I accompanied a project in Myanmar that ran from August 2017 to October 2021 implemented by DT Global. This blog is written together with guest bloggers Jane Lonsdale and Kelly Robertson. As part of the programme’s final output, we wrote a ‘reflection paper’, discussing what ended up as being an important natural experiment in Adaptive Management (AM), as a governance

I started reading Power and Progress in a fairly sceptical frame of mind, because I didn’t much like Why Nations Fail. But it won me over in the end, especially the final chapter on what to do about the current tech clusterfxck of AI, filter bubbles, mis- and disinformation, gig economy exploitation etc etc. Main message: Since roughly 1980, something

Did you have a relaxing summer holidays? Academic version. Ht PHDComics Often talk to my students about finding the right messenger for your campaign, not just focussing on the message. Here’s a nice Oxfam example: Millionaires (yes, really), economists, and eminent politicians implore the G20 to “tax the super-rich”. In an open letter, they call for a new international agreement

Links I LikedWho Decides What Constitutes ‘Knowledge’ on Climate Change?Links I LikedThe World Order Seems to be in Turmoil – What’s Going on?How more Open Government can bolster USAID’s Localization Agenda 

By Jonathan Fox (right) and Jeffrey Hallock , Accountability Research Center, School of International Service, American University This week, USAID Administrator Samantha Power is scheduled to give a keynote at the Open Government Partnership Global Summit in Estonia. In November 2021, she wowed the international development community with a pair of very ambitious localization targets –25% of direct funding for

Over the summer, there appears to have been a big upheaval in the international system, and I’m wondering what it all means. In August, the five existing members of the BRICS club — Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, expanded it with invitations to Argentina, Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (BRICISSUE-AE?). According to the

Striking opinion poll in West Africa covered in The Economist, showing a high level of support for the Niger coup, and huge differences over trust in Russia (former colonial powers come out v badly). What can harnessing ‘positive deviance’ methods do for food security? Nice example from Niger (pre-coup) by Katrina Lane This is what the Internet is for: Adam

Thanks to Irene Guijt for sending over her 2021 chapter (gated, sorry – boooh!) on ‘The urgency for epistemic and political climate justice’, co-authored with Jacobo Ocharan and Velina Petrova for an edited volume, Knowledge for the Anthropocene. Don’t worry about the slightly intimidating title (confession: I always find ‘epistemic’ sending me scuttling back to the dictionary, along with ‘ontological’,

The FT’s John Burn Murdoch doing his amazing data thing again, this time to show just how bad urban transport is in the UK. This is so sad. I really love the India Club, right opposite LSE and now it’s closing because the landlord wants to cash in. Bah! Can AI help with the heavy lifting of research communications? Some

Top Student Blogs and Vlogs from my LSE Activism course:  Valerie Barki: Are you #ManEnoughToSnip? Jessica Louise: There’s a chicken in the desert!  Martin Caforio: Green to Go: The Better Way to Take Away Vlogs from Carlota Lopez, Debra Francis and Holly Ingram A historic global agreement on tax is under threat. Here’s why. Amazing new Resource Guide on Humanitarianism

Woah, if you’re even slightly interested in knowing more about the world of humanitarian response, check out the new ALNAP Learning Links | Free academic resources and teaching tools for humanitarian courses and programmes. Here’s the blurb:  ‘ALNAP is the global network for advancing humanitarian learning. We want to provide future generations of humanitarians with unfettered access to our very best

This post by Farida Bena was originally published on the Kiliza website Every year, an estimated USD 312 billion are lost in unpaid corporate taxes around the world. By using legal loopholes, many companies avoid paying their dues – often to Southern countries that host their operations and provide cheap labour. This happens because the governments of those countries are unable to