (EADI) conference held every three-years bring together researchers, practitioners, and policymakers to discuss some of the world’s most pressing challenges – inequality, sustainability, environment, migration, etc.

22/09/202622/09/2026

The Unintended Effects of Development Research Funding Structures Should be a Europe-wide Conversation

Do Big Research Grants Lead to the ‘Faux-Popularisation’ of Principle Investigators’s Flagship Concepts?

By Portia Roelofs / First post in a mini-series on large grant-funded research centres

In 1990 the Beninese political scientist Paulin Hountondji called attention to the role of concept generation and dissemination in ‘the North’s Monopoly on theory’. In recent years European Development Studies and adjacent discipline of African Studies has turned the spotlight on how this hierarchy is reproduced in conferences, journals, hiring and textbooks. With 70-85% of African research produced through international collaborations, and mainly funded by European countries, European research funding regimes are a key node in this landscape.