From Poverty to Power: Recent Episodes
From Poverty to Power
This is a conversation podcast by Duncan Green, strategic adviser for Oxfam GB, author of ‘How Change Happens’ and Professor in Practice at the London School of Economics. This personal reflection is not intended as a comprehensive statement of the agreed policies of either Oxfam or the LSE. https://oxfamblogs.org/fp2p/
Yep, this is it. Walking the plank as of next Tuesday, so here are some parting reflections I've been putting up on the blog over the last few days, and links to a bunch of more normal FP2P fare, which I've had to leave out due to lack of time.
I’m leaving Oxfam – here’s what happens next
Some Reflections on Leaving Oxfam after 20 years
Learning from Humiliation, Shame and Failure
Thirty Years of Anti-Corruption: A Personal Reflection by Kenyan legend John Githongo
How the pregnancy penalty supercharges global inequality
RIP Father Frans von Hoff – the co-founder of the Fairtrade Movement
Could Activists Do Better at Resisting Backlash?
Shifting power through Power Funding
Unequal: Why India Lags Behind its Neighbours (Book Review)
A (tough) love letter to the Open Movement
The Battle for Tax Justice will be fought country by country: here are five useful tips for activists
How do we stop Bad Stuff Happening? And does it differ from Supporting Good Stuff?
Forgetting Rana Plaza
GELI Stories:
How to get Early Childhood Development into the SDGs (with a bit of help from Shakira)
Taking Risks as a Leader to protect child rights in Syria
How a Critical Juncture unlocked the path to reform on duty of care within the aid sector
Bringing Stakeholders together to tackle Girls’ Education in Benin
Moving fast and working with Unusual Suspects to Reform the Military in the Republic of Guinea
GELI Stories:
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Building Coalitions between UN Agencies and Government Ministries in Eswatini
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Working in closed and informal political spaces like Eritrea
4 posts on future of UK Aid under Labour:
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Two from Andy Sumner of Kings
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Options for UK Aid: DFID survivor Tom Wingfield responds to Andy Sumner
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Lisa Nandy on UK's Future Development Policy Under Labour
How Blogs can Change Government Policy
Six big humanitarian policy trends for 2024
What are the Grounds for Hope in a World of Wrecks?
The Rise of 'Trust-Based Philanthropy' - aka Unconditional Cash Transfers to NGOs
Is Poverty Porn a thing of the past? Yes and No
I sat down a few months ago to discuss data and development with Clare Melamed, who runs the Global Partnership for Sustainable Development Data. Transcript available on the From Poverty to Power blog.
Links I Liked
UN Women makes Norm Change central to its mission
What's it like Explaining NGOs to Senior Military types from 40 Countries?
Feminist Climate Justice – what is it and how could it help?
Mia Mottley on Slavery, Poverty, George Floyd, Climate and the Future of the World
Some last minute Christmas book presents
Links I Liked
Voices of Gaza
What do 70 Masters students from around the world want to campaign on?
What to read on the new UK White Paper on International Development?
What can we learn from looking at the overlaps between innovations in ways of doing research and neglected development issues?
Why did the Street Movements of the 2010s fail?
What Tactics are most Effective in Non-Violent Protest?
Think tanks are struggling. They need to change.
Whoop Whoop. Just made a personal Webpage it's super easy.
RIP Saleemul Huq, a true climate hero
Why a “humanitarian pause” or “humanitarian corridors” are simply not the answer in Gaza
Pracademics: just a clunky new word, or something more significant/substantial?
Links I Liked
Which book should I review next? You decide please!
How do we talk about Older People in Development and Activism?
Be Care-full. A poem for the times
Links I Liked
Will growth be enough to end poverty? New Projections of the UN Sustainable Development Goals
What would make an Atheist spend a day discussing Faith and Development?
Links I Liked
Finishing a 2nd Edition of How Change Happens - here are drafts of two new chapters for you to read.
5 Things we Learned from Evaluating the Impact of Research
How Local Women Mobilizers Shaped Ukraine’s Invasion Response
New Version of the free online 'Make Change Happen' course launched this week - check it out
Do our LSE Activism Students know it all already?
Links I Liked
Book Review: Power and Progress. Our Thousand-Year Struggle Over Technology and Prosperity, by Daron Acemoglu and Simon Johnson
What can we learn from how an Adaptive Management programme has navigated Myanmar’s current chaos?
Fancy some Good News? Brits are getting nicer.
Links I Liked
Who Decides What Constitutes ‘Knowledge’ on Climate Change?
Links I Liked
The World Order Seems to be in Turmoil – What’s Going on?
How more Open Government can bolster USAID’s Localization Agenda
Top Student Blogs and Vlogs from my LSE Activism course:
- Valerie Barki: Are you #ManEnoughToSnip?
- Jessica Louise: There’s a chicken in the desert!
- Martin Caforio: Green to Go: The Better Way to Take Away
- Vlogs from Carlota Lopez, Debra Francis and Holly Ingram
A historic global agreement on tax is under threat. Here’s why.Amazing new Resource Guide on Humanitarianism
- Links I Liked
- Designing 'Research for Impact' still seems difficult for a lot of academics. Why?
- Do Southern-based Transnationals behave worse than Northern ones?
- How adaptive M&E from the peace sector can help demonstrate the value of aid (truncated due to dog issues - apologies!)
I had to finish a few minutes before the end of the last post because the dog I was looking after went bonkers, and then ran out of time to finish it - apologies, guess you'll have to come and read the blog if you're interested in the M&E geekery in that last post
Links I Liked
How did we get here? Great chronology of citizen and corporate action on climate
In your mid/late career and want to do a PhD? Here's some good news.
The Gross Domestic Problem: what would a new economic measure that values women and climate look like?
Links I Liked
School children are bearing the brunt of the global hunger crisis – just feed them
How the United Nations and the World Bank can turbo charge the effort to reduce Inequality
Evaluating the Evaluations: What lessons can Oxfam draw from a Decade of Scrutiny?
