As some of you may know I accepted the nomination as President of the DSA in September 2011 at the AGM held during the York conference. Since then, I have circulated a ‘statement’ about the challenges for the DSA in the coming years. Frances and I had a meeting with DFID to review remaining aspects of our present contract. I convened an extraordinary meeting of the DSA Council on 8th November in order to consider the findings of the DSA Evaluation (commissioned as part of our support from DFID), and to agree an allocation of functions among Council teams (see Minutes on the website) which engage with therecommendations of the Evaluation and the agenda set out in my ‘statement’. Council has also conveyed its management responses to DFID. The DSA website will hold more of our documentation.

We face some key challenges over the next few years, not least because we can no longer expect DFID funding for conference support, though we hope to secure other categories of DFID support once the priorities of the Research Uptake group in DFID are clearer. The one day conference planned for November 2012 will therefore be organised from our own membership and subscription resources, with costs therefore reduced. Nevertheless, we expect an exciting event. Charles Gore, Frances and I are considering an overall theme for the conference, perhaps around the problem of trade-offs or compatibility between development agendas and environmental sustainability. We welcome your ideas for a conference theme and title before the end of December.

The present DFID contract also includes support for a New Ideas initiative. You will soon see an invitation to apply for small grants to develop new research ideas over the next 6 months. In this way, we expect the Development Studies community to contribute to agenda-setting for future research funding.

By the next Council meeting on 24th January, each of the teams will be reporting on our key challenges, such as: funding; future conferences; international links; publications and communications; a new strategy for study groups and local chapters; our support for students (PGs and UGs).

Geof Wood
DSA President