REGISTERED CHARITY NUMBER: 283670
Report of the Trustees and
Unaudited Financial Statements for the Year Ended 31 January 2023
for
Development Studies Association
Sterling Partners Limited Chartered Accountants Chartered Tax Advisors 2nd Floor, Grove House 774-780 Wilmslow Road Didsbury Manchester Greater Manchester M20 2DR
Development Studies Association
Contents of the Financial Statements for the Year Ended 31 January 2023
| Page | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Report of the Trustees | 1 | to | 7 |
| Independent Examiner's Report | 8 | ||
| Statement of Financial Activities | 9 | ||
| Balance Sheet | 10 | ||
| Notes to the Financial Statements | 11 | to | 13 |
| Detailed Statement of Financial Activities | 14 |
Development Studies Association
Report of the Trustees
for the Year Ended 31 January 2023
The trustees present their report with the financial statements of the charity for the year ended 31 January 2023.
The trustees have adopted the provisions of Accounting and Reporting by Charities: Statement of Recommended Practice applicable to charities preparing their accounts in accordance with the Financial Reporting Standard applicable in the UK and Republic of Ireland (FRS 102) (effective 1 January 2015).
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Development Studies Association
Report of the Trustees
for the Year Ended 31 January 2023
OBJECTIVES AND ACTIVITIES OBJECTIVES
The objectives of the Association are to promote and advance international development as a field of study, research and action, with a mission to deepen understanding of how global poverty and inequalities are produced, sustained and may be overcome, and how a better future may be advanced.
VISION
In taking forward its mission and vision, the DSA is committed to:
- Advance connections between people that will extend and deepen understanding of development issues
2 .Raise the profile of the UK development studies community and provide a platform for its collective voice
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Build the institutional strength of the DSA
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Nurture the future of development studies in the UK through support to students, early career researchers and Higher Education teachers
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Promote greater inclusiveness, diversity and equity within the development studies community
ACTIVITIES
In pursuit of these objectives, the DSA has achieved the following during the Financial Year 2022-2023:
1. Annual Conference
The 2022 Annual Conference was held virtually again due to the coronavirus pandemic, organised and hosted by University College London, 6-8th July. Key statistics being Participants: 725; Papers/presentations: 311; Plenaries: 3; Panels and Study groups: 67. The event had an asynchronous element.
Planning for the next annual conference began in July 2022 and it was agreed, further to positive evaluation results, that a three-day event will be hosted by University of Reading in late June 2023 in hybrid format. This accords with what previous delegates and members would like, allowing for the first face-to-face meeting since 2019, while still enabling high levels of inclusion amongst global South colleagues and limiting our carbon footprint.
2. Communications
The DSA Communications Manager stepped down from their position in August 2022 due to a better job offer elsewhere. Council agreed that a Grade 6, 0.6 FTE Communications Officer better met DSA needs over the next 18 months, taking forward the strategy and work done by the outgoing Communications Manager. DSA advertised and hired a new Communications Officer in October 2022: Rowena Harding. The new CO has coordinated with the Communications sub-committee to put in place regular social media items and expand the DSA's reach and following; the newsletter continues to draw larger numbers of subscribers, and the website is better managed and curated, among many other tasks.
3. DSA Newsletter
The DSA Newsletter is emailed out monthly to nearly 2300 individuals, offering an important service to members and the sector as a whole. It allows members to publicise events, publications, jobs and other news of interest to the sector. It is compiled by the Communications Officer from contributions from members and continues to attract interest as a means to reach the development sector worldwide.
4. Study Groups
Study Group activity remained low during 2022 due to the coronavirus pandemic and the resulting hiatus in activities as well as several changes of Study Group convenors. However, there was continued active participation in the annual online conference. The following activities have been undertaken:
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Development Studies Association
Report of the Trustees
for the Year Ended 31 January 2023
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A new group was created - the Global South Study Group which aims to stimulate interest among academics, researchers and development practitioners from the global South and increase their participation in scholarly discourse. It is likely this group will subsume the Africa and South Asia Study Groups.
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Politics and Political Economy Study Group organised a workshop in January 2023 entitled: The Politics of Development Studies. This was well attended and hosted at GDI at the University of Manchester. They also organised a DSA2022 panel - P52: The Politics of Economic Transformation: Finance and Industrial Policy
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Business and Development Study group organised a DSA2022 panel P30: Development perspectives on transforming economies for nature, climate, and society
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NGOs in Development Study Group organised a DSA2022 panel - P57: Challenges to Justice and Equity in a post-Pandemic Context: civil society responses.
