Institute of Development Studies

📢IDS Event!

Towards a voice for local communities in global climate policy?

In recent months, hope has grown that we may be approaching a breakthrough moment for the voice and visibility of front-line communities in the global climate policy process.

Held to mark London Climate Action Week, this seminar will review the progress that has been made since COP30 in Brazil, and discuss possible strategies for overcoming the challenges that remain.

With:

➡️Gustavo Sánchez, President of Red MOCAF and co-founder of the GFLCCC
➡️Guilherme Eidt, Executive Secretary of the GFLCCC
➡️Alex Shankland, IDS Research Fellow.
➡️Lyla Mehta, IDS Research Fellow
➡️John Gaventa, IDS Research Fellow.

Tuesday 23 June at 13:00 (UK time). In-person and online.

Book your place at: https://ids.pulse.ly/uza89q8c01

Bring your team and save 30%!

If you are part of a small non-profit and make a group booking of three or more participants for the “Participatory Action Research” short course, you get a 30% discount!

Learn how to design and carry out Participatory Action Research in your own organisations with our in-person course.

📅 September 14 to 18, 2026
📍IDS, Brighton, UK

Apply now: https://bit.pulse.ly/1wzbg6lgzg

*Understanding ideologically motivated sexual grooming*

This week IDS researcher Professor Mariz Tadros spoke at an event in the UK parliament to discuss a form of violence against women that often goes under the radar – the targeting and grooming of minority women for the purposes of sexual exploitation and coerced religious conversion.

Prof Tadros drew from the extensive research and evidence from countries, including Pakistan, India, Egypt and Nigeria, presented in the new book ‘Ideologically Motivated Sexual Grooming’ published by IDS.

Women and girls from minority backgrounds are vulnerable to targeting not only because of gender, but also because of their religious identity. Many are being abducted and separated from their families with devastating consequences for their own lives and communities at large.

We urgently need communities, politicians and legal systems to recognise, understand, and address grooming of adult women as an overlooked form of gender-based violence – and to create conditions where all women, regardless of faith, can live, love, and believe freely.

The event was sponsored by Lord Alton of Liverpool and organised in partnership with Refcemi and APPG for Pakistani Minorities

Speakers included:
• Professor Mariz Tadros, Institute of Development Studies
• Lord Alton of Liverpool
• His Eminence Archbishop Angaelos, Coptic Orthodox Archbishop of London
• Professor Javaid Rehman, Professor of Islamic Law and Muslim Constitutionalism

For more information and to download the open access book visit 👇https://ids.pulse.ly/xhtzqpbate

Course convenor announcement 📢

This course is delivered by Dr Jo Howard, Senior Research Fellow at IDS.

Jo has worked in the field of participation for over 30 years and specialises in participatory action research as an approach to building knowledge and promoting equity. Her work centres on and accompanies community researchers in processes of accountability, empowerment and inclusion.

She works with local authorities, national and international NGOs, and funders in research, training and learning processes in the UK and across international development and humanitarian contexts.

Join Jo and the IDS team on our in-person short course: Using Participatory Action Research to Improve Development Practice

📅 September 14 to 18, 2026
📍IDS, Brighton, UK

Apply now: https://bit.pulse.ly/uzhmgqusa6

IDS MA Development Studies Student Aya Abou Ghalyoum has written a new blog: What is the Lebanese state actually for?

In 2019, Lebanese depositors arrived at their banks to find the doors closed, cash withdrawals severely restricted, and life savings suddenly out of reach. By almost any measure, Lebanon experienced one of the most severe economic collapses of modern times.

So what exactly is going on? If Lebanon’s state institutions have repeatedly failed to deliver fiscal stability, reliable public services, or economic security, why do they persist?

Read the full story at:

What is the Lebanese state actually for? - Institute of Development Studies In 2019, Lebanese depositors arrived at their banks to find the doors closed, cash withdrawals severely restricted, and life savings suddenly out of reach. Money that was set aside by parents, remitted from relatives abroad, saved through years of instability in the hope that a bank, at least, was s...

Tomorrow (17 June), experts from Senegal, Sierra Leone, Uganda, IDS, and partners in the UK will discuss what can be learned for pandemic preparedness when greater attention is given to the perspectives of people who live in regions labelled as ‘hotspots’ for disease outbreaks.

➡️Who is being prepared for what, and by whom?
➡️Who does the current landscape of pandemic preparedness serve?
➡️What learnings can be taken from social science research to better inform future preparedness?
➡️And how and why is it so important to re-think the relationship between academic research and pandemic preparedness policies and practice?

With:

Melissa Leach, University of Cambridge.
Hayley MacGregor, IDS.
Esther Mokuwa, Njala University.
Paul Richards, Esther Mokuwa, Foday Kamara, Marion Nyakoi, Njala University, Sierra Leone.
Grace Akello, Gulu University, Uganda.
Bob Okello, Melissa Parker, Moses Baluku, Bono Ozunga and Peter Kermundu, LSHTM.
Catherine Grant, IDS.

Click here to learn more:

Re-thinking pandemic preparedness | LSHTM This hybrid lunchtime seminar asks: Who is being prepared for what, and by whom? What can we learn about pandemic preparedness from people living with multiple health-related uncertainties in African

“I used to be mainly invited to European and American universities or research institutions to share China’s development experience – I’m now more likely to receive invitations from Southern countries such as India, Sri Lanka and Indonesia.”

As part of a new IDS Opinion series, Prof Tang Lixia at China Agricultural University, writes about the fundamental shift in the direction of global development knowledge flows, as the global North no longer dominates the development agenda 👇

The ‘South’ turning to the South: Sharing China’s development experience - Institute of Development Studies The shifting global landscape has resulted in changing international development cooperation between countries in the global South.

How did research on China and Brazil in African Agriculture from 10 years ago help sow the seeds for reshaping our understanding of South-South cooperation? 🌱

Xiuli Xu from China Agricultural University writes for our new IDS opinion series on how the China and Brazil in African Agriculture challenged the simplistic narratives of either ‘South-South’ collaboration or ‘neo-imperial’ expansion of ‘rising powers’. Delving into explore the “complex, negotiated and deeply political realities behind Chinese and Brazilian engagements in African agriculture beyond the broader rhetoric and generic policy statements.”

She shares how the research helped plant the seeds to better understand South-South relations based on a new politics of development cooperation 👇
https://ids.pulse.ly/ys9szzjkat

From seeds to garden: Understanding South-South cooperation - Institute of Development Studies China and Brazil in African Agriculture south south cooperation

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South-South Cooperation: what lessons can we learn from China, Brazil and African research partnerships?

IDS researcher Ian Scoones, kicks off a new IDS Opinion series on the lessons learned from the China and Brazil in African Agriculture (CBAA) project, 10 yrs since its findings were published in a Special Issue of World Development.

With IDS marking its 60th anniversary, now is the ideal time to reflect on what is possible through the type of long-term research collaboration that the CBAA encapsulated, and which has been central to IDS since its founding in 1966.

The project involved an intense period of research, coordinated by IDS in partnership with Chinese, Brazilian, Ethiopian, Ghanaian, Mozambican, Zimbabwean and UK-based researchers. As an opportunity to reconnect and to reflect on what has happened in the momentous ten years since 2016, Ian invited researchers who contributed to the now extensively cited World Development papers to prepare short reflections.

Read Ian’s opinion that introduces the series 👇

South-South Cooperation: Lessons from China, Brazil and African research partnerships - Institute of Development Studies Global researchers reflect on the lessons learned from the China and Brazil in African Agriculture research project from 2016.