Today marks the first anniversary of the World Health Organization’s (WHO) declaration of Covid-19 as a pandemic. The announcement represents a historic moment in which the WHO called on nations to take coordinated global action to tackle a truly global challenge. Whilst the distribution of the vaccine remains contentious, it does offer hope. The pandemic has also resulted in the global development community working collaboratively in innovative new ways and posed questions about how we carry out research that we can learn a great deal from.