Are we there yet? Five key insights on localisation as a journey towards locally-led practice

March 31, 2022
Arbie Baguios, Maia King, Alex Martins and Rosie Pinnington introduce their new paper Localisation and locally-led practice are the latest buzzwords for something that the aid sector, and the local communities and organisations who work with it, has long tried to do. That is, to ensure that local people and communities have the power and agency to drive their own
Read more >>

FoRB and inequality on the grounds of religion or belief: practitioner dilemmas

March 30, 2022
Cathy Shutt, with the second of her two posts (first one here) In my first post I compared key elements of theories of action and change for the two main schools of thought on the links between faith and social change: faith in development and freedom of religion or belief (FoRB).  Here, I examine some of the dilemmas associated with
Read more >>

Tackling Inequality on the grounds of religion or belief: more than ‘add religion and stir’

March 29, 2022
Guest post by Cathy Shutt Last year the Coalition of Religious Equality and Inclusion in Development  (CREID) contracted me to conduct research in support of mainstreaming inequality on the grounds of religious belief or non-belief in international development. Having taught on ‘faith in development’ for over ten years, I was naturally curious and accepted. Despite being an atheist, I was
Read more >>

Putin and the Psychology of Grievance

March 28, 2022
Fascinating piece by Alex Evans on the Larger Us blog. Here it is in full How has the interaction between psychology and politics helped to manufacture Russian support for Vladimir Putin’s war in Ukraine? And is there anything anyone can do about it? Here at Larger Us, we think a lot about them-and-us dynamics – dynamics which Putin appears to have had
Read more >>

Development Nutshell: round-up (16m) of FP2P posts, w/b 21st March

March 26, 2022
No excerpt
Read more >>
Featured image for “The Monty Python guide to aid and development”

The Monty Python guide to aid and development

March 25, 2022
Don’t know about you, but I can barely watch the evening news these days, it’s all so grim. So I thought I’d re-up some humour from nearly a decade ago (yikes). Here are some of the Monty Python sketches most relevant to development (OK, that’s a bit of a stretch, but who cares?). Plus it has also come to my
Read more >>
Featured image for “Top case studies of public campaigning and how to influence developing country and donor governments. Please add your own”

Top case studies of public campaigning and how to influence developing country and donor governments. Please add your own

March 24, 2022
What are your favourite, well-documented examples of a) public campaigning and b) influencing developing country and donor governments? I’m asking because, as part of the LSE’s impending training programme for senior aid peeps, part of the ‘Global Executive Leadership Initiative’. I have to put together brief annotated ‘further reading/listening/watching’ lists on those two issues. I want more examples of donors
Read more >>

Why do we keep forgetting about dignity? 4 Ways to Address Dignity in Development Programs

March 23, 2022
Guest post by Annabel Dulhunty, building on this 2018 post from Tom Wein The idea of human dignity frequently appears as a lofty overarching goal for development agencies and programs. Dignity is fundamental to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Yet practical ways of addressing and measuring the dignity of program participants are frequently overlooked. For example, the preamble to
Read more >>
Featured image for “Want to Challenge the Elite? Then first Understand What Makes Them Tick”

Want to Challenge the Elite? Then first Understand What Makes Them Tick

March 22, 2022
Understandably, perhaps, progressive researchers often prefer to try to understand the lives, challenges and struggles of the poor. Who wants to spend their time talking to sleazy fatcats? But if you want to change things, it’s often necessary to understand the people in charge. So I was very happy when public philosopher and political scientist Roman Krznaric sent over the
Read more >>

Links I Liked

March 21, 2022
Lot of videos this week – headphones on Ukraine first, natch: Development Impact of War in Ukraine: Initial projections @UNDP: ‘30% of population likely to require life-saving humanitarian assistance. In its current scale and direction, 18m people projected to become affected and more than 7m internally displaced.’ undp.org/publications/d… Arnold Schwarzenegger shows how comms is done, but will anyone in Russia
Read more >>

Development Nutshell: round-up (16m) of FP2P posts, w/b 14th March

March 19, 2022
No excerpt
Read more >>

What counts as ‘accountability’ – and who decides?

March 17, 2022
Guest post by Jonathan Fox, introducing his new paper Accountability is often treated as a magic bullet, an all-purpose solution to a very wide range of problems—from corrupt politicians and the quality of public services to systemic injustice and impunity.  Yet accountability reforms struggle to deliver. Has the idea been stretched so far that the buzzword gets watered down into
Read more >>