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Religions & Development Study Group organised a DSA2022 workshop W11: Faith-sensitive creative and decolonised research and learning
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Urbanisation and Development Study Group organised a grant writing workshop for ECRs at DSA2022 and held their annual meeting during the conference.
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The following Study Groups held meetings during the annual conference: Business & Development, Urbanisation and Development, Land, Politics and Sustainability, NGOS in Development, Politics and Political Economy, Religions and Development.
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Africa, DSA Scotland, Environment, Natural Resources and Climate Change, Information, Technology and Development, Multidimensional Poverty and Poverty Dynamics, South Asia & Development, Gender, Policy and Practice, Women and Development, Migration, Development and Social Change, Rising Powers, Decolonising Development Study Groups - NO ACTIVITY.
5. Students
During 2022, one of our student representatives finished her term on Council resulting in limited activity in promoting student activities and interaction with the DSA. At financial year-end there were 194 student members of the association (21% of total membership) - similar to the previous year.
The student mailing list was kept current and a few items of interest and communication with students took place via this list. The DSA Facebook group continued to share updates on DSA news, development sector news, job and paid internship opportunities as well as workshops, conference and training opportunities. There was a DSA students' meeting at the annual conference to find ways that students can interact more effectively with the DSA and gain more information about student activities, events etc. There was also once again a well-attended Publication strategies briefing for students and early career researchers (ECR) at the conference.
The DSA continued to offer its annual Masters' level dissertation and its annual PhD thesis Development Studies prize. The award winners were announced and presented their prizes at the annual conference and both winners presented their work at the conference. The winning dissertations were mentioned on and linked to from the DSA website.
6. Heads of Centres
A Heads of Centres meeting was held at UCL on 8 September 2022. The main focus of the meeting was a REF2021 learning event organised by DSA for the development studies community. The Chair of the joint Anthropology and Development Studies unit of assessment was present along with three other panel members. A presentation set out the REF2021 results for development studies in comparative perspective (with REF2014 and with cognate disciplines at REF2021), identified trends in the field and also identified the key ingredients of a vital and sustainable research environment.
7. Perspectives on the UK's 2022 International Development Strategy - DSA webinar
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Development Studies Association
Report of the Trustees
for the Year Ended 31 January 2023
The DSA hosted a panel of experts on 27th May 2022 to reflect on the implications of the UK government's 2022 International Development Strategy (IDS). It was attended by over 100 people with a good level of discussion and the recording has been viewed over 100 times on the DSA YouTube channel.
8. Development in crisis?
The DSA jointly organised a panel with the European Association of Development Research and Training Institutes (EADI) at King's College London on 3rd November 2022 to discuss this and other questions from the perspectives of disaster risk research, peace and conflict research and the multiple development challenges faced by a single country on the example of South Africa.
9. Publications
The DSA-OUP book series published four titles during this year: The Many Faces of Socioeconomic Change by John Toye (open access), Politics and the Urban Frontier by Tom Goodfellow, They Eat Our Sweat by Daniel E. Agbiboa, and Equity, Evaluation, and International Cooperation by Gabriella Y. Carolini.
10. South-South Mentoring Scheme
The Global South Sub-Group on Council proposed a mentoring scheme that would involve senior southern-based scholars offering a structured programme of mentoring advice to more junior colleagues also based in the global South. Council agreed to invest in a pilot version of the scheme, to be extended if successful and if further co-financing could be identified.
11. DSA-EDI Audit
Council also agreed to invest in undertaking an equality, diversity and inclusion audit of the sector. The aim is to arrive at a fuller understanding of equality, inclusion and diversity within UK development studies, from both a quantitative and qualitative perspective, and to make relevant recommendations for advancing equality, inclusion and diversity in the field. This would have a quantitative and a qualitative component and again be piloted with investment from DSA before co-financing would be sought.
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Development Studies Association
Report of the Trustees
for the Year Ended 31 January 2023
FINANCIAL REVIEW
Membership
Individual membership at year-end decreased to 919, mostly due to a decrease in gS members (not automatically renewed every two years to ensure those remaining members are still active and interested). Individual membership is slightly down albeit student numbers stayed constant. Institutional membership remained constant (losing one smaller institution - due reduced funding post-pandemic but gaining a premium member (Centre of Development Studies, Cambridge University).
