Avni Kumar, Danielle Logue, Diana Gonzalez Botero, George Goddard, Juliet Willetts, Keren Winterford, Mel Dunn, Michele Rumsey Now more than ever, decision-making needs to be informed by evidence. The current global pandemic highlights the need for politicians and bureaucrats to ‘listen to science’ and be informed by experts. In light of this ‘importance of evidence’, we turn to consider the value of… Continue reading International development research impact: 10 key insights
Tag: International Development
Insights on China’s 2021 white paper on international development cooperation
Anthea Mulakala and Hongbo Ji China’s tradition of demand-driven assistance has created the impression of a jumble of scattered projects without coherence. However, the white paper reveals that China’s activities between 2013 and 2020 have been purposeful and targeted. On 10 January, the State Council Information Office of the People’s Republic of China released the much-awaited… Continue reading Insights on China’s 2021 white paper on international development cooperation
Book Review: Aid’s implementariat: national and invisible
Gordon Peake The book’s subtitle ‘The Invisible Labor of International Development’ has a dual meaning. It both reflects that this class of workers is rarely seen and also that much of their work is itself unnoticed and underappreciated. Donor officials are prominent in the performative ‘front-stage’ of aid, cutting ribbons at school openings, launching corporate… Continue reading Book Review: Aid’s implementariat: national and invisible
The news – good, bad and uncertain – on NGO donations in Australia
Terence Wood Most Australian development NGOs actually did quite well with donations amid the very difficult year that was 2019 with stagnant domestic economy, droughts and bush fires. In one way, 2019 was a good year for Australia’s Development NGOs. The Development Policy Centre analyses financial data, collected annually by the Australian Council for International… Continue reading The news – good, bad and uncertain – on NGO donations in Australia
What’s killing us in international NGOs?
Ann Hendrix-Jenkins The dark side of international development needs to be dismantled, and then transformed by developing different systems that are humane and restorative. To do so we have to face up to our own responsibilities, call out wrongdoing when we see it, and foster a new generation of INGOs of which we can be… Continue reading What’s killing us in international NGOs?
Covid 19 and The Temptation to Turn Away from Global Engagement
Ron Israel and Hisham Jabi In the era of Covid 19 it is perhaps politically expedient for countries to turn inward and back down from international commitments. However, we must not use the pandemic as an excuse to seal off our relationships with other countries and not participate in international responses to the pandemic and… Continue reading Covid 19 and The Temptation to Turn Away from Global Engagement
The role of humanitarian academics in a post-truth world
At the end of 2016, Oxford dictionaries made “post-truth” their word of the year. The word encapsulates many phenomena: the role of emotionality in politics, mistrust of public institutions, the perceived isolation, elitism or bias of experts. The rational observation that our perspective on events differs—depending on who and where we are—has transformed into insistence… Continue reading The role of humanitarian academics in a post-truth world
Living in a Well-meaning Lie: Valuing all Voices?
Jindra Cekan Large parts of international aid system remain broken. We design too many projects outside of the countries themselves. We have fixed funding and leave in pre-set times rather than when participants are actually ready to take over. We ‘handover’ without partnering throughout the whole project so that partners can determine what they are… Continue reading Living in a Well-meaning Lie: Valuing all Voices?