Our Aims and Objectives

We are the UK association for all those who research, study and teach global development issues

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What is Development Studies

What is development studies and decolonising development.

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Our Members

We have around 1,000 members, made up of individuals and around 40 institutions

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Governance

Find out about our constitution, how we are run and meet our Council

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People

Meet our Council members and other staff who support the running of DSA

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About

The DSA Conference is an annual event which brings together the development studies community

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DSA2024

Our conference this year is themed "Social justice and development in a polarising world"

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Past Conferences

Find out about our previous conferences

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Study Groups

Our Study Groups offer a chance to connect with others who share your areas of interest

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Students and ECRs

Students and early career researchers are an important part of our community

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Publications

Our book series with OUP and our relationship with other publishers

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North-South Research

A series of workshops exploring North-South interdisciplinary research with key messages and reports

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Membership Directory

Find out who our members are, where they are based and the issues they work on

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Webinar on NGO and researcher collaboration to tackle inequality and injustice

How can NGO programming, interventions and theories of change best make use of academic research, including academic research from the global South, in informing work addressing global inequality and injustice?

What are the key challenges and barriers for NGOs and for academics in a closer collaboration and engagement on these issues?

How can and should academics reconcile the potentially conflicting demands of impartial objective research and social change advocacy and campaigning? And how can a new form of collaborative relationship ensure that local voices are not crowded out and excluded by ‘expert’ voices?

The DSA will convene a webinar discussion on these topics on May 11th at 1-2pm UK time. Register here.

Panel:

  • Beth Chitekwe-Biti is the Director of the secretariat of Slum Dwellers International (SDI) a global network of slum dwellers, driving a collective, bottom-up change agenda for inclusive and resilient cities in the global South. SDI has been active 33 countries and  currently has 18 affiliates in Africa, South Asia and Latin America. Beth founded Dialogue on Shelter a Zimbabwe NGO in 1999 which works in alliance with the social movement the Zimbabwe Homeless People’s Federation both of who are affiliates of SDI. Before moving to the SDI Secretariat in 2019,  Beth was Dialogue on Shelter’s Executive Director. Beth supported the establishment of SDI affiliates in Zambia, Malawi and Botswana, has contributed as an author to articles on the work that the  SDI does, and participates in local national and international events on behalf of SDI occasionally serving on committees for policies on issues impacting the urban poor. A trained urban planner, Beth holds a PhD in Development Policy and Management  from the University of Manchester.
  • Naomi Hossain is a political sociologist and Research Professor at the Accountability Research Center at the School of International Service at American University in Washington DC. Her research focuses on the politics of inclusive development, or how people get the public services they need. In international collaborations, she has researched food and fuel riots, the politics of public service delivery, closing civic space, and the politics of Bangladesh’s development success. Some of her work can be seen here.
  • Sandra Martinsone is interim Head of Policy,  Advocacy and Research at BOND. Previously Sandra has coordinated RedR’s international humanitarian capacity building programmes in East Africa and Middle East, worked as Politics and Governance Programme Manager at ODI, led one of the largest ever international tax justice advocacy and campaigning projects working with 24 organisations in 19 countries across 3 continents and developed advocacy strategy for ETI to advocate for workers’ rights in UK, Southeast Asia and Africa. She has also worked for UNDP and Foreign Office in Latvia.
  • Moderator, Michael Jennings: Michael has degrees from the University of Oxford and London (SOAS), and has taught and researched at Oxford and the Centre for Development Studies at Swansea University. His research interests include: the politics and history of development processes in sub-Saharan Africa: governance, civil society, non-governmental organisations and faith-based organisations; and social aspects of health in Africa.

To attend the webinar on May 11th at 1-2pm UK time, register here.