Featured image for “Reforming the World Bank: some good ideas, but where’s the power, politics and feasibility?”

Reforming the World Bank: some good ideas, but where’s the power, politics and feasibility?

May 31, 2023
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
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Featured image for “What does politically smart support to democracy and human rights look like?”

What does politically smart support to democracy and human rights look like?

May 23, 2023
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
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Featured image for “Where thinking and working politically meets gender: tactics that have worked”

Where thinking and working politically meets gender: tactics that have worked

May 17, 2023
Guest post by  Jane Lonsdale and Joanne Choe. This post was first published on the DevPolicy blog Questions that repeatedly come up when supporting reform programs include: how do we work with local politics to influence change without reinforcing existing elitism and capture of power? How do we “dance with the system” whilst at the same time trying to change the system?
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Featured image for “Why are Civil Wars Lasting Longer?”

Why are Civil Wars Lasting Longer?

May 11, 2023
‘Why are civil wars lasting longer?’ Asked a recent Economist essay – exactly the kind of big, hairy question to justify my subscription. Don’t agree with all of it, but very thought-provoking. Some extracts from a typically highly readable piece: ‘The average ongoing conflict in the mid-1980s had been blazing for about 13 years; by 2021 that figure had risen to 20.
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Featured image for “Seeing the forest beyond the trees: Coalition building in Indonesia and beyond and the lessons for donors”

Seeing the forest beyond the trees: Coalition building in Indonesia and beyond and the lessons for donors

May 2, 2023
Guest post by Nicola Nixon, Erman Rahman, Sumaya Saluja and Rahpriyanto Alam Surya Putra ‘Coalition-building’: one of those topics that gets enthusiastic nods of approval among development practitioners. But what distinguishes effective from ineffective coalitions and what can donors do to support them?’ In The Asia Foundation’s recent reflection paper On the right tack: reflections on coalition-building in The Asia
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Featured image for “Book Review: Reimagining Civil Society Collaborations in Development: Starting from the South”

Book Review: Reimagining Civil Society Collaborations in Development: Starting from the South

April 26, 2023
‘Localization’ of aid, when you think about it, is actually quite an outsider’s word. It suggests taking the assets currently held in the North (money, knowledge, power) and somehow transferring them to the South. The value of this book, edited By Margit van Wessel, Tiina Kontinen, Justice Nyigmah Bawole is captured in the subtitle. It discards that idea and asks how CSOs in
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Featured image for “Aid in ‘Politically Estranged Settings’ and the Disappointment Cycle of reading new papers”

Aid in ‘Politically Estranged Settings’ and the Disappointment Cycle of reading new papers

April 25, 2023
I often experience a ‘disappointment cycle’ when reading papers on aid and development. The initial question/framing gets me excited – this is really going to tell me something new/interesting. But then the paper peters out, reverting to standard prescriptions and vague generalizations. That certainly was my feeling with the new paper from Chatham House and New York University’s Center on
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Featured image for “Food and energy protests signal failures of accountability on a global scale”

Food and energy protests signal failures of accountability on a global scale

April 20, 2023
Guest post by Jeff Hallock and Naomi Hossain While the world was watching the war in Ukraine, its side-effects via rising food and energy prices were also playing out in the form of mass protests about the cost-of-living crisis in 148 countries. This global wave, unprecedented in world history, tells us that not only is the global economy in bad
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Featured image for “The Revenge of Power: A Great Book that will help you better understand Modern Politics”

The Revenge of Power: A Great Book that will help you better understand Modern Politics

April 19, 2023
I do love a ‘big book’ – one with a grand sweep, which tries to make sense of disparate events and processes, and leaves you feeling a little wiser. Think Francis Fukuyama (on the rise of the state), Ha-Joon Chang (on economics of development) or Yuen Yuen Ang (on China). I came away from Moises Naim’s latest book, The Revenge
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Featured image for “Citizen action for accountability in challenging contexts: What have we learned?”

Citizen action for accountability in challenging contexts: What have we learned?

April 17, 2023
The Action for Empowerment and Accountability research consortium, led by IDS and with quite a lot of involvement from Oxfam (including me) is now winding up with the customary emission of academic papers (think puffballs reaching maturity). One of these is a whole issue of Development Policy Review (now Open Access – yay!) on ‘Citizen Action for Accountability in Challenging
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Featured image for “How Beijing Commands: how the Communist Party combines Ambiguity and Clarity to Maximum Effect”

How Beijing Commands: how the Communist Party combines Ambiguity and Clarity to Maximum Effect

March 30, 2023
Yuen Yuen Ang is a rising star in International Development scholarship. Understandably, she doesn’t want to be pigeon-holed as ‘the China person’ despite her brilliant book, How China Escaped the Poverty Trap, and has written more global works on corruption, among other things. But in a recent paper, she returns to the topic of China – analysing the combination of
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Featured image for “What can a Water Project in DRC tell us about Adaptive Management in fragile/conflict affected settings?”

What can a Water Project in DRC tell us about Adaptive Management in fragile/conflict affected settings?

March 23, 2023
My last trip pre-Covid was to the DRC, to look at a water project in Goma, and the resulting research paper (co-authored with Patrycja Stys, Tom Kirk and Tom Mosquera) has just been published (yep, just three and a half years later). It charts an attempt by MercyCorps to drive change in a water sector that has massively failed citizens in the
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