How you behave depends on where you sit (or is it vice versa?). Love this guide to parliamentary seating arrangements in different countries from The Economist Anxiety is rising over Ebola in DRC, with 4 cases confirmed in Goma (pop 2 million) and chaos as Rwanda briefly closed the border there. Amy Daffe of MercyCorps argues that the problem is

Final instalment from my amazing LSE students. Wednesday and Thursday’s posts ran some of their blogs, which were part of their assignment to write an influencing strategy on a topic of their choice. But I gave them the option of doing a video blog (vlog) instead, and several of them grabbed it, with some impressive results. Here are three of

This week, I’ll be highlighting some of the great work on activism and change from my LSE students. First up, could you comment on this draft paper please? Explanation below: Case studies are a crucial means of understanding how the world changes and informing our work as activists. Simplistic case studies reduce complex realities to linear morality tales, while useful

Did anyone notice the UK got a new Prime Minister last week? What’s Boris Johnson saying on aid and development, eg will he bring an end to DfID? And Ivanka Trump nails that warm, special relationship feeling. The LSE’s International Inequalities Institute is on a roll. First up bringing in Branko Milanovic as Centennial Professor (here he is on Russian

Don’t know about you, but watching the daily news isn’t much fun these days (nor is the weather/climate), and this week in particular, I am sorely in need of light relief. There was even a riot at my local swimming pool yesterday. So back to the abandoned series of ‘Friday funnies’: here’s a few previous FP2P posts that might just

We recently spent some time reviewing the first 3 months of #PowerShifts, the new iteration of FP2P, aimed at transforming its messengers, messages and formats over the next two years. The project is in the hands of Maria Faciolince, a Colombian-Antillean anthropologist and activist, supported by Oxfam’s Amy Moran (if you’ve noticed an improvement in the way this blog looks

Parliamentarians argue that the UK’s unfair visa system for African applicants isn’t fit for purpose; African lives are measured in fighting UK visa rejections (gonna just keep linking to these pieces until the UK takes action) British climate politics – this time it’s different (but the same). Good news – Matthew Lockwood is back up on the Political Climate blog

Guest post from Jaime Atienza of Oxfam Intermon Here we go again. Though different to their “first debt crisis”, which was incubated in the 80s, hit in the 90s and was resolved (partly) in the 2000s, the situation is again profoundly uphill for a growing number of African countries: in 2019 their debt repayments as a percentage of revenues will

Visa applications: emotional tax and privileged passports (here’s Uganda v UK). Bathsheba Okwenje on an ongoing scandal. Demystifying Belt and Road: The Struggle to Define China’s “Project of the Century”. Anything by Yuen Yuen Ang is reliably gold, and now this paper is Open Access From welfare in one country to global poverty alleviation…and now where? Another top reflection from

One of the most productive conversations in my recent trip to Bolivia was a discussion with Oxfam Bolivia staff on the shortcomings of my/our current thinking about how to move from analysing power to designing strategies to bring about change. The current advice is to start with a power analysis, then move to mapping the relevant stakeholders, and on the

Jessica Horn is a feminist activist, writer and technical advisor on women’s rights. She is a co-founder of the African Feminist Forum and currently works as Director of Programmes for the African Women’s Development Fund.  Feminism is having its global moment – that heady feeling when a movement’s revolutionary demands are being heard by the majority, even echoed by the

The Times proves that Britain is rapidly moving beyond parody ht Hannah Jane Parkinson ‘The core policy paradigm continues to shape the framework of policy-makers’ assessments. Evidence matters, but ideas shape policy in more fundamental ways than we might realise.’ Good study of Ireland’s response to the Financial Transactions Tax To build stronger research institutions in Sub-Saharan Africa, we need