How do you overcome the blockers to your great idea?

February 22, 2022
Sometimes your (or at least, my) thinking gets stuck without you even realizing it, until a chance conversation brings it home. So it was in a recent conversation with some great participants in LSE’s Executive Masters in Cities programme. They were presenting their personal projects on various aspects of urban transformation, from access to water, to reviving pollinators/bees in urban
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Links I Liked

February 21, 2022
Trickle down economics + tax havens ht Sony Kapoor ‘Make Us Feel Uncomfortable…’ Three Tips From @PaulPolman On How Charities Should Work With Business. Nice write up of his recent talk to @Oxfam staff views-voices.oxfam.org.uk/2022/02/make- Myanmar’s first literary work since coup reveals ‘courage and altruism’ of writers. Love the idea of ‘witness writing’ (≥ protest writing) theguardian.com/global-develop… 15 of the
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Development Nutshell: round-up (27m) of FP2P posts, w/b 7th February and 14th February

February 19, 2022
No excerpt
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How do you set up an effective network? Some thoughts + an appeal for links and suggestions

February 17, 2022
Had an interesting exchange with a friend active in UK grassroots politics this week, who asked ‘What’s the best reading around how to build effective networks? I’m basically a little suspicious atm as it all seems a bit stakeholder mappy / retrospective analysis of change, rather than practical, pro-active strategy. It’s not that I don’t understand the importance of systems,
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Who supports the people who support entrepreneurs? Introducing a new tool for ecosystem leaders

February 16, 2022
Guest post by Mary Mwangi and Brenda Wangari In recent years, we have seen more capacity building support directed towards locally-led enterprise support organizations (ESOs) such as accelerators, incubators, seed funds and consulting practices. These ESOs are at the frontline, providing critical business development services to local entrepreneurs. In Africa and many developing regions, such entrepreneurs are key drivers of
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Northern Institutions Dominate International Development Research: So What?

February 15, 2022
Guest post by Veronica Amarante, Nisha Arunatilake, Ronelle Burger, Arjan de Haan, Ana-Lucia Kassouf and Lucas Ronconi The international community has long accepted that development needs to be locally owned, and that international support and cooperation need to facilitate leadership by local actors. Yet it is increasingly noticeable that development research is lagging behind in this respect. As we raise
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Links I Liked

February 14, 2022
Sorry to be such a killjoy, but I’m with him. A rural hospital in Bangladesh is named the world’s best new building ht Tobias Denskus I’ve been off work all week with Covid (after three vaccinations, more like mild flu than a death sentence), so stories like this resonate even more than usual. The Vaccine Mark-Up: Counting More in aid
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How to Change Narratives to build Hope and Solidarity – some examples

February 10, 2022
This blog was first published on the EADI/ISS Development Research Blog Series, written by Oxfam’s Nicole Walshe and Anne Mai Baan. In our work to strengthen and support civic space worldwide (i.e. the space for freedoms of association, assembly and free expression) we often see that certain narratives are used to undermine the work of activists. Narratives – the collection
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Draft Guide to Publicly Available Influencing Toolkits – your comments/additions please!

February 9, 2022
One of the briefings I’ve been developing for our new influencing course (see yesterday’s intro) is a guide to help people navigate the plethora of toolkits on influencing. Here’s my list – with a request for comments and additions. My overall impression (although this may just reflect my Oxfam background) is that there are loads of online guides to ‘outsider’
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Influencing for Senior Leaders: a new course on Analysis, Strategy, and Practice. Want to sign up?

February 8, 2022
For the past few months, I’ve been toiling away with a great team of thinkers/practitioners at LSE and beyond, developing a new training course on influencing (as close followers of my occasional tweeted requests for extra references may have noticed). Now it’s being launched, as part of the Global Executive Leadership Initiative, so I can go a bit more public.
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Links I Liked

February 7, 2022
The Looting of Africa ht K. Diallo Human rights organising in Africa during a global pandemic. Write up of great lecture by my old friend Irungu Houghton with links to video and podcast. Also check out his book on Kenya: Dialogue and Dissent: A Constitution In Search Of A Country What all campaigners can learn from The Canary Craftivists. Nice
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Development Nutshell: round-up (22m) of FP2P posts, w/b 31st January

February 5, 2022
No excerpt
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