Finances
With sufficient reserves, the DSA continues to seek to allocate its reserves towards its central purposes: cash at bank increased from £132,415 to £134,140 on 31st January 2023.
Expenditure was lower than budgeted in many areas (Council - no F2F meetings; Marketing materials - fewer website changes or updates required; Conference grants - significant funding raised from other sponsors e.g. UCL and journals; ECR Fund - lack of eligible applicants and the discontinuation of this fund later in the year). However, expenditure was higher for Communications (£39k) which included the yearly payment for our Communications Manager and the first few months salary of our new Communications Officer. With in-person meetings starting again, Study Group expenses were slightly higher than predicted (£5k), which also included the global South Study Group mentoring project pilot). Income was higher than predicted due to the conference surplus (£10.4k) despite lower individual (£3k) and institutional (£2k) subscriptions than predicted and DSA-OUP book series spending (£1.7k). The large unidentified payment we received to the bank account last year was debited from our account this year (£2k).
This was the second year of DSA's main investment of employing a DSA Communications Manager, Grade 6, 0.5 FTE, for three years on a 12 months rolling contract from April 2021. Unfortunately the Communications Manager left the position for another job in August 2022. By October 2022, the DSA was able to hire a Communications Officer Grade 6, 0.6 FTE for 18 months to continue the work started in this role. The post enables DSA to achieve its strategic objectives, particularly in advancing connections to deepen understanding of development, raising the profile of the UK development studies community and providing a platform for its collective voice and increasing our institutional strength.
Administration
The administration of the DSA continues to be carried out by NomadIT, on a rolling contract.
FUTURE PLANS AIMS FOR THE COMING YEAR (2023-24)
Particular goals in the coming year are as follows:
| Timing | Activity |
|---|---|
| Assist Communications Officer to continue to promote DSA activities and boost the visibility | |
| Feb 2023 - Jan 2024 | of the association. |
| June 2023 | Host and organise the first DSA hybrid conference at the University of Reading |
| Oct/Nov 2023 | Convene Heads of Centres meeting. |
| Continue, and develop some new forms of support for PGR and ECR scholars and DSA | |
| members, particularly those based in global South; support and fund the gS-gS mentoring | |
| project; reinvigorate Study Group Activity; conduct a EDI Audit of Development Studies | |
| institutions in the UK. Foster greater student representation from our institutional members | |
| Through the year | and within Council. |
STRUCTURE, GOVERNANCE AND MANAGEMENT
Governing document
The charity is controlled by its governing document, a deed of trust and constitutes an unincorporated charity.
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Development Studies Association
Report of the Trustees for the Year Ended 31 January 2023
STRUCTURE, GOVERNANCE AND MANAGEMENT
Recruitment, appointment, induction and training of new trustees
Trustees are recruited from members of the DSA with upcoming vacancies signalled in communications to all members from the Chair of the Board. Applicants present their credentials and intentions to the AGM in person or by letter and their appointment is subject to vote. Induction and training takes place before applicants make their approach through informal discussions with existing board members and/or after their appointment. Positions with specific responsibilities (Chair, Treasurer, Secretary) involve more prior training and preparation.
Risk management
The DSA Council reviews sources of, and responses to, risks at least annually. Sources of risk include fluctuating membership, conference attendance, level of study group activity and the status of development studies in the UK. Risks are mitigated through regular consultation with institutional members through Heads of Centres' meetings, monthly newsletters and email communication, reviewing membership categories and rates, reviewing the purpose and design of annual conferences and reviewing costs involved in administering the charity.
REFERENCE AND ADMINISTRATIVE DETAILS Registered Charity number
283670
Principal address
23 Linton Road Hove BN3 5HF
Trustees
Dr L Camfield P Anand (resigned 7.7.2022) S Hickey D Brockington (resigned 7.7.2022) Ms A Chammas (resigned 7.7.2022) Dr U Kambhampati Dr R Slater Miss N Kabeer Ms A Prizzon B Radley P Taylor Ms S Fennell J Fisher Dr I Kvangraven Trustee Dr I Roy Dr M Jennings Trustee Ms R Arora Trustee Ms R Dieng (appointed 7.7.2022)
Independent Examiner
Mr Saeid Mokhtassi Sterling Partners Limited Chartered Accountants Chartered Tax Advisors 2nd Floor, Grove House 774-780 Wilmslow Road Didsbury Manchester Greater Manchester M20 2DR
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Development Studies Association
Report of the Trustees
for the Year Ended 31 January 2023
REFERENCE AND ADMINISTRATIVE DETAILS
Bankers
CAF Bank Ltd 25 Kings Hill Avenue Kings Hill West Malling Kent ME19 4JQ
30 June 2023 Approved by order of the board of trustees on ............................................. and signed on its behalf by:
......................................................................... Trustee
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Independent Examiner's Report to the Trustees of Development Studies Association
Independent examiner's report to the trustees of Development Studies Association
I report to the charity trustees on my examination of the accounts of Development Studies Association (the Trust) for the year ended 31 January 2023.
