News, Blogs and Events

IDS is running a five-day training course in using participatory action research to improve development practice, from 12 June 2023 until 16 June 2023.

Interest in participatory action research has surged recently in the international development sector, as it challenges the power dynamic inherent in traditional research approaches. This is why it is key that professionals and practitioners in the sector adopt the latest thinking and address any skills gap within their organisations.

The course, convened by Jo Howard and Danny Burns, is interactive, inclusive, participatory and applied. Prior to the course, you’ll be asked to think of a critical question that you are dealing with in your work, or relating to your organisation’s practice. Over the week you will explore this question and, with the support of the facilitators, identify a participatory action research process appropriate for addressing your question, and learn how to develop and manage this process, and reflect on the ethical challenges.

Across sub-Saharan Africa, investors are committing unprecedented funds to develop oil, geothermal, hydropower, titanium, iron-ore, agricultural, carbon and other natural resources in the rural margins. Many projects are located in remote rural regions with histories of tension and conflict. While national governments welcome the potential of these investments to generate economic growth and create a more dynamic entrepreneurial environment, the benefits of these trends for local populations, particularly in terms of livelihoods, benefits sharing and governance, are often uncertain.

In fact, large-scale resource development at the margins can intensify long-standing struggles around public authority, community autonomy and environmental justice in these places, in some cases resulting in new and emerging tensions, protests, disputes, and inter and intra-community violence.

Develop your skills to more effectively design and improve monitoring and evaluation systems supporting participatory and adaptive practice at an in-person training course at the Institute of Development Studies in September 2022.

Increasingly, development organisations are using complexity-aware, learning-based approaches to design and drive their monitoring and evaluation (M&E) systems. This enables practitioners to better understand how change actually happens and how impact is achieved in real time in complex social change contexts. There is also growing awareness of the need for downward accountability and supporting greater feedback from those engaging in interventions to those designing and funding them.  

Join researchers and academics to celebrate the work of renowned development scholar Professor Robert Chambers in a series of events and workshops running from 26 to 28 April. Now a research associate at IDS, Robert is well-known for his pioneering participatory research methods, and his influential participatory workshops.

The events and workshops will explore the legacy of Robert’s work – from past, present and future – and how he has influenced countless people from students, policymakers, activists, NGOs and governments officials. All the events will be open to all, whether watching online or attending in person (limited number). See  below for the full list.