Featured image for “Why Oxfam is involved in a court case on UK arms sales to Israel”

Why Oxfam is involved in a court case on UK arms sales to Israel

July 4, 2024
Oxfam has applied to formally intervene in a court case brought against the UK government over arms sales to Israel. Richard Stanforth explains why…
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Money, ministries and meh: how might the election change UK development policy?

June 27, 2024
Will DFID be reborn? When will the UK restore the commitment to spend 0.7% of national income on aid? Andy Sumner of King’s College London casts an eye over the manifestos of the main parties…
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Book Review: The Politics of Development

June 26, 2024
This is one of those books that makes you ask, ‘why haven’t we had one of these before?’ The Politics of Development starts from the premise that all development is political, and expertly unpacks the evidence for that assertion and the implications for thinking and practice. In terms of content, as well as the focus on politics, and its ‘3I’
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How do you Influence the State when Leaders change every 5 minutes?

June 24, 2024
Imagine a job where you literally eavesdrop on private (Chatham House rule) conversations between leaders working on the frontlines of international development – trying to influence governments, donors and others, mainly in the insider spaces open to UN agencies, the Red Cross/Crescent and NGOs (both international and national). Amazingly, I have just such a job, running the GELI programme on
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How can you Influence Leaders with Chaotic Minds?

June 12, 2024
The GELI courses I teach are full of conversations that really challenge the assumptions behind my thinking. One recent example was a frustrated UN leader asking, ‘how do I try to influence a minister who is both more expert than me in the topic, in this case education, and has a chaotic mind?’ Think Donald Trump, but with added expertise.
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Why is inequality so sticky? The political obstacles to a fairer economy

June 6, 2024
Theory tells us that democracies should become more equal. So why are they still so unequal? Gideon Coolin, Emanuele Sapienza, and Andy Sumner on their new UNDP paper that unpicks the politics of inequality.
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How did female MPs in Kenya convince colleagues to support anti-FGM laws?

May 17, 2024
This post was first published on the Africa at LSE blog The creation of an anti-female genital mutilation law in Kenya shows how men can become supportive of issues that affect women, writes Regina Mwatha. While it may not always seem like men are supportive of women’s agendas, there are three pertinent things to consider when discussing men’s thinking on
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A model policy report on the UK’s International Future

May 9, 2024
This post was first published on the LSE’s International Development blog Just been reading The World in 2040: Renewing the UK’s Approach to International Affairs. In many ways, it’s a model of how to write a good policy report with a chance of impact. Here’s why: It’s short: 14 pages, with a one page Exec Sum that might actually be
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Is it AM or BAM? Spotting good adaptive management v bad adaptive management

May 7, 2024
The Adaptive Management discussion is dominated by donors, think tanks and academics, none of whom can really be described as ‘practitioners’. So I’ve learned a lot from working with Jane Lonsdale, one of the few exceptions. She’s an Exfamer turned big aid implementer, has run with AM work in Tanzania, Myanmar and now Papua New Guinea and is DT Global’s
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Youth Protests: where have they come from? Where are they going?

May 3, 2024
Guest post from Camila Teixeira, Policy Specialist at UNICEF In recent years, more young people have been engaging in collective protest to advocate for causes that matter to them. From fighting racism to defending peace, from climate strikes to demands for better education or employment, these demonstrations are powerful expressions of youth agency over the issues shaping their lives, communities,
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Forgetting Rana Plaza

April 24, 2024
Guest post from Naomi Hossain, from SOAS, on the 11th anniversary of the tragedy in Bangladesh Despite heated and even violent contention around monuments and memorials in recent years, the politics of memory are still seen as largely symbolic. Apparel industry workers can tell you that this is wrong: memorials matter materially. For survivors of the 2013 Rana Plaza disaster,
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GELI Stories: Moving fast and working with Unusual Suspects to Reform the Military in the Republic of Guinea

April 9, 2024
In the last (for now) of this series of podcasts with UN and other aid leaders making change happen on the frontline, I talked to the UN’s Anthony Ohemeng-Boamah. Firoz Lalji Institute for Africa · GELI Stories – Anthony Ohemeng-Boamah on winning military reform in a nation returning to democracy Duncan: Welcome to GELI Stories. I’ve got with me Anthony
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