Responsibilities and basis of report
As the charity trustees of the Trust you are responsible for the preparation of the accounts in accordance with the requirements of the Charities Act 2011 ('the Act').
I report in respect of my examination of the Trust's accounts carried out under Section 145 of the Act and in carrying out my examination I have followed all applicable Directions given by the Charity Commission under Section 145(5)(b) of the Act.
Independent examiner's statement
I have completed my examination. I confirm that no material matters have come to my attention in connection with the examination giving me cause to believe that in any material respect:
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accounting records were not kept in respect of the Trust as required by Section 130 of the Act; or
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the accounts do not accord with those records; or
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the accounts do not comply with the applicable requirements concerning the form and content of accounts set out in the Charities (Accounts and Reports) Regulations 2008 other than any requirement that the accounts give a true and fair view which is not a matter considered as part of an independent examination.
I have no concerns and have come across no other matters in connection with the examination to which attention should be drawn in this report in order to enable a proper understanding of the accounts to be reached.
Mr Saeid Mokhtassi
Sterling Partners Limited Chartered Accountants Chartered Tax Advisors 2nd Floor, Grove House 774-780 Wilmslow Road Didsbury Manchester Greater Manchester M20 2DR
29 June 2023 Date: .............................................
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Development Studies Association
Statement of Financial Activities
for the Year Ended 31 January 2023
| Unrestricted fund Notes £ INCOME AND ENDOWMENTS FROM Donations and legacies 1,063 Charitable activities Promotion of development research 127,980 Investment income 2 451 Other income (468) Total 129,026 EXPENDITURE ON Charitable activities Promotion of development research 127,301 NET INCOME/(EXPENDITURE) 1,725 RECONCILIATION OF FUNDS Total funds brought forward 132,415 TOTAL FUNDS CARRIED FORWARD 134,140 |
Restricted funds £ - - - - - - - - - |
2023 Total funds £ 1,063 127,980 451 (468) 129,026 127,301 1,725 132,415 134,140 |
2022 Total funds £ 2,693 110,830 371 (468) 113,426 127,643 (14,217) 146,632 132,415 |
|---|---|---|---|
The notes form part of these financial statements
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Development Studies Association
Balance Sheet
31 January 2023
| Unrestricted fund Notes £ CURRENT ASSETS Cash at bank 5 134,140 NET CURRENT ASSETS 134,140 TOTAL ASSETS LESS CURRENT LIABILITIES 134,140 NET ASSETS 134,140 FUNDS 6 Unrestricted funds TOTAL FUNDS |
Restricted funds £ - - - - |
2023 Total funds £ 134,140 134,140 134,140 134,140 134,140 134,140 |
2022 Total funds £ 132,415 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 132,415 | |||
| 132,415 | |||
| 132,415 | |||
| 132,415 | |||
| 132,415 |
30 June 2023 The financial statements were approved by the Board of Trustees and authorised for issue on ............................................. and were signed on its behalf by:
............................................. Trustee
The notes form part of these financial statements
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Development Studies Association
Notes to the Financial Statements for the Year Ended 31 January 2023
1. ACCOUNTING POLICIES
Basis of preparing the financial statements
Section 133 of the Charities Act 2011 permits a charity to prepare a receipts and payments account and a statement of assets and liabilities where gross income in the financial year does not exceed £250,000, therefore receipts and payments accounts and a statement of assets and liabilities in its balance sheet) have been prepared and presented for the year; this is consistent with previous years.
Income
All income, including the subscriptions, conference income and bank interest are recorded when received.
Expenditure
All expenditure are recorded when paid.
Trustees' expenses
These expenses are included in the financial statements once amounts are expended by the Trustees on behalf of the charity.
