Two interesting recent posts on Adaptive Management, complexity etc, which the authors have kindly allowed me to repost here. First up is Søren Vester Haldrup, from UNDP’s Strategic Innovation Unit, wrestling with the issue of measurement and learning. Original post here. Tomorrow Tom Aston provides a great overview of where we’ve got to on adaptive management. Two years ago, we launched a

From our local Jubilee street party. Neat (if unintended) summary of state of union, monarchy, hangovers…. What if Putin’s true goals are different? Branko Milanovic wonders if the West is playing into Putin’s hands, by building a ‘new iron curtain’. A country-by-country guide to worsening drought in the Horn of Africa. (Actually, drought + war, as several people pointed out)

The IIED’s Natalie Lartey explores common challenges in tackling racial bias in the storytelling that underpins international development research and identifies opportunities for change. Storytelling in the aid and development sectors has for many years been criticised for perpetuating racial stereotypes and bias. In the main, this critique has focused on public affairs content from big brand charities, with less time

How structural racism shows up in peacebuilding, from new Peace Direct report ht Shuna Keen How Not to End Mass Starvation. Alex de Waal argues it’s no use asking for money if you ignore conflict and war Lot of Aussie friends are VERY excited about Penny Wong, their new Foreign/Aid Minister ‘The UK has a little less than 24 months

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Guest post by Exfamer Maya Mailer In torrential rain, I clutched my 3 year-old daughter’s little hand. I was outside Lloyd’s of London, one of the world’s biggest insurers of fossil fuels, with a group of parents, toddlers and a giant paper mache oil drum filled with dying flowers. It was almost Father’s Day 2021. We chanted and sang, and

Max Lawson on Oxfam’s latest Davos broadside and his worries that his salary is about to get cut We are living through extraordinary times. Extraordinarily bad for the vast majority of humanity.  Extraordinarily good if you are one of the richest people in the world. Normally they meet in January at Davos, but that face-to-face meeting was postponed, due to

Patching Development: Information Politics and Social Change in India by Rajesh Veeraraghavan is a wonderful and important book, a deep dive into the world’s largest social protection programme – India’s NREGA scheme – to explore the interaction between state reformers and citizen activists, as they work together, or sometimes against each other, to overcome the local politics of caste, capture,

Mainly visuals this week: Pfizer profits. Nuff said. Branko Milanovic on Amartya Sen’s “Home in the World: A Memoir” – one of those reviews that makes you want to buy the book (instead of being an alternative to buying it) glineq.blogspot.com/2022/05/the-ma… Leadership tips from James Timpson. Especially the last 3. Here’s everyone who has ever lived in one graphic… ht

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There’s sometimes a fine line between ‘what aboutery’ – unhelpfully distracting from one claim for public or policy attention by saying ‘yes, but what about X? – and a genuine exposure of double standards. But when it comes to East Africa right now, it’s not a fine line, but a gulf distinguishing the world’s feeble response from the laudable, (if

This post by Oxfam’s Max Lawson first appeared on its Equals blog. I’ll be summarizing our new paper on the East Africa hunger crisis tomorrow. The other day I was speaking to Nellie, an old friend and primary school teacher in Malawi, about the rapidly rising prices: ‘Prices have risen, just since last month.  Imagine a loaf of bread was