Links I Liked
The methodology behind Oxfam’s latest killer fact on companies $1 trillion in windfall profits
Some good news on falling global poverty levels (the multi-dimensional kind)
Devoted the last week’s posts to a new book, How to Engage Policy Makers with your Research: The Art of Informing and Impacting Policy. Lot of stuff to chew on in here, for those of us uncomfortably straddling the academic/advocacy divide.
- Overall Book Review
- Particularly nice chapter on Research to influence Sustainability Policy in UK
- The Role of Critical Friend (something I do a bit of, so interesting to see it being systematized)
Fixing the power imbalances of aid and development: A paradox
Is it right to prioritise fragile states in the climate crisis?
Book Review: How to Stand Up to a Dictator, by Maria Ressa
Where has the Humanitarian Sector got to on Localization? Great new update
From Penury to Prosperity. The Churches at the Epicentre of social-economic Transformation
I'm doing a new edition of How Change Happens - any suggestions for what needs to change?
Why are LGBTQIA+ people in the Philippines still waiting for an anti-discrimination law?
Leadership Tips from Someone Who Knows
Links I Liked
Reforming the World Bank: some good ideas, but where's the power, politics and feasibility?
How to get people to take the Care Economy seriously? Some top (evidence-based) tips
Where thinking and working politically meets gender: tactics that have worked
Podcast + transcript: did we get it wrong on land grabs in Africa? In Conversation with Laura German
How do we Start Thinking About AI and Development? (one post by me, one by ChatGPT!)
What does politically smart support to democracy and human rights look like?
Can humanitarian experience guide the development of new loss and damage funding?
Want to know what happened to the whole issue of land governance, land grabs and women's land rights in Africa? Here's anthropology professor Laura German, author of 'Power/Knowledge/Land: Contested Ontologies of Land and its Governance in Africa'.
Seeing the forest beyond the trees: Coalition building in Indonesia and beyond and the lessons for donors
Older and at the Sharp End: Why more Social Protection is needed to protect Older People in the global food, finance & fuel crisis
Linking Dignity & Development: Where have we got to?
Links I Liked
Public Engagement with Aid: What do we know from 10 years of research?
Why are Civil Wars Lasting Longer?
Links I Liked
Aid in 'Politically Estranged Settings' and the Disappointment Cycle of reading new papers
Book Review: Reimagining Civil Society Collaborations in Development: Starting from the South
ChatGPT: implications for teaching, how it analyses Brexit and the link to Psychoanalysis
Citizen action for accountability in challenging contexts: What have we learned?
Venture Philanthropy and Asset Based Community-Driven Development – a marriage made in heaven?
The Revenge of Power: A Great Book that will help you better understand Modern Politics
Food and energy protests signal failures of accountability on a global scale
Links I Liked
6 tricks for diverting Britain’s Aid to the UK
Oxfam and BRAC: the links between Bloody-Mindedness and Innovation
How Beijing Commands: how the Communist Party combines Ambiguity and Clarity to Maximum Effect
UK Budget 2023: What the Big Red Box leaves out
Links I Liked
Book Review: Lives Amid Violence: Transforming Development in the Wake of Conflict
Evidence-informed policy FAQs: dinner party edition
What can a Water Project in DRC tell us about Adaptive Management in fragile/conflict affected settings?
Links I Liked x2
Bread and roses – why Oxfam is shining a light on feminist movements this March
White Saviorism in International development. Theories, Practices and Lived Experiences
How could a Funder help Promote Research for Impact?
Does digitalised social protection worsen exclusion for women?
Remembering Robin Palmer, a giant in defence of land rights in Africa and beyond
Links I Liked
Five types of humanitarian influence
Upshift: Turning Pressure into Performance and Crisis into Creativity
Links I Liked
Is Class the Missing Dimension in the Aid Sector’s search for Diversity?
Great New Guide to 'Systems Thinking and Practice'
Book Review: The Systems Work of Social Change
Links I Liked
Top Tips on Seminar Presentations and the return to IRL - In Real Life
The Global role of Grandmothers in the Care Economy
Book Review: Political Settlements and Development: Theory, Evidence, Implications
Links I Liked
The Changing Nature of (my) ‘Field Trips’
9 Useful Roles INGOs can play as Intermediaries in an Age of Localization
Book Review: Hypocrisy and Human Rights: Resisting Accountability for Mass Atrocities
Taxation of the World’s Super-Rich has collapsed: as 1 in 8 people go to bed hungry, that has to change
Ending Fossil Fuel Subsidies: the politics of saving the planet
Whether in Asia, Africa or North America, it’s been a profitable polycrisis for billionaires
What can Oxfam's new Davos Report teach us about Killer Graphics?
Links I Liked
Humanitarians Must Reject the Taliban's Misogyny
How well does the IMF engage with civil society?
What do LSE Activism Students do after they leave?
Edible Economics: A Christmas Cracker of a book
It’s Christmas time. Let’s talk about the world’s worst ever Christmas song (and the transatlantic cousin that is so much better).
Links I Liked
Hello 2023. Here are the Most-Read FP2P Blogs from the Last Year.
Is Extinction Rebellion really quitting? Analysis of their New Year's Day statement
Book Review: Africa 2.0: Inside a Continent's Communications Revolution
Links I Liked
Talking to Tory backbenchers about Aid
Austerity as Gender-Based Violence
Development Nutshell: audio round-up (22m) of FP2P posts, w/b 14th and 21st November
Loss and Damage fund established at COP27: what happens next?
Africa’s newest oil pipeline. When Two Elephants fight, the people get trampled
How can Behavioral Science help build Democracy, Human Rights, and Good Governance?
