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Spent an enjoyable couple of hours last week chatting to some students doing the LSE MSc in Cities course about their group projects. These were aimed at designing initiatives to promote different aspects of sustainability and emissions reductions in major cities: Montreal (building regulations);  Bogotá (transport); Freetown (natural habitat) and Amsterdam (consumption). We covered some standard ground that I talk

Guest post by UNICEF’s Laurence Chandy One salvation of the COVID-19 pandemic is that children have been largely spared from severe infections. Yet the broader effects of the crisis on the young have already caused untold harm and are now poised to reset the forces that have driven progress for the world’s children since the start of this century.    Children,

‘Science Fictions’. The comic strip guide to academic success. Brilliant. Ht Ranil Dissanayake Aftershocks: How is Covid Affecting Africa? New weekly newsletter from the ONE Campaign. Sign up here Three Key Shifts on Development Cooperation in China’s 2021 White Paper. Excellent overview of China’s evolving aid policy Toolkits are Great. Welcome back Stuff Expat Aid Workers Like. We’ve missed you.

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Words, words, words. In snowbound lockdown I process thousands of them every day, writing them, reading them, tweaking them. And spotting odd patterns, and layers of obfuscation and general slipperiness. Here are a few thoughts (I’m not doing standard devspeak rants here – plenty of those already on the blog), aided and abetted by crowdsourcing on twitter. Sprinkler words Sprinkler

Guest post by Florencia Guerzovich, Soledad Gattoni, and Dave Algoso Anyone working for change knows that timing matters. You can see your efforts stall and spin for years, before finally you break through. What made that possible? Sometimes it’s your persistence, wearing down opposition like water carving a canyon. But sometimes it’s a change that came from outside your work—a

African Billionaires and Governments Have a Plan to Save America. Some smart trading places satire A global vaccine apartheid is unfolding. People’s lives must come before profit. Important piece from Winnie Byanyima Five Points for MPs in the UK’s Planned Aid Cut, and an Alternative Proposal for the Government. Good arguments on why the UK needs to reverse its aid

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Guest post by Mitchell Watkins & Professor Mushtaq Khan (SOAS University of London) Our research in Bangladesh identifies two practical ways to make climate change adaptation funding more effective. First, anti-corruption monitoring is more effective when led by locally influential households; secondly and more importantly, their involvement can be increased by designing adaptation projects to maximize ‘dual use’, ensuring that

My LSE Masters module on Advocacy, Campaigning and Grassroots Activism kicked off recently with a great discussion on the nature of power. Tom Kirk, who teaches the course with me, asked each of the seminar groups to buzz on ‘how has your disciplinary background shaped your understanding of power’. Some fascinating patterns emerged. If you come from somewhere ‘interesting’ (e.g.

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