Ran a little poll while we still have twitter Heads up inequality peeps. Applications now open for Atlantic Fellows for Social and Economic Equity (AFSEE) programme. Fully-funded fellowship for mid-career policymakers, activists, practitioners, and researchers. Application deadline 12 January 2023. UK government announcement that aid funding is again open to Oxfam. Next question – should we take it? If Adam

Reposting (with permission) this great piece from the New Statesman – ht Irene Guijt Those facing flood and fire can’t afford to lose hope. Neither should we. By Rebecca Solnit When you take on hope, you take on its opposites and opponents: despair, defeatism, cynicism and pessimism. And, I would argue, optimism. What all these enemies of hope have in common

Shoe shopping in Chester (and everywhere else) ht No Context Brits It’s all about Elon Musk on twitter these days, but some more important stuff did manage to get through. Let’s start with the twitter meltdown first tho: First, people have rapidly twigged that you can set up a bogus ‘verified’ account by paying $8 a month, with astonishing results.

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Gave a ‘Sussex Development Lecture’ last week. The title (with apologies to John Lennon): ‘Imagine there‘s no Money; It‘s easy if you try‘. Here’s the powerpoint – feel free to nick the slides. Some points from what I learned both from writing the lecture and the Q&A: Firstly, on aid quantity, I have been trapped in a bit of a

The prospects for war with China: Why Chris Blattman sees a serious chance of World War III in the next decade Oxfam is expanding its paid trainee scheme. Spend 15 months working for Oxfam GB . No formal qualifications needed; just a commitment to fight for a more equal world. Apply by 9 Nov. Five international NGOs launch fresh bid

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LSE International Development student Henry Whitelaw draws on his experience with a volunteering programme in the Pacific islands to ask whether ‘voluntourism’ can facilitate meaningful development. First published on the LSE International Development blog. As students of development and keen volunteers, we are repeatedly warned of the bogeyman of ‘voluntourism’ – a vicious creature lurking beneath the well-meaning façade of

I grew up in Bath. This is how we protest there…. Heads up. I’m giving the 1st Sussex Development Lecture of 2022 on Wednesday (4-5.30). Title? “Imagine there’s no money, it’s easy if you try: what could global solidarities look like beyond the big cheque?” Register in person/online here. Is liberal democracy essential to human development? Good piece from Branko

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For our Global Executive Leadership Initiative training on influencing, I interviewed Wilf Mwamba, a long term FCDO/DFID practitioner-thinker on TWP, now working in the private sector. With GELI’s permission, I’m reposting here, along with an abbreviated transcript. The podcast is 25 minutes – well worth it, IMO. WM: I work for DAI Global, a US international consultancy firm. I’m leading a

A history of the Fed funds rate since 1979. File under correlation ≠ causation ht Gabriel Mathy  My friend Ha-Joon Chang’s new book, Edible Economics gets off to a flying start with the kind of publicity any author dreams of – denounced for wokery in the Daily Mail: ‘Woke Cambridge don claims the Full English breakfast isn’t British’. (Also, he’s