The Clean Energy Transition needs to be Fast – but it must also be Fair
Links I Liked x2
Rebecca Solnit: Why climate despair is a luxury
The links between war and hunger
Talking to Tory backbenchers about Aid
Austerity as Gender-Based Violence
Links I Liked
Can the UK become a development superpower again? Stefan Dercon’s memo to the new Development Minister
'Imagine There's No Money' - a thought experiment on aid without $
Adaptive Management in large programmes: Great new Practical Guide
Words v Deeds: Rishi Sunak at the Egypt Climate Summit
Aid v Global Public Goods; the fear in the system and multi-dimensional poverty: A conversation with Norway’s Development Agency
Links I Liked
Top Tips and Dilemmas in Influencing from seven senior Aid Leaders
Book Review: Transnational Advocacy in the Digital Era
‘Voluntourism’: Cultural exchange or doing development badly?
Links I Liked
‘Think Chess not Checkers’: Wilf Mwamba on the role of Analysis in effective Influencing
As Oxfam turns 80, here are three big ideas that I think will shape its future…
SoupGate, the radical flank and the politics of good taste
For our Global Executive Leadership Initiative training on influencing, I interviewed Wilf Mwamba, a long term FCDO/DFID practitioner-thinker on TWP, now working in the private sector. With GELI's permission, I'm reposting here.
Links I Liked
Which Governments do/don’t care about Inequality?
‘Never let the Silence Reign’: in Conversation with William Chemaly on the future of Global Protection
What should INGOs do when Civic Space is closing around them?
The outgoing coordinator of the Global Protection Cluster shares some of his impressions of the state of a crucial part of the humanitarian system, the gains made, the challenges that remain, and why it all matters.
Links I Liked
What did we learn from six months of training senior Aid people in Influencing?
Why and how the UN and NGOs need to work together at national level
Ha-Joon Chang on Economics v Science Fiction and other great ways to end your weeks this autumn – the LSE’s Cutting Edge lectures are back
Links I Liked
Book Review: ‘New Mediums, Better Messages?’ (How Innovations in theatre, music, photography, video games, radio & journalism are Changing International Development)
Podcast: Drought, Localization, the power of Cash Transfers and the Criminalization of Beekeeping – a conversation with Oxfam Kenya’s John Kitui
Which is worse, bad Zoom or bad In-Real-Life?
I sat down recently with one of the stars of the Oxfam firmament, John Kitui, its Country Director in Kenya
Links I Liked
The Humanitarian System is on the Edge of the Abyss. Where next?
Locked out. What do local leaders say about reforming the humanitarian system?
5 ways to build more inclusive cities
Is it time to Embrace your Imposter Syndrome?
Student blogs/vlogs
- Tackling period poverty in France
- Plane to Train UK: Incentivizing and Promoting Domestic Train Travel
- Why you have to care about elephants in Botswana
Book Review: Gambling on Development, by Stefan Dercon
Goodbye Government, Hello Corruption
Using Evidence: What Can We Learn from a Book about Parenting?
Links I Liked
The sewage nightmare of Delhi’s ‘unauthorised colonies’
5 easy steps to gain moral superiority over your friends
Protecting the protectors
Arrest the Trafficker, Not the Trafficked
Why you should change your mind about the start-up that invented the Covid vaccine
Links I Liked: All graphics (too hot to think!)
Playing the long game: politics, elite bargaining, and change over 20 years in Peru
Welcome to our new home
Never Heard of 'Human Rights Economics'? You have now.
Summer Student blog and campaign. What about Waste Workers?
Links I Liked
Red Tape, Risk and Decolonization: how can the Aid Sector square the circle?
Hopelessness?
Links I Liked
Starving civilians is an ancient military tactic, but today it’s a war crime in Ukraine, Yemen, Tigray and elsewhere
Why we need to build a larger us
Africa is so rich in farmland – so why is it still hungry?
Where have we got to on Thinking and Working Politically? Update and a Mildly Heretical Thought.
Links I Liked
Is behavioural economics (aka nudge theory) blocking the path to progress?
“We have already spent everything we had in our own wallets”: How international aid is failing Ukrainian responders – and what to do about it
Why We Fight: This Year’s Big Book on Development?
Latin America in turmoil, an update
Can INGOs really separate power from money?
Links I Liked
Promoting anti-racist narratives in development sector research
Links I Liked
Rethinking monitoring, evaluation and learning in complex systems
(Re)making the case for adaptive management (part one and part two)
Links I Liked
An important new book on technology, power and development
Billionaires made more in the 24 months of the pandemic than they did in 23 years. Oxfam on Davos
Why mothers are taking the fight for climate action to Lloyd's of London
Stefan Dercon introduces his new book, Gambling on Development: why some countries win and others lose
What did I learn from trying to teach 50 senior aid people about influencing?
Links I Liked
The UK’s new Development Strategy shows it’s in the midst of an identity crisis
Hunger, Inequality and the Birth of Oxfam
East Africa v Ukraine. Two tragedies; two very different responses
Links I Liked
Theories of Change, the muddy middle, and what to do about assumptions
How Should Academics talk to Decision-Makers? Some Interesting New Research
How do we identify, support and/or build Champions in Development?
Links I Liked
A Great Overview of the past, present and future of War and the Humanitarian System
How do NGO staff and partners experience Adaptive Programming? Some impressive (and positive) new research
Invisible women: a story and podcast of Emergent Agency
21st century food riots
The Shameful Implosion of UK Aid
How do new Aid Initiatives pan out on the ground? A study of 4 new USAID approaches
Links I Liked
The impact of war on older people (in Ukraine and everywhere else)
Localisation: an opportunity for thinking and working politically to deliver?
Review: Beef, Bible and Bullets: Brazil in the Age of Bolsonaro, by Richard Lapper
Links I Liked
Poo, Periods and Priorities: what does research tell us about the different views of practitioners, populations and academics about WASH?
Second (and Third) Thoughts on Adaptive Management and Thinking and Working Politically
What does Civil Society think of Adaptive Management? Not that much, it turns out.
Putin and the Psychology of Grievance
Tackling Inequality on the grounds of religion or belief: more than ‘add religion and stir’ (part one and part two)
Are we there yet? Five key insights on localisation as a journey towards locally-led practice
Links I Liked
Want to Challenge the Elite? Then first Understand What Makes Them Tick. Public philosopher, political scientist and Kate Raworth’s other half Roman Krznaric on his latest book, What The Rich Don’t Tell The Poor: Conversations With Guatemalan Oligarchs.
