Guest post by Enrique Mendizabal Change is not linear. Policy change is not the end of the story.  The relationship between evidence and policy is not linear. Politics matters. Research matters very little. Individuals and individual organisations can do very little. At On Think Tanks, we’ve been making these points for over a decade. Events in Peru can now help

Heads up: Comments will be closed on the blog this week, as part of sorting out the internal plumbing. Sorry about that. Back up next week Too hot to read last week, so here are some graphics Yes, it was indeed very hot (ht Peter Anthony for the Caravaggio) Here’s NASA’s climate spiral to prove it In the 30 countries

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‘Oxfam mourns the death of our colleague & friend Jeremy Hobbs. He worked with us for over 2 decades and was Oxfam International’s first Executive Director. We remember him for his warmth, integrity and unwavering commitment to tackling inequality & injustice. Our thoughts are with his family.’ RIP Jeremy, a truly lovely, wise, wry and commited bloke, who (among many

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Aid organizations, including Oxfam, where I work part time, have been trying to draw attention to the looming hunger crisis across much of Sub-Saharan Africa. But some have been criticised for portraying the causes as mainly about drought, when in fact, war and conflict in countries such as Somalia and Ethiopia have been crucial factors. So I’m reposting this excellent

The ‘Grand Bargain’ signatories met last week to review progress on improving humanitarian aid. Bottom left of the graphic shows one area where it seems to be going backwards – % of aid going through local agencies fell from 2020 → 21. ht Sorcha O’Callaghan ‘Marx was a historian who believed that economics shapes history, Keynes, the smartest adviser to

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Gloria Steinem’s memoir. Dark days. ht Lucy Prebble. The People vs Inequality podcast joined forces with Oxfam for a miniseries highlighting four inspiring stories from the ‘Emergent Agency in a Time of COVID-19’ project. All the episodes here I’ll have what he’s having. ht Uncle Duke Max Lawson responds to Noah Smith’s recent criticisms of Oxfam’s numbers on poverty in

Abby Stoddard, Paul Harvey and Tonia Thomas present new research from Humanitarian Outcomes, supported by the UK Humanitarian Innovation Hub (UKHIH). Full report here. Over 100 days have passed since the Russian invasion of Ukraine sparked a massive humanitarian crisis along with an outpouring of international generosity in the form of aid contributions. So why are international organisations still sitting

There’s been an upsurge in recent decades in tackling problems by trying to change the behaviour of individuals – behavioural economics, nudge theory and a proliferation of government ‘nudge units’. Now two disillusioned proponents, Nick Chater and George Loewenstein, have written an important critique of the whole thing, contrasting what they call the ‘i (individual) frame’ with the ‘s (system)

Brief history of physics ht @sunny and Richard C. Some interesting stuff on aid this week: ‘If you look at the bigger picture of change, aid has been close to irrelevant’. Stefan Dercon rattling cages about his new book. But surely aid still matters for things other than ‘big picture’ growth, like helping in crises, showing solidarity, reducing inequality, supporting