A second instalment on the recent conversation with DFID’s Social Development Advisers (see here for first instalment). John Gaventa summarized the emerging lessons from the DFID-funded Action for Empowerment and Accountability research programme, which he coordinates. A4EA is trying to work out whether the stuff we know about E&A in more stable places is different from what happens in fragile

Last week I went along to the annual conference of DFID’s Social Development Advisers (SDAs – DFID has lots of acronyms). As well as giving them an initial picture of what the ‘Action for Empowerment and Accountability’ research programme is finding out about DFID’s adaptive management programmes, they asked me for a pre-dinner rant about what they should be thinking

Earlier this week I grabbed a few minutes with Aidan Eyakuze, one of East Africa’s most prominent civil society leaders. The topic (what else?) was the crackdown on civic space under way in Tanzania, where Aidan runs Twaweza, a brilliant NGO that works across the region. Tanzania’s previously liberal and vigorous environment for activism is now being reshaped by an

The cartoon that Winnie Byanyima keeps on her office wall The reductive seduction of other people’s problems. Great essay on the pitfalls of northern voluntourism: ‘don’t go because you’ve fallen in love with solvability. Go because you’ve fallen in love with complexity.’ ‘The average woman is willing to give up 19 percent of the maximum total amount in order to

Written by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, this was first published in 1895  Said the Socialist to the suffragist: “My cause is greater than yours! You only work for a special class, We for the gain of the general mass, Which every good ensures!” Said the suffragist to the Socialist: “You underrate my cause! While women remain a subject class, You never

I’ve been using this idea in a few recent talks, and thought I’d test and improve it by bouncing it off FP2P readers. It uses a simple pair of graphs on global income distribution to start thinking through how the ‘aid and development’ sector is changing, or resisting change. The starting point is that we have moved from a two

and no I won’t be missing you……

I ran a ‘blogging for beginners’ session for my LSE students earlier this week. Some of them clearly didn’t need it. Here’s MSc Development Management student Stella Yoh. International Development is our passion – that’s why we’re all here. It’s what keeps us going through these late nights and grey London days. But let’s face it, it’s not always a fun ride. As fulfilling as

My reading pile is out of control, but I finally caught up with a useful May 2018 overview from the always excellent International Center for Not-for-Profit Law. Nothing life-changing, but a clear and concise summary of the origins of the problem and possible responses, based on some 50 contributions to a consultation by the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida).

Eyes to the Right; Nose to the Left. Delightfully straight-faced explainer by the South London Press of understable confusion over weird UK parliamentary procedures ht Esther Webber Turns out she has a genius for political theatre as well as social media. AOC is having a ball now Congress has reopened. The seven types of policy makers and what they mean for

Guest post by Andrew Koleros, Programme Director with Palladium, and David Rinnert, Deputy Head of Office and Governance Adviser with the UK Department for International Development’s (DFID) Central Asia Office. The views expressed in this blog do not necessarily reflect the UK government’s official policies or Palladium’s views. In November 2018 the FP2P blog posted a couple of instalments (here

Arabic 101 for British officers, early 20th century ht David Kenner The art and science of measurement in aid and development. Nice write up of latest LSE lecture by the brilliant Claire Hutchings of OPM Major western brands pay Indian garment workers 11p an hour. Important new research on the home workers who ‘finish’ garments – adding buttons, tassels, embroidery