- Remember the New Deal for Engagement in Fragile States, agreed at Busan in 2011? Here’s how some African fragile states are putting it into practice.
- The World Giving Index of 2013, published by the Charities Aid Foundation, measures the scope and nature of personal giving around the world. Interestingly, although the global economy’s growth rate is falling, the average percentage of people donating money, volunteering time and helping a stranger globally all grew in 2012. The US has reclaimed the top spot from Australia, with Australia falling to 7th place.
- Over at Devpolicy, Jane Thomason and Anne-Marie Slaughter discuss a number of important contributions to the debate on the future of aid that will be published as a new Global Policy e-book, Emergence, Convergence and the Future of Aid. The archive containing these contributions can be found here.
- In one of these contributions, the ODI’s Simon Maxwell considers how development ministries should change. One option he considers is merging development ministries back into ministries of foreign affairs, as has just happened in Australia. The other he considers much riskier: refocusing the work of development ministries on global issues, with a remit to work across government.
- Aid work really only happens in 'the field', right? And the more exotic and dangerous the better, surely? @viewfromthecave has an excellent piece on the whydev.org blog about the myth of 'the field' and why the global development community needs to recognise this notion is both ethnocentric and no longer correct (if it indeed ever was). The discussion in the comments section is interesting too.
- Not sure which side of the development debate (aka Jeff Sachs vs Bill Easterly) you stand on? It was recently reignited on Twitter and helpfully storified by Tom Murphy. 140 characters isn't really the best format for in-depth debates, but it does compel participants to hone in on their key points. You can decide if anyone won.
- Last week marked 50 years since LBJ's War on Poverty speech. Al Jazeera America has some interesting data and infographics on America's anti-poverty programs and this report on the Sunnydale housing project in San Francisco serves as an important reminder that 'development' and 'poverty' is not just confined to poor countries that receive foreign aid.
Aid & development links: Fragile states, Easterly vs Sachs, America's war on poverty and more
Published 13 Jan 2014
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