Duncan Green's Blog, page 13

Micro, bottom-up research can shed new light on power and politics in fragile places, but it’s REALLY difficult!

Another intense couple of days hearing back from the 30 or so researchers in the Action for Empowerment and Accountability research consortium, as it approaches the end of its programme. I was returning after a couple of years’ absence (I did some work on adaptive management in an earlier phase) and it was great to […]

Links (and Graphics) I Liked

The Pandemic Changed the World Of ‘Voluntourism.’ Some Folks Like The New Way Better Thought-provoking Foucauldian analysis of the rise of ‘research impact’ The racist abuse of England players has sparked a political row over the government’s stance over taking the knee. The team took the knee to protest against social injustice. What does the […]

Not All in This Together: How Covid has driven up inequality in Supermarket Supply Chains

I was speaking on a UN panel on Decent Work last week, so thought I’d better catch up with the latest Oxfam report, Not in This Together, written by Anouk Franck and Art Prapha. It provides a great case study of Covid as an ‘engine of inequality’ (and of how to write a research-based advocacy […]

A TripAdvisor in development? Turns out it’s a poster on the wall…

Guest post from Derek Thorne Back in 2015, Duncan Green published a piece on FP2P asking whether a TripAdvisor-style feedback system could work in development. If you follow the link, you’ll see it generated a lot of feedback! The idea was – and is – that TripAdvisor, and systems like it, have put significant power […]

Development Nutshell: round-up (26m) of FP2P posts, June/July

How can we make sure Covid-driven localization in aid endures after the pandemic?

Lots of people are hailing a surge in pandemic-driven ‘localization’ as one of the silver linings of the current grimscape. The argument goes that lockdowns have suspended aid’s standard ‘white men in shorts’ operating model, allowing local organizations to expand into the space, run their own responses, (eg to humanitarian emergencies) and generally take more […]

We created this MEL system for you, now please own it!

Guest post by Tiina Pasanen & Pablo Yanguas External consultants, learning partners or critical friends -whatever we call them- can seldomly change the system or organisational (learning) culture from outside. So, how can MEL consultants support real change instead of creating tools or processes that are quickly forgotten without any real institutional ownership? Most development […]

A Humanitarian ‘Cheat Sheet’ that should definitely be on your weekly reading list

Got some spare slots on the blog at the moment, so thought I would introduce you to my favourite weekly update on all things humanitarian – the Cheat Sheet, from the New Humanitarian magazine. Here’s their latest round-up (or you can listen to the 16m podcast): Rural Afghan women on peace, war, and ‘our role […]

Links I Liked

Hi everyone, I’m back from hols and tweeting happily, but there’s been a few glitches on the blog still (mainly on the comments) – apologies for that. Hopefully they’re fixed now, but please let me know if you’re having problems. On with the show. I’m no great football/soccer fan, and don’t really understand what’s going […]

Mission-critical: investing in water, sanitation and hygiene for a healthy and green recovery

WaterAid’s Tseguereda Abraham, Hossain Ishrath Adib and John Garrett introduce its new report. Why invest in water, sanitation and hygiene? Most schoolchildren would need only a few seconds to find an answer. Of course, water and sanitation are human rights, and hygiene has a vital role in preventing infectious disease, as COVID-19 has highlighted all […]