ALNAP, which describes itself as a ‘a global network dedicated to learning how to improve response to humanitarian crises’, has just published a really good series of ‘essential briefings for humanitarian decision makers’. Proper grown-up sitreps, full of difficult questions with no easy answers (and quite a few unexplained acronyms, which can make them a bit inaccessible). The one that jumped out

Reading this book by the 2021 Nobel Peace Prize winner, Maria Ressa, got me thinking about the mental landscapes of the journalists I know. Articles are essentially linear (beginning, middle end), and a good journalist keeps shades of grey to a minimum if they don’t want to lose their readers. For those activist journalists who are motivated to change their

Hugo Slim gets ‘slightly ethical’ (his words) as he kicks off what I’m sure will be a stream of interesting outputs from his new ‘What is Climate Humanitarianism?’ project at the Las Casas Institute for Social Justice at Blackfriars Hall, University of Oxford. Initially published on the Humanitarian Practice Network blog In the run-up to COP 28, humanitarian agencies are

Thanks to Exfamer Bert Maerten for sending over this interesting reflection by Soli Middleby (16 page paper from Partnership Brokers Association). Some excerpts: ‘Leaving aside the complex and important debates around the actual effectiveness of development3 there should be little doubt that the industry operates on a significant, complex, and historic power imbalance. The development industry’s own practitioners and policy

Kudos to the Economist’s graphics team. Some recent examples: It’s continuing to do important analysis of excess deaths from Covid. ‘the world’s current total mortality rate exceeds projections from 2019 by 5%, or 3m lives per year.’ = 4th leading cause of death worldwide Striking picture of the shift of global economic centre of gravity since 1990s, with obvious (geo)political

Links I LikedReforming the World Bank: some good ideas, but where’s the power, politics and feasibility?How to get people to take the Care Economy seriously? Some top (evidence-based) tips

Been taking a look at Silvia Galandini, Anam Parvez and Nick Gadsby’s new Oxfam new ‘toolkit’ on building public pressure for change on the care economy, by constructing a ‘fresh and compelling narrative about the value of all care’. The toolkit is based on research to understand how the general public across the UK thinks about paid and unpaid care

Spent a half day at ODI recently discussing the reform of the Multilateral Development Banks (MDBs) – the global ones like World Bank, the regional ones like the Asia or African Development Bank, and the new ones like the BRICs Bank. It was interesting for what was said, but also for what was missing. First what was said: On World

Only Nikola Tesla describing a cell phone in an interview conducted by journalist John B. Kennedy. In 1926. Oxfam’s newly updated Make Change Happen course for activists opens on June 19th. 8 week free online course developed in partnership with Open University. Super popular 15k registered for first version and their feedback was v +ve. Deets and register here Some

Where thinking and working politically meets gender: tactics that have workedPodcast + transcript: did we get it wrong on land grabs in Africa? In Conversation with Laura GermanHow do we Start Thinking About AI and Development? (one post by me, one by ChatGPT!)What does politically smart support to democracy and human rights look like?Can humanitarian experience guide the development of

After years of political wrangling, we are finally seeing some progress in terms of wealthy nations shouldering some (small part) of the burden of Loss & Damage – but how do we make sure we don’t repeat the mistakes of the past?  Debbie Hillier of Mercy Corps and Paul Knox Clarke of Adapt Initiatives explore in a new paper how

Guest Post by Laure-Hélène Piron and Alina Rocha Menocal with Kate Byom This blog is published to coincide with a webinar on “Making a difference: How Applied Political Economy Analysis contributes to impact through better informed decisions” on Wednesday 24 May. It shares the findings of a Learning Review on the use of PEA in three USAID-funded human rights projects