Why do we keep forgetting about dignity? 4 Ways to Address Dignity in Development Programs
Top case studies of public campaigning and how to influence developing country and donor governments. Please add your own
Friday Funnies: Monty Python on the politics of development (aka my attempt to relieve the gloom and misery of our timelines)
Links I Liked
Get Ready! A fitness dance class inspired by the science of climate impacts
Sunshine, elephants, and boomerangs: Is a dramatic rise in global income inequality looming?
What counts as ‘accountability’ – and who decides?
What to read on Ukraine? (trying to dig down behind the reportage and moral outrage, with only partial success)
Humanitarian insights from the latest IPCC report – via cartoons and cardboard theatre. Advocacy disaster – you publish a 3000 page report and no-one notices.
The Disabled Ukrainians Doing What the UN Can’t (or Won’t?): Superb blog from Anna Landre
A Brilliant History of the rise and power of Constitutions as a global 'political technology'. Yep, I still read books, but mainly on holiday
Links I Liked
How do you overcome the blockers to your great idea?
What has global military spending and emissions got to do with development? Rather a lot.
A climate plea: An IPCC Special Report on Children?
- Links I Liked
- Influencing for Senior Leaders: a new course on Analysis, Strategy, and Practice. Want to sign up?
- Draft Guide to Publicly Available Influencing Toolkits – your comments/additions please!
- How to Change Narratives to build Hope and Solidarity – some examples
- Links I Liked
- Northern Institutions Dominate International Development Research: So What?
- Who supports the people who support entrepreneurs? Introducing a new tool for ecosystem leaders
- How do you set up an effective network? Some thoughts + an appeal for links and suggestions
Links I Liked
Thinking and working politically: What have we learned since 2013?
New and Old Power: A New Way to Understand and Cultivate Digitally-Mediated Activism, or Just Another Framework?
Is Social Media a New Frontier for Marginalised Communities to Challenge Old Power? The Flint Water Tragedy, and the Power of Place-Based Digital Activism
Links I Liked
What Heather Marquette is reading on Corruption, Crime & Conflict
'We the Helpers'. White Saviourism or a Smart Defence of Aid?
The links between corruption and human rights - top new report from Transparency International
Links I Liked
Davos, Inequality and Covid: Oxfam on Beating back the Billionaire Variant: Oxfam's Anthony Kamande introducing this year's blockbuster.
Being a feminist academic in Pakistan, and why Open Access is necessary for decolonizing Academia. An interview (podcast and transcript) with Ayesha Khan.
Deconstructing this year's Oxfam Davos report - what makes it so good?
Ayesha Khan works with the Collective for Social Science Research in Karachi, Pakistan. She is author of The Women's Movement in Pakistan: Activism, Islam and Democracy (2018). Her post on that book here. In this podcast she:
- Tells us about your work on feminism and politics in Pakistan
- Discusses the dangers of being a feminist academic
- Looks at the importance of Open Access publishing: 3 years on, her book has still not been published in Pakistan!
- Explains her current work on a PhD by publication – what’s the benefit? Why isn’t it a bigger thing?
- Finally, the link to the decolonization of academia
Links I Liked
‘What does Governance look like ‘from below’?: great methodology; snappy format; fascinating findings; exemplary writing - please read.’ Puff for great IDS paper, co-authored by our very own Katrina Barnes
How to Monitor Political Context - some practical advice from World Vision, who are really interesting in the whole adaptive management/political analysis space
Who is helping protest movements engage with Policy Makers (and is that a good idea)? Results of one of this week’s chats
FP2P Highlights of 2021; Links I Liked; Feminist Protests and Politics in a World in Crisis; Why understanding the history of Donor Governments changes the way we think about aid
Links I Liked; Engaging with evidence and uncertainty: choosing where to start; World Inequality Report 2022: a treasure trove of trends and new data; 9 Great lectures/panels for you to catch up on over Christmas (or any other time)
Links I Liked; INGO Research for Impact: a Conversation with Save the Children; Queer existence is resistance: Understanding the rising tide of COVID-related LGBTQIA+ discrimination as gender-based violence; Research for Impact: A Conversation (and podcast) with Researchers in the Himalayas
Audio recording of a discussion with the team at ICIMOD, a thinktank working to protect people, environment and culture across 8 countries in the Himalayan region
Links I Liked
Can the COVID victims of child marriage get accountability?
When Two Pandemics Collide. How the HIV community has shown resilience, innovation and agency in the time of COVID-19
How Getting Organized has helped Mitigate the Impact of COVID-19 on People with Disabilities
The climate movement we need right now; Getting into the Politics of why (some) Governance Programmes work; Links I Liked; Making Change: What Works? Lessons from four successful movements; The Changing Face of Aid; How do you Measure the Impact of Influencing (and ask some v useful questions en route)?; 30 years and counting: 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence in our COVID-19 world
Links I Liked; Traditional approaches to aid and development are failing us. It’s time to invest in community-driven change; Twenty years of UK governance programmes in Nigeria: achievements, challenges, lessons and implications for future support; What’s stopping aid from putting local people and organizations first? Answers from a global conversation
Links I Liked
Want a secret sauce to increase the readership for your next book by a factor of at least 10? Here it is. (feeble attempt at clickbait for Open Access week)
Do you want to get serious about the Care Economy? Amber Parkes, Anam Parvez Butt, Marion Sharples and Vivian Schwarz-Blum talks us through an important new advocacy tool from Oxfam and others – the Care Policy Scorecard
A Unique Fly-on-the-Wall Account of What’s Happening on the Ground in Myanmar. Great work on governance diaries has continued through Covid and the Coup.
Case Studies of sophisticated humanitarian influencing, based on a comprehensive context and power analysis – do they exist? If so, where are they?!
Links I Liked; ‘Inspiring Radically Better Futures’, a new Oxfam research programme - concept, methodology and findings.
