The political economy of UK aid ht Lee Crawfurd
James Putzel and I have been having fun organizing the LSE’s Friday afternoon lecture series, ‘Cutting Edge Issues in Development Thinking and Practice’. Ha-Joon Chang was brilliant on ‘the political economy of Parasite (the movie)’ with the Squid Game thrown in. Take your pick from student write-ups, podcast or Youtube. This Friday it’s Clare Short on ‘What’s Wrong with Aid?’
Lots of twitter outrage at disgraced former UK Health Minister Matt Hancock’s bizarre appointment as ‘special representative for financial innovation and climate change for the UN’s Economic Commission for Africa. Here’s Nic Cheeseman:
‘Unbelievable that this has been offered to & accepted by someone with no deep knowledge of the challenges African economies are facing whatsoever. There are so many people with such great insights who could have been chosen. A scandal and I expect a forced resignation soon …’
Maybe an example of political SWEDOW? 😉
Update: the social media battering appears to have brought ECA to its senses, and they withdrew the offer. Result
Parting thoughts from a humanitarian reporter: insightful valedictory reflection on the aid biz from The New Humanitarian’s Ben Parker
Failure to ensure women have equal access to the internet has exacerbated gender inequality & cost low-income countries $1tn over past decade and could mean an additional loss of $500bn by 2025 if governments don’t take action, according to new research.
What happened to land grabs in Africa? Useful update, including discussion on deals stuck in legal/conflictual limbo – a particular problem in much of Africa.
Branko Milanovic deciphers this scatter plot of income inequality by country 2018: ‘Latin America in green is (still) very unequal, and Eastern Europe/Central Asia, in red, is still, with a few exceptions, relatively equal. WENAO (Western Europe, North America, Oceania) is in blue. Most African countries are exceptionally unequal.
