What happens when communities are forced to govern themselves?

Across conflict-affected contexts, communities are often doing far more than surviving the breakdown or failure of formal institutions.

They are organising, delivering services, making decisions, representing their communities and creating new forms of governance - sometimes long before peace agreements are signed or states are rebuilt.

In this episode of Think Change, we explore what makes these systems legitimate, how movements navigate power and internal tensions, and what allows them to endure. We also ask what governments, humanitarian organisations, donors and diaspora communities can do differently to support locally led efforts without undermining the independence, legitimacy and accountability that make them work.

Drawing on conversations from a seminar series hosted by the Arab Renaissance for Democracy and Development (ARDD) and ODI Global, our host Sara Pantuliano is joined by Charles Petrie, Ibrahim Basha and Mark Daou to explore what these movements can teach us about governance, justice and dignity and whether we need to rethink what we mean by a functioning state.

Guests:

• Sara Pantuliano (host), Chief Executive, ODI Global
• Charles Petrie, former UN Assistant Secretary-General and Visiting Senior Fellow at ODI Global;
• Ibrahim Basha, Deputy Team Lead of the Yemen Flexible Fund Mechanism and Senior Technical Advisor to the Yemen Support Facility; and
• Mark Daou, Lebanese activist, public affairs expert and Member of the Lebanese Parliament since 2022.

Related resources

• 'Wrong diagnosis, Wrong cure' - launch of the 'Perspectives' blog series
• Think Change episode 93: how do wars end?
• Agency in Action: accelerating the shift towards locally-led crisis response

Humanitarian crises are often understood through the lens of immediate need: more aid, more access and more funding.

But ODI Global’s new report Oppression, Liberation and Humanitarianism in Palestine, Myanmar and Sudan argues that we must also understand the systems of power that produce and sustain suffering.

In this episode of Think Change, guests Dustin Barter, Hala Al Karib and Athena Rayburn explore what humanitarian action can learn from movements of solidarity and resistance and what it would mean to build a system that supports not only survival, but dignity, justice and liberation.

Guests

• Sara Pantuliano (host), Chief Executive, ODI Global
• Dustin Barter, Senior Research Fellow ODI Global
• Hala Al Karib, Regional Director of the Strategic Initiative for Women in the Horn of Africa (SIHA).
• Athena Rayburn, Executive Director, Association of International Development Agencies (AIDA)

Related resources

• Oppression, liberation and humanitarianism in Palestine, Myanmar and Sudan
• A humanitarian trap? Navigating neutrality, relief and rights in Ethiopia, Myanmar, Syria and Guatemala
• Oppression, liberation and humanitarianism in Palestine, Myanmar and Sudan

This episode of Think Change explores the growing environmental footprint of artificial intelligence – from rising energy demand and emissions to the vast quantities of water needed to power and cool the data centres behind today’s AI revolution.

As Europe experiences another summer of record-breaking heat, devastating wildfires and growing water stress, the race to develop and deploy AI raises urgent questions about how we balance technological progress with climate goals. Can the environmental costs of AI be managed? And who bears the burden when new technologies increase pressure on already stretched resources?

The conversation looks beyond technology alone to the governance challenges shaping AI’s future: who sets the rules, whose interests are prioritised, and how we can ensure that AI development supports rather than deepens existing inequalities.

Recorded during London Climate Action Week, the episode brings together perspectives on energy systems, climate policy and international cooperation to ask what it will take to build an AI future that is innovative, sustainable and fair.

Guests:

• Sara Pantuliano (host), Chief Executive, ODI Global
• Divij Joshi, Research Fellow, ODI Global
• Joaquim Levy, former Finance Minister of Brazil and a Commissioner of the Future of Development Cooperation Coalition
• Fiona Macklin, Head of Climate, Apolitical

Related resources

• AI’s climate consequences: why AI governance needs to confront climate injustice
• The Paris AI Summit: is geopolitical rivalry derailing AI governance?
• The environmental risks of generative AI: why better global governance is urgently needed
• Global Critical Minerals Outlook 2025

Following Andy Burnham’s appointment as Britain's Prime Minister, there is renewed interest in what some have described as ‘Manchesterism’ – a political philosophy rooted in place, economic renewal and the belief that national prosperity begins with strong local communities.

But if this approach were to shape government thinking, what could it mean beyond Britain’s borders?

This episode explores whether a place-based politics could shift Britain’s foreign policy. Would international engagement be judged less by Britain’s global status and more by whether it delivers prosperity and security for communities at home? Could trade, diplomacy and development become tools of regional renewal?

Any new government would also inherit profound constraints. With pressure to increase defence spending, sluggish economic growth and difficult choices over taxation and public services, how would a Manchesterist approach balance competing priorities? What role would overseas development assistance play? And what happens to Britain’s soft power if resources become increasingly scarce?

More broadly, does Britain need a different organising principle for foreign policy in an era where domestic resilience and international engagement are becoming increasingly intertwined?

Guests

• Sara Pantuliano (host), Chief Executive, ODI Global
• Roli Ashtana, Senior Advisor, ODI Global & Senior Research Associate at South African Institute of International Affairs (SAIIA)
• Laura Chappell, Associate director for international policy, IPPR
• Kate Ferguson, Co-Executive Director, Protection Approaches

Related resources

• Burnham, Manchesterism and the return of place in foreign policy (LSE blog, by Roli Ashtana)
  
  
• Navigating trade-offs in the global economy: A framework for a world between orders (Report, IPPR)

Across the world, a familiar story is being retold with striking success: that stagnant wages, housing crises and crumbling public services are the fault of migrants and outsiders - not the billionaires and global systems quietly getting richer. It's a story reshaping elections, hardening divisions, and in some places, fuelling violence.

