The Joint Nordic Development Research Conference (NorDev25) was held at NMBU in Ås, Norway, gathering around 200 participants to discuss solidarity, social justice, and sustainability in uncertain times. SweDev was represented by Janet Vähämäki in the final panel, contributing reflections on the importance of continued research cooperation and solidarity across borders.
Closing Plenary with representatives from all Nordic countries. Photo: Linda Engström
On 24-26 September 2025, the Joint Nordic Development Research conference (NorDev25) took place in Ås, at the Norwegian University of Life Sciences (NMBU). The theme of the conference was “Solidarity, Social justice and Sustainability: Nurturing academic-civic solidarity, fostering social justice, and cultivating collaborations in an era of uncertainty”.
The conference gathered around 200 researchers, students, policy makers and civil society actors from the Nordic countries and from collaborating universities and partners across the world. Topics of discussion were how to strengthen solidarity and social justice across borders and secure progress towards social, economic and environmental sustainability and equality for all. The conference had 27 panel discussions on topics such as old and new development actors, global order and conflict, food systems transformation in new political world situation, and navigating the era of indicators in development.
The first keynote speaker, Professor Olle Törnquist, spoke about hope and resistance against the global conservative nationalism. Based on a recently launched book, he encouraged actions such as coordinating domestic and international solidarity work, prioritising the reinvigoration of fair international regulations and laws and supporting pro-democratic actors and collaboration with unions, CSOs, scholars etc. The second keynote, Andrea Ordonez, Ecuador, talked about reviving solidarity and Latin American perspectives of solidarity, including friendship, acceptance and building something together. The third keynote speaker, Professor Uma Kothari, talked about the importance of art in the context of development, and how, for instance, paintings and images can have profound influence on people’s feelings and perceptions, and how art can be sites of contestation and resistance. She also talked about decolonisation and urged Global North citizens to shift our gaze to our own values and how we r(e)present ourselves and others.
The first Opening Plenary was a panel of representatives from Sweden (Sida), Denmark (Ministry of Foreign Affairs), Norway (Norad) and Finland (Finnish Development Policy Committee). They talked about “Strategic direction and transformations in Nordic development research and development collaboration”. It became clear that Finland experiences the most extreme shifts, drifting away from the Nordic model, with politics mainly influenced by security concerns, strong economic adjustments and a growth of national self-interest. Funding has been reduced to 0.36 % of GNI, and poverty reduction is no longer the explicit goal. The role of research is not valued in the same way as before. While Sweden is going through similar shifts, the Sida’s representative Lisa Roman mainly focused on the current government’s strong emphasis on trade and economic growth, the abandonment of development research funding, and that the new agenda means that Sweden is now abandoning many relationships. Denmark maintains their 0.7% of GDP level of development collaboration and continues to fund 20-25 development research project each year, with an emphasis on climate and global health. The Norad representative spoke about a slight intensification in their work in reaching out to researchers for evidence. Both Sida and Norad mentioned an increase in focus on impact evaluation and immediate results.
SweDev was represented by Janet Vähämäki in the final panel where take-aways and concrete action points from the conference were discussed. In the light of geopolitical shifts, shrinking development cooperation budgets and budgets to development research, the panel discussed the importance of continued solidarity and research cooperation with researchers in the global south and the importance of continued development research. Research based knowledge is an asset that cannot be exchanged with other values such as economic or market values. A key word discussed was the importance of ‘everyday micro resistance’ when we see that research-based knowledge and local knowledge is not valued. Moreover, the panel discussed how to be creative and innovative despite restricted financial resources.
NorDev25 was organised by NMBU, with support from the university’s Global South Working Group, and the Norwegian Association for Development Research (NFU). Discussions are now ongoing if the next NorDev in 2027 can be organized in Denmark.
/Janet Vähämäki and Linda Engström