.
Trustees' indemnity insurance
No charitable funds have been used to purchase insurance to indemnify the Trustees against the consequences of any neglect or default on their part.
Taxation
The charity is exempt from tax on its charitable activities.
Fund accounting
Unrestricted funds can be used in accordance with the charitable objectives at the discretion of the trustees.
Restricted funds can only be used for particular restricted purposes within the objects of the charity. Restrictions arise when specified by the donor or when funds are raised for particular restricted purposes.
Further explanation of the nature and purpose of each fund is included in the notes to the financial statements.
2. INVESTMENT INCOME
| INVESTMENT INCOME | ||
|---|---|---|
| 2023 | 2022 | |
| £ | £ | |
| Interest received | 451 | 371 |
3. TRUSTEES' REMUNERATION AND BENEFITS
There were no trustees' remuneration or other benefits for the year ended 31 January 2023 nor for the year ended 31 January 2022.
Trustees' expenses
Trustees expenses of £Nil (2022: £Nil) were paid during the year.
continued...
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Development Studies Association
Notes to the Financial Statements - continued
for the Year Ended 31 January 2023
| 4. COMPARATIVES FOR THE STATEMENT OF FINANCIAL ACTIVITIES Unrestricted fund £ INCOME AND ENDOWMENTS FROM Donations and legacies 2,693 Charitable activities Promotion of development research 110,830 Investment income 371 Other income (468) Total 113,426 EXPENDITURE ON Charitable activities Promotion of development research 127,643 NET INCOME/(EXPENDITURE) (14,217) RECONCILIATION OF FUNDS Total funds brought forward 146,632 TOTAL FUNDS CARRIED FORWARD 132,415 5. CASH AT BANK Cash at bank and in hand Total |
Restricted funds £ - - - - - - - - - 2023 Total funds £ 134,140 134,140 |
Total funds £ 2,693 110,830 371 (468) 113,426 127,643 (14,217) 146,632 132,415 2022 Total funds £ 132,415 132,415 |
|---|---|---|
6. MOVEMENT IN FUNDS
Each of the below funds have arisen due to the donors specifying that the funds donated have to be spent on the specific projects.
Restrictions are imposed through contracts which are signed at the beginning of each project.
continued...
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Development Studies Association
Notes to the Financial Statements - continued for the Year Ended 31 January 2023
7. RELATED PARTY DISCLOSURES
There were no related party transactions for the year ended 31 January 2023.
8. FUNDS
| Project | Funds brought forward |
Income | Expenditure | Transfer between funds |
Funds carried forward |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| £ | £ | £ | £ | £ | |
| RESTRICTED FUNDS | |||||
| - | - | - | - | - | |
| - | - | - | - | - | |
| - | - | - | - | - | |
| - | - | - | - | - | |
| UNRESTRICTED FUNDS | |||||
| General fund | 132,415 | 129,026 | 127,301 | - | 134,140 |
| 132,415 | 129,026 | 127,301 | - | 134,140 | |
| TOTAL FUNDS | 132,415 | 129,026 | 127,301 | - | 134,140 |
9. ACCRUAL BASIS
The accounts are prepared on a receipts and payment basis. Should the accounts of been prepared on an accruals basis, then additional £9,842 of administrative costs should be accrued. This would result in a deficit of £8.1k for the year ended 31st January 2023.
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Development Studies Association
Detailed Statement of Financial Activities for the Year Ended 31 January 2023
| INCOME AND ENDOWMENTS Donations and legacies Donations Investment income Interest received Charitable activities Subscriptions Conference and exhibitions Other income Other income Total incoming resources EXPENDITURE Charitable activities Conference Administration Study groups Bank and credit charges Workshop series Support costs Management Wages Council expenses Governance costs Sundries Accountancy and legal fees Consultancy fees Donations Total resources expended Net income/(expenditure) |
2023 £ 1,063 451 63,381 64,599 127,980 (468) 129,026 53,820 18,566 2,926 543 - 75,855 2,045 2,556 4,601 3,179 2,346 36,185 5,135 46,845 127,301 1,725 |
2022 £ 2,693 371 57,433 53,397 110,830 (468) 113,426 48,987 31,349 - 960 5,007 86,303 - - - 500 1,980 36,000 2,860 41,340 127,643 (14,217) |
|---|---|---|
This page does not form part of the statutory financial statements
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