Create a visualisation for your country or town here: showyourstripes.info/l/europe/uni...

Members of the Development Studies Association - @devcomms.bsky.social - have called on the UK government take further action on Gaza. One of these calls comes from Prof Sam Hickey, Head of GDI at The University of Manchester - @officialuom.bsky.social. Read all statements here: bit.ly/3HjXxP7

Tourists canceling trips to the US.

Who wins and who loses from this process? @kmn-mcr.bsky.social considers the widespread impact of these tariff changes: "The prospect of a global recession is a real concern" 🔗: blog.gdi.manchester.ac.uk/trumps-tarif...

🚨 New research alert! 🚨 Our multi-country study reveals gendered inequalities in #Africa's platform economy. Women face lower pay, greater precarity & sectoral exclusion—despite higher education. Time for policy action! Read more 👉 journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/... #GigEconomy #GenderEquality

NEW | Action research spotlight: Healthy school meals in Nairobi In this episode, Veronica Mwangi from the University of Nairobi joins @chrisjords.bsky.social to talk about an ACRC action research initiative to improve access to healthy and nutritious school meals in Nairobi’s informal settlements.

We created a starter pack of our institutional members who are on BlueSky. If we missed you, let us know. go.bsky.app/RnUd4qr

Some pretty momentous news from GDI and @africancities.bsky.social today about the consistently amazing Diana Mitlin...

We are pleased to share with you a new blog post written by the GDI Students for Palestine group. The group questions what conflicts like Gaza mean for the study and practice of global development, as well as the role of universities like Manchester. Read the piece in full here: bit.ly/3QJFNyn

What next for our broken aid system? When scholars and practitioners are debating the effectiveness and equity of aid delivery, could dramatic changes in the aid sector serve as a catalyst for reform? Join us to discuss in a webinar partnered with @globaldevinst.bsky.social bit.ly/whatnextaid

Exciting news for tax evasion and money laundering!

Some fascinating findings - and charts - in this new paper on what Wikipedia tells us about digital divides....

Are we in a second Cold War? @iliasalami.bsky.social, @jessicadicarlo.bsky.social, @steverolf.bsky.social and @sethschindler.bsky.social argue that the current conflict focuses on controlling global economic networks rather than ideology or territory. www.tni.org/en/article/t...

Phew.... @globaldevinst.bsky.social is leaving twitter. Better late than never? We held a straw poll amongst academics yesterday, with c.80% voting to leave.

Make this @OfficialUoM press release viral “Trump … echoed Kremlin talking points, by falsely claiming …Zelensky’s approval rating stands at a mere 4%…polling…puts his approval rating at 63% - making him the most popular politician in the country.” www.manchester.ac.uk/about/news/t...

If you’d asked AI to write a piece of Russian propaganda in the style of Donald Trump, this is what you’d get. Well done America, you’ve elected a Russian asset as your President.

NEW | Nairobi: City report Nairobi is central to the Kenyan economy, as a key political battleground and a hub for business networks and national and transnational trade. Yet it faces an increasingly complex set of socioeconomic, health and spatial inequalities.

This is a great essay by @sethschindler.bsky.social & co. charting the decline of neoliberalism and the rise of 'state-capitalist geopolitics'.

I'm looking forward to this today ...and I'm sure it will be of interest to all @africancities.bsky.social researchers too.

Improved collection of mining taxes in Zambia boosted revenue collection by over $60m in a couple of years. Annual mining corporate income tax increased by 10%. Would this have happened without @taxjusticenet.bsky.social campaigning in Zambia and beyond? 🤔 www.igfmining.org/impactstory/...

After the publication of his recent working paper analysing the US-China “AI Cold War”, we caught up with Richard Heeks (@cddmanchester.bsky.social) about the controversy surrounding DeepSeek. Read Richard's take below, and find the full working paper here: research.manchester.ac.uk/en/publicati...

A tiny 2% wealth tax, on 20k people would raise £24 billion per year to spend on the things that urgently need fixing in our country. We need some tax justice - the more money you have the less tax you pay and vice versa - that’s absurd.

Migrants send or bring back over three times the amount of money provided by global foreign aid. Cutting transaction fees could make this support even more effective in reducing poverty.

