Final post in the outstanding Bukavu Series of blogs on life for national researchers in the DRC, from Élisée Cirhuza Balolage and Esther Kadetwa Kayanga. Introduction to the Bukavu series here. Search on ‘Bukavu’ for the other posts in the series or see list at end of this piece. Original post here. We have seen how the presence of a light-skinned researcher

Gotta love the fuel shortage v Brexit cartoons. Here’s another cracker – please add your own Nigel Farage also doing his bit to keep us amused. Thoughts and prayers for the father of Brexit. And the BBC got in on the nominative determinism game. Ladies and Gents, please welcome … Phil McCann Just a few weeks after Liz Truss became

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A last couple of posts in series from the Bukavu workshops on the realities of research in the DRCongo, this one by An Ansoms and Irene Bahati. Introduction to the Bukavu series here. Search on ‘Bukavu’ for the other posts in the series or see list at end of this piece. Original post here. Working in a conflict zone is difficult

Throughout the pandemic, social protection practitioners have been drawing on past experience and established ‘mantras’ to support governments and emergency actors to respond to the crisis. Valentina Barca, the Team Lead for the FCDO-GIZ-DFAT-funded SPACE service shares reflections on whether and how these mantras have been taken up. COVID-19 caught us all by surprise. The social protection sector was no exception. Often

This year’s Cutting Edge Issues in Development Thinking and Practice series kicks off at the LSE this Friday – 1st October. After that it’s every Friday from 4-6pm UK time (except for reading week on 5th November, when we all have a lie down). So why not bunk off work a bit early and start your weekend with some great

UK migration policy co/ The New European Good early backgrounder on COP26 from CNN The online pile-on over the deeply naff and questionable CBS ‘reality’ TV show that pits activists against each other in an X-factor style piece of nonsense has triggered a rethink from the organizers and this fine set of alternative suggestions. The whole furore seems oddly absent

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I’ve come to recognize a certain format for ‘inspirational books for activists’: big sweeping statement about What Needs to Happen, then what I call ‘thousand points of light’ – breathless accounts of some activist-led efforts to achieve those goals. On to the call to arms, invoking political will. Job Done. I must be getting (even more) jaded. What’s wrong with

What are the most prevalent unintended effects of international cooperation? Dirk Jan Koch, together with the Center for Global Challenges of Utrecht University, analyzed all project evaluations by the Policy and Operations Evaluation Department (IOB) of the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs since the turn of the century. Here’s the top 10. The figures in brackets show the number of

Beyond excited to host a development hero, Jean Drèze, on the blog. He introduces some new research showing that in India, the prolonged closure of schools has taken a heavy toll. A sound strategy to deal with this crisis is nowhere in sight. Indian children have been “locked out” of school for almost a year and a half. This lockout,

The Flat Earth Society scores an own goal. ht Giles Paley-Phillips After huge controversy over fiddling the numbers to avoid antagonising powerful countries like China, the World Bank scrapped its Doing Business report. But even without the corruption, its methodology always felt dodgy – more ‘how much does country X resemble the American dream’, with a focus on low taxation/regulation