Because I have one foot in the LSE and one in Oxfam, I sometimes get hauled in as a research ‘user’ (makes me sound like I have a drug problem) to review research funding applications and discuss whether, if approved, the research is likely to have much impact on the real world. I have to say, that recent experiences have

Barbie. What a fantastic film! I was enthralled from the first scene – a hilarious riff on 2001 A Space Odyssey. It manages to get some great messages on gender over in a way that is witty, knowing and not at all worthy. What’s more the kind of people who are going to and talking about the movie are way

­­­Links I Liked How did we get here? Great chronology of citizen and corporate action on climate In your mid/late career and want to do a PhD? Here’s some good news. The Gross Domestic Problem: what would a new economic measure that values women and climate look like?

Your weekly reminder that, as twitter dies (and turns into an absurdly sinister X – what is that about?), I’m moving some activity to Linked In – please follow. Potholes Activists seem be particularly creative and effective. Here’s Joe Coughlan in Bromley, South London. Much ruder versions also get results, apparently. The torrent of opinion pieces on AI (some of

Links I LikedSchool children are bearing the brunt of the global hunger crisis – just feed themHow the United Nations and the World Bank can turbo charge the effort to reduce InequalityEvaluating the Evaluations: What lessons can Oxfam draw from a Decade of Scrutiny?

Twitter seems v tired/evil right now, so I have started an FP2P LinkedIn page. Not quite sure what I’ll do with it yet, apart from link to new FP2P posts. All suggestions welcome (plus please follow!). A new league table analyses the disclosure and performance of 60 of the world’s largest global food and beverage companies on their efforts to

Links I Liked The methodology behind Oxfam’s latest killer fact on companies $1 trillion in windfall profits Some good news on falling global poverty levels (the multi-dimensional kind) Devoted the last week’s posts to a new book, How to Engage Policy Makers with your Research: The Art of Informing and Impacting Policy. Lot of stuff to chew on in here, for those of us

My favourite chapter in How to Engage Policy Makers with your Research (in addition to the one on Critical Friends which goes up tomorrow) was by Alice Owen, a prof at Leeds university, on ‘Supporting policy towards sustainability’. It’s a lovely reflection from a senior academic on the lessons she has learned in engaging with policy makers over the years.

It’s getting harder to squeeze much fun or value out of twitter these days, but here’s a few recent links – please send me good stuff to make up for the meltdown! Bilateral aid budgets reached a record high of USD 204 billion in 2022 despite sluggish economic conditions in donor countries. The increase was driven mainly by support to

Fixing the power imbalances of aid and development: A paradox Is it right to prioritise fragile states in the climate crisis? Book Review: How to Stand Up to a Dictator, by Maria Ressa Where has the Humanitarian Sector got to on Localization? Great new update From Penury to Prosperity. The Churches at the Epicentre of social-economic Transformation I’m doing a new edition of How Change Happens – any

ALNAP, which describes itself as a ‘a global network dedicated to learning how to improve response to humanitarian crises’, has just published a really good series of ‘essential briefings for humanitarian decision makers’. Proper grown-up sitreps, full of difficult questions with no easy answers (and quite a few unexplained acronyms, which can make them a bit inaccessible). The one that jumped out

Kudos to the Economist’s graphics team. Some recent examples: It’s continuing to do important analysis of excess deaths from Covid. ‘the world’s current total mortality rate exceeds projections from 2019 by 5%, or 3m lives per year.’ = 4th leading cause of death worldwide Striking picture of the shift of global economic centre of gravity since 1990s, with obvious (geo)political