Today is your last chance to apply to join us as our new Research for Transformation Lab manager 💼 - 17.5 hrs per week (part-time) - University of Manchester, hybrid - £36,924 - £45,163 pro rata per annum, depending on experience Learn more here: www.jobs.manchester.ac.uk/Job/JobDetai...

If you're looking for a new job in 2025, love research and have great links with development policy and practice - come and work with me and the team!

Fascinating new blog by Diana Mitlin exploring how academics can work best with organised community groups - and how @official-uom.bsky.social could become a much more inclusive civic university by playing an active role in reform coalitions. blog.gdi.manchester.ac.uk/lessons-from...

51% of people in the UK know “not much or very little” about what their local university is actually for, which contrasts with many institutions' confident rhetoric about their central place in 'the community'. universityappg.co.uk/resources/re...

Bit harsh on Amad? 😂 🔴 www.bbc.co.uk/sport/footba...

This is a fantastic interview with Edwin, who is a genuinely lovely, committed and super sharp human being. It's really interesting to hear how he got involved with @africancities.bsky.social (from 6.00) and his experience documenting our approach to decolonisation 🙌

I am the 0.5% ...of @billryderjones.bsky.social listeners on spotify this year. Wining at life. Iechyd Da. youtu.be/1G3R9ZNXTTo?...

BLUESKY MEGA-THREAD Altmetric is thrilled and also LITERALLY RELIEVED to officially announce: We are now tracking research attention as it happens on Bluesky! We have been picking up posts on the site since late Oct. Our team is on Bluesky all day answering questions. Let's get into it!

"It inadvertently contributed to a broader identity crisis for Africans, portraying the entire continent as one monolithic, war-torn, starving place."

Awesome news - Australia passes legislation that will make multinationals publicly report where they do business - and where their profits are booked. Hopefully other countries will follow suit - making life much harder for tax dodgers and 'havens'. #Taxjustice for the win 🙌

We showed the way at Manchester 😂 www.theguardian.com/politics/201...

Really useful (and interesting!) update to Bond's ethical storytelling guidelines. Essential reading for anyone involved in #GlobalDev comms. www.bond.org.uk/resources/pu...

A person on a bicycle is by far the most energy-efficient among animals and machines per distance traveled relative to body weight. The bicycle is magic. www.jstor.org/stable/24923...

A must read blog by Diana Mitlin: "In my own career, I’ve seen many examples of the injustices, missed opportunities and inefficiencies of “business as usual” development practices and research. As CEO of the African Cities Research Consortium, I have the opportunity to do something about it"

Me: happily setting out my @africancities.bsky.social stall in the marketplace of ideas. @ppfideas.bsky.social: Nooo! Bad idea!

No only is the @globaldevinst.bsky.social's Skyla doing great things with the Manchester Social Housing Commission today, she has also bagged the best Bluesky handle...a true comms pro 👏

Zoe is one of nearly 18,000 households on the waiting list for social housing in Manchester. She will be in Parliament today to talk about how she and thousands of other Mancunians are suffering because of a broken housing system as a new report is published @manchestereveningnews.co.uk

Great coverage of Manchester's Social Housing Commission launch in parliament today from the @manchestereveningnews.co.uk 🙌 www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater...

My commuter hell

At @globaldevinst.bsky.social no less...

We thought we'd see if the grass is really greener over here... and it's definitely looking that way! 👋 A quick intro for those who don't know us – we're the African Cities Research Consortium (ACRC), led by @globaldevinst.bsky.social at The University of Manchester.

Great to hear Sheila Muganyi's message to the World Urban Forum: 1️⃣ The importance of organised communities. 2️⃣ Young people are key to documenting urban realities. 3️⃣ Reform coalitions create vital space for dialogue and accountability. youtu.be/OTKMBgZj4Ms?...

For new BlueSky contacts: meet the Hrishipara Diarists, 60 poor and very poor people in central Bangladesh who have been supplying daily data about all their money inflows and outflows for almost 10 years, and continuing. We analyze and comment on the data at sites.google.com/site/hriship...

This by @davekarpf.bsky.social is well worth a read (also follow him if you don't already!) davekarpf.substack.com/p/bluesky-as...

Hello! We're the Global Development Institute at the University of Manchester, and we're excited to be on Bluesky 👋 We will be bringing you news from across the institute very shortly, but in the meantime drop us a hello below and/or give us a follow!