…and income tax that the bankers fail to avoid). The introduction of other kinds of taxes suggests that is most likely to happen after a shock (e.g. an income tax…
List of your most disastrous campaign own goals – more please!
…example(s), but an interesting typology of failure is emerging: Dumb Government Messaging ‘D.A.R.E. in the States. Drugs awareness programme aimed at teens. Best way to open kids up to all…
Hedge Funds for Development? An evening with Ark
…easily with risk taking – a venture capitalist happily sees 19 out of 20 projects fail, if one succeeds big time. The same does not go for ‘venture philanthropists’, who…
Geek Heresy, by Kentaro Toyama: book review
…where social challenges persist.” Observing many pilots and initiatives, Toyama recognizes a pattern that the success or failure of an intervention seems to depend more on the competence and connectivity…
A primate brain in a human world: Evolutionary biology and social change
…profound explanations for the mechanisms at work can be found by looking at our very distant past. Not only can we find explanations for why this approach works, but we…
How to design research to make sure that Humanitarian Innovation gets scaled up?
…having evidence of impact is not enough. Unless innovators invest time and thought into how they communicate that evidence, even the best innovations will fail to reach their potential. https://vimeo.com/353745604…
Should the UK (or other aid donors) ‘hold its nose’ and support an unjust end to civil wars?
…the UK Government published a review of their work on Elite Bargains and Political Deals. The extensive study concludes that making peace without placating the elite is likely to fail….
Beating the Drum – how do influencing networks get results?
…from global institutions to individual communities. Beating the Drum’s ‘journey backstage’ asked people intimately involved with 9 such stories to reflect on their choice of strategies, methods, their successes, failures…
A long-ignored crisis in development – the collapse in morale among public officials. New UN paper.
…the heart of development. Nowhere can this be seen better than in Singapore. Its people are rightly proud of their nation’s remarkable success. In barely the space of two generations,…
Right now, it feels like anything can derail everything, so are theories of change still useful?
…to them, re-enact the process themselves without the need to have someone guiding them, then most likely we’ve failed as facilitators. So, what is working given all these challenges? One…
Podcast: Drought, Localization, the power of Cash Transfers and the Criminalization of Beekeeping – a conversation with Oxfam Kenya’s John Kitui
…Oxfam in Kenya? JK: So from 2020, we’ve had four failed rainy seasons. In Kenya alone, about 4.1 million people are affected, requiring food and water aid to survive. Across…
Extreme weather, extreme prices: what will more erratic weather do to food prices?
…global food system is also too big to fail, and needs stress-testing to fully assess and address its critical thresholds in relation to climate change. Stress testing would seek to…