Some brief thoughts to try to break down the discussion on inequality. There are a lot of theories and discussions bouncing around, and explainers about why inequality has grown so much. Conflict, disaster, urban migration. But rather than putting it in academic terms and rationalizing why it has been happening, let’s just understand it: “The …
Continue reading ‘Trying to Understand Rising Inequality? Me, too’ »
Social media is both a saving grace and a thorn in the side of intelligent discussion. For all of its failings, people are certainly more, if not accurately, aware of the world around them. Politicians and government both bemoan the impact of social media (that fickle public needing more accountability and rapid change) and love …
Continue reading ‘What Social Media Can Tell Us About SDG Localization’ »
For more than three years now, this website has aimed to highlight the gaps between development and conflict management theories and what actually happens in development and conflict management implementation. A lot of what happens in both fields is driven by long held ideas and ‘best practices,’ mostly, but not always, conceived of based on …
Continue reading ‘Vaccinations: Don’t let fear trump science’ »
The SDGs: Leave No One Behind! Laudable. Critical. And already failing at the first hiccup. The recent SDG Index and Dashboard effectively aimed to establish a baseline for SDG indicators in all countries. A lot of data is needed (because there are A LOT of indicators – but that’s another subject). There is significant pressure …
Continue reading ‘The Slippery Slope of Leaving the Vulnerable Behind’ »
If you have 30 minutes to spare, you need to read an article by Matt Kennard and Claire Provost in Mail&Guardian Africa. It’s long, but well worth your time, particularly if you’re on the fence about private sector financing of international development. Yes, development organizations need more money if the SDGs are to be achieved, …
Continue reading ‘On Aid Part 3: Private Sector Finance – Aid or Investment?’ »
Value for money. Somewhere someone got this confused with aid effectiveness and the results have been disastrous. Where aid effectiveness asks if the money spent is resulting in effective, sustainable change, value for money looks at how much you can get for each dollar spent. While efficiency is important (not hiring six consultants where one …
The World Humanitarian Summit was held last week, the culmination of over two years of work by the UN’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), and based on my Twitter and Facebook feeds, there was a lot to say about it. Now, I’m not always a fan of ‘summits’; I feel they are …
What does it mean to be fragile? What does it mean to be vulnerable? In today’s development discourse, these terms are regularly applied to states prone to conflict or at the forefront of the impacts of climate change (or both). The ideas of fragility and vulnerability tend to underpin entire policies and frameworks towards development, …
Development data is a big deal. In fact, there is so much literature and analysis out there on development data and the data ‘revolution’ that it is simply impossible to keep up. So forgive me if some of the following is dated or lacks in robustness – there are only so many hours in a …
Eons ago (ok, 10 years) when I was working in Kosovo (who wasn’t?), I was having lunch with a friend who had just returned from her first visit with municipal councils on tax compliance. She worked as an advisor on tax compliance, etc, and I oversaw a portfolio on local government. Until that day our …
Continue reading ‘Local Economic Development for the Price of a Macchiato?’ »
