DevRes 2024 was hosted by Lund University on 21 - 23 October, and the conference theme was “Reaching the Sustainable Development Goals in a polarized world”. DevRes is a bi-annual conference gathering Swedish development and sustainability researchers from different academic disciplines with an aim to promote collaboration between practitioners, organisations and policy makers, and to exchange ideas and network.
– Meeting like this is important. History still has a mark on what we are doing today, and we need to unpack how the legacy of colonialism intersects with poverty, climate change and inequality, says conference organiser and senior lecturer Sara Gabrielsson.
– Our goal was to bring in more voices than just academia to give a broader perspective on what development is and can be, for example practicians, and indigenous experiences. We also wanted to create a platform for integrating traditional development research with sustainability and environmental approaches.
During the two days, 110 presenters, who represented 35 universities, and came from 16 different countries, gave 87 different presentations.
A programme with different perspectives
The organising group put a lot of effort into creating a programme that would highlight different aspects of development research and practice, as well as facilitating networking and knowledge interchange. Through the conference theme, which focused on the sustainable development goals, they aimed to connect more traditional development research to broader sustainability approaches and initiatives. Apart from research-based sessions, the event also featured a World Café, aimed to facilitate a greater interaction among participants through dynamic discussion, and a session with impact stories highlighting how different development approaches have made a difference for communities in Bangladesh, Ethiopia, Uganda and Tanzania.
The keynote presentations further reflected the broad and diverse conference approach, including talks from researchers such as Swati Parashar from Gothenburg University and Agnes Andersson from Lund University as well as from the African Union Development Agency, and organisations like Mother Nature Cambodia. The conference was opened and closed by Soraida Chindoy Buesaquillo, a representative of the Resguardo Indígena, Condagua, Putumayo, Colombia.
– Another aim was to highlight all the things that are happening around the world that are contributing to positive change, because within development research we tend to focus a lot on challenges and barriers, says Sara Gabrielsson.
She and the organising group are happy with the outcome of the conference.
– We succeeded in creating an inclusive, eclectic, and harmonious space to discuss research and network. The fact that people had time to informally connect and meet across sectors and backgrounds was greatly appreciated, says Sara Gabrielsson.
