Greater Global Inequality. Here’s One Reason Why

They say overall extreme poverty has declined since 2000, with a lot of credit given to the advent of the MDGs, serving its purpose as a coordinating framework for the plethora of existing development commitments already made by developed countries, particularly those belonging to the OECD, in the 1990s. We should give credit where credit …

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On Aid Part 3: Private Sector Finance – Aid or Investment?

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, …

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On Aid Part 2: Forget Value for Money

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 …

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Coming Clean: Why I Need the Aid Sector (and why you do, too)

I often get asked when I plan to move ‘home’. After 15 years abroad, it’s a bit difficult to pin down just where ‘home’ might be. The last time I lived in my home country I was a student and so ‘home’ is still my parent’s address (according to the government and my bank, which …

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Development Assistance in an Unfair World

For all the talk about the global push to ‘leave no one behind’ following the adoption of the SDGs, or Global Goals, world governments, particularly LDCs and middle income countries, face an uphill battle. While official development assistance, particularly from OECD countries, goes up by dollar amounts, by percentage of GDP, it is slipping. To …

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