Links I Liked; Women, Voice and Power; How to design research to make sure that Humanitarian Innovation gets scaled up?; Four glimmers of hope for tackling the climate crisis
Links I Liked; In the Presence of “White Skin”: The Challenges of Expectations upon Encountering White Researchers ; Breaking the Class Ceiling; How to Design Research to defend the Status Quo/Stop Bad Stuff from Happening?
Links I Liked; Great new online lecture series - Cutting Edge Issues in Development Thinking and Practice; Social protection and COVID-19 - what worked where?; When the Room is Laughing: From Female Researcher to Prostitute Researcher in the DRC
Links I Liked; India's Schooling Crisis; Top 10 unintended consequences of aid; Book Review: From Anger to Action Inside the Global Movements for Social Justice, Peace, and a Sustainable Planet
Talking you through the week's posts on FP2P: Links I Liked; How can Outsiders support Civil Society in coup-torn Myanmar?; Exploring a new governance agenda: What are the questions that matter?; ICYMI: Some summer highlights on FP2P
More from the Bukavu Series of posts on life for researchers in the DRC: Vignettes from the Field; Problematic Assumptions about Local Research Collaborators; North-South Power Differentials and Competition in the Research Business; Remuneration v Prostitution
Invisible Voices in the Production of Knowledge: Introducing the Bukavu series; When You Become Pombe Yangu (“My Beer”): Dealing with the Financial Expectations of Research Participants; Epistemological Rupture, Detachment, and Decentring: Requirements When Doing Research “At Home”; “Donor-Researchers” and “Recipient-Researchers”: Bridging the Gap between Researchers from the Global North and Global South; When Focus Groups Fail: The Argument in Favour of Involving Local Researchers in Project Design; How Researchers Navigate in Armed Conflict Zones: Some Do’s and Don’ts
Links I Liked; Some Good ideas on Promoting locally-led development in the UK aid system; What to Read on Afghanistan?; 8 mistakes to avoid in reporting an INGO’s contributions to the SDGs; How to Write About Afghanistan: A Style Guide for Western Journalists
Links I Liked; 7 Cartoons that could just help the IPCC Save the Planet; Defending Institutions in Post-Coup Myanmar; Measuring Women’s Economic Empowerment: 5 Takeaways from Researchers and Practitioners
Links I Liked; Inequality is the most powerful explanation for different Covid death rates – a summary of the evidence from The Economist; How Filipinos have responded to Covid - some great new research on 'Emergent Agency'; In praise of…. Logframes
What's blocking progress in fixing the Global Water Crisis?; Why Oxfam is talking about race; How does Innovation happen in Systems?
A TripAdvisor in development?; How Covid has driven up inequality in Supermarket Supply Chains; Links I Liked; Micro, bottom-up research can shed new light on power and politics in fragile places, but it’s REALLY difficult!
Links I Liked x2; What 6 case studies taught me about how research has impact; How to build and maintain trust at the interface of policy and research (and some challenges for NGOs); the case for investing in water, sanitation and hygiene; A Humanitarian 'Cheat Sheet' that should definitely be on your weekly reading list; MEL Consultants – what are they good for?; How can we make sure Covid-driven localization in aid endures after the pandemic?
Links I Liked; Anti-corruption and democracy; what does the post-cuts UK aid programme look like?; how an anthropologist influenced the International Criminal Court; Are surprise/novelty important in research? How has Covid affected fathers and gender equality?
Links I Liked; UK aid cuts have been a political & human train wreck so far, but that could/should change; 2021 State of Civil Society Report - a great new summary; Defending civic space during and after the pandemic
Links I Liked; Global Covid death toll 3 times higher than the usual stats suggest, and much more skewed towards poor countries; It’s often easier to have policy impact with research on a ‘new issue’, but proving impact is just as hard; What Brits Say v What They Mean, now with author credit
When Donors Collide: What Implications for Aid Accountability, Effectiveness and Strategy?; Links I Liked; How scandals and crises create opportunities for Research Impact; What is happening in Colombia? New roots and familiar responses to national protests
Links I Liked; Drones and Community Development; How research into Ebola secured a seat at the table of COVID-19 policy-making
Links I Liked; Why is internal advocacy within our own organizations so hard?; What do we know about Covid-related innovation in poor countries and should aid agencies get involved?; How an arts project created real-world impact for refugees and formerly displaced persons
Links I Liked; A top Toolkit on Adaptive Management. But is that a good idea?; How did research on Chiefs' Courts in South Sudan influence famine early warning systems?
Links I Liked; How has Covid changed the picture on Aid/Development Jobs?; Beyond political will – how leadership makes a difference on water and sanitation; Does Local Advocacy look different in Fragile/Conflict affected places?
Book Review: The Plague Cycle; Paths to Shift Power and Imagination in Development; Where have we got to in Understanding Power as the basis for Activism?; Trust, Politics, Exhaustion and Anger: findings on Emergent Agency in a time of Covid; Book Review: The Moral Economy of Elections in Africa; Programming in Chaos.
Links I Liked; 'Development': A visual story of shifting power (en ingles y espanhol); Is the UK diverting Covid vaccines from poorer countries?
Africa's Land Rush - what do we really know? Water Defenders v Big Gold – a real life David and Goliath story with a happy ending; What can we learn from 200 case studies of 'emergent agency in a time of Covid'? What is COVID-19 telling us about leadership?
Links I Liked; Back to the Old Drawing Board: the power of humour in social change; How a ‘public authority’ lens can help us understand NGOs and INGOs; A historic legal victory for climate justice in France
How a Women’s Organization became ‘chief architects’ of the COVID-19 response in Southern India; Who loses out from Open Access journals? Plus the weirdness of the Magisterium; Top Tips for giving presentations in a second language; ‘Do-it-yourself development’: the world of citizen aid and what to do about it
Links I Liked; How can a Book Change the World? The theory of action behind Kate Raworth and the Doughnut Economics Action Lab; Watching the ICC Judgement of LRA commander Dominic Ongwen with Ugandan victims of enforced marriage; When throwing evidence and facts is not enough. How Change Happens in the Humanitarian System
Links I Liked; After Covid, what next for the world’s kids?; How to change policy and practice at city level? A discussion with some influencers?; What kinds of 'Agency' are emerging as grassroots organizations respond to Covid?
