About me

I hold a PhD in Political Science and International Development from the University of Guelph (Canada). Working at the intersections of critical policy studies and decolonial feminist thought, I study multilateral efforts to redesign the architecture of international cooperation and the seemingly technical policy mechanisms that enable or obstruct them. Currently, I am writing a book manuscript on the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and advancing a long-term research agenda on planetary feminist solidarity.

My upcoming book presents the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development (Agenda 2030) as a stillborn project of remaking development. I observed how Agenda 2030 impacted gender equality coalitions in Kenya, Rwanda, and Uganda based on the insight of 200 experts across government, civil society, and United Nations institutions. My book shows that, as the first universal development framework, Agenda 2030 was undermined already in 2015, when high-income countries refused to approve a mechanism of global taxation that would have created a common fund for the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). In this context, radical feminist emancipatory projects are breaking away from efforts to integrate gender in development and, instead, seek to fundamentally restructure development cooperation.

Concurrently, I am advancing a project on Feminist Planetary Solidarity, which proposes an ontological turn from global development towards planetary justice. Planetary helps us recast the human in a broader ecosystem of world politics, placing an emphasis on the interconnectedness of life, in all its forms, and the brutalist era in which conditions for live are progressively exhausted. Combining feminist critiques grounded in decolonial historical materialism, political ecology, and Indigenous cosmologies I am tracing the continuities of feminist projects of (re)constructing architecture for coalitional solidarity we need to address our shared planetary crises. To move this project forward, I am co-convening a special issue on this topic with Professor Shirin M. Rai, hosted by the International Feminist Journal of Politics.

Prior to joining LSE, I was a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Ottawa’s School of International Development and Global Studies. My work also draws on my well-rounded practitioner experience, encompassing roles at the Canadian national council for international cooperation, the United Nations’ World Food Programme, and Serbian civil society. I serve on the executive committee of the Canadian Association for Studies of International Development (CASID) and engage with multilateral and civil society actors in the sector. My work has been supported by the International Development Research Centre (IDRC), the Ontario Trillium Foundation, the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC), and the University of Guelph.

Expertise Details

Gender and Development; Global Governance; Feminist Policy; SDGs

Refereed Journal Articles

Novović, G. (2024). Fit for feminism? Examining policy capacity for Canada’s feminist foreign policy. Canadian Foreign Policy Journal, 1-17.

Lam, S., Novović, G., Skinner, K., & Nguyen‐Viet, H. (2024). Greener through gender: What climate mainstreaming can learn from gender mainstreaming. Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Climate Change, e887.

Novovic, G. (2023). “Gender Mainstreaming 2.0: Agenda 2030 and New Approaches to Gender Mainstreaming”. Third World Quarterly, 44 (5): 1058-1076. doi.org/10.1080/01436597.2023.2174848

Novovic, G. (2022). “Can Agenda 2030 deliver on “localization”? Policy limitations of Agenda 2030 in the broader global governance system”. Development Policy Review, 40 (4): 1- n/a. doi.org/10.1111/dpr.12587.

Novovic, G, & Tatham, R. (2022). “Shifting Frames: Balancing Methodological Inclusivity and
Policy Relevance of Feminist Research”. International Feminist Journal of Politics, 24 (5): 699-720. doi.org/10.1080/14616742.2021.1952887

Novovic, G. (2021). “Are SDGs Counting What Counts: Feminist Analysis of Agenda 2030’s Policy Shrinking”. Global Governance, 27 (3): 366-387. doi.org/10.1163/19426720-02703003

Book Review

Novovic, G. (2023). Socialist Yugoslavia and the Non-Aligned Movement: Social, Cultural, Political, and Economic Imaginaries by Paul Stubbs (eds). International Journal, 78 (3). doi.org/10.1177/0020702023119805

Novovic, G. (2015). Understanding Non-Violence. [Review of the book Understanding Non- Violence, by Hallward, M. C. and Norman, J. P]. Community Development Journal, 50 (4): 753-755.

Under Review

Novovic, G. (Under Review). The Last Wave: Avenues of International Feminist Solidarity in Times of Planetary Extinction.

