About

We publish long-form, narrative-driven essays about the ideas, policies, technologies, and institutions that shape low- and middle-income countries. Our pieces are empirically grounded, intellectually serious and also fun to read. We celebrate success in development, but also believe in grappling with failure. Understanding what doesn’t work is as important as understanding what does.

Development comes in many forms, across many contexts. Our pieces will cover everything from industrial policy to bednets, colonial history to futurism. We strive to cover issues that span the entire globe, but also get into the weeds where it is warranted. Above all, we aim to tell stories that make the stakes of development decisions vivid and concrete.

We believe in debate – different pieces may disagree with each other. We view ourselves as a forum for ideas, not the arbiter of the One True Way to do development. Indeed, we think this is an important part of a healthy intellectual community – to have a place where we can engage in productive, substantive disagreements. (Disagree with something we’ve published? Email us at letters@indevelopmentmag.com.)

Pieces are released weekly and every piece is free to read. You can subscribe here.

Contributing

Information on pitching In Development is available here.

The Editorial Team

Lauren Gilbert is the editor in chief of In Development. She is a non-resident fellow at the Centre for British Progress, the Energy for Growth Hub, the Roots of Progress Institute and her writing has appeared in The Economist, Foreign Policy, The Washington Post, Works in Progress, and Asterisk. She has previously been a program manager at Renaissance Philanthropy, a research fellow at Open Philanthropy, as well as a theoretical neutrino astrophysicist.

Akib Khan is a contributing editor at In Development. He is a postdoctoral fellow at the Stockholm School of Economics. He studies human capital investment in developing countries and international migration. He was born and raised in Dhaka, Bangladesh. He was previously an expat in Lusaka, working for IDinsight, and then moved to Sweden as an immigrant.

Chinmay Ingalagavi is a contributing editor at In Development. He is an economics PhD student at UC Berkeley studying growth, trade, and urban economics. He grew up in Bengaluru, India. 

Jake Eaton is a contributing editor at In Development. He has a PhD in Public Health Sciences and led development projects in Africa, Asia, and the Middle East for USAID and the Gates Foundation. Previously he was an editor at Asterisk Magazine, and now works on the Editorial Team at Anthropic. 

Oliver Hanney is a contributing editor at In Development. He is the Managing Editor at VoxDev, a platform which features the latest research in development economics through articles, blogs, podcasts, videos, and living literature reviews (VoxDevLits), who is based at CEPR’s London Office. He hosts the weekly Ideas in Development podcast, and is particularly interested in AI, growth, and how research shapes policy.

Marina Bang is the technical editor at In Development. She has over 20 years of experience as a journalist, editor and art director. After cutting her teeth on her local newspaper in South Africa, she joined the business desk of Hong Kong’s South China Morning Post for nine years, garnering regional and international design awards. Later based in New Delhi and now in Oxfordshire, she works as a consultant editor and art director in the humanitarian aid and multilateral sectors, specialising in areas such as humanitarian preparedness and response, food and nutrition, public health, protection, and resilience.

Dr. Peter J Evans is a contributing illustrator at In Development. A governance, political economy, and anti-corruption specialist he is Programme Director of the ‘Open PEA’ (Open Political Economy Analysis) programme at Oxford’s Blavatnik School of Government. After a PhD in urban health in Tanzania, then working on urban inclusion and water and sanitation in India, he spent 20 years as an adviser in the UK’s Department for International Development (DFID), posted in Lilongwe, Dhaka and Delhi. Peter then headed DFID/FCDO’s HQ team commissioning governance, inclusion, conflict and humanitarian research before leaving government to become Director of the U4 Anti-Corruption Resource Centre in Norway. He now splits his time between Open PEA and consulting in public policy, political economy, anti-corruption and research impact. Peter writes (and draws) about political economy and public policy as ‘Not That Peter Evans’ (ie not the far more famous American political sociologist).

Funding

In Development is funded by Emergent Ventures, the Effective Altruism Infrastructure Fund, and Coefficient Giving. All editorial decisions are our own, and they have no control over our content.