Opinion Pieces – Page 14 – Debating Development Research

19/12/202402/12/2025

Story-Telling: A Method to Support Decolonising Knowledge for Development

By Peter Taylor

I have recently been working closely with a group of EADI members reflecting on the importance of “decolonising knowledge for development”. This is in response to our acknowledgement that social divides are driven by race, gender, religion, class and financial inequities. We know that knowledge is crucial in tackling multiple, intersecting crises grounded in, and amplifying, these divides. Yet, knowledge processes themselves are underpinned by historic, structural power asymmetries, inequities and inequalities. These inequalities are perpetuated through exclusion of many groups, communities and individuals from knowledge creation processes.

10/12/202402/12/2025

Where is UK Development Policy Headed Under the New Government?

By Andy Sumner / Part of the European Development Policy Outlook Series

Chancellor unmoved by cuts of aid budget

The headline is that the UK aid budget was cut by £1.5 billion ($1.9 billion). Despite the flags, it seems the Chancellor was unwilling or unable to provide additional funds to offset the billions of pounds of the UK’s aid budget spent on supporting refugees inside the UK. This makes her the first Labou r chancellor to cut aid below levels of a prior Conservative government.

05/12/202402/12/2025

Amidst Post-Colonial Continuities and Global Power Shifts: What Role for the IDOS Postgraduate Programme for Sustainability Cooperation?

By Simone Christ / part of our “Share your Decolonising Story” project

How can international cooperation ensure social, political, and economic transformations to shape sustainable futures in the context of geopolitical tensions? One crucial approach is to equip young professionals with competencies needed to become transformative change makers. The recent overhaul of the IDOS postgraduate programme reflects also broader efforts to decolonise knowledge.

03/12/202402/12/2025

Trading with the ‘Jungle’: The European Union’s Generalised Scheme of Preferences

By Jan Orbie, Antonio Salvador Alcazar III and Tinus Sioen

The notions of ‘developing countries’ and ‘development cooperation’ have been waning in discourses by scholars, policymakers and civil society actors. At least rhetorically, the colonial and patronising nature of these notions has been recognised at the European Union (EU) level. For instance, the Development Commissioner has been rechristened as the ‘Commissioner of International Partnerships’ since 2019. In recent years, the EU has pursued plenty of ‘partnerships’ in areas such as climate, energy, trade and deforestation.

22/11/202402/12/2025

Beyond COP29: Toward Reparative Justice, Not Corporate Climate Deals

By Gert Van Hecken, Vijay Kolinjivadi, Marcela Vecchione Gonçalves, Richard Toppo and Anwesha Dutta

As delegates gather in Baku, Azerbaijan, for the 29th Conference of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP29), we are once again reminded of how compromised these summits have become. Baku, a capital built on oil wealth, is yet another highly securitized backdrop for a conference hijacked by fossil fuel interests. From the UAE’s Sultan Ahmed Al Jaber, CEO of Abu Dhabi’s National Oil Company, presiding over COP28 in 2023 to Azerbaijan’s fossil-fuel-driven regime hosting this year, the COPs have become increasingly directed by the very industries they claim to hold accountable. In a glaring example of this contradiction, COP29’s chief executive Elnur Soltanov – Azerbaijan’s deputy energy minister and a board member of the state oil company Socar – was filmed discussing oil and gas investment opportunities with a fictitious energy investor. This stunt, orchestrated by Global Witness, underscores how blatantly these summits serve fossil fuel agendas, even as a new report reveals that there are no signs of promised fossil fuel transitions and emissions are set to reach a record high in 2024.