Why it’s time to put gender into the inequality discussion

October 15, 2015
LSE’s Naila Kabeer introduces a new issue of Gender and Development, which she co-edited The development industry has focused mainly on the question of absolute poverty over the past decades of neo-liberal reform.  Given the levels of deprivation that continue to exist in poorer regions of the world, this focus is not entirely misplaced. But it only tells us part
Read more >>

Why those promoting growth need to take politics seriously, and vice versa

October 14, 2015
Nicholas Waddell, a DFID Governance Adviser working on ‘Governance for Economic Development’ (G4ED) explores the links between governance and economic growth.  Should I play it safe and join a governance team or risk being a lone voice in a sea of economists and private sector staff? This was my dilemma as a DFID Governance Adviser returning to the UK after
Read more >>

ICYMI: why civil society space is under assault around the world and other posts on NGOs

October 13, 2015
Final installment in this series of re-posts of the most read summer blogs, for those who missed FP2P due to our email notification meltdown (or your holidays). In the 1980s and 90s civil society, and civil society organizations (CSOs) came to be seen as key players in development; aid donors  and INGOs like Oxfam increasingly sought them out as partners.
Read more >>

Arguing with Angus Deaton on aid

October 12, 2015
Tremendous news that Angus Deaton has won the Nobel prize in economics, particularly because this will further direct attention towards one of the great challenges of the age – rising inequality, on which Deaton is a great thinker, not least in The Great Escape, which deserves an even wider readership. Last year, I had a public exchange with him on the
Read more >>

Links I Liked

October 12, 2015
How to judge the quality of specialist writing h/t Chris Blattman Egypt’s Chinese lingerie vendors. Brilliant, human reportage on globalization, Africa and China. [h/t Mark Fried] China’s growing aid budget has its own Daily Mail, charity-begins-at-home style internal critics, apparently. Trying to get your head round the World Bank’s new poverty numbers? Good explainer frm Francisco Ferreira Got a skill
Read more >>

How can UK aid pursue development and British National Interest at the same time?

October 9, 2015
The British aid programme is in an interesting place right now. The British chancellor (finance minister) George Osborne is overseeing a tense spending review in which aid is protected thanks to the government’s commitment to spending 0.7% of national income on aid, but most other departmental budgets are being slashed. On the Andrew Marr TV show last month Osborne said: ‘The question is
Read more >>

What are governance advisers missing with ‘Political Economy Analysis’? How can they do better?

October 8, 2015
From a restaurant in Jakarta, David Hudson & Heather Marquette with some new thinking on power, politics and governance What advice would you give to a novice governance advisor working for a bilateral donor going into the field for the first time? Want to know how some of the top governance experts, advisors, researchers and academics would say? Well, wonder
Read more >>

‘Thanks, but the truth is I hate being a refugee’: a young Syrian introduces Oxfam’s new briefing

October 7, 2015
  The arrival of tens of thousands of Syrians at Europe’s borders in recent weeks has been a sharp reminder of the tragedy engulfing the people of Syria. Today, Oxfam publishes its latest briefing on the country’s continuing conflict. Dima Salam (not her real name), a young Syrian refugee now working for Oxfam in the UK, introduces the new paper.
Read more >>

Where has the global movement against inequality got to, and what happens next?

October 6, 2015
Katy Wright, Oxfam’s Head of Global External Affairs, stands back and assesses its campaign on inequality. The most frequent of the Frequently Asked Questions I’ve heard in response to Even it Up, Oxfam’s inequality campaign. is “how equal do you think we should be?” It’s an interesting response to the news that just 80 people now own the same wealth
Read more >>

Links I Liked

October 5, 2015
Why people are fleeing Syria – fear of Assad government is given four times more often than fear of opponents. New Hunger and Nutrition Commitment Index ranks governments on their political commitment to tackling hunger and undernutrition Women in Bangladesh are taking charge – from grassroots up to government. Good overview on women’s rights, education, politics Going to use this
Read more >>

ICYMI: This summer’s posts on theories of change, systems thinking and innovation

October 2, 2015
Still dripfeeding in catch-ups on the most popular posts from June-September, when the blog’s email alert system collapsed and some wasters actually went on holiday. There were some good discussions and lots of traffic on how change happens, which bodes well for future book sales. The most read was actually a 2013 post on Theories of Change, but this one, from Oxfam’s
Read more >>

Is the International Humanitarian System hitting a tipping point on ‘going local’?

October 1, 2015
Marc Cohen, Senior Researcher at Oxfam America, is excited about the new World Disasters Report Over the past two years, a boatload of reports and studies has pointed to the need to shift to greater local leadership of disaster prevention, preparedness, and response. In part this is driven by mounting humanitarian needs and the growing gap between those needs and
Read more >>