Featured image for “Lisa Nandy on UK’s Future Development Policy Under Labour”

Lisa Nandy on UK’s Future Development Policy Under Labour

February 29, 2024
So, apologies for the anglo-centrism and all that, but the recent series of crystal ball blogs on the future of UK Aid under (as seems likely) an incoming Labour Government has been getting lots of good comments. Here’s Andy Sumner parts one and two, and Tom Wingfield’s response. This week, Labour’s Shadow Cabinet Minister for International Development, Lisa Nandy (right),
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Featured image for “Options for UK Aid: DFID survivor Tom Wingfield responds to last week’s posts by Andy Sumner”

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 “GELI Stories – Building Coalitions between UN Agencies and Government Ministries in Eswatini”

GELI Stories – Building Coalitions between UN Agencies and Government Ministries in Eswatini

February 20, 2024
In the second of this series of podcasts with UN and other aid leaders making change happen on the frontline, I talked to Cissy Kabasuuga of WFP about how she managed to unblock a school feeding programme in Eswatini. Firoz Lalji Institute for Africa · GELI Stories-Cissy Kabasuuga on building coalitions within UN & Eswatini for school feeding Duncan: Welcome
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Development Nutshell, bumper edition (28m). Audio roundup of (selected) January/February blogs on From Poverty to Power

February 17, 2024
How Blogs can Change Government Policy Six big humanitarian policy trends for 2024 What are the Grounds for Hope in a World of Wrecks? The Rise of ‘Trust-Based Philanthropy’ – aka Unconditional Cash Transfers to NGOs Is Poverty Porn a thing of the past? Yes and No
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Is Poverty Porn a thing of the past? Yes and No

February 15, 2024
Guest post from Jess Crombie. Jess is a researcher and scholar at UAL, and a consultant for some of the leading organisations in the humanitarian sector. The term Poverty Porn (coined in 1985); the widely criticised (though still widely played) song ‘Do they Know It’s Christmas’; the Lammy/Dooley scandal around Comic Relief; the brutal murder of George Floyd, sparking worldwide
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GELI Stories – Seizing a Chance Meeting with Iran’s President to Unblock Food Shipments

February 13, 2024
One of the best things about the course I give on ‘Influencing for Senior Leaders: Analysis, Strategy, and Practice’ is the anecdotes from the participants, who are working in the most difficult of circumstances and often achieve amazing results. So recently I started recording some of them to come up with a series of ‘GELI Stories’ (GELI is the name
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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 “The Rise of ‘Trust-Based Philanthropy’ – aka Unconditional Cash Transfers to NGOs”

The Rise of ‘Trust-Based Philanthropy’ – aka Unconditional Cash Transfers to NGOs

January 18, 2024
Last week’s Economist had a really useful Special Report by Avantika Chilkoti on the evolving world of philanthropy. It highlighted the rise of what it calls ‘no strings giving’ or ‘trust-based philanthropy’, in which some v big donors have essentially adopted an institutional cash transfer approach: if organizations are doing good work, just sign the cheque and leave them to
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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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Featured image for “Claire Melamed on Data, Power and Sustainable Development”

Claire Melamed on Data, Power and Sustainable Development

January 10, 2024
For this podcast, I sat down a few months ago to discuss data and development with Claire Melamed, who runs the Global Partnership for Sustainable Development Data. Apologies for delay, Claire – got caught up in internal traffic. Also apologies for length of this transcript – turns out 30m talking = 2 blog length pieces. Duncan: Like any good Englishman,
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