How Bath’s Centre for Development Studies is leading international impact
Is Development Studies in crisis? Once anchored in ideas of global solidarity and poverty reduction, the field now faces mounting challenges: geopolitical fragmentation, climate crisis, and questions about the effectiveness of traditional aid models. As emerging economies reshape power dynamics and local actors demand greater agency, academics and practitioners are rethinking what development means in a multipolar world.
Dr Mihika Chatterjee and Dr Aurelie Charles, Co-Directors of the Centre for Development Studies (CDS) at the University of Bath, take a moment to consider this question. “People typically tend to ask if international development is in a moment of crisis,” says Mihika. “It’s not: there have always been crises. As the global economic order changes, the field must reinvent its concerns and continue challenging assumed narratives.”
Research in the Centre for Development Studies offers a model for development studies in transition: research that is inclusive, activist, and rooted in the realities of those it seeks to serve. “We’re asking some of the older questions in new ways,” says Dr Aurelie Charles.
Across the Centre for Development Studies, researchers are challenging dominant narratives in international development by placing lived experience, participation, and power at the centre of their work. From exposing famine as a deliberate weapon of war, to rethinking how impact is understood and measured, tackling structural poverty and inequality, and advancing menstrual justice for girls and women, this research reveals how development outcomes are shaped by politics, norms, and everyday realities. Grounded in long-term partnerships with local communities and practitioners, these projects demonstrate how collaborative, ethically engaged research can confront silence, amplify marginalised voices, and drive meaningful change at local, national, and global levels.
“It’s the main ethos of the Centre across our membership,” says Mihika. “Our research is anchored within local realities and that does maximise its impact.”
As co-directors of the CDS, the pair are responsible for a considerable portfolio, ranging from maintaining international partnerships, to supporting the diverse research agenda of colleagues, and exploring new areas of collaboration between academics in Bath and around the world. It is work the CDS has been doing for over fifty years.
“The CDS has sustained an incredible legacy of embedded research in the global south. It has focused on poverty and inequality and has done great work in terms of equitable partnerships with institutions in West Africa, Southern Africa, and South Asia.”
Dr Mihika Chatterjee
Dr Mihika Chatterjee
Dr Aurelie Charles
Dr Aurelie Charles
Learn more about Bath research in our monthly email
Researching famine as a weapon of war
Dr Naomi Pendle is leading research challenging conventional narratives about famine through this participatory framework. Working with a team of local researchers, her work reframes famine not as an unavoidable outcome of environmental scarcity, but as a political act shaped by norms, power, and silence. Supported by the British Academy and the European Research Council, Naomi’s projects explore the everyday politics of famine in Sudan, South Sudan, and Somalia; locations where starvation is increasingly used as a weapon of war.
“Starvation is an awful way to die. It disproportionately affects the most vulnerable—young children and the elderly, and yet it continues because, somehow, it remains politically tolerated.”
What makes this research distinctive is its participatory focus. “We’re really eager for local researchers to be authors in the work,” says Naomi. Her team, made up of Sudanese, South Sudanese, and Somali researchers, are embedded in the communities most affected, conducting long-term ethnographic fieldwork and qualitative interviews and Naomi actively supports local authorship through writing workshops, enabling researchers to publish under their own names and shape global debates. The team also develops podcasts, conferences, and collaborates with Sudanese media such as Atar magazine to amplify voices that are too often silenced by shame, a powerful social dynamic that suppresses protest and even memorialisation of famine victims. “That silence serves a political purpose,” she adds.
“Our research is anchored within local realities…and that maximises its impact.”
Dr Naomi Pendle
Dr Naomi Pendle
The impact is tangible. From influencing burial practices, to restoring dignity to famine victims, and sparking conversations among church leaders and activists about challenging norms that tolerate starvation, Naomi’s work demonstrates how participatory research can drive change locally and globally.
Dr Naomi Pendle worked with South Sudanese cartoonist Tom Dai to share her research as part of the University's 2022 Images of Research competition.
Dr Naomi Pendle worked with South Sudanese cartoonist Tom Dai to share her research as part of the University's 2022 Images of Research competition.
Helping NGOs represent unheard voices
Throughout his research career Dr James Copestake has focused on solidarity-based collaboration. The main role of academics in development studies, he states, is to generate diverse stories. His most-recent work, engaging with Fort Hare University to explore barriers to entrepreneurialism across South African townships, is doing just that. “We’re interrogating and probably challenging the prevailing view that it’s impossible to be an entrepreneur and build successful livelihoods in townships,” he notes. Through interviews with business owners, the project seeks to uncover how technology, digital finance, and social networks are reshaping opportunities in these marginalised areas.
