Past Highlights

Innovations for Sustainability: Pathways to an Efficient and Sufficient Post-Pandemic Future

11 Sep 2020

2020/08 – German Development Institute, Deutsches Institut für Entwicklungspolitik (DIE); research paper; Author(s): Nebojsa Nakicenovic et al

This third report prepared by the "The World in 2050 Initiative" (TWI2050) assesses all the positive potential benefits innovation brings to sustainable development for all, while also highlighting the potential negative impacts and challenges going forward. The report outlines strategies to harness innovation for sustainability by focusing on efficiency and sufficiency in providing services to people, with a particular focus on consumption and production. It concludes with the related governance challenges and policy implications.

continue: Innovations for Sustainability: Pathways to an Efficient and Sufficient Post-Pandemic Future (external link)

Towards Transformative Climate Justice: Key Challenges and Future Directions for Research

10 Jul 2020

2020/07 – Institute of Development Studies (IDS), Brighton; IDS Working Paper; Author(s): Newell, Peter; Srivastava, Shilpi; Naess, Lars Otto; Torres Contreras, Gerado A.; Price, Roz

Climate justice is understood in a multitude of ways and reflects the fact that the causes and effects of climate change, as well as efforts to tackle it, raise ethical, equity and rights issues. The language of climate justice is increasingly omnipresent in the discourse of academia, civil society, social movements, some governments, cities and even some businesses. But the mechanisms for delivering it are weak and under-developed. This paper shows that definitions of what is covered by climate justice, at what scales, how it can be measured, and which are the best means to deliver it are all heavily contested.

continue: Towards Transformative Climate Justice: Key Challenges and Future Directions for Research (external link)

Change Finance, not the Climate

11 Jun 2020

2020/06 – Transnational Institute (TNI); book; Author(s): Oscar Reyes

This new handbook is an indispensable guide to climate activists and policy-makers alike towards a complete overhaul of the financial system to stop climate chaos. Central to its message is that fossil fuel lending can be redirected towards green energy and that public finance and ownership can bankroll and provide the infrastructure for delivering a Green New Deal. The book presents many progressive proposals to build a just and future-proof financial system that can respond to the climate crisis, assess their potential impact, achievability and any associated drawbacks.

continue: Change Finance, not the Climate (external link)

Fair Research Contracting: A Self-Assesment Tool for Institutions

28 May 2020

2020/05 – Swiss Commission for Research Partnerships with Developing Countries (KFPE); publication; Author(s): André Lederer

The fair research contracting self-assessment tool, developed by the Swiss Commission for Research Partnerships with Developing Countries and the Council on Health Research for Development supports institutions to engage in fair and equitable negotiation processes for formal contracts despite recognised imbalances in institutional contracting capacities. The self-assessment tool provides a 10 steps approach for assessing an institution's capability to negotiate and conclude fair and equitable research agreements and contracts.

continue: Fair Research Contracting: A Self-Assesment Tool for Institutions (external link)

The Future is Public: Towards Democratic Ownership of Public Services

15 May 2020

2020/05 – Transnational Institute (TNI); book; Author(s): Alexander Panez Pinto et al.

This open access book shows that public services are more important than ever in the face of the climate catastrophe, mounting inequalities, and growing political unrest. Together, civil society organisations, trade unions, and local authorities are crafting new templates for how to expand democratic public ownership to all levels of society and opening up new routes to community-led and climate conscious public service. TNI's research has identified more than 1,400 successful (re)municipalisation cases involving more than 2,400 cities in 58 countries around the world.

continue: The Future is Public: Towards Democratic Ownership of Public Services (external link)

The Politics of Social Inclusion: Bridging Knowledge and Policies Towards Social Change

16 Apr 2020

2020/04 – Comparative Research Programme on Poverty (CROP), International Social Science Council (ISSC); book; Author(s): Gabriele Koehler et al.

This open access book presents extensive case studies from across the world to provide critical perspectives on the concepts of social inclusion and exclusion. A collaboration between UNESCO and the Comparative Research Programme on Poverty (CROP), this volume traces a number of discourses, all of them routed in a relational power analysis, examining them in the context of the UN Agenda for Sustainable Development 2030 with its commitment to “leave no one behind.”

continue: The Politics of Social Inclusion: Bridging Knowledge and Policies Towards Social Change (external link)

Mining for Change. Natural Resources and Industry in Africa (Open Access Book)

05 Mar 2020

2020/02 – United Nations University World Institute for Development Economics Research (UNU-WIDER); February 2020; Author(s): John Page; Finn Tarp

The book presents research undertaken to understand how better management of the revenues and opportunities associated with natural resources can accelerate diversification and structural change in Africa. It begins with essays on managing the boom, the construction sector, and linking industry to the major issues that frame the question of how to use natural resources for structural change.

continue: Mining for Change. Natural Resources and Industry in Africa (Open Access Book) (external link)

Creative Coalitions in a Fractured World: An Opportunity for Transformative Change?

20 Feb 2020

2020/02 – United Nations Research Institute for Social Development (UNRISD); Occasional Paper 4; Author(s): Gabriele Köhler

Citizens, activists and analysts around the world are alarmed by ever-increasing political, social, economic and climate inequalities and intensifying obstacles vis-à-vis the promises of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. In many places, policy retrogression is undermining transformation towards economic, social and climate justice. Many of the growing fractures have their roots in the structures and trends of the economic system that prevails at national and global levels, and the social contract of democratic welfare statism is under threat. However, hitherto siloed activist communities are coalescing in the form of “creative” coalitions. This paper discusses their commonalities, strengths and shortcomings, and asks whether these creative coalitions could counter the power of economic interests and retrogressive government policies.

continue: Creative Coalitions in a Fractured World: An Opportunity for Transformative Change? (external link)

State of Power 2020: The Corporation

07 Feb 2020

2020/01 – Transnational Institute (TNI); State of Power report 11; Author(s): Grietje Baarset et al.

The Corporation is capitalism's preeminent institution, dominating our economy, distorting our politics and reshaping society. TNI's ninth flagship State of Power report delves deep into the changing nature of the corporation in a time of digitalisation and financialisation and asks how we might best confront its power and construct alternatives.

continue: State of Power 2020: The Corporation (external link)

The Many Hidden Faces of Extreme Poverty. Inclusion and Exclusion of Extreme Poor People in Development Interventions in Bangladesh, Benin and Ethiopia

28 Jan 2020

Read more: The Many Hidden Faces of Extreme Poverty. Inclusion and Exclusion of Extreme Poor People in Development Interventions in Bangladesh, Benin and Ethiopia (external link)

2020/01 – African Studies Centre (ASC); open access book; Author(s): Anika Altaf

While the inclusion of extreme poor people is a noble and necessary objective, it is challenging. This book provides deeper understanding of the mechanisms of in- and exclusion of extreme poor people, the structural causes of extreme poverty and the desirability of a univocal definition of extreme poverty. The book contributes to such an understanding through an analysis of extreme poor and marginalised people and their multiple dimensions of wellbeing.

continue: The Many Hidden Faces of Extreme Poverty. Inclusion and Exclusion of Extreme Poor People in Development Interventions in Bangladesh, Benin and Ethiopia (external link)

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