Oxford Policy Pod

In this episode of the Oxford Policy Pod, Belén Tomic sits down with Dr. Belén Villegas Plá and Dr. Rossella Ciccia to talk about care, its many forms, and who bears its weight.
Belén Villegas Plá is Lecturer in the Political Economy of Latin America at the Oxford Department of International Development, and Rossella Ciccia is Associate Professor of Social Policy at the Oxford Department of Social Policy and Intervention.
Together, they explore how and why care has become such a politically salient issue over the past decade, the role feminist movements have played in putting it on the agenda in Latin America, and why the region has become such an important space for these discussions. The conversation also examines the challenges of turning care demands into lasting policy where social protection is fragmented and state capacity is limited.
Drawing on both Latin American and European experiences, Belén and Rossella reflect on what a caring society would look like, what it would take to treat care as a shared social responsibility rather than a private burden carried disproportionately by women, and why redistributing unpaid care work remains one of the defining challenges of contemporary social policy.

In this episode of Policy Pod, Nawaz Khan and Cristian Iftodii sit down with Kevin Watkins, visiting professor at LSE's Firoz Lalji Institute for Africa and former chief executive of Save the Children UK. Having spent three decades moving through Oxfam, the United Nations, the Overseas Development Institute, and the top of the international aid sector, Kevin Watkins has become one of its sharpest internal critics, unafraid to challenge the assumptions his own field runs on.
Together, they explore the unravelling of UK aid as budgets shrink and priorities tilt toward bilateral spending, the flaws he sees in the "growth first" consensus that now dominates development policy, and what years leading UNDP's Human Development Report and UNESCO's Global Education Monitoring Report taught him about the numbers that actually move governments to act.
Kevin Watkins also reflects on where the aid sector has lost its way, and what a serious reset of development policy would need to look like.

Why do some countries succeed while others remain trapped in cycles of weak institutions and slow development?
In this episode of the Oxford Policy Pod, hosts Cecilia Esteche and Diego Peñaranda speak with Professor James Robinson, 2024 Nobel Memorial Prize laureate in Economic Sciences, Professor at the University of Chicago, and co-author of Why Nations Fail and The Narrow Corridor.
The conversation explores Robinson's intellectual journey, his reflections on winning the Nobel Prize, and his latest research on what he calls the "Fundamental Imbalance" in Latin America—the persistent tension between ambitious institutional ideals and the realities of implementation.
Together, they discuss why good policies often fail, how institutions shape development, the relationship between culture and political economy, Bolivia's current political and economic challenges, and what future policymakers can learn about building more inclusive societies.

The "Almost Prime Minister" | Pita Limjaroenrat
In this episode of Policy Pod with Deep Dive, Master of Public Policy students Marc Naro and Richard Heydarian sit down with Pita Limjaroenrat, the former leader of Thailand's Move Forward Party and the man widely seen as Thailand's "almost prime minister."
Following his party's landmark victory in the 2023 general election, Pita appeared poised to lead Thailand's next government. Yet despite winning the popular mandate, a complex political and institutional process prevented him from taking office.
Together, they explore Thailand's democratic trajectory, the relationship between electoral legitimacy and political power, the role of institutions in democratic governance, and the challenges facing reform-minded leaders in an era of political polarization. Pita also reflects on his personal journey, the future of Thai politics, and the lessons his experience offers for democracies around the world.
A fascinating conversation on democracy, leadership, and what happens when winning an election is not enough to govern.