Dr James Copesake at the Centre for Development Studies 2025 conference
Dr James Copesake at the Centre for Development Studies 2025 conference
To do this, James is using an innovation he helped to develop at Bath: the Qualitative Impact Protocol (QuIP). It is one of the most impactful outcomes from work at the Centre for Development Studies. Developed alongside Bath alumna Fiona Remnant through a three-year ESRC and UK Aid-funded research project, QuIP creates a rigorous, qualitative alternative to traditional impact assessments for international development projects.
“QuIP is a methodical way of collecting stories of change from people who we expect to have benefited from an intervention or policy change.”
First tested in Malawi and Ethiopia with two small NGOs, QuIP was designed to capture nuanced insights into how development interventions affect people’s lives. The tool combines qualitative methods with participatory approaches. Using carefully structured outcome-focused interviews, the methodology captures rich, context-specific narratives and maps reported causal pathways of change. This approach is designed to reduce confirmation bias in interviews and foreground lived experience, offering organisations a deeper understanding of what works, for whom, and why. “By capturing all that complexity from people’s lived experience, we’re able to build rich causal maps of what is driving change for those communities,” says Fiona.
Fiona Remnant
Fiona Remnant
Following the development of QuIP at the University of Bath, James and Fiona co-founded Bath Social & Development Research (Bath SDR) as a non-profit organisation to ensure the continued development and investment in the approach as a public good. Today, it is used by global organisations including UNICEF, the World Bank, Save the Children, and the UK Home Office, with applications ranging from a programme to reduce intra-partner violence in Mauritania to a basic income pilot in Peru. Over 300 practitioners have been trained in the methodology, fostering a new mindset around impact evaluation and causality.
“I feel really proud. We are fighting against standardised approaches to impact evaluation, but I do feel that the dial has shifted. I think the model that we came up with of having a really close relationship with the University of Bath and being a non-profit and seeing it as a public good has really helped us to promote that."
Voices from the Mine
An award-winning University-made film, chronicling the personal stories of those involved in the diamond mining trade, premiered to policy-makers at the United Nations headquarters in New York.
The 33-minute documentary, a collaboration between Dr Roy Maconachie from Bath’s Centre for Development Studies, and Simon Wharf, filmmaker from the University’s Audio Visual Unit, traces the journey of artisanal diamonds from mine shaft in Kono District, Sierra Leone, right through to the shop window in Antwerp.
Cobalt Rush
As the global demand for cobalt - an essential element in batteries for electric vehicles and consumer electronics - continues to grow apace, the perilous and abusive working conditions for cobalt miners are widely unknown, and in most cases remain ‘invisible’ in the cobalt supply chain.
‘Cobalt Rush’, produced by award-winning filmmakers, Roy Maconachie, Simon Wharf from the University’s Media Production team, and Dr Bossissi Nkuba (a specialist in mining governance from the DRC), was screened at UN Headquarters in New York, during the first-ever UN General Assembly Sustainability Week (15-19 April)
Report highlights systemic challenges of child protection for refugee children living in Middle East
A new report published by humanitarian experts at the University of Bath and the European University Institute suggests that policymakers, UN agencies and international non-governmental organisations (INGOs) urgently need to develop their approach to neglect faced by refugee children living in settings of displacement or armed conflict.
Funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) and the UK Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO), the research focused on the situation of Syrian, Sudanese, Iraqi and Somali refugee children living in Jordan, and Palestinian refugee children living in the Gaza Strip, Palestine.
Research in Bangladesh impacting international policy
“Bangladesh is one of the most fascinating countries in the world to look at from a development studies perspective,” says Professor Joe Devine. “The transformation over the period since its independence in 1971 has been phenomenal.” For over twenty years, Joe has been studying the growth of the South Asian country, particularly how this rising prosperity impacts on different parts of the society. His work, alongside Dr Mathilde Maitrot, into extreme poverty has not only shaped national policy but brought the voices of the most marginalised into global development debates.
“We’re doing work that has never been done before in Bangladesh.”
Through pioneering analysis and engagement with local communities, the team revealed how poverty intersects with ethnicity, religion, gender, and geography. Their findings underpinned Bangladesh’s 7th and 8th Five-Year Plans, leading to a doubling of government investment in programmes for the extreme poor and enabling over one million people to graduate from extreme poverty. “We know funding [for people in extreme poverty] went up because of this work,” Joe notes. “That’s a tangible outcome.”
