
July 26, 2022
Guest post by Enrique Mendizabal Change is not linear. Policy change is not the end of the story. The relationship between evidence and policy is not linear. Politics matters. Research matters very little. Individuals and individual organisations can do very little. At On Think Tanks, weâve been making these points for over a decade. Events in Peru can now help
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Links I Liked
July 25, 2022
Heads up: Comments will be closed on the blog this week, as part of sorting out the internal plumbing. Sorry about that. Back up next week Too hot to read last week, so here are some graphics Yes, it was indeed very hot (ht Peter Anthony for the Caravaggio) Hereâs NASAâs climate spiral to prove it In the 30 countries
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Development Nutshell: round-up (16m) of FP2P posts, w/b 18th July
July 23, 2022
No excerpt
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Links I Liked
July 18, 2022
âOxfam mourns the death of our colleague & friend Jeremy Hobbs. He worked with us for over 2 decades and was Oxfam International’s first Executive Director. We remember him for his warmth, integrity and unwavering commitment to tackling inequality & injustice. Our thoughts are with his family.’ RIP Jeremy, a truly lovely, wise, wry and commited bloke, who (among many
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Development Nutshell: round-up (27m) of FP2P posts, w/b 4th and 11th July
July 16, 2022
No excerpt
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Starving civilians is an ancient military tactic, but today itâs a war crime in Ukraine, Yemen, Tigray and elsewhere
July 5, 2022
Aid organizations, including Oxfam, where I work part time, have been trying to draw attention to the looming hunger crisis across much of Sub-Saharan Africa. But some have been criticised for portraying the causes as mainly about drought, when in fact, war and conflict in countries such as Somalia and Ethiopia have been crucial factors. So Iâm reposting this excellent
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Links I Liked
July 4, 2022
The âGrand Bargainâ signatories met last week to review progress on improving humanitarian aid. Bottom left of the graphic shows one area where it seems to be going backwards – % of aid going through local agencies fell from 2020 â 21. ht Sorcha OâCallaghan ‘Marx was a historian who believed that economics shapes history, Keynes, the smartest adviser to
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Development Nutshell: round-up (26m) of FP2P posts, w/b 13th, 20th and 27th June
July 2, 2022
No excerpt
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Links I Liked
June 28, 2022
Gloria Steinemâs memoir. Dark days. ht Lucy Prebble. The People vs Inequality podcast joined forces with Oxfam for a miniseries highlighting four inspiring stories from the ‘Emergent Agency in a Time of COVID-19’ project. All the episodes here Iâll have what heâs having. ht Uncle Duke Max Lawson responds to Noah Smithâs recent criticisms of Oxfamâs numbers on poverty in
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âWe have already spent everything we had in our own walletsâ: How international aid is failing Ukrainian responders â and what to do about it
June 22, 2022
Abby Stoddard, Paul Harvey and Tonia Thomas present new research from Humanitarian Outcomes, supported by the UK Humanitarian Innovation Hub (UKHIH). Full report here. Over 100 days have passed since the Russian invasion of Ukraine sparked a massive humanitarian crisis along with an outpouring of international generosity in the form of aid contributions. So why are international organisations still sitting
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Is behavioural economics (aka nudge theory) blocking the path to progress?
June 14, 2022
Thereâs been an upsurge in recent decades in tackling problems by trying to change the behaviour of individuals â behavioural economics, nudge theory and a proliferation of government ânudge unitsâ. Now two disillusioned proponents, Nick Chater and George Loewenstein, have written an important critique of the whole thing, contrasting what they call the âi (individual) frame’ with the âs (system)
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Links I Liked
June 13, 2022
Brief history of physics ht @sunny and Richard C. Some interesting stuff on aid this week: âIf you look at the bigger picture of change, aid has been close to irrelevantâ. Stefan Dercon rattling cages about his new book. But surely aid still matters for things other than âbig pictureâ growth, like helping in crises, showing solidarity, reducing inequality, supporting
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