Guest rant from CARE International’s Elizabeth Cowan Ask a group of international development people about external consultants and the conversation that ensues resembles group therapy. Everyone has a story of pain and frustration, of feeling cheated, misunderstood and unsatisfied. Sometimes we cry. There was the external evaluator we paid $60,000 to tell us our project was “doomed from the start”.

From a friend in Indonesia: ‘Good info, mass public engagement & a competent elections team, all in a country of 9k islands, $3.5k per cap. And they did it. Cleanly fairly & mostly non-violently. Such a change from US & Afghanistan. I think this picture sort of sums it up.’ ‘Temperature change driven by CO2 emissions has affected poor counties

Guest post by my former boss Mark Goldring, first published in the March edition of Governance and Leadership Magazine. Mark was chief executive of Oxfam GB from 2013 until January 2019. This article is based on a talk given to Civil Society Media’s NGO Insight Conference in November 2018. My last year as chief executive of Oxfam was dominated by the

Navalayo Osembo shares her views on how a social enterprise is helping economic growth and poverty reduction in Kenya.

Guest post from Prachi Srivastava, Associate Professor, University of Western Ontario. The Economist’s new special report ‘Private education’ (print edition, 13 April 2019) is causing a stir. We’ve been here before. Nearly four years ago, The Economist did a cover story (‘The $1-a-week school’) and briefing (‘Learning unleashed’) on low-fee private schooling (print edition, 1 August 2015) which caused a similar controversy. Then

David Riveros García makes a strong case for placing communities at the centre of anti-corruption work, based on the experience of organisations and movements in Paraguay. David is the founder and Executive Director of reAcción, an NGO that promotes civic participation and transparency in the education sector. Growing is often its own trap. For social initiatives, increased visibility brings the temptation of

Guest post by Dr Tamsyn Barton, ICAI Chief Commissioner Imagine this: you are in charge of scrutinising all UK aid spending by the government. Of giving public and Parliament assurance about how a perennially controversial £14.5bn budget is spent. You want to ensure your findings are taken seriously by government departments and people with the power to make changes to

Pallav Das and Ashish Kothari explain the need for alternative visions to the dominant model of economic development in India, and beyond. Pallav and Ashish are two of the founders of Kalpavriksh, a 40-year Indian NGO focusing on environment and development issues. Contemporary India is going through a perplexingly critical time in its economic development, as it seems that every step it takes towards

Does rising GDP lead to greater happiness? Not really, according to the latest World Happiness Report, as summarized in The Economist. ‘Of the 125 countries for which good data exist, 43 have seen GDP per person and happiness move in opposite directions (in red on graphic).’ economist.com/graphic-detail… There are 7 universal moral rules: love your family; help your group; return

A majority of people living in developed countries want their government to tax the rich more to help the poor, according to an OECD survey of 21 countries (not including the UK for some reason). Do we really Live in a One-Hump World? More humpiness, this time from Jason Hickel Complicating the Narratives. Excellent long read from Amanda Ripley on

A recent email exchange with Asa Cusack of the LSE’s Latin America and Caribbean Centre (plus the Latin American tone of this week’s posts – Mexican, Argentine and Venezuelan guests in one week must be some kind of record) triggered a bout of nostalgia about my early days travelling in and writing about Latin America (roughly 1979-98) and set me wondering:

Everyday Sexism Bingo, ht Matthew Sherrington  Two posts on decolonising academia: African and Development Studies: Excellent from Laura Mann. And How Diverse is your Reading List? (Probably not very…) by Tin Hinane El Kadi ‘The Elders, a group of independent global leaders, is calling on the international community to agree on a rigorous governance framework for geoengineering’ by Ban Ki