Featured image for “Think tanks are struggling. They need to change.”

Think tanks are struggling. They need to change.

October 25, 2023
Guest post by Enrique Mendizabal of On Think Tanks Just 15% of respondents say it’s getting easier to operate as a think tank, according to the 2023 Think tank state of the sector report. And over 50% of respondents in Latin America & the Caribbean, the USA & Canada, and Africa say it is getting harder to operate. I think
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What Tactics are most Effective in Non-Violent Protest?

October 24, 2023
Continuing on yesterday’s theme of the ups and downs of mass protest, I met (albeit via zoom) with Srjda Popovic, one of my protest heroes, last week. Srdja’s a Serbian political activist who cut his activist teeth as a leader of the student movement Otpor that helped topple Serbian president Slobodan Milošević. He established the Centre for Applied Nonviolent Action and Strategies (CANVAS) in 2003 and
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Why did the Street Movements of the 2010s fail?

October 23, 2023
Been reading some interesting (and challenging) reflections on protest movements recently, so the next two days will cover what I’ve learned. First up a Guardian ‘long read’ from Vincent Bevins, a journo, on ‘Why did the Street Movements of the 2010s fail’. The piece is based on his new book,  If We Burn: The Mass Protest Decade and the Missing
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Development Nutshell (22m). Audio roundup of From Poverty to Power posts wb 9th and 16th October

October 21, 2023
Links I LikedWhich book should I review next? You decide please!How do we talk about Older People in Development and Activism?Be Care-full. A poem for the timesLinks I LikedWill growth be enough to end poverty? New Projections of the UN Sustainable Development GoalsWhat would make an Atheist spend a day discussing Faith and Development?
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What would make an Atheist spend a day discussing Faith and Development?

October 19, 2023
Had a good chat last week about one of my enduring hobby-horses: the role of faith in development, and the aid sector’s massive secular blind spot. The conversation was with Christian Aid’s Lila Caballero Sosa, who (with Islamic Relief, the Joint Learning Initiative and the University of Leeds) is putting together a big event on faith and development for next
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Featured image for “Will growth be enough to end poverty? New Projections of the UN Sustainable Development Goals”

Will growth be enough to end poverty? New Projections of the UN Sustainable Development Goals

October 17, 2023
Guest post by Arief Anshory Yusuf, Zuzy Anna, Ahmad Komarulzaman and Andy Sumner Today, October 17th is the UN International Day for the Eradication of Poverty (you already knew that, right?). In new analysis for UNU-WIDER, we assess progress towards the global poverty-related SDGs, specifically monetary poverty, undernutrition, child and maternal mortality, and access to clean water and basic sanitation.
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Links I Liked

October 16, 2023
Bit of good news out of India, for a change. On September 21st India’s parliament passed a bill reserving a third of the seats in its lower house and in state assemblies for women. Angus Deaton, Nobel Memorial Laureate, on the state of economics: “The time has come, Deaton argues, for economists to get back to serving society. ‘The discipline
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Be Care-full. A poem for the times

October 14, 2023
“Be careful to separate people from the policies of their governments.  Be careful to separate people from the actions of terrorists who live among them. Be careful not to collapse history and context into narrow interpretation. Be careful not to eschew complexity and nuance for the sake of memeification.  Be careful to recognize that grief for one side does not mean hate for the other. Be careful to understand that support for one side does not
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How do we talk about Older People in Development and Activism?

October 12, 2023
Had a nice chat with Cherian Mathews, the incoming head of HelpAge International, this week, which got me thinking about how we talk about the role of older people in development. Our conversation on possible future directions for HAI mainly centred on narratives and tactics. Narratives Obviously no one wants to go with ‘older people as victims’, which manages to
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Which book should I review next? You decide please!

October 10, 2023
My reviews pile has crept higher over the summer and is now becoming a bit of a health and safety issue. Reviewing books takes a lot of time, which I don’t have much of right now as term has started at the LSE. But FP2P readers often appreciate the reviews for the same reason – saves them reading the whole
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Links I Liked

October 9, 2023
When you’re dictating the live BBC blog on the Tory party conference and someone takes your breakfast order… Two excellent pieces from the New Humanitarian Aid agencies and politicians need to understand the political economy of camps for internally displaced people before sounding off about aid diversion. ‘Aid theft in Somalia is not what you think‘ ‘Like all ruling classes,
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Featured image for “Development Nutshell podcast. 27m roundup of posts for w/b 25th September and 2nd October”

Development Nutshell podcast. 27m roundup of posts for w/b 25th September and 2nd October

October 7, 2023
Links I Liked Finishing a 2nd Edition of How Change Happens – here are drafts of two new chapters for you to read. 5 Things we Learned from Evaluating the Impact of Research How Local Women Mobilizers Shaped Ukraine’s Invasion Response New Version of the free online ‘Make Change Happen’ course launched this week – check it outDo our LSE
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