Featured image for “Could Activists Do Better at Resisting Backlash?”

Could Activists Do Better at Resisting Backlash?

March 15, 2024
Been having a series of conversations on the general theme of ‘backlash’. Some thoughts: Background: a lot of activist thinking is predicated on being on the front foot – this is a law, policy, spending commitment or social norm that we want to change. Lots of case studies, toolkits and experience on how to do that – problem and power
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GELI Stories – Taking Risks as a Leader to protect child rights in Syria

March 13, 2024
In the fifth of this series of podcasts with UN and other aid leaders making change happen on the frontline, I talked to Panos Moumtzis, who now leads the GELI programme, about some top influencing he did in a previous job as UN Humanitarian Coordinator for Syria Firoz Lalji Institute for Africa · GELI Stories – Panos Moumtzis on how
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GELI Stories – How to get Early Childhood Development into the SDGs (with a bit of help from Shakira)

March 6, 2024
In the fourth of this series of podcasts with UN and other aid leaders making change happen on the frontline, I talked to UNICEF’s Pia Britto about how she and a group of colleagues managed to include Early Childhood Development in the SDGs.  Firoz Lalji Institute for Africa · GELI Stories – Pia Brito on getting Early Childhood Development into
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Thirty Years of Anti-Corruption: A Personal Reflection

March 5, 2024
Journalist, activist and anti-corruption legend John Githongo reflects on the shifting story of anti-corruption in Africa, from Western models to new agendas. This is an edited-down version of a piece published in The Elephant. Corruption, however you define it, is so integral to the way human commercial and political affairs play out that all major global developments in its regard
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GELI Stories – How to influence in closed Political Systems like Eritrea

March 1, 2024
In the third of this series of podcasts with UN and other aid leaders making change happen on the frontline, I talked to OCHA’s Vincent Omuga about the challenges of working in closed and informal political spaces like Eritrea (although I think his experiences are probably much more widely applicable) Firoz Lalji Institute for Africa · GELI Stories – Vincent
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Options for UK Aid: DFID survivor Tom Wingfield responds to last week’s posts by Andy Sumner

February 27, 2024
Tom Wingfield got in touch after reading last week’s posts on the future of UK aid, building off his recent post on LinkedIn Before we shut the door on reversing the DFID/FCO merger (See DFID 2.0…? Part 2 of Andy Sumner’s Crystal Balling on the future of UK aid | From Poverty to Power (oxfam.org.uk), we need to be clear-eyed
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DFID 2.0…? Part 2 of Andy Sumner’s Crystal Balling on the future of UK aid

February 22, 2024
In this second blog of two, Andy Sumner of King’s College London asks what a change of government in the UK might mean for UK development cooperation and policy: will a new DFID rise from the ashes? Will ODA spend rise back to 0.7% of GNI? And what might a change of government mean for UK development co-operation’s policy focus?
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DFID 2.0…? Some wild-ish speculation on UK development cooperation, 2025-2030

February 21, 2024
In this first of two blogs, Andy Sumner of King’s College London looks into his crystal ball and ask what a change of government in the UK might mean for UK development cooperation and policy. This first blog asks what has changed since 1997 (when DFID was established) and what a new government would inherit. The second part of the
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Featured image for “A UN tax convention is finally in the making. Now what?”

A UN tax convention is finally in the making. Now what?

January 23, 2024
This post by Farida Bena (right) first appeared on the Kiliza blog A few months ago, I interviewed Abdul Muheet Chowdhary (below) from the South Centre to discuss the ongoing negotiations on a landmark United Nations tax agreement that is in the making. If approved by enough Member States, this global agreement – also called the UN Framework Convention on
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Featured image for “Corporate power is driving up inequality. This is how to make corporates work for the common good instead – this year’s Oxfam Davos report”

Corporate power is driving up inequality. This is how to make corporates work for the common good instead – this year’s Oxfam Davos report

January 15, 2024
Oxfam’s annual ‘Davos Report’ has become a bit of an institution. On the eve of this year’s megarich schmoozathon, Anthony Kamande introduces the main findings of the 2024 version. Full paper here. Last Christmas eve, my cousin Lucy came to my rural village. She needed some help. Lucy’s son had excelled in the national exams and was selected to join
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What are the Grounds for Hope in a World of Wrecks?

January 8, 2024
The title is a line from Rebecca Solnit’s ‘Hope in the Dark’, which I read over Christmas as an antidote to the grimness of the daily news. It’s a beautifully written collection of her essays and, at 140 pages, mercifully short. In the afterword, Solnit explains: ‘This book was written for the encouragement of activists who share some of my
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Six big humanitarian policy trends for 2024

January 4, 2024
Irwin Loy and Will Worley have an excellent 2024 curtain raiser on The New Humanitarian, which is now by some distance my favourite aid blog. It’s a bit long by FP2P standards, so I’ve cut it down a bit: Money: Learning to do less with less  In 2023, humanitarians took a look in the mirror and admitted what everyone already knew: They don’t have
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