
June 1, 2023
Been taking a look at Silvia Galandini, Anam Parvez and Nick Gadsbyâs new Oxfam new âtoolkitâ on building public pressure for change on the care economy, by constructing a âfresh and compelling narrative about the value of all careâ. The toolkit is based on research to understand how the general public across the UK thinks about paid and unpaid care
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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) â 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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Public Engagement with Aid: What do we know from 10 years of research?
May 10, 2023
Went to a big event on public attitudes to aid recently . Weird being back in conference mode â panels galore, a few lightbulb moments, buzzy coffee breaks, the occasional bit of powerpoint poisoning. Still struggling to make sense of it all. Letâs try. The panel was presenting the findings of a 10 year research programme currently known most recently
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Older and at the Sharp End: Why more Social Protection is needed to protect Older People in the global food, finance & fuel crisisÂ
May 3, 2023
Guest post by Babken Babajanian The current global crisis, with soaring prices for food and fuel, has been devastating for many people around the world. But for older people in poor countries with no access to pensions or social protection, it is particularly bleak. And worse still for older women. Sadly, although they are bearing the brunt of the crisis,
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ChatGPT: implications for teaching, how it analyses Brexit and the link to Psychoanalysis
April 27, 2023
ChatGPT. Discuss. Isnât everyone? Right now, everyone seems to be playing with it, writing and/or worrying about it and with good reason. Some are already losing their jobs after publishing faked interviews. There are refuseniks â this is crowdsourced plagiarism and must be kept at bay. Students must not use it. Massive health warnings etc etc. That feels both King
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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 â yay!) on âCitizen Action for Accountability in Challenging
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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 doesnât want to be pigeon-holed as âthe China personâ 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 â analysing the combination of
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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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Evidence-informed policy FAQs: dinner party edition
March 22, 2023
Guest post by Emily Hayter, with one of the more improbable FP2P opening paras….. âI work in the evidence-informed policy sectorâ is always an interesting opener at personal and professional gatherings. I started out in the 2013 Building Capacity to Use Research Evidence initiative funded by the UK. Since then Iâve worked on a number of initiatives around the world,
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Book Review: Lives Amid Violence: Transforming Development in the Wake of Conflict
March 21, 2023
Lives Amid Violence: Transforming Development in the Wake of Conflict, by Mareike Schomerus, (Open Access here) is one of the wisest books Iâve read in a long time. To write it, she became a modern day hermit (âsolitude, storms and musicâ), retreating to the Shetland Islands to reflect on and synthesize the lessons of a monster 10 year ODI research
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How could a Funder help Promote Research for Impact?
March 14, 2023
Had an interesting chat recently (Chatham House rule, so no names) with some people wondering what a philanthropic funder with a bit of money and little/no bureaucratic constraints could do to encourage the uptake of evidence in policy making. After swiftly batting away any suggestion of a new database (cyber tumbleweed), we got onto some practical steps â please add
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Great New Guide to ‘Systems Thinking and Practice’
February 8, 2023
Iâm always on the lookout for good guides to the practical implications of systems thinking, so got very excited when I came across Systems Thinking and Practice: A guide to concepts, principles and tools for FCDO and partners, by Jim Woodhill and Juliet Millican. Its 38 pages are stuffed full of crisp summaries of the main ideas, case studies applying
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