“Our analysis showed that poverty is not just about income; it’s about identity, geography, and the structures that keep people excluded.”
Following this research, Joe and Mathilde are currently exploring how ethnicity, religion, and gender intersect to shape patterns of discrimination and violence. “We’re interested not just in describing poverty, but in explaining the systems that make these lives precarious,” Mathilde says. “Once you understand those systems, you can start to change them.”
Yet the significance of this research goes beyond policy. At its heart is a commitment to amplifying voices that are rarely heard.
“People in extreme poverty often say, ‘I have no one’. That phrase captures the isolation and exclusion they experience. Our job is to make those voices matter."
Through partnerships with local NGOs and organisations such as The Hunger Project, Joe and Mathilde work to centre dignity and agency in development practice. Looking ahead, they see the next frontier as tackling inequality more broadly.
“The conversation needs to move from poverty to inequality,” Joe says. “That means opening up new spaces for thinking about justice and rights.”
In an era of shrinking aid budgets and political uncertainty, their work underscores the ethos of the Centre for Development Studies: research that is collaborative, transformative, and driving change where it is needed.
Professor Joe Devine (left) alongside Peter Troughton
Professor Joe Devine (left) alongside Peter Troughton
Dr Mathilde Maitrot
Dr Mathilde Maitrot
In Bangladesh, 50 million people live in poverty and around 28 million live in extreme poverty.
In Bangladesh, 50 million people live in poverty and around 28 million live in extreme poverty.
Supporting girls and women manage period pain in Nepal
Period pain (dysmenorrhoea) affects up to 90% of girls and can have a serious impact on their health and wellbeing, often keeping them out of school. Yet there is very little research on how best to support girls in managing this pain, particularly in places where access to healthcare is limited. As Professor Melanie Channon from the Department of Social & Policy Sciences and the Centre for Development Studies explains, “The prevalence of menstrual pain, especially amongst adolescent girls, is enormous. We’re talking about three-quarters of girls at least… and for quite a large percentage, it is seriously impacting their day-to-day lives – their mental health, their ability to go to school, see friends, participate in sports – everything you can think of.”
Professor Melanie Channon
Professor Melanie Channon
Professor Melanie Channon has been leading a project to support girls in Nepal. In many communities there, women and girls face strict restrictions during their periods. “Women and girls are expected not to do certain things during their menstrual period… you might not be able to go into the kitchen, cook, eat certain foods, participate in festivals, see or touch male family members, or even sleep in your own bed,” she says. The most extreme form of this is Chhaupadi, where girls are sent to sleep in sheds away from home – a practice now illegal but still widely observed. “The reason for the practice is the belief that menstruating women and girls are dirty, untouchable, and bad things will happen if they don’t follow these restrictions.”
To tackle these challenges, Professor Channon and her team designed a programme of 12 weekly workshops for adolescent girls. Each 60-minute session is delivered in person by trained facilitators and combines education with practical support. “It’s covering everything from the basic biology – how menstruation works, how the reproductive system works – through to explaining how pain works,” she explains. The workshops introduce coping techniques such as deep breathing, yoga, and cognitive behavioural strategies to help manage negative thoughts.
Beyond physical and mental health, the programme also builds confidence. Girls learn communication skills that empower them to advocate for their needs while staying safe in their communities. “We also cover communication skills so they can try and advocate for themselves,” says Channon, noting that while cultural practices are unlikely to change overnight, giving girls tools to cope is a vital step forward.
The results have been transformative. So far, 900 girls across the Gandaki and Karnali regions have taken part in the programme. “So many of them were so happy and grateful to have been part of this programme. The question we got asked most was: when can my friends do this?”
At the request of local women, the project also helped shape a national policy to provide free sanitary products in schools. And in Karnali, a ground-breaking menstrual justice policy has been introduced, setting out clear guidance on how to promote menstrual health and dignity.
“It gives everybody a roadmap for what good menstrual health and justice looks like… and it says, look, just providing products is not sufficient. You also need to consider all of these other aspects, and one of those aspects that we made sure was highlighted was menstrual pain.”
Looking ahead, Professor Channon and her team plan to expand the programme to reach more girls across Nepal. They are also developing a simplified English version of their resource booklet, which will include pain management tips and a period tracker, making it easier to adapt the programme for other countries and contexts. “We’re looking to produce a more generalised English version of our manuals so that the programme could be translated into other contexts – and I know WHO is interested in that.”
Our research is helping to improve the world. Through collaborative partnerships we're creating a healthier, more sustainable, and connected future for all.
Built with Shorthand