A GID Biannual Forum to Rethink International Development Collectively
New Edition of the Just International Development Forum in January 2026
How can we imagine the future of our world in the midst of intersecting global crises? Geopolitical instability and genocidal violence, resurgent nationalism and retreat from multilateralism, disruptive and indiscriminate technological change, and a woefully disregarded climate emergency all exacerbate global inequalities and vulnerabilities. What are the implications of these polycrises on our thinking about ‘development’, a contested notion not least because of its enduring legacies of asymmetrical power relations and knowledge hierarchies?
The above-mentioned destabilising forces call for a renewed impetus for ‘international development’, one that does not (re)produce the very inequities it seeks to address through the imposition of external values, technologies, or Western modes of governance. Emerging scholarship, for instance, increasingly turns toward ideas of repair, reparation or regeneration, seeking to rebuild relations and systems on more just and life-affirming foundations. Against this backdrop of pressing concerns about political, social, economic, and ecological collapse, a crucial question thus arises:
How can we rethink and transform the study and practice of ‘international development’ in ways that do not reinforce the polycrises, but aspire to discern the potential for more just futures instead?
Join our 2nd Just International Development Forum 2026 and take part in shaping the responses to these pressing questions, together with scholars, practitioners, and communities working toward more just futures.
JUST International Development Forum 