Paul Jackson is to be the academic co-director of a new research commissioning centre funded by the Foreign, Commonwealth, and Development Office (FCDO). The purpose of the centre will be to support the FCDO’s Research and Evidence Directorate by helping manage strategic investments in science, technology and evidence, through work with a consortium of UK and global research partners.

Fiona Nunan has secured a £700,000 grant from the Global Centre on Biodiversity for Climate programme to lead research into how adaptive fisheries governance capacity can be built in Malawi and Uganda, working with the Institute for Poverty, Land and Agrarian Studies, South Africa, Lilongwe University of Agriculture and Natural Resources, Malawi, and the National Fisheries Resources Research Institute, Uganda.

Rehnuma Ferdous has re-joined IDD as an ESRC postdoctoral fellow to develop her research agenda on how best elite capture of natural resources can be countered.

Paul Jackson (with Sarah-Jane Fenton, Juan Roberto Rengifo Gutiérrez, Monica Pinilla-Roncancio, German Casas, Francy Carranza, Sanne Weber, Juan Pablo Aranguren Romero) published, Macro level system mapping of the provision of mental health services to young people living in a conflict context in Colombia, BMC Health Services Research [open access]

Bizuneh Yimenu (with Robert McCabe, Coventry University) published, Ethiopia’s quest for access to the sea: success rests on good relations with its neighbours’, The Conversation. 

New Podcast on Localization in World Politics out on Spotify now!

IDD’s Emily Scott co-hosts with Jennifer Welsh (Canada 150 Research Chair in Global Governance and Security, Director of the Centre for International Peace and Security Studies) and Adam Kochanski (Assistant Professor, University of Guelph). The first episodes feature Amitav Acharya and Hugo Slim.

Petra Alderman hosted a podcast episode for the Nordic Asia Podcast titled ‘Reading the Stars: When Divination Meets Politics in Thailand’ 

CEDAR’s People Power Politics podcast has reached 10,000+ downloads and increased its frequency to two new episodes per month. Recent episodes are:

Why are there more women in parliament than ever before, and does it matter? A conversation with Aili Mari Tripp – hosted by Nic Cheeseman

Democracy, Great Powers, and the Russia-Ukraine War. A Discussion with Stefan Wolff – hosted by Petra Alderman 

Petra Alderman moderated a high-profile event at the LSE Saw Swee Hock Southeast Asia Centre: ‘A Forward-Looking Conversation with Thanathorn Juangroongruangkit on Thailand’s Past, Present, and Future’ – Thanathorn Juangroongruangkit is a political activist and a former leader of the now-dissolved Future Forward Party, a progressive pro-democratic party that took Thai politics by storm in 2019

Ellen Bomasang was appointed to serve on the board of Women in International Security, a non-governmental organization that champions gender equality by helping women advance as leaders in the international peace and security sector.

Bizuneh Yimenu was interviewed by Newzroom Africa regarding the recent controversial Memorandum of Understanding signed between Ethiopia and Somaliland.

Bizuneh Yimenu joined the editorial board of Ethnopolitics journal.