Featured image for “A TripAdvisor in development? Turns out it’s a poster on the wall…”

A TripAdvisor in development? Turns out it’s a poster on the wall…

July 19, 2021
Guest post from Derek Thorne Back in 2015, Duncan Green published a piece on FP2P asking whether a TripAdvisor-style feedback system could work in development. If you follow the link, you’ll see it generated a lot of feedback! The idea was – and is – that TripAdvisor, and systems like it, have put significant power in the hands of consumers,
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Featured image for “Mission-critical: investing in water, sanitation and hygiene for a healthy and green recovery”

Mission-critical: investing in water, sanitation and hygiene for a healthy and green recovery

July 8, 2021
WaterAid’s Tseguereda Abraham, Hossain Ishrath Adib and John Garrett introduce its new report. Why invest in water, sanitation and hygiene? Most schoolchildren would need only a few seconds to find an answer. Of course, water and sanitation are human rights, and hygiene has a vital role in preventing infectious disease, as COVID-19 has highlighted all too clearly. So why is
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Featured image for “How has Covid affected Fathers and Gender Equality? What’s Next?”

How has Covid affected Fathers and Gender Equality? What’s Next?

June 18, 2021
Nikki van der Gaag reflects on the state of dad-dom ahead of fathers’ day on Sunday. She is a co-author of this year’s State of the World’s Fathers report One thing is certain in these uncertain times. Being a father has changed. I have never seen so many dads out with their children as I did when I walked in
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Featured image for “Global Covid death toll 3 times higher than the usual stats suggest, and much more skewed towards poor countries”

Global Covid death toll 3 times higher than the usual stats suggest, and much more skewed towards poor countries

May 18, 2021
Some really important number crunching in The Economist this week. They have built an estimate of the number of ‘excess deaths’ worldwide – that is mortality above the pre-Covid average. This gives you a more accurate picture of how many people have died, because so many Covid deaths are not recorded as pandemic-related (whether because of weak stats systems, or
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Featured image for “How research into Ebola secured a seat at the table of COVID-19 policy-making”

How research into Ebola secured a seat at the table of COVID-19 policy-making

May 6, 2021
In my third post on the impact of researchers at the LSE Centre for Public Authority and International Development, I talk to CPAID’s Melissa Parker about her ground-breaking work on Sierra Leone’s Ebola outbreak and how it helped her bring the ‘public authority’ lens into policy-making. When you send in the anthropologists, be ready for surprises – totally new players,
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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 “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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Featured image for “Trust, Politics, Exhaustion and Anger: findings on Emergent Agency in a time of Covid”

Trust, Politics, Exhaustion and Anger: findings on Emergent Agency in a time of Covid

April 6, 2021
The Emerging Agency in a Time of Covid project is buzzing along nicely. Today (12.30pm, London time, 6th April) Niranjan Nampoothiri will summarize his findings from sorting, summarizing and coding the 200 cases for the project database. Register here. Headline findings here. We had a stocktake webinar recently looking for common patterns from a burgeoning set of discussion groups on
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Featured image for “Book Review: The Plague Cycle: The Unending War Between Humanity and Infectious Disease, by Charles Kenny”

Book Review: The Plague Cycle: The Unending War Between Humanity and Infectious Disease, by Charles Kenny

March 29, 2021
Charles Kenny is a wonderfully fluent and accessible writer. He’s also quick, judging by his latest book, The Plague Cycle: The Unending War Between Humanity and Infectious Disease. Here’s how it opens: ‘The two leading killers worldwide at the start of the twenty-first century are heart attacks and strokes. That is evidence of humanity’s greatest triumph: until recent decades, most
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Is the UK diverting Covid vaccines from poorer countries?

March 25, 2021
Guest post by Rory Horner (University of Manchester) and Ken Shadlen (LSE) Various UK media reports have blamed lower than expected supply of the AstraZeneca vaccine from India for a slowing of the UK’s vaccination programme, especially delaying immunisation of the under-50s. Although five million doses of vaccines produced by the Serum Institute of India were dispatched from India to
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What is COVID-19 telling us about leadership?

March 18, 2021
Guest post from Heather Marquette and Sian Herbert, both University of Birmingham. Their paper on ­­COVID-19, Governance and Conflict: Emerging Impacts and Future Evidence Needs, reviews hundreds of pieces of research and analysis and is published by the Knowledge for Development (K4D) COVID-19 Resource Hub. COVID-19 has so far proven to be a unique – and ongoing – global natural
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Featured image for “What can we learn from 200 case studies of ’emergent agency in a time of Covid’?”

What can we learn from 200 case studies of ’emergent agency in a time of Covid’?

March 17, 2021
The ‘Emergent Agency in a Time of Covid-19‘ research project is churning out some interesting findings and a flurry of webinars. Here Niranjan Nampoothiri and Filippo Artuso give some headline findings on the 200 case studies Niranjan has analysed and coded. We aim to publish the database later this year. Niranjan will present his findings on 6th April, 12.30 UTC
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