Links I Liked

March 14, 2016
Bureaucratics – great photo series of officials behind desks around the world. [h/t Chris Blattman] Some wise advice from DFID reformer Pete Vowles for anyone pursuing change in large organizations A top job in the Oxfam GB research team: Senior Researcher on Influencing and its Effectiveness (4 April deadline) World Bank sets up nudge unit – the Global Insights Initiative (Gini).
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Why we need to rethink how we measure inequality – please welcome the Absolute Palma index

March 11, 2016
Oxfam’s Nick Galasso (left) and ODI’s Chris Hoy (right), author of a new paper on the topic, argue for a rethink on inequality metrics The world is abuzz about inequality Pope Francis famously tweeted that inequality is the root of evil. As we witnessed in Davos in January, the media can’t get enough of Oxfam’s statistic that the richest 85, 80, 62
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Book Review: What can Activists learn from the AIDS Drugs Movement?

March 10, 2016
Still catching up with reviews from my holiday reading – Alex de Waal’s new book (already reviewed) and AIDS Drugs for All, which came highly recommended. (I also read and enjoyed Marlon James and Elena Ferrante – I’m not completely sad/obsessive, honest.) AIDS Drugs for All is a forensic account of ‘a heroic effort on the part of social activists,
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Links I Liked

March 9, 2016
Bit of a delay this week, but here’s last week’s pick of the interwebs In the class riddled UK, even the pop stars are disproportionately privately educated DFID’s Pete Vowles has some useful advice for anyone pursuing change in large organizations Following last year’s World Development Report on behavioural economics, the World Bank sets up a ‘nudge unit’. The Global
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Time Poverty and The World’s Childcare Crisis – good new report for International Women’s Day

March 8, 2016
My colleague Thalia Kidder is a feminist economist who’s been working for years to try and get the ‘care economy’ onto the development agenda. It’s been frustrating at times, but she should be celebrating right now: Oxfam’s bought in with projects that include developing a ‘rapid care analysis’ assessment tool; Melinda Gates decided to highlight Time Poverty in the Gates’
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Choosing the How Change Happens book cover round two: one more vote, please

March 7, 2016
Update: It was closer than round one, but we have a winner – ripped paper with about 45% of the 350+ votes, the rest split between the other two. Thanks to everyone who voted – will pass this on to OUP. OK, so we had a clear winner on the first vote – the ripped paper one got 66% of
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From Sweatshops to Switzerland, the women in Myanmar behind the billionaires’ fortunes

March 4, 2016
Max Lawson, Oxfam’s Head of Global Campaigns reflects on a recent visit The young garment factory workers share a tiny room in a wooden shack, spotlessly clean, with pictures of Myanmar pop stars beside a photo of their parents back in the village. But there is no escaping the smell of the open drain outside. The three sisters and their
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Just Give them the Money: why are cash transfers only 6% of humanitarian aid?

March 3, 2016
Guest post from ODI’s Paul Harvey Giving people cash in emergencies makes sense and more of it is starting to happen.  A recent high level panel report found that cash should radically disrupt the humanitarian system and that it’s use should grow dramatically from the current guesstimate of 6% of humanitarian spend.  And the Secretary General’s report for the World
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Links I Liked

March 3, 2016
Inequality and someone’s been messing with Branko Milanovic’s famous chart of who’s benefited from 20 years of globalization. As Alan Beattie tweeted, ‘If only there were some elephant-based expression meaning a big issue you can’t ignore….’ A study of adults who received child sponsorship as kids finds big long term impact in India, but none in Uganda, Kenya or Bolivia
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The art of delivery – lessons from working with African governments

March 2, 2016
Dan Hymowitz (@dhymowit), Acting Director of Development and External Relations for the Africa Governance Initiative (AGI), reflects on what they’re learning about the development trend of ‘delivery’. I remember the first time I started to think seriously about delivery: it was just over five years ago sitting in a conference room in Liberia. At the time, I was working with
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Book Review: Alex de Waal, the Real Politics of the Horn of Africa

March 1, 2016
There’s a balance to be struck in writing any non-fiction book. Narrative v information. How often do you return to the overarching storyline, the message of the book, the thing you want the reader to take away? How much information – facts, names, dates, events – do you include? Too much storyline, and the book feels flimsy. Too much information
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