A timely guest post from Deborah Burton Stumbling Upon A Rather Well-Funded Gas-Guzzling Elephant in The Room As a former trade and tax campaigner (Christian Aid), I was fascinated by the progression of development sector campaigns – from debt to trade, from trade to tax. I now see something similar in the climate/military relationship because conveniently, deliberately, hidden away inside

We’ve had a cracking series of lectures and discussions on our Friday afternoon LSE ‘Cutting Edge Issues in Development Thinking and Practice’ series, so I thought I’d post some links to the youtube videos and podcasts for those who are looking for some escape from the family Christmas (or otherwise just need some good brainfood). Grouping a bit by subject

Regular FP2P readers will know by now that I’ve been following Myanmar quite a lot, and some of the conversations have been both interesting and of much broader relevance. Recently I had a call with some researchers who adapted governance diaries work first to the pandemic, and then to the coup. Diaries involve local researchers returning to the same individuals

Guest post by a friend working on Myanmar, who for obvious reasons would prefer to remain anonymous In a fast-moving violent crisis like the one in Myanmar, a lot of the most interesting analysis goes unpublished for obvious reasons – the safety of individuals or organizations. I’ve been working with a (suitably anonymous) national and international team on a series

I loved this blistering twitter thread by Justin Podur (@justinpodur) so much, I turned into a blogpost for the untwittered. ‘(In homage to Binyavanga Wainaina) First, the opening. All good articles about Afghanistan start with a few lines from a poem by British imperialist poet Rudyard Kipling. You know the one, “the women come out to cut up what remains,

On Monday, exasperated by the nature of the coverage of the fall of Kabul, I tweeted a request for links: ‘What to read on Afghanistan? Interested in power analysis/stakeholder mapping of domestic players, which Afghan groups support/oppose Taliban, informed speculation about what comes next.’ Here are some extracts from what came back (plus of course, the ever-reliable Wikipedia). Do please

Lots of people are hailing a surge in pandemic-driven ‘localization’ as one of the silver linings of the current grimscape. The argument goes that lockdowns have suspended aid’s standard ‘white men in shorts’ operating model, allowing local organizations to expand into the space, run their own responses, (eg to humanitarian emergencies) and generally take more control of the aid process

Got some spare slots on the blog at the moment, so thought I would introduce you to my favourite weekly update on all things humanitarian – the Cheat Sheet, from the New Humanitarian magazine. Here’s their latest round-up (or you can listen to the 16m podcast): Rural Afghan women on peace, war, and ‘our role in society’ Greater freedom, better

Next up in my series of interviews on the real-world influence of researchers at the LSE Centre for Public Authority and International Development, I explore the impact of Ryan O’Byrne and Charles Ogeno’s work on how South Sudanese refugees in Uganda understand and interact with refugee camp authorities, and how they engage with those authorities when they need help or encounter

Before you start on this post, a glitch in the matrix meant that yesterday’s post, on Covid-related innovation in poor countries, didn’t trigger the usual email notification. Catch up here. In my second post on the impact of researchers at the LSE Centre for Public Authority and International Development, I talk to CPAID’s Anna Macdonald and Kara Blackmore. In their

This piece by Jackline Atingo is an edited version of a post first published on the Africa at LSE blog The conviction of Lord’s Resistance Army commander Dominic Ongwen at the International Criminal Court for war crimes and crimes against humanity has been met with mixed reactions in northern Uganda, where many survivors live today. Jackline Atingo watched the Judgement

Regular readers will know I’m a big fan of diaries as a research tool into issues such as governance and finance. Here Sandrine N’simire, Ishara Tchumisi and Patricia Stys, of LSE’s Centre for Public Authority in International Development, discuss their experiences conducting research using ‘financial diaries’ as part of LSE’s Water Governance project in Goma, DRC. This blog forms part of the Idjwi