Social protection is seen as a solution to many problems of development, including poverty, food insecurity and access to services. But we also know that social protection has its limitations. So how do we justify getting Governments to invest in social protection programmes rather than investing in infrastructure or job creation or other services like health and education? In this episode of the IDS Between the Lines podcast, IDS Research Fellows, Kate Pruce, Stephen Devereux and IDS Director of Research Nick Nisbett talk about their new report titled: Social Protection for Food Security and Nutrition: a Business Case published by the Institute of Development Studies (IDS) and World Food Programme (WFP). The discussants argue that while social protection - especially cash transfers - clearly reduces hunger and food insecurity, it does not automatically improve nutrition, which is more complex and requires coordinated action across sectors. Therefore, they put forward a business case for investing in food security - and nutrition‑sensitive social protection.

IDS was recently honoured to welcome the Hon. Prime Minister of Sri Lanka, Dr Harini Amarasuriya to mark the 60th anniversary of IDS. She shared her journey from her career as an academic and an activist before entering politics and being elected as Prime Minister of Sri Lanka in 2024. In this special episode of the IDS Between the Lines podcast we present the Prime Ministers speech and her discussion with IDS Director Anuradha Joshi. We will also hear from two respondents, IDS Alum, Dr. Sepali Kottegoda and current master’s student Renushi Ubeyratna who will comment on what the Prime Minister said.

Last month a series of events were held at the University of Nairobi to celebrate 60 years of IDS together with alumni and other partners. The host was our namesake the Institute for Development Studies at the University of Nairobi, which celebrated its 60th anniversary last year. At the event this podcast was recorded: 'What is the future of ‘development studies?' It featured commentaries by Professors Ian Scoones, from Sussex-based IDS, and Paul Kamau, Research Director at IDS Nairobi. The podcast was hosted Dr Tahira Mohamed, alumna of IDS Sussex and currently working with the Jameel Observatory at the International Livestock Research Institute in Nairobi and Dr Rahma Hassan, IDS Nairobi alumna and working with the Centre for Research and Development in Drylands in Marsabit and Tufts University. While acknowledging the current challenges about the future of development studies, all contributors offered some hopeful directions for the future.

Disability is very much part of the human experience, with an estimated 16% of the world’s population experiencing significant disability. Despite this, people with disabilities often remain excluded or underrepresented in development programmes and research. In this new episode of the IDS Between the Lines podcast, researchers - whose articles have been published in the recent IDS Bulletin ‘Building disability inclusive futures’ - shed fresh light on the urgent need for disability‑inclusive development. The episode features journalist and broadcaster Paul Carter who interviews Amba Salelkar, Senior Manager, Programmes and Impact, International Disability Alliance, Dom Haslam, Deputy CEO, Sightsavers and Stephen Thompson, Research Fellow, IDS. As the Inclusive Futures programme draws to a close, contributors in this podcast hope the IDS Bulletin and the research will serve as both a record of learning and a call to action.

Climate change is no longer a distant threat. Heatwaves, wildfires, hurricanes and flooding are reshaping lives and ecosystems across the world. Adaptation efforts to date have largely been incremental and insufficient for the scale of change now underway. In this book talk, Dr Susannah Fisher discussed her new book, Sink or Swim: How the World Needs to Adapt to a Changing Climate, which argues that the world is approaching a series of unavoidable and deeply political choices about how we adapt in a future of 1.5°C warming and beyond. The book draws and global examples and explores what transformative adaptation could look like in practice. Fisher examines difficult but necessary questions, including how to support communities to relocate away from vulnerable coastlines, how to fairly manage shifting fish stocks, how to build food systems and global trade that are both resilient and productive, and what role the military may play in adaptation efforts. This event was co-hosted by the IDS-led RELIABLE project and Climate and Development Seminar Series.

This Between the Lines podcast features a conversation between IDS Fellow Rosie McGee and authors John Gaventa and Gabe Schwartzman about their new book, Power and Just Transitions: Struggles for a Post‑Coal Future in an Appalachian Valley. The book examines how power is transformed during energy transitions, using the Clearfork Valley in Appalachia as an in‑depth case study.

Automation and digitisation are set to impact on many areas of work and livelihoods in developing countries and there is an urgent need for robust empirical work to address this issue. Participants at the 2017 Digital Development Summit, convened by IDS, called for research institutions to create cross-cutting partnerships across disciplines, geographies and sectors both to develop research and to play a brokering role in relation to solutions. This seminar will be a space to discuss key issues and debates and explore the role IDS researchers might play in developing this research agenda.

Most development thought is based upon the assumption that the uplifting of the world’s poor is to be carried out by elite actors (states, corporations, NGO’s) , rather than the poor themselves. This way of thinking, paradoxically, helps justify new ways of oppressing and exploiting the poor. In this talk Professor Benjamin Selwyn from the School of Global Studies at the University of Sussex, launches his book The Struggle for Development. He introduces the concept of labour-led development to illuminate, theoretically and empirically, ways in which the poor can be masters of their own development.

Advances in digital technology and artificial intelligence are transforming the future of work. Self-driving trucks are due to be tested on UK roads in 2018 and are already being piloted in the US where around 3 million people are employed as truck drivers, while in the Philippines 89 per cent of call centre jobs are now at risk from automation. Women are also likely to be disproportionately impacted by automation, and less likely to be shaping decisions in the tech sector where they are under-represented. Technological advances represent significant opportunities both for the UK and the rest of world. With significant implications for the UK Government and the Global Goal to achieve decent work for all by 2030, this fringe meeting at the Labour Party Conference seeks to explore: The opportunities and challenges that advances in digital technologies present for the work place and workers in the future, both at home and abroad? How policies across UK government – industrial strategy, education and skills, international development and trade - can help promote prosperity across the UK as well as supporting economic development globally? Chair: Chi Onwurah MP Speakers: Becky Faith, Digital and Technology Cluster, Institute of Development Studies; Jenni Lloyd, Purpose Lab. and Wired Sussex; Karen Cham, Academic Lead of the Brighton Digital Catapult Centre and Professor of Digital Transformation Design, University of Brighton.

Three years since the launch of China's flagship outbound investment strategy, One Belt One Road (OBOR), many are left uncertain - what is OBOR and what exactly is China trying to achieve? Based on study of trade-related potential for win-win development between China and Africa countries, Dr. Lauren Johnston will explain economic push factors underlying China's outbound investment agenda, and the attractiveness of selective 'Road' countries in Africa. Arguing that the timeliness of OBOR investments for particular African economies could help underlie sustained economic development, she adds a call for Australia, the only OECD member of the Indian Ocean Rim Association (IORA), to grasp related new challenges and opportunity.