Featured image for “What do we know about Covid-related innovation in poor countries and should aid agencies get involved?”

What do we know about Covid-related innovation in poor countries and should aid agencies get involved?

April 30, 2021
Bens Ramalingam and Kumpf have a thought-provoking new paper out on Covid-linked innovation in poor countries, and the lessons for aid donors. Here are some highlights, and a minor rant it inspired in me. The paper documents a range of fascinating innovations. Here’s a flavour: ‘Problem: A health official in a large city in India is tasked with sourcing quality
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Featured image for “How an arts project created real-world impact for refugees and formerly displaced persons”

How an arts project created real-world impact for refugees and formerly displaced persons

April 29, 2021
Before you start on this post, a glitch in the matrix meant that yesterday’s post, on Covid-related innovation in poor countries, didn’t trigger the usual email notification. Catch up here. In my second post on the impact of researchers at the LSE Centre for Public Authority and International Development, I talk to CPAID’s Anna Macdonald and Kara Blackmore. In their
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Featured image for “Why is internal advocacy within our own organizations so hard?”

Why is internal advocacy within our own organizations so hard?

April 27, 2021
I’ve been chatting to a few people about their efforts to change how their organizations think, work and behave. By ‘people’ I mean the foot soldiers, not the bosses – there’s a huge amount written for managers about how to change their organizations, but what if you’re not a boss? For a subject that is so important to a lot
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Featured image for “Links I Liked”

Links I Liked

April 26, 2021
We said goodbye to Oxfam legend Richard English last week. Self-effacing, kind and invariably positive, he trained, mentored and supported generations of Oxfam campaigners all over the world. He also summarized it all in a great guide to designing effective campaigns, which deserves a wide readership. The World Wide Web was born 28 years ago (April 1993). It begin as
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Featured image for “Development Nutshell: round-up (14m) of FP2P posts, w/b 19th April”

Development Nutshell: round-up (14m) of FP2P posts, w/b 19th April

April 24, 2021
No excerpt
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Featured image for “How did research on Chiefs’ Courts in South Sudan influence famine early warning systems?”

How did research on Chiefs’ Courts in South Sudan influence famine early warning systems?

April 22, 2021
This is an edit of a post that went up on the LSE Africa blog earlier this week I’ve been having a fascinating time recently looking at the real world impact of some of the research by the LSE’s Centre for Public Authority and International Development and exploring some of the factors which help achieve that impact. The result will be
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Featured image for “How to do Adaptive Management in 15 easy steps – from a top new toolkit”

How to do Adaptive Management in 15 easy steps – from a top new toolkit

April 21, 2021
Yesterday I summarized the thinking behind an important new toolkit on adaptive management. In this second post, I want to have a look at the tools themselves. These come in the form of 15 ‘guidance notes’. The 15 notes cover the 3 elements of Adaptive Management that Angela Christie and I identified a couple of years ago – adaptive governance,
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Featured image for “A top Toolkit on Adaptive Management. But is that a good idea?”

A top Toolkit on Adaptive Management. But is that a good idea?

April 20, 2021
In recent years, I’ve been one of a crowd of people thinking and pontificating about ‘adaptive management’. The debate has been rather dominated by academics and thinktankers, fond of hand-waving generalizations and rather better at taking down the bad stuff that suggesting what might replace it. In those conversations, Graham Teskey has played the role of the stroppy practitioner, demanding
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Featured image for “Links I Liked”

Links I Liked

April 19, 2021
Oxford/AstraZeneca Covid vaccine research ‘was 97% publicly funded’. What about the other vaccines? At least AZ is waiving profits, unlike the others. A fresh approach to visual communications in development: allow me to illustrate. Nice piece by Isabelle Kermeen The Way We Access Research Isn’t Working for Development. We Need to Fix It. The case for Open Access (and against
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Featured image for “Development Nutshell: round-up (17m) of FP2P posts, w/b 12th April”

Development Nutshell: round-up (17m) of FP2P posts, w/b 12th April

April 17, 2021
No excerpt
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Featured image for “Does Local Advocacy look different in Fragile/Conflict affected places? Summary of new ebook”

Does Local Advocacy look different in Fragile/Conflict affected places? Summary of new ebook

April 15, 2021
Continuing on the theme of how aid agencies can work better in fragile and conflict affected settings (FCAS), there’s a new e-book (Advocacy in Context) looking at the work of national NGOs in South Sudan, Nigeria, Burundi, Central African Republic and Afghanistan. The researchers, Margit van Wessel, Wenny Ho, Edwige Marty and Peter Tamas, talked to local partners of the
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Featured image for “Beyond political will – how leadership makes a difference on water and sanitation”

Beyond political will – how leadership makes a difference on water and sanitation

April 14, 2021
Guest post by water policy consultant Henry Northover (twitter: @Henrynorthover) I’ve sat through too many presentations in the water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) sector that end with the neat conclusion: “all that’s needed is greater political will”.  Thank you and goodnight!  And this comes from a sector that’s pretty well-served by high level statements of political commitment.  The AU has
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