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 initiatives to redesign the architecture of international cooperation and the seemingly technical policy mechanisms that mediate them. Currently, I am writing a book manuscript on the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development (Agenda 2030) and advancing a long-term research project on planetary feminist solidarity.

My upcoming book presents Agenda 2030 as a stillborn project of remaking development. I observed how gender equality coalitions in Kenya, Rwanda, and Uganda deploy Agenda 2030 based on the insight of 200 experts across government, civil society, and United Nations, and other multilateral 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, feminist emancipatory projects are turning away from efforts to integrate gender in development and, instead, seeking to fundamentally restructure mechanisms of development cooperation.

Concurrently, I am advancing a project on Feminist Planetary Solidarity, which proposes an ontological turn away from global development and towards planetary justice. Combining feminist critiques grounded in decolonial historical materialism, political ecology, and Indigenous cosmologies, I am tracing the continuities of feminist projects of (re)constructing global governance 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 a decade of 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 participate in its Decolonizing Development Syllabus Working Group. I also engage with multilateral and civil society actors in the sector, providing training, expert advice, and policy research. 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), the University of Guelph, and London School of Economics.

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. https://doi.org/10.1080/11926422.2024.2369532

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.

Novović, 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

Novović, 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.

Novović, 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

Novović, 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 Reviews

Novović, 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

Novović, 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.

Chapters in Edited Volumes

Novović, G. (forthcoming). “Poverty, Inequality, and Knowledge in Development Politics” in Oxford University Press Handbook of Knowledge and Expertise in International Politics eds. Bliesemann de Guevara et al.

Novović, G. (forthcoming). “Overcoming Canada’s Foreign Policy: Constructing Planetary Politics of Reparations.” in Critical Understandings of Canada in the World eds. by D. Black et al.

Novović, G. (forthcoming). “Localising SDG Indicators: gender statistics and limitations of official statistics for national progress reporting.” in Elgar Companion to Data and Indicators for the Sustainable Development Goals eds. by Umbach and Tkalec.

Technical Reports

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

Novović, 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.

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

Selected Blogs

Novović, 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/

Novović, 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 Novović, 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/

Novović, 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/

Novović, 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/

Novović, 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/

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

Novović, 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/

Share

Dr Gloria Novović

LSE Fellow

Department of Gender Studies

About me

Expertise Details

Publications