What does it mean to defend hope in an age of crisis, anxiety, and political exhaustion? In this Season 6 finale of In Pursuit of Development, Dan Banik reflects on why hope is not the same as optimism, and why evidence-based hope may be one of the most important political resources of our time.

Drawing on debates about global poverty, democracy, climate anxiety, development practice, and collective action, this solo reflection challenges the seductive power of despair. The episode argues that doom is not only emotionally draining, but politically disabling, because it can convince people that action no longer matters. Against both naïve optimism and fatalistic pessimism, Dan makes the case for a disciplined form of hope grounded in evidence, historical progress, institutional realism, and the everyday work of building better futures.

The episode also explores why hope must be treated critically. Hope can inspire movements, sustain democratic struggle, and help communities imagine alternatives. But it can also be misused by those in power to postpone justice, ration expectations, or ask vulnerable people to endure indefinitely. The task, then, is not to abandon hope, but to make it accountable to evidence, delivery, and real improvements in people’s lives.

From falling extreme poverty and declining child mortality to the limits of today’s development models, from Paulo Freire and Václav Havel to Arjun Appadurai, Rebecca Solnit, Amartya Sen, Hans Rosling, Hannah Ritchie, and Charles Kenny, this episode asks what kind of hope can survive contact with reality. It closes Season 6 with a plea to younger listeners in particular: resist the politics of despair, look carefully at what is working, and remember that the future remains open.

Host:

Professor Dan Banik,

Centre for Global Sustainability, University of Oslo

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As traditional aid budgets shrink and donor priorities shift, civil society organizations across Malawi are being forced to rethink how they work, survive, and serve communities. In this conversation, Dan Banik speaks with Tikhala Itaye, a human rights lawyer and public health specialist, and the Founder and Executive Director of HeR Liberty, a young women-led organization in Malawi working to advance health, education, and economic empowerment for young people, especially adolescent girls and young women.

The episode explores the changing relationship between international NGOs, local civil society organizations, and the Malawian state. Tikhala reflects on the long-standing inequalities in the aid system, where local organizations often do much of the frontline work while receiving only a small share of available funding. She and Dan also discuss how civil society groups are responding to cuts by exploring social entrepreneurship, domestic resource mobilization, coalition-building, and new partnerships with government.

The conversation highlights Malawi’s broader development challenges, including rising prices, political uncertainty, gender inequality, youth unemployment, and the urgent need for more accountable leadership. At the same time, Tikhala points to sources of hope: community resilience, local innovation, the strength of women’s rights movements, progress in health, and the growing determination among Malawians to design solutions from within.

Host:

Professor Dan Banik,

Centre for Global Sustainability, University of Oslo

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Rwanda is often described as one of Africa’s most remarkable development success stories: a country that rebuilt itself after the 1994 genocide, delivered impressive improvements in health and education, reduced its dependence on coffee, attracted global attention, and turned Kigali into a symbol of order, ambition, and state effectiveness.

But is Rwanda’s rise as durable as it appears?

Dan Banik speaks with Pritish Behuria (Associate Professor in Politics, Governance and Development at the University of Manchester’s Global Development Institute) about his new book The Political Economy of Rwanda’s Rise. Drawing on more than a decade of research, Behuria offers a nuanced account of Rwanda’s services-led development model — from tourism, finance, conferences, and nation branding to agriculture, mining, foreign investment, and the politics of structural transformation.

The conversation explores why Rwanda has become such a powerful reference point for policymakers across Africa, but also why its model raises difficult questions about underemployment, inequality, domestic firms, foreign dependence, political control, and the limits of branding as a development strategy.

Rather than treating Rwanda as either a miracle or a mirage, this episode asks what the country’s experience reveals about the future of development in Africa. And whether a small, landlocked country can build lasting prosperity through a services-first path in an increasingly competitive global economy.

Host:

Professor Dan Banik,

Centre for Global Sustainability, University of Oslo

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https://globaldevpod.substack.com/