ISID's Jamal Saghir has produced, in coordiation with the Payne Institute for Public Policy, a commentary paper entitled "Post COVID-19 New World Configuration and Climate Change Actions: Two Urgent Priorities". The full paper is available online at the Payne Institute for Public Policy.


More than ever now, Africa is being studied, watched, admired, criticized and exported. In this continual movement of creating new understandings, dismantling biased thought systems and valuing native culture, the creators of this journal, UHURU 2020, give life to the conceptualization of new issues facing Africa in this edition. We hope that you will enjoy reading it as much as we have enjoyed putting it together with the contributions of students tackling issues across the whole continent! Again, thank you and, we can't say this enough, stay home, stay safe. - Uhuru Team 2020

The Institite for the Study of International Development and the McGill Southeast Asia Research Program (SEARP) are glad to announce that Myanmar based gender expert, May Sabe Phyu, has recently won an N-Peace Award from the United Nations Development Program (UNDP). We were lucky to interview May when she visited the International Development Research Center (IDRC) headquarters in Ottawa in May 2019 to give a talk on female political participation in Myanmar.

ISID congratulates Nhu Truong who has just been awarded a Shorenstein postdoctoral fellowship at Stanford University. As a Shorenstein Postdoctoral Fellow on Contemporary Asia, Dr Truong will pursue research on why some authoritarian regimes are more responsive than others.
Nhu won a graduate field research award from the Institute in 2017 in order to pursue her research in Vietnam and China.

ISID is pleased to acknowledge the recent publication of Legacies of the Left Turn in Latin America: the Promise of Inclusive Citizenship. Co-edited by Professor Manuel Balán of ISID and Professor Françoise Montambeault of the Université de Montréal and published by the University of Notre-Dame Press, the book will have a formal local launch on February 21 at 4 pm at Bar A, 213, rue Rachel est.

A continuously educated workforce is essential for achieving sustainable development. Recognizing the importance and status of education, the United Nations General Assembly included education among the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Unfortunately, the education systems in developing countries continue to struggle to achieve the necessary progress. This is especially the case in the lower-middle-income countries (LMICs), where nearly half of the world’s 1.4 billion school-age children live.

McGill-ISID's Professor of Practice Christian Novak participated last week at the OECD's 2020 conference on Private Finance for Sustainable Development.

Why is access to water a crucial issue in the Middle East and North Africa? Because water matters for people, water matters for the economy, water matters for the environment, and water matters for equality. In ISID's most recent policy brief, Professor of Practice Jamal Saghir discusses this issue from a water-security perspective. Read it online now!

ISID's Professor Manuel Balán, jointly appointed with Political Science, and Professor Kazue Takamura, Faculty Lecturer, were both honoured with the Principal’s Prize for Excellence in Teaching at the Fall 2019 Convocation ceremony. Both have been previously awarded faculty and departmental awards for the excellence of their teaching. While Professor Balán was praised by Angela Campbell, Associate Provost (Equity and Academic Policies), “for his exceptional commitment to pedagogy in general and the art and craft of teaching in particular”, of Professor Takamura Campbell said "Dr.
Profits from rooibos tea will be shared with South African indigenous San and Khoi communities in a landmark profit-sharing agreement. ISID Professor of Practice Timothy Hodges, co-chair of the Nagoya Protocol of the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity, comments. The full article in Nature is available online

A New Policy Direction for Canadian International Development?
An Open Letter to the New Government

The Institute for the Study of International Develoment's Women's Empowerment and Development (WED) Lab and the GrOW Research Series have released a new GrOW Research Bulletin, including an article by Mayra Buvinic and Stephanie Oula on "Towards Women's Full Financial Inclusion".
The Bulletin can be found on the GrOW Research Series website http://grow.research.mcgill.ca/

Professor Megan Bradley and ISID release a new policy brief entitled "The Return of Internally Displaced Persons: Patterns, Possibilities and Gaps in Knowledge". The brief provides an overview of research and practice pertaining to the return of internally displaced persons (IDPs). The full brief is now available online.
Professor Megan Bradley of ISID has published an OP/ED piece on internally displaced people. You can read it online at the Big News Network.

Professors Franque Grimard and Christian Novak of ISID have produced a new policy brief for the Institute on "Updating the DFI's Operating Models and Methods Towards Helping Achieve the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development". Read it online!