Links I Liked; Seizing a window of opportunity: lessons from research on anti-corruption reform; Is Campaigning on Inequality harder? Here's what some of the world's inequality activists said; Words to sprinkle, camouflage and befuddle: Idle musings on the slipperiness of language
Imagining the world anew: gender equality and women’s rights - Part 2; Three dreams we must dream when writing Chile’s new constitution; How to think about Power - aka Learning from my Students; Win-win: Designing climate change projects for effective anti-corruption in Bangladesh
Links I Liked; Why the Inequality Virus should be the talk of Davos this week; Right now, it feels like anything can derail everything, so are theories of change still useful?; Imagining the world anew: the pandemic and gender equality
Links I Liked; The dangers of “policy-sising” social change; 10 steps to Becoming a Successful Academic – the definitive guide; Nothing to Learn from East Asia (on Covid)?
In which I am subjected to a gruelling 80m cross-examination on Life, the Universe and Everything (actually ‘How Change Happens’) for the entertainment of some Cambridge Accountancy students. Blogged here https://oxfamblogs.org/fp2p/in-conversation-on-how-change-happens-activism-and-politics/
Links I Liked; Africa's new Free Trade Agreement; Can Financial Diaries help us understand life in fragile and conflict-affected settings?; Oxfam's top 5 climate justice wins since 2008; Me being grilled by some Cambridge accountancy students on life, the universe and everything
Summary of a weird (and record-breaking) year on FP2P; Links I Liked; You've got your Qualification and you want to change the world. Congrats. Now what? (aka why being smart is not enough); Has Covid been a tipping point for Universal Social Protection? Here's what we know; Bigger? Smaller? And What about the Missing Middle? Great discussion on the future of Humanitarianism
Links I Liked; How Covid can help us Repurpose Humanitarian Bureaucracies; Gender, Power and Progress: How Norms Change; Argentina introduces a Wealth Tax (aka ‘the Oxfam Tax’); How to decolonise International Development: some practical suggestions
Clare Short: ‘Reflecting on the Demise of DFID’; Coronavirus as a Catalyst for Global Civil Society; Philanthropy: a History. Kevin Watkins reviews a big new book; Who wins/loses if Mexico legalizes Cannabis? Not as straightforward as you might think; You can't rethink humanitarianism without also rethinking the money. Here's one way to do it.
The next phase in making sense of 'emergent agency in a time of Covid' - thematic cluster conversations on eg women's rights, education, faith organizations. The hour of the rubber ducks - the use of humour in protests in Thailand and elsewhere. Links I Liked. How has the Pandemic Affected the Ecosystem on Open Government? Climate change in Bolivia - what's changed/the same over the last 10 years?
Global Britain or Little Britain? The attack on UK aid; Links I Liked; Book Review: Power Switch: How We can Reverse Extreme Inequality; #PowerShifts Resources: The Virus of Gender-Based Violence; Is Covid a window of opportunity for localizing aid? Learning from a natural experiment in the Pacific
Links I Liked; Social Protection in a Time of Covid; What are we seeing so far on Emergent Agency in Covid? Difficult Women: A History of Feminism in 11 Fights. What have we learned about the care economy from 7 years' work in 25 countries?
Which developing countries have managed to reduce income inequality and why? Free online aid and development courses for penniless graduates; Initial Findings on Emergent Agency in a time of Covid; An Uplifting Account of Civil Society Responses to Covid; Why don’t Faith Groups and Anti-Corruption Activists Work Together More? Glass half empty or half full? Debating the underlying narrative on the US election.
Links I Liked; Voices from the pandemic frontlines: Health worker protests and proposals from 84 countries; 5 Common Mistakes when NGOs start strategizing; Open Access rocks - How Change Happens is four years old this week and OA has made all the difference; Malawi is the only place where democracy has improved under Covid. 80 countries have got worse.
Links I Liked; Fragments of the Post-Covid World Order, according to The Economist; Civic Freedoms and Pandemic; Covid-19 as a watershed in how we run the world; how do influencing networks get results
Links I Liked; Oxfam's top tips for effective campaigning; how to manage information overload; how Covid and Inequality feed off each other; observing the pandemic through a public authority lens
Interview with veteran Oxfam campaigner Richard English, whose 'Influencing for Impact Guide' has just been published. We discuss the best/worst Oxfam campaigns, the benefits and risks of professional activism and have a couple of very polite disagreements about what the Guide does/doesn't cover. Stay for his great 'big takeaway' for activists
Water, sanitation and Hygiene as part of the Covid reconstruction; applying political economy analysis to health and education programmes; taking doughnut economics from idea to action; rules of thumb as an alternative to theories of change; a great line up for the LSE's new open access lecture series
Links I Liked; 3 examples of 'emergent agency' in grassroots responses to Covid; new course manual on advocacy and activism
How to reduce carbon emissions = 100 coal power stations with a simple nudge on air conditioners; Why are Illegal Drugs still a Cinderella Issue in Development?; How to vlog – top examples and advice from some very tech savvy students; The Hidden Life of Theories of Change; How to Monitor and Evaluate an Adaptive Programme: 7 Takeaways
Why you should care about Sea Turtles; Links I Liked; Launching a new Research and Action programme on 'Emergent Agency in a Time of Covid'. Want to join us?; What do 13,000 children in 46 countries have to tell us about living with COVID-19?; In advocacy, which matters more - evidence or relationships?
How social audits can improve the Covid response - learning from India; 3 advocacy case studies on norm change that I wish someone would write; decolonizing the knowledge system in the pandemic; links I liked; what have 5 years of tax campaigns achieved?; what is political economy analysis and why does it matter?; a great campaign on foul air in London's tube (from one of my students); book review on Thinking and Working Politically
Links I Liked; the Covid moment for governance wonks; what does Extinction Rebellion tell us about new social movements?
