Short Abstract

This roundtable explores the lived realities of development workers—ethical burdens, material constraints, and systemic neglect. Through personal narratives, we examine how idealism meets invisibility, and call for care, recognition, and sustainability in development practice.

Description

Development workers—field staff, researchers, coordinators, facilitators—are the quiet backbone of global development practice. Yet their lived experiences often remain invisible, undervalued, or deliberately neglected in mainstream discourse. This roundtable brings together scholars and practitioners to centre the voices of those who carry out the daily labour of development of various kind, navigating complex ethical terrain, institutional pressures, and personal sacrifice.

We will explore how development workers reconcile moral ideals with material realities: the tension between the expectation to “do good” and the challenges of burnout, precarity, and emotional labour. Participants will reflect on the ethical burdens they bear, the contradictions they face, the locations they stay and the coping strategies they employ to survive and sustain their work. We will also interrogate the structural conditions—funding models, organisational cultures, societal and sectoral traditions and expectations, and geopolitical hierarchies—that contribute to their invisibility and marginalisation.

By foregrounding personal narratives and critical reflections, this roundtable aims to reframe development work not only as a technical or strategic endeavour, but as a deeply human one. It invites a conversation about care, recognition, sustainability and accountability—within organisations, across partnerships, and in the broader development ecosystem. Ultimately, we seek to open space for solidarity, critique, and transformation in how development workers are portrayed, understood, supported, and valued.

This Roundtable has 1 pending contribution proposal.
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