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Women and Women’s Quota in Urban Local Bodies in Nagaland: A Saga of Struggle and Success

By Amrita Saikia

In June 2024, the Nagaland state in India’s Northeast held the Urban Local Body (ULB) elections after a gap of two decades. According to reports, out of 278 seats in civic bodies, women won 102 seats. The numbers indicate how women’s quota can pave the way for women into male-dominated political arenas in patriarchal societies. In 2023, two Naga women were elected to the 60-member Nagaland Legislative Assembly for the first time since state formation in 1963, which was hailed as “historic.” These positive developments can be considered major steps in Naga women’s decades of struggle for their constitutional rights.

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Danish Development Cooperation Caught between Old Tropes and New Realities

By Adam Moe Fejerskov / Part of the European Development Policy Outlook Series

Although strong in absolute growth, Danish development cooperation remains caught between the fragmentation and lack of focus that comes from pursuing an overload of priorities – some of them fueled by domestic politics and circumstance – and the new realities of both multiple crises and a strengthened Global South, conversely demanding strategic clearsight.

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Overseas Development Aid in Ireland – How Does it Compare to other EU Countries and What Can We Expect for the Future?

By Pieternella Pieterse / Part of the European Development Policy Outlook Series

Ireland’s overseas development aid programme is, and always has been, a little different from fellow long-term EU members and neighbouring countries.  Many of Ireland’s neighbours have histories of colonial occupation of counties in Asia, Africa and Latin America.  Their aid programmes often continue to reflect these ties, and the reparations many countries sought to deliver after their former colonies’ independence. As a country that was long colonised, not colonising, Ireland’s development aid programme started from a place of empathy and solidarity, with an acute sense of having experienced a population decimating famine 150 years earlier.

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The Future of Development Studies: Unity in Diversity?

By Caroline Cornier

The idea of progress falls under what anthropologist Anna Tsing designates as ‘unity’, a ‘unified coordination of time’, a singular beat. The recent workshop “Unity in Diversity – The Future of Development Studies” raised questions whether the discipline should move on to study the world’s consonant ‘global challenges’ or rather continue focusing on the specific rhythms and trajectories of ‘late developers’.

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