Where expertise in Development Studies reaps benefits is during a time of crisis. Disaster lays open any society for interrogation where it is destabilized to the core and this is where reforms can take place. What DS brings into the picture is the multidimensional approach needed for the last mile connectivity and solutions. Disasters often catch up with the prediction and projections that help understand the magnitude any disaster can go up to. And quite often, disasters are a result of friction between expertise and domains who fail to work in harmony and where DS can help mitigate is through finding solutions on a middle ground. The rift between saving the environment and generating power can be bridged by using alternative forms of energy.
Amartya Sen's work on Poverty and Famine signify that famines are most often caused by man-made decisions rather than the wrath of nature. It is interventions and analysis like these that remind us to have social interventions that seek to empower the poor than to anticipate a monsoon failure.