Featured image for “Power and the Pandemic: Observing COVID-19 in Africa through a Public Authorities Lens”

Power and the Pandemic: Observing COVID-19 in Africa through a Public Authorities Lens

October 9, 2020
This post went up yesterday on the LSE Africa Centre blog, plugging a new paper I co-edited with Tom Kirk Most discussion of Africa’s response to COVID-19 takes place at the national level, focussing on the role of formal state authorities. However, less is known about the role of ‘public authorities’: traditional chiefs, self-help groups, kinship networks, professional associations, faith-based
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Featured image for “How Covid and Inequality Feed Off Each Other: Launching the 2020 Commitment to Reduce Inequality Index”

How Covid and Inequality Feed Off Each Other: Launching the 2020 Commitment to Reduce Inequality Index

October 8, 2020
Max Lawson and Matthew Martin launch the new index, published by Oxfam and Development Finance International. Are more equal countries better able to cope with crises like Covid-19? When we look at humanitarian crises like famines or droughts, there is a fair amount of evidence that more equal countries are more resilient, that the impacts are more evenly spread, and
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Featured image for “What’s the best way to manage information overload on development? My favourite synthesizers and other tips.”

What’s the best way to manage information overload on development? My favourite synthesizers and other tips.

October 7, 2020
How to cope with Information Overload – how much of the daily tide of opinion and research on aid, development, politics etc can you manage to surf, while still doing the day job (which may well involve adding to it)? Some colleagues suffer from FOMO and ICYMI, hopping between social media in a constant scavenging for wisdom, or at least
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Featured image for “What are Oxfam’s top tips for effective campaigning? Interview with one of its gurus.”

What are Oxfam’s top tips for effective campaigning? Interview with one of its gurus.

October 6, 2020
Richard English, Oxfam’s in-house wizard on all things to do with campaigning, on its new Influencing for Impact Guide. Do please listen to the full 25m conversation if you can, but here are some extracts. Duncan: In your 25 years campaigning at Oxfam, what have been the high points? Examples where Oxfam really got it right? Richard: One or two
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Links I Liked

October 5, 2020
RIP RBG ht Kate Raworth Global perceptions of land and property rights. More detail on the 1bn ppl who live in fear of losing their homes, inc breakdown by geography, urban v rural, young v old and gender Latest round of Oxfam’s ‘Make Change Happen’ MOOC for activists starts today (5th October). Register now to join thousands of happy grads!
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Featured image for “Development Nutshell: 2 x audio round-up of FP2P posts, w/b 21st September (12m) and 28th September (15m)”

Development Nutshell: 2 x audio round-up of FP2P posts, w/b 21st September (12m) and 28th September (15m)

October 3, 2020
Apologies if this is too much, but my home internet went down at the crucial moment last week, so now I’m in catch up mode….. First week of 21st September Then week of 28th September
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Featured image for “‘Cutting Edge Issues in Development’ Heads up for an amazing series of online lectures, starting next week”

‘Cutting Edge Issues in Development’ Heads up for an amazing series of online lectures, starting next week

October 2, 2020
Organizing (along with James Putzel) the LSE’s guest lecture series on ‘Cutting Edge Issues in Development Thinking and Practice’ has turned out to be one of the few genuine silver linings in the Covid cloud. Because we’ve had to move to fully online, we’ve been able to get some of the world’s most interesting thinkers to speak to us from
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Featured image for “Rules of Thumb – good idea or double-edged sword?”

Rules of Thumb – good idea or double-edged sword?

October 1, 2020
Spent a fun couple of hours last week helping the Centre for Good Governance (CGG) in Myanmar identify its ‘rules of thumb’ (RoTs) – the default questions and instincts that govern an organization’s daily decision-making, rather than the long-winded strategy documents that no-one reads. One of the national staff nailed the difference ‘The theory of change comes later than the
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Featured image for “Taking Doughnut Economics from idea to action – welcome to the Action Lab”

Taking Doughnut Economics from idea to action – welcome to the Action Lab

September 30, 2020
Kate Raworth launches a brilliant, potentially world-shaping, new initiative This week is the online launch of Doughnut Economics Action Lab (DEAL). At the heart of it is a community platform, open to everyone who wants to turn Doughnut Economics from a radical idea into transformative action. We’ll be co-creating tools and sharing stories of how to build regenerative and distributive
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What do we learn from using Political Economy Analysis in 13 national health and education programmes?

September 29, 2020
If you’re interested in Thinking and Working Politically, or the use of Political Economy Analysis (PEA) in aid and development, then do please follow the Governance and Development Soapbox, run by the team at Abt. I’ve re-posted quite a few of its blogposts, by Graham Teskey, Lavinia Tyrrel and others, but it also has some excellent working papers and briefing
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Lest we forget: Why investments in hygiene, sanitation and water are key to fighting COVID-19

September 28, 2020
Guest post by Muyatwa Sitali, Head of Country Engagement, Sanitation and Water for All COVID-19 has taught us that a world where nearly half of its population do not have what they need to properly wash their hands at critical times is not a safe world. We are delicately and dangerously connected. A disease which started in one city has
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Here’s the Manual and Reading List for my LSE Course on advocacy, campaigning and grassroots activism. Please critique/improve/steal.

September 25, 2020
Sincerest form of flattery and all that. Inspired by Alice Evans’ bookification of her course reading list, Tom Kirk and I have turned the reading list for our LSE course on advocacy, campaigning and grassroots activism into a course manual, adding more background, a summary of each week’s content and seminar questions, among other things. Here it is – all
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