August 8, 2023
Because I have one foot in the LSE and one in Oxfam, I sometimes get hauled in as a research ‘user’ (makes me sound like I have a drug problem) to review research funding applications and discuss whether, if approved, the research is likely to have much impact on the real world. I have to say, that recent experiences have
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Links I Liked
August 7, 2023
Barbie. What a fantastic film! I was enthralled from the first scene – a hilarious riff on 2001 A Space Odyssey. It manages to get some great messages on gender over in a way that is witty, knowing and not at all worthy. What’s more the kind of people who are going to and talking about the movie are way
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Development Nutshell. 25m of me talking you through the FP2P posts for w/b 31st July
August 5, 2023
Links I Liked How did we get here? Great chronology of citizen and corporate action on climate In your mid/late career and want to do a PhD? Here’s some good news. The Gross Domestic Problem: what would a new economic measure that values women and climate look like?
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The Gross Domestic Problem: what would a new economic measure that values women and climate look like?
August 3, 2023
Measuring progress by Gross Domestic Product leads straight to gender injustice, austerity and environmental ruin. Anam Parvez Butt and Alex Bush introduce a new Oxfam discussion paper that aims to encourage debate about alternative metrics, and calls on advocates to join the “Beyond GDP” movement Since its official adoption at the Bretton Woods conference in 1944, Gross Domestic Product or
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In your mid/late career and want to do a PhD? Here’s some good news.
August 2, 2023
One of the most popular posts on FP2P has been ‘How to get a PhD in a year (without giving up the day job)’. It discussed my ‘PhD by published work’, completed in 2011 at Oxford Brookes University, and what a great fit it was for someone well on in their career, or who has grown-up bills to pay. Fast
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How did we get here? Great chronology of citizen and corporate action on climate
August 1, 2023
I’m spending the summer lull updating How Change Happens and am coming across some really interesting stuff. To update the book’s case study on the Paris Climate Summit of 2015, Irene Guijt sent over ‘A short history of the successes and failures of the international climate change negotiations’ an excellent (open access) paper by Mark Maslin, John Lang and Fiona
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Links I Liked
July 31, 2023
Your weekly reminder that, as twitter dies (and turns into an absurdly sinister X – what is that about?), I’m moving some activity to Linked In – please follow. Potholes Activists seem be particularly creative and effective. Here’s Joe Coughlan in Bromley, South London. Much ruder versions also get results, apparently. The torrent of opinion pieces on AI (some of
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Development Nutshell podcast. 25m roundup of posts for w/b 24th July
July 29, 2023
Links I LikedSchool children are bearing the brunt of the global hunger crisis – just feed themHow the United Nations and the World Bank can turbo charge the effort to reduce InequalityEvaluating the Evaluations: What lessons can Oxfam draw from a Decade of Scrutiny?
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Evaluating the Evaluations: What lessons can Oxfam draw from a Decade of Scrutiny?
July 27, 2023
Propaganda and opinion are easy; establishing the truth is hard (and I speak here as someone once branded Oxfam’s ‘chief opinionator’ – thanks John Magrath). Oxfam has been wrestling with different ways to evaluate impact for decades and in a new paper, a team led by Katrina Barnes ploughed through 67 ‘Effectiveness Reviews’ – rigorous impact evaluations on randomly selected
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How the United Nations and the World Bank can turbo charge the effort to reduce Inequality
July 26, 2023
Guest post from Oxfam’s Anthony Kamande Over the past decade, many leading economists and global institutions such as the United Nations (UN), the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank have taken a keen interest in economic inequality. Tons of inequality data have been unearthed, and inequality is now on ordinary people’s lips. Indeed, in 2015 the UN adopted
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School children are bearing the brunt of the global hunger crisis – just feed them.
July 24, 2023
Kevin Watkins introduces a new paper on a crucial topic Governments will this week gather in Rome for a UN event with one of those titles designed to induce profound boredom. The FAO is marking the second anniversary of the 2021 World Food System Summit with a ‘Stocktaking Moment’. Yes, I know, those two words feel like a good enough
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Links I Liked
July 24, 2023
Twitter seems v tired/evil right now, so I have started an FP2P LinkedIn page. Not quite sure what I’ll do with it yet, apart from link to new FP2P posts. All suggestions welcome (plus please follow!). A new league table analyses the disclosure and performance of 60 of the world’s largest global food and beverage companies on their efforts to
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