IDD guest seminar series 2025 - University of Birmingham

The guest seminar series brings together scholars and practitioners working on international development to share their latest research and ideas. All seminars are open to staff, students and the general public.

For further details please contact Maurice Beseng: m.beseng@bham.ac.uk

Wednesday 22 October: 15:00-16:30 PM

Chair: Dr Chris Lyon
Venue: Room 429, Muirhead Tower
Speaker: Eyob Gebremariam, Research Associate, Perivoli Africa Research Centre (PARC), School for Policy Studies, University of Bristol

Title: Africa’s ecosystem of health research and policymaking: a decolonial critique

Abstract: This paper proposes a meta-framework for understanding Africa’s ecosystem of health research and policy-making from a decolonial perspective. The framework highlights the coloniality and empire framework to explain how health-related research and policy-making in Africa have continued to uphold a colonial epistemic orientation, manifesting through structural and institutional settings, as well as policies and practices. The paper then illustrates its arguments by examining how philanthrocapitalism builds upon and consolidates the logics of coloniality and the interests of empire. It identifies four areas in which philanthrocapitalism reinforces coloniality and the workings of empire. These are: the promotion of neo-Malthusian narratives about Africa’s population growth, the normalisation of neoliberal institutions, policies and practices within the health sector, the imposition of vertical approaches to health issues at the expense of horizontal and more systemic strategies, and the reinforcement of power asymmetries by consolidating governmentality and hierarchical structures over African societies without meaningful accountability.

Bio: Eyob Balcha Gebremariam is a Research Associate at the Perivoli Africa Research Centre (PARC), University of Bristol. He holds a PhD in Development Policy and Management from the University of Manchester. He is also a Visiting Research Fellow at the Institute for Humanities in Africa (HUMA), University of Cape Town (UCT), and a Research Fellow at the University of South Africa (UNISA). In addition to his Amharic and English blogs and newspaper contributions, his academic publications have appeared in the Journal of Northeast African Studies, IDS Bulletin, CODESRIA Bulletin, Global Social Challenges Journal, Africa Development, and the European Journal of Development Research. Eyob is also a member of the Council at the Development Studies Association (DSA) of the UK and of EADI’s task group on decolonising knowledge in Development Studies.

Wednesday 5 November: 13:30-15:00 PM

Venue: Arts Building Room 104
Chair: Dr Nathalie Raunet
Speaker: Prof Nick Westcott, Professor of Practice in Diplomacy at SOAS University of London; former British High Commissioner to Ghana and Ambassadorto Cote d'Ivoire, Burkina Faso, Togo and Niger (2008—2011)

IDD/POLSIS Event: Britain and Africa: The Diplomatic past, present and future

Abstract: Drawing on 50 years of engagement with Africa as a diplomat and academic, Nick Westcott will locate Britain’s relationship with Africa in its historic context, assess how African countries themselves have evolved in the 60 years since independence, and discuss how this has influenced the nature of Britain’s current diplomatic, economic and security involvement with the continent. Building on this context, he will consider the likely future trajectory for Africa and how British policy should respond to that, in the light of both Britain’s and African countries’ strategic and national interests. In particular it will assess the relative importance of development, investment, trade, security, democracy and geo-strategic balance in the future relationship, and whether the current British policy represents a fair balance between those interests.

Bio: Dr Nick Westcott is currently Professor of Practice in Diplomacy at SOAS University of London. After completing a PhD in African history at Cambridge, he served as a British diplomat for 35 years from 1982-2017, with postings in Brussels, Tanzania, Washington DC and as British High Commissioner to Ghana and Ambassador to Cote d'Ivoire, Burkina Faso, Niger and Togo. From 2011-17 he was the Managing Director for Africa and later for the Middle East in the EU's External Action Service in Brussels. He subsequently worked as Director of the Royal African Society from 2017-23 and is a Visiting Fellow of the Oxford Martin School and an Academic Visitor in the Department of Politics and International Relations at the University of Oxford.

Nick Westcott is a guest of Jonathan Fisher, Nathalie Raunet, Niheer Dasandi (IDD) and Molly Sundberg (University of Stockholm) in the context of their ESRC funded project entitled ‘Global Britain, Backlash, and the Politics of “values” in Contemporary UK-Africa Policy

Wednesday 12 November 13:00 - 14:30

Venue: Arts Building, lecture room 5

IDD/Cedar event: Screening of How to steal a country & Q&A with the directors

Wednesday 19 November: 13:00 - 14:30

Venue: Muiehead Tower, G15
Speaker: Dr Sherrill Stroschein, Reader in Politics (Associate Professor), Department of Political Science, University College London

Talk: Ethnic Enclaves and Entrenchment: City Politics and Democratic Control

Wednesday 26 November 13:00-14:30 PM

Chair: Prof Rachel Gisselquist
Speaker: Tony Addison, Professor of Economics, University of Copenhagen, Non-Resident Senior Research Fellow UNU-WIDER, Helsinki.

Book Talk: Resources Matter: ending poverty while protecting nature

Abstract: Almost everything that is essential to modern society—transport and power systems, buildings, machinery, and medical devices—depends upon metals, minerals, and stone as well as oil and natural gas which provide the energy for households, businesses, and transport as well as widely-used materials such as plastics. The global economy has come to increasingly rely on mining and oil and gas extraction in the developing world. The global south now accounts for three-quarters of global mining, including the extraction of critical minerals which are now a source of geopolitical tension.

Poorer nations see extractive industries as vital to their prospects for greater prosperity, and to meet their own energy needs, but these industries are highly controversial not least in their impact on nature and the climate. This presentation explores the dilemmas (governance) as well as the opportunities (the green transition). The so-called ‘resource curse’ – the potentially harmful effect of resource booms on economies and societies – is not inevitable but it is hard to navigate, and the risks must be managed.

Countries need to see their resources, both renewable and non-renewable, as part of an asset portfolio, that also includes human and institutional capital. However, countries continue to neglect and undermine their renewable natural capital, which is accentuated by fossil fuel subsidies, hesitancy in the global energy transition, and the shortage of finance for low-income countries.

Ending poverty while protecting nature remains a central but unresolved challenge in development policy. Progress cannot be accelerated until we resolve the question of how we meet humanity’s ever-growing material needs.

The presentation is based on a Oxford University Press book (open access) available via UNU-WIDER for free download.

Bio: Tony Addison is a Non-Resident Senior Research Fellow at UNU-WIDER Helsinki. He was UNU-WIDER’s chief economist and deputy director, and a professor of economics (Copenhagen University) and of development studies (Manchester University). His field experiences include Mozambique’s war-to-peace transition, fiscal reform, and poverty analysis and policy.

Thursday 4 December: 13:30 - 15:00

Venue: Muirhead Tower, 109
Speaker: Madhuri Kamtam, Postgraduate Researcher, School of Global Development, University of East Anglia

Talk: Unrolling Inequalities: Gender, Labour Law, and Collective Actionin India’s Beedi Industry