If the development sector is serious about decolonisation, it must stop confusing optics with real, transformational change, argues Awssan Kamal.

Many NGOs are now in danger of neglecting ethical communications as they chase desperately needed funds. But as Jess Crombie argues, ethical storytelling – or as she prefers ‘equitable storytelling’ – isn’t a ‘nice to have’, but rather one of the tactics that will help to raise the money to sustain delivery of aid.

If you want to understand the progress of LGBTQIA+ liberation in Lebanon’s capital, our nightlife is a great place to start, says Ghiwa Abi Haidar. In a blog for Pride month, she looks back at a scene that has suffered bouts of brutal violence and censorship but where queer people are today once again finding rare freedom and radical joy on the dancefloor.

Should rich countries focus aid on fragile states? Drop development and just fund humanitarian work? Make aid a tool of soft power? The current debate on how to spend dwindling aid budgets is a depressing read, says Neil McCulloch. Let’s stop thinking about how to “buy results” and instead look at how best to support domestic initiatives for progressive change.

Will Paxton and Guy Lodge’s call last week to protect bilateral aid spending has sparked a lively debate, notably a counter argument we also published to prioritise multilateral spending from Kevin Watkins. Here they address Kevin’s (polite) criticisms, arguing for a better balance between multilateral and bilateral aid – and that listening to countries and communities leads to giving priority to jobs and growth, even if, as Kevin argues, aid has not been very effective in delivering them.  

Protecting bilateral spending from excessive cuts is going to be the first and most important step to ensuring the FCDO can still exert influence in an era of 0.3%, say Guy Lodge and Will Paxton. They discuss the new world of a lower UK aid budget and the pitfalls and opportunities it presents.

Duncan Green introduces the brand-new edition of an Oxfam course for changemakers that he helped to design. And you can now learn how to make change happen in Arabic, French and Spanish, as well as English…

The blockade of food, water and relief that has brought so much hunger and suffering to Gaza is the latest example of the growing use of starvation as a weapon of war, say Lawrence Robinson and Désirée Ketabchi. That’s why Oxfam has become a founding member of the Coalition Against Conflict and Hunger – a group of civil society organizations set up last year to end the deliberate use of starvation tactics in conflict and promote the protection of civilians and humanitarian space.

‘One male former government minister said he felt like an imposter a lot of the time… a government minister!’ Duncan Green reflects on how a recent conversation with LSE leadership students revealed widespread feelings of imposter syndrome.

What are the lessons for activists from the cut in the UK development budget? Did big agencies get their messaging all wrong? How much damage did the closure of DFID do? Or the departure of David Cameron as PM? Katy Chakrabortty unpacks the implosion of UK aid…

Thinking about a career in international development? Duncan Green explores the future of the aid sector and the prospects for those who want to work in it…  This post is adapted from his shiny new blog about activism, influencing and change, hosted by the LSE.

FP2P’s Duncan Green has a shiny new blog about activism, influencing and change, hosted by the LSE, which we’ll be sharing highlights from here. You can also subscribe here. In this post from the new blog, he shares some advice from humanitarian leaders in this bleak time for the sector – including talk more often to staff and partners, “watch the fog closely” and “don’t blabber” – and offers a couple of thoughts of his own.