With Tanja Verena Matheis and Vikram Badhwar: Solidarity is one of the central themes of the EADI ISS general conference, and it has become the binding force of global citizens experiencing an unprecedented pandemic. While many people adjusted well and quickly moved to the use of digital tools and online communication, many of us also face economic, social and personal instabilities in isolation.

Oxfam Online Session: As part of the global trend of shifting and shrinking civic space, we have seen governments and other powerful actors deploy stigmatizing and delegitimizing narratives to undermine the legitimacy of CSOs and civic action.   The increase of populist rhetoric which taps into emotions and values of people, and even at times adopts some of the human rights language, is increasingly visible around us. Together these are having a detrimental effect on solidarity, peace and social justice.

We are happy to announce that the EADI General Assembly held last week has elected Henning Melber as EADI President for further three years. In his acceptance speech, Melber stressed that EADI and the wider Development Studies community must overcome what can be called "Developmentalism" and engage with visions and concepts "outside of the Procrustean bed of development with its underlying assumptions of a single perspective confined to the status quo". A slighlty amended version of his full speech is available on our blog. Continue

By Owasim Akram

After working for more than ten years as a development practitioner in Bangladesh with a tremendous opportunity to observe the lives of the extreme poor while living very closely to them, one simple question kept chasing me all the time: why do millions of them remain still poor despite huge progress in the economy, policy changes and many development interventions both from the Government and other development partners?

As the European Association of Development Research and Training Institutes have repeatedly stated, development is not neutral. The time has now come for us to once again take a stand by taking a knee. We condemn all forms of racism and discrimination. Human dignity and equality mean that #BlackLivesMatter. To the full statement