Why I love the UN, aka the battle between policy space and trade/investment agreements

September 30, 2014
Being a fan of the UN is always a bit of a mixed blessing. Various bits (UNDP, UNICEF, UN Women and many more) churn out some really useful research. For many years, they provided the sole islands of sanity resisting the market fundamentalism of the Washington Consensus. But all too often their publications sink without trace, their use of social
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After New York, how should climate change campaigners approach Paris? (aka Naomi Klein vs the New Climate Economy)

September 26, 2014
Oxfam head of policy for food and climate change Tim Gore reflects on what happens next after the euphoria of New York (and asks you to vote, right) First, the good news. After the Copenhagen hangover, the international climate change movement is back. Over recent days in New York, we’ve seen the emergence of a new people’s climate movement, broader
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Measuring academic impact: discussion with my new colleagues at the LSE (joining in January, but not leaving Oxfam)

September 26, 2014
From the New Year, the London School of Economics International Development Department has roped me in to doing a few hours a week as a ‘Professor in Practice’ (PiP), in an effort to establish better links between its massive cohort of 300 Masters students (no undergrads) and ‘practitioners’ in thinktanks, NGOs etc. So with some newbie trepidation, I headed off
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So you’ve written the research report: what else do you need to do to ensure people actually read it?

September 25, 2014
Remember the old days when you wrote a report, published it (perhaps with some kind of executive summary), did a couple of seminars and then declared victory and moved on? Social media have changed that game almost beyond recognition: to maximize impact, any new report more closely resembles a set of Russian dolls, with multiple ‘products’ (hate that word) required
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How Change Happens: Great new case studies + analysis on ‘Politically Smart, Locally Led Development’

September 24, 2014
The research star of the show at last week’s Thinking and Working Politically event was a great new ODI paper from David Booth and Sue Unsworth. Politically smart, locally led development seeks to identify the secret sauce behind 7 large and successful aid programmes: a rural livelihoods programme in India; land titling and tax reform in the Philippines; disarmament, demobilization
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Thinking and Working Politically update: where have aid agencies, consultants etc got to?

September 23, 2014
Spent an engrossing couple of days last week at a ‘Thinking and Working Politically’ (TWP) seminar, organized by a group of donors, thinktanks and consultants (sorry, Chatham House Rules, so that’s as much as I can say about them). Their common ground is that aid needs to get beyond its technocratic comfort zone, and take politics and power more seriously.
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Gallup’s global Well-Being Index. Great data, shame about the (lack of) analysis.

September 19, 2014
Gallup has just published its Global Well-Being Index, based on a survey of 134,000 adults in 135 countries – i.e. a big exercise. The methodology is rigorous, presided over by Angus Deaton, who also contributes a glowing foreword. The index includes five elements of well-being: purpose, social, financial, community, and physical. Here’s what it finds for the BRICS, for example (headline message,
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The future of DFID, partnerships, aid and INGOs, c/o Alex Evans

September 18, 2014
Alex Evans always gives good bullet point. A former SPAD (special adviser) to DFID, turned academic/consultant at the Center for International Cooperation, last week he gave some NGOs a whirlwind tour of his big picture thinking on development, based on a recent submission (with Owen Barder) to the UK parliament’s International Development Committee. Here are some highlights. On DFID: Next
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Why is economic orthodoxy so resistant to change? The art of paradigm maintenance.

September 17, 2014
Ever wondered why it’s so hard to shift big institutions (and the economics profession in general) on economic policy, even when events so graphically show the need for change? I’ve just come across a fascinating 2006 paper by Robin Broad, ‘Research, knowledge and the art of ‘paradigm maintenance’: the World Bank’s Development Economics Vice Presidency (DEC)’, summary here. Full paper
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Not so mega? The risky business of large-scale public-private partnerships in African agriculture

September 16, 2014
Oxfam policy adviser Robin Willoughby shrugs off the big ag groupthink and argues that the current trend of mega projects in African agriculture is a risky and unproven way to help poor farmers. Last week, I attended a large summit on the future of African agriculture in Addis Ababa, hosted by A Green Revolution for Africa (AGRA). My participation really
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Links I liked

September 15, 2014
Wait, don’t start work – check out this pick of last week’s @fp2p twittercrop instead. Global Median Ages: Niger the youngest (15); Japan/Germany the oldest (46) [H/t Ian Bremmer, Tanja Hichert] If you’re interested in governance, political economy etc, Matt Andrews at Harvard is putting up a blog post, video and powerpoint after each lecture in his ‘getting things done‘
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What can we learn from big advocacy initiatives in the Philippines on education, violence against women, reproductive health and freedom of information?

September 12, 2014
Ahead of next week’s Thinking and Working Politically seminar, here’s another case study from The Asia Foundation, which has got some impressive advocacy results in the Philippines. Room for Maneuver (book and research brief) examines four social policy reforms to try and draw lessons for advocacy work. They are 1. The successful passage of the Anti-Violence Against Women and their
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