Novovic, G. (Under Review). Set Up to Fail: The Moral Legitimacy of the World Food Programme’s Sisyphean Mandate of Ending Hunger.

In preparation

Novovic, G. (in preparation for the edited volume of the Oxford University Press Handbook of Knowledge and Expertise in International Politics). Poverty, Inequality, and Knowledge in Development Politics

Lam, S., Skinner, K., Novovic, G., Hung Nguyen-Viet. (in preparation). Avoiding Cooptation: Gender Mainstreaming Lessons for Meaningful Integration of Climate Action in Development Cooperation

Novovic, G. (in preparation for the edited volume Critical Understandings of Canada in the World). Rethinking Foreign Policy Models in Times of Shared Planetary Threats: System Mapping for Integrated Policy Design of Canada’s Global Engagement

Novovic, G. & Su, Y. (in preparation). Agenda 2030’s Limits of Cumulative Global Policy Models: Policy Capacity for Integrated Multiscalar Policy Design

Novovic, G. (in preparation). Win by losing or lose by winning: Global development co-optations as feminist international solidarity. Knowledge Mobilization Publications Technical Reports

Novovic, G. & Rava, N. (2023). Navigating Planetary Cooperation in Times of Polycrisis: Environmental Scan of Global Development. Cooperation Canada.

Novovic, G. (2021). Canada’s International Assistance: Underfunded Feminist Ambitions. In Biannual Global Report: Aid in the Context of Conflict, Fragility, and Climate Emergency. Reality of Aid Network.

Novovic, G. (2020). Canada’s International Assistance. In Alternative Federal Budget Recovery Plan: Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives.

Selected Blogs

Novovic, G. (April 2023). “Dispelling fairy tales: The Auditor General’s misinterpretation of Canada’s Feminist International Assistance Policy”. McLeod Group. Retrieved from: https://www.mcleodgroup.ca/2023/04/dispelling-fairy-tales-the-auditor-generals-misinterpretation- of-canadas-feminist-international-assistance-policy/

Novovic, G. (November 2022). “Cancel Disney+ and the Liberal government’s wrong approach to ‘greedflation’”. Policy Options. Retrieved from: https://policyoptions.irpp.org/magazines/november- 2022/greedflation-wrong-liberal-approach/

Brown, S. and Novovic, G. (October 2022). “The World According to Chrystia Freeland?”. McLeod Group. Retrieved from: https://www.mcleodgroup.ca/2022/10/the-world-according-to-chrystia- freeland/

Novovic, G. and Stuart T. (April 2022). “The Future of Canada’s Global Engagement: Beyond a Rules-Based International Order?”. McLeod Group. Retrieved from: https://www.mcleodgroup.ca/2022/04/the-future-of-canadas-global-engagement-beyond-a-rules- based-international-order/

Novovic, G. (March 2022). “Rethinking Canadian Philanthropy: Emerging Paradigms of Social Justice”. The Philanthropist Journal. Retrieved from: https://thephilanthropist.ca/2022/03/rethinking- philanthropy-emerging-paradigms-of-social-justice/

Novovic, G. (March 2022). “Co-constructing an Anti-racist Agenda for Canada’s International Cooperation Sector”. The Philanthropist Journal. Retrieved from: https://thephilanthropist.ca/2022/03/rethinking-philanthropy-co-constructing-an-anti-racist-agenda- for-canadas-international-cooperation-sector/

Novovic, G. (March 2022). “In Defense of Ministerial Mandate Letters”. Policy Options. Retrieved from: https://policyoptions.irpp.org/magazines/ministerial-mandate-letters/

Novovic, G. (July 2021). “Your Guide to Official Development Assistance Accountability Act: Protecting the Legislative Environment for Canada’s International Cooperation”. Cooperation Canada. Retrieved from: https://cooperation.ca/odaaa-guide/

Novovic, G. (October 2020). “Localize or Perish: What You Need to Know About Localization”. Cooperation Canada. Retrieved from: https://cooperation.ca/localize-or-perish/

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Gloria Novovic

LSE Fellow

Department of Gender Studies