Centre for Development Studies
Current news and updates from the field of International Development
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A View from Dublin: Some random reflections
By Tony German A few hundred yards from the flat, where we’ve been living in Dublin for the last 6 months, is the famine memorial. It helps explain why experience of famine, migration, colonisation and conflict are important parts...
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War in Ukraine – What consequences for global development?
By James Copestake I have never tried to write anything about war before, and all words seem inadequate; but it feels wrong not to acknowledge somewhere on the CDS website what is currently unfolding in Ukraine. But why just Ukraine?...
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Why is structural conflict prevention so difficult to implement?
By Andrew Johnstone and Oliver Walton Conflict prevention has been a long-standing and high-profile international policy goal, and yet in practice international agencies have found it difficult to operationalise, with the structural dimension of conflict prevention proving especially challenging. Structural...
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Bangladesh: The Challenges of Inclusion
By Mathilde Maitrot and Joe Devine Reaching the ripe age of fifty, Bangladesh can look back with pride and look forward with cautious optimism. Since its independence, it has found a way to overcome huge challenges including decades of political...
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China will no longer build overseas coal power plants – what energy projects will it invest in instead?
By Yixian Sun Chinese President Xi Jinping recently announced at the UN General Assembly that China “will not build new coal-fired power projects abroad”. Chinese banks have already swung into gear. Three days after Xi’s speech, the Bank of China...
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From global summits to economic security via financial inclusion? Reflections on the tenth anniversary of the Maya Declaration
By Jessica Reyes, Juan Carlos Romero Contreras, James Copestake and Max Nino-Zarazua Global summits come and go, but do they make any difference? To answer this question it is useful to reflect back on what they set out to do...
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On unpredictability: a call for solidarity
By Joel Lazarus In the realm of social action, and thus in the realm of development, the element of unpredictability reigns. A critical history of development is a history of the intended and unintended injurious consequences of interventions. The path...
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Can we really grow our way out of the ecological crisis?
By Nick Langridge There is overwhelming consensus that the world is in the midst of an ecological crisis: Greenhouse gas concentrations are at a three-million year high (Willeit et al., 2019), species extinctions are occurring 1000 times faster than before...
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Losing our way, learning how others explain change, and planning a new book…
by James Copestake Much has changed since we published the book Attributing Development Impact, reflecting on lessons learnt conducting QuIP studies up until the end of 2017. There’s been Covid-19, the relentless digitalisation of our lives and climate change drama....
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The Dasgupta Review - Strong words but short-term actions
By Nick Langridge The Dasgupta Review on The Economics of Biodiversity, commissioned by the UK government, was finally released earlier this month. Led by Professor Sir Partha Dasgupta, the Review claims to provide an “Independent Review on the Economics of...