Featured image for “5 Things we Learned from Evaluating the Impact of Research”

5 Things we Learned from Evaluating the Impact of Research

September 28, 2023
Guest post by Cordelia Lonsdale and Dr Gloria Seruwagi The Research for Health in Humanitarian Crises (R2HC) programme has an explicit impact mission: the research funded through the programme should improve health outcomes for people affected by humanitarian crises. R2HC uses case studies to evaluate not only the outcomes and impacts of funded research, but to understand the processes, activities
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Featured image for “Finishing a 2nd Edition of How Change Happens – here are drafts of two new chapters for you to read. Comments please!”

Finishing a 2nd Edition of How Change Happens – here are drafts of two new chapters for you to read. Comments please!

September 26, 2023
I spent the summer toiling away on updating How Change Happens. Luckily the weather was pretty rubbish, so I didn’t resent it too much. Most of the chapter updates were just that – adding more recent stats, a few new references, a generally more sombre take, given that the first edition appeared just months before Brexit and Trump. But there
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Links I Liked

September 25, 2023
They’ve got a point Twitter spirals on downward under Musk: ‘Musk says X will charge everyone to use the platform’. As a firm believer in Open Access, if twitter goes gated, I’m out – v upsetting given what a good experience it’s been up to now. If/when it happens, guess I’ll switch to Linked In for most interactions, so do
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Featured image for “Development Nutshell podcast. 22m roundup of posts for w/b 11th and 18th September”

Development Nutshell podcast. 22m roundup of posts for w/b 11th and 18th September

September 23, 2023
No excerpt
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Featured image for “Fancy some Good News? Brits are getting nicer.”

Fancy some Good News? Brits are getting nicer.

September 21, 2023
Fancy some good news? A fascinating piece in today’s Guardian outlines the magnitude of the norm shifts that have taken place in the UK after the last 40 years, based on the latest British social attitudes (BSA) survey, which is marking its 40th year of mapping Britain’s cultural and political landscape. Underneath the left-right pendulum shifts of political debate, the
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Featured image for “What can we learn from how an Adaptive Management programme has navigated Myanmar’s current chaos?”

What can we learn from how an Adaptive Management programme has navigated Myanmar’s current chaos?

September 19, 2023
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
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Featured image for “Book Review: Power and Progress. Our Thousand-Year Struggle Over Technology and Prosperity”

Book Review: Power and Progress. Our Thousand-Year Struggle Over Technology and Prosperity

September 14, 2023
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
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Links I Liked

September 12, 2023
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
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Featured image for “Podcast. 24m roundup of posts for w/b 28th August and 4th September”

Podcast. 24m roundup of posts for w/b 28th August and 4th September

September 9, 2023
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 
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How more Open Government can bolster USAID’s Localization Agenda

September 6, 2023
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
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Featured image for “The World Order Seems to be in Turmoil – What’s Going on?”

The World Order Seems to be in Turmoil – What’s Going on?

September 5, 2023
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
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Featured image for “Links I Liked”

Links I Liked

September 4, 2023
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
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