I talk you through two weeks (eight posts) including: Podcast on China and Corruption; Multi-dimensional Poverty; Covid and the climate crisis; Links I Liked; empowerment and accountability in fragile/messy places; the emotional chemistry of rebellion; LSE's thinkers on development; how to be a good ancestor
Yuen Yuen Ang discusses her new book on how the 'right kind' of corruption has created growth on steroids in China, what it tells us about the nature of capitalism, and what the future might hold
Links I Liked; women in Lockdown India; Covid and Inequality; Corruption in China; Activism under the Coronavirus
Open Society's Covid Scenarios; Some (mixed) progress on localization of humanitarian and advocacy; lessons of a democratic triumph in Malawi; how youth movements are stepping up on Covid in Africa
A Covid Research Agenda; Anti Racist Resource List for Aid; Links I Liked; How History Shapes Covid Responses; Deepak Nayyar on his new book, Resurgent Asia
Links I Liked; Aid, Development & Racism; The DFID-FCO merger; Transforming Oxfam and International NGOs; Civil Society Organizations and the Pandemic
Danny Sriskandarajah, Oxfam GB's CEO, discusses the organization's current upheaval, the eventual transformation he seeks, and the wider challenges facing International NGOs.
Links I Liked; The Drawbacks of Online Activism; Are we living in a rubbish remake of the Matrix?; Will Patents stop Covid drugs saving lives? Re-imagining aid.
Links I Liked; Power in the Pandemic; Beyond the Western Gaze; Decolonizing Development Research; Thinking and Working Politically with Technology
Robert Chambers' 'involuntary immersion'; links I liked; can MERL help with Covid?; how can we spot weak signals of Covid-driven transformation; chill with a Corona Quiz
Links I liked; two contrasting approaches to Covid and Corruption; a new podcast on Power in the Pandemic; informal social protection and Covid
Links I Liked; the politics of Covid in Uganda; we're all data geeks now; how are adaptive management programmes coping with Covid?; what could Africa look like a year from now?
Links I Liked; Conspiracy Theories in Africa, Coronavirus and the Case for Care and a feminist recovery; champion of champions in the cartoon competition
Links I Liked; Social Movements and Covid; How social research can help governments; Debt Relief; humour, social change and a Corona-cartoon competition
Links I Liked; how diagrams can help social science improve the Covid response; how Covid is affecting civil society, and how it is responding, including some great entrepreurship from India
Links I Liked; Covid advocacy in South Africa's shanty towns; the Pope on Universal Basic Wage and much more; African and Indian authors on the crisis
Covid links; impact in fragile/conflict states; religion and the response - lessons from Ebola; political legacy; Oxfam's economic response proposal
Oxfam on how to confront the catastrophe; A Coronavision Song Contest goes viral; Why Love Matters in messaging about the crisis; Care in a time of Corona; my new paper on Covid as a Critical Juncture
All Covid and Development this week: Links I Liked, including 'Coronavirus Rhapsody' (sorry, Freddie); A brief history of hand-washing; how to stop lockdown leading to an upsurge in violence against women; why debt relief for poor countries needs to be part of the response; the tensions between faith and science in Africa.
Guess what dominated the blog this week? Likes I Liked; book review of 'Plagues and the Paradox of Progress'; Why Abortion is becoming more available and safer everywhere; What Covid-19 responders can learn from Ebola; Coronavirus and the Global Education Emergency
International Women's Day listening and reading; Links I Liked; How to influence in Whitehall; the Pope's Love Letter to the Amazon; the global Sand Grab
New research on Southern CSOs; How to do Governance Diaries; Fascism in India; avoid the word 'empowerment'; Can Sen and Nussbaum inform the aid debate?; A Global Britain to be proud of; social enterprise in Nepal and Saleemul Huq on 30 years of climate change talks and what happens next
Veteran climate change activist Saleemul Huq reflects on nearly 30 years of climate change negotiations (he's attended all of them) and what needs to happen next.
Summary of the week's posts on the From Poverty to Power blog: Links I Liked; women, seeds and resilience in Kenya; The Far Right's problem with gender and masculinity; Islamophobia in the Balkans; 11 recommendations for working on empowerment and accountability in messy/dangerous places
15m run through of the week's FP2P posts: Links I Liked; the links between inequality and human rights activism; top tips for jobs in aid and development; what's it like being an African student at LSE and the president of the African Studies Association of Africa on decolonizing Academia. Enjoy.
Interview with the President of the African Studies Association of Africa, Akosua Adomako Ampofo. We cover family life, the research system and her brilliant advice to old white guys like me.
I talk you through this week's posts on From Poverty to Power: Colombian activists using arts and music to tackle climate change; David Milliband's list of the ways conflict is changing; a funky new Oxfam guide to 'market-based programming'; some thoughts on how academics can help practitioners (rather than just slag them off) and some painful conversations about the gulf between civil society organizations and the ultra-poor and the implications for aid.
I talk you through this week's posts on the blogs, including powerful overviews of two big global killers(mainly in poor countries)- road traffic and pneumonia, plus future megatrends, a phony war on inequality stats, and yet more #Swedow (Stuff We Don't Want). But this time the 'beneficiaries' are fighting back with humour.
I talk you through the week's blogposts on From Poverty to Power: pitching feminist economics at Davos; what makes Developmental Leaders? Pockets of State Effectiveness under the microscope; Martin Luther King on activism and White Moderates; Ynis Isimbi on a successful campaign to remove the tampon tax in Rwanda
Talking you through this week's FP2P posts: links I liked on social media; community wealth building in the UK; review of From What Is to What If? by Rob Hopkins; Asia's climate emergency and decolonization and the future of African Studies
Audio summary (15m) of the week's posts on the FP2P blog. Including reader stats and top posts for 2019, the year in Africa, a row over who shd control the UK's aid programme, the power of maps and why architecture matters
I walk you through this week's blogs: great new free lecture series from rock start economist Ha-Joon Chang; politically savvy tech tools in Myanmar; a big debate on whether INGOs are willing/able to surrender power; family and friends as the main source of social protection in poor countries. Enjoy and have a good break (if you're having one - we are)
Walking you through this week's posts on From Poverty to Power, including links I liked; some great (and positive) new research on cash transfers; how to support research in dangerous places; some depressing reading for UK election day and a new report on the global crackdown on civil society. Sorry, I'll try to be more upbeat next week.....