In this episode of Think Change, Sara Pantuliano is joined by Dimi Reider (Othering and Belonging Institute / Shared Futures Institute), Tania Cheung, Libby Lenkinski and Kathryn Nwajiaku-Dahou to ask: why do stories so often beat facts? Why has fact-checking failed to stop divisive narratives from taking hold? And what would it actually take to build a competing story - one rooted in justice and redistribution, not nostalgia for a status quo that wasn't working either?

The conversation ranges from the mechanics of how harmful narratives spread, to what's breaking down in how NGOs and philanthropy communicate, to where power, money and attention need to shift if progressive narratives are ever going to compete.

Guests:

• Sara Pantuliano (host), Chief Executive, ODI Global
• Tania Cheung, Head of the Shifting the Power Programme at Comic Relief
• Dimi Reider, journalist, policy analyst and facilitator at the Othering and Belonging Institute and Shared Futures Institute
• Libby Lenkinski, Founding President of Albi
• Kathryn Nwajiaku-Dahou, Director Politics and Governance, ODI Global

Related resources:

• Building Narratives for Change: where culture strategy meets policy (Event recording, ODI Global)
• ODI Global Strategy, 2026-2031
• Shifting Narratives: From Aid to Agency Shifting the Power Comms Lab Report (Report, Comic Relief)

Our first episode of Think Change, recorded in March 2022 just after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, explored how disinformation was shaping narratives around a fast-moving conflict. We asked who was producing it, how it spread through digital platforms, and how it influenced public understanding of war in real time.

Three years on, to mark our 100th episode, we return to these same questions – which have become pivotal to understanding not only conflicts around the world but also international politics.

Information has become a battleground. Trust in institutions and the media is waning. And AI is transforming how narratives are created, amplified, contested – often faster than we can make sense of them.

In this special episode, leading commentators and thinkers reflect on what has changed since our first episode, and what happens to a society when its members can no longer agree on what is true.

Guests

• Sara Pantuliano, Chief Executive, ODI Global (Think Change host)
• Lyse Doucet, BBC Chief International Correspondent
• Lord Mark Malloch-Brown, Former UN diplomat & Former President of the Open Society Foundations
• Ksenia Iliuk, Co-founder, LetsData

Related resources

• Disinformation and the Russia-Ukraine War (Think Change podcast, ODI Global)
• A war on many fronts: disinformation around the Russia-Ukraine war (Expert comment, ODI Global)
• Has AI ushered in an existential crisis of trust in democracy? (Expert comment, ODI Global)
• Digital Societies Hub (ODI Global)

The first-ever International Peacebuilding Week, which will run from 22-26 June, comes at a critical moment. Violent conflict is becoming more protracted, global cooperation is under strain, and climate shocks, displacement and weak institutions are compounding risks in some of the world's most fragile settings.

Can a dedicated week for peacebuilding help shift the conversation from crisis response to long-term investment in peace?

In this Think Change episode, guests discuss what it will take to turn renewed attention into meaningful action.

Together, they explore the politics of peacebuilding, the importance of accountability, the growing links between climate and conflict, and why countries most affected by fragility must be at the centre of shaping solutions.

As calls for accountability grow in conflicts, including Gaza and Sudan, the conversation asks whether International Peacebuilding Week can become more than a forum for discussion and help build a truly global movement for peace.

Guests

• Sara Pantuliano (host), Chief Executive, ODI Global
• Elizabeth Spehar, Assistant Secretary-General for Peacebuilding and Peace Support, Departments of Political and Peacebuilding Affairs
• Michael Keating, Executive Director, European Institute of Peace
• Habib Ur Rehman Mayar, Deputy General Secretary, g7+ Secretariat
• Mauricio Vazquez, Head of Policy, ODI Global Risks and Resilience programme

Related resources

• What can – and can’t – the private sector deliver for climate action in fragile states? (Expert comment, ODI Global)
  
  
• Transforming research practices in fragile and conflict contexts: insights from those working on the frontline (Expert comment, ODI Global)
  
  
• Building resilience in complex and conflict settings (ODI Global)
  
  
• The Summit of the Future – how can we build peaceful societies in a fragmented world? (Think Change podcast, ODI Global)

Multilateral development banks (MDBs) are under growing pressure to prove their relevance in a world where development finance is becoming increasingly fragmented, financing needs are rising, and fiscal space is tightening across many countries.

Governments are asking these institutions to deliver more finance, more quickly, and with greater efficiency and impact. MDBs are also in the middle of a far-reaching reform agenda – driven through successive G20 presidencies and shareholder processes – aimed at strengthening their financial capacity, improving coordination, and making operations faster and more effective.

However, despite this momentum for reform, a central question remains: what is actually changing for the countries these institutions exist to serve?

This episode of Think Change explores that question through the findings of ODI Global’s latest MDB client survey, drawing on the views of nearly 650 government officials across 125 countries.

Guests examine how client countries assess MDB performance across financing, policy advice, delivery speed, coordination and project quality, and whether reforms agreed in recent years are translating into meaningful operational change.

Guests

• Sara Pantuliano (host), Chief Executive, ODI Global
• Anna Bjerde, Managing Director for Operations at the World Bank
• Annalisa Prizzon, Principal Research Fellow at ODI Global
• José Antonio Ocampo, Professor at the School of International and Public Affairs at Columbia University, and former Minister of Finance of the Government of Colombia

Related resources

• Reforming multilateral development banks: perspectives from client countries
• Maximising operational effectiveness and impact: key priorities for multilateral development banks
• Are MDBs becoming ‘better’ institutions for their clients? Early insights from the 2025 survey of clients of multilateral development banks