Links I Liked

Kids in Nairobi’s Kibera slum take on the land grabbers to defend their playground against cops, dogs & tear gas. And win, at least for now.

Last week was Davos week: Oxfam’s Winnie Byanyima starred in a truly brilliant BBC debate on inequality (Christine Lagarde was the other standout, other panellists were Robert Schiller, Mark Carney, Martin Sorrell and Klaus Kleinfeld). Try and find an hour to watch it.

Gender inequality got a good airing by Lagarde, and Action Aid chipped in with a new report estimating that “women in developing countries wouild be $9 trillion better off if pay and access to paid work were equal to mens’”

At a more micro level there are ‘practical steps you can take to reduce sexism in economics’ [h/t Claire Melamed] and (if you’re a man) you can join me in signing up to Owen Barder’s pledge not to appear on men-only panels (I guess you could argue that all women have already signed….)

Owen’s had a good week, with this forensic rebuttal of criticisms of the way DFID hit its 0.7 last aid target last year. Must read for UK aid wonks.

This year seems to be hitting peak summit (is that a thing?). Kevin Watkins discusses breakthroughs v epic fails on the Financing for Development, Sustainable Development Goals and Climate Change summits coming our way

Nice sign in London’s Kew Book Shop – every other independent bookstore in the world, you know what to do …….