At the launch of a new report on the global crack down on civil society organizations, I interviewed Dom Perera of Civicus and Tonu Basu of the Open Government Partnership. We discussed the reasons for the crackdown, the links to global protests, and the implications for CSOs and outsiders.
Summary of this week's FP2P posts, including most read recent blogs, Naomi Hossain on the World Bank's recent Social Accountability Forum, book review on Great Policy Successes and what works in supporting small/medium enterprise development
Audio summary of this week's posts on From Poverty to Power, difficult conversations between academics and practitioners; why the global uprising? Update on global climate debates and a great example of mapping local knowledge in Kenya to help adapt to climate change
Talking you through this week's posts on From Poverty to Power including the 1941 CIA sabotage manual, feminist research, empowerment and accountability in fragile states, why simple rules are the best strategy and the emerging global movement on inequality
I summarize this week's 5 posts on the From Poverty to Power blog: feminist research and climate change; how counter-terrorism laws are undermining humanitarian response; the politics of the digital revolution in poor countries and a podcast with inequality guru Branko Milanovic + a review of his latest book. Enjoy
Branko Milanovic describes his life's work highlighting the issue of global inequality and his latest book 'Capitalism, Alone'.
I talk you through the last two weeks of posts on From Poverty to Power, including how to talk about corruption; giving away my blogging secrets; paying the research piper; Obama v call-out culture; and what do grassroots movements need from their international allies. All in 11 minutes. What's stopping you?
I talk you through this week's FP2P posts, including Links I Liked, a (very critical) discussion on 'experts' on the importance of Open Access, especially for books
A round up of posts on the From Poverty to Power blog on aid and development. This week we covered how to improve awful academic presentations at conferences; critiques of randomized controlled trials; public v private education in poor countries, and home grown economies in Africa. Enjoy.
Education specialist Prachi Srivastava on the rise of low fee private schools in developing countries
Talking you through recent posts on aid, development and other stuff on the From Poverty to Power blog, including Southern views and voices on the climate crisis, how to build effective states and podcasts with prominent women's leaders from Kenya and India
Interview with Ingrid Srinath of the Centre for Social Impact and Philanthropy in Delhi, a globally respected expert on civil society.
Njoki Njehu is a feminist activist and Pan African coordinator of the global Fight Inequality Alliance
Sam Hickey, who managed an 8 year long research programme on Effective States and Inclusive Development, summarizes its headline findings
Jessy Nkhoma And Isaac Mzembe, Malawian high school students, on Climate Change by From Poverty to Power
Audio Round Up (8m) of FP2P posts, week beginning 16th September by From Poverty to Power
Interview with author of a new book on how reforms to quality education happen in 6 countries
Me talking you through this weeks posts - the traditional links round-up; two posts on a brilliant 'thinking and working politically' programme I visited in the Philippines recently, and an LSE researcher in the DRC talking about the importance of trust and intimacy in research
Interviews with key players in a path-breaking Thinking and Working Politically programme in the Philippines, to try and capture its 'secret sauce' for achieving reform.
Talking you through the week's posts on the From Poverty to Power blog - much quicker than reading them!
Talking you through the posts on the From Poverty to Power blog this week, covering colonialism in academia, how journalists bring about change, and the politics of the climate crisis
Matthew Lockwood, who runs the Political Climate blog, discusses how power and politics shape what can and can't be done to confront the climate crisis. We cover Extinction Rebellion, the challenges of transforming consumerism and much more.
While I've been on holiday, the blog has been churning out some great content, so here's my summary of the last 2.5 weeks' posts
A round up of the blogs that came out this week on From Poverty to Power, including some top examples from the students on my LSE activism course
Talking you through the last two weeks blogs on From Poverty to Power, including discussions of how we use maps to trigger social change, digging into 'thinking and working politically', the importance of care for traumatized and exhausted researchers and activists in Africa and lots of other cool stuff
Round up of the last two weeks' posts on different aspects of International Development on the From Poverty to Power blog
Interview with Maria Al Abdeh, Syrian Feminist Activist And Head Of Women Now For Development
audio summary of FP2P posts for last two weeks, beginning 23rd April by From Poverty to Power
Duncan Green chats with Maria Faciolince, who is running the Power Shift project on FP2P, sourcing top quality content from the Global South and generally seeking to shake things up
Audio Summary (7m) of FP2P posts w/b 15th April and a blog redesign by From Poverty to Power
Lot Felizco, Oxfam Country Director, the Philippines on the Middle Income Country Aid Trap by From Poverty to Power
Interview with Jurma Tikmasan, a grassroots organizer from Mindanao, on how her organization is tapping into zakat - the Islamic tradition of tithing - to fund its work, and working with Islamic scholars on issues around women's rights
Audio summary (5m) of FP2P posts and a quick vlog from the Philippines by From Poverty to Power
Jean-Paul Faguet of the LSE discusses his new paper on the astonishing collapse of a stable political party system in Bolivia, and what it tells us about the sudden fragility of party systems in Europe and beyond.
Audio Summary (6m) of FP2P posts, week beginning 10th December by From Poverty to Power
Longer than usual summary (16 minutes) of a content-rich week on the blog (or maybe I was just feeling particularly chatty)
Lots of fireworks this week! (groan - 5th November, geddit?)Summary of posts, with the focus on a big discussion of how academics write about aid, which generated some heat, but a wonderful amount of light.
Yuen Yuen Ang discusses her amazing book on the politics of China's escape from poverty.
Oxfam's Latin America Regional Director Simon Ticehurst recalls his work in the 1990s and 2000s supporting a successful land struggle by Bolivia's Chiquitano people