- The World Bank has released a new set of safeguards for lending after 'the most extensive consultation ever conducted' by the Bank. Scott Morris assesses the position of both the supporters and detractors of this new set of lending conditions (you can listen to the podcast here).
- A new paper from Andy Sumner and Chris Hoy argues that appropriate redistribution of nationally available resources could eliminate approximately three quarters of global poverty.
- The Guardian has reproduced a recent Foreign Policy biography of the World Bank’s President Jim Yong Kim, whose reforms at the Bank may propel it to renewed global significance, or leave it in a state of anarchy.
- Michael Edwards has written a compelling piece questioning the future of Oxfam, and by extension the NGO community as a whole, building on discussions held by the Institute of Development Studies to mark its 50th anniversary.
- Grant Walton has written a piece advising how anti-corruption conferences could be improved. Stopping inviting corrupt politicians to headline them seems like an obvious place to start.
- The Economist has created an interesting map of where donors deliver foreign aid, highlighting the incredible fragmentation in donor giving (Australia ranks 5th). Unfortunately, it looks like the measure they have used includes funds distributed via multilateral institutions (such as the World Bank, which operates everywhere), which makes this map far messier than if it focssed only on bilateral assistance.
- As the Olympics continues, the Guardian is running a series on the impact of the games on the day-to-day lives of Rio citizens.
- Meanwhile, despite Brazil’s pronounced current economic and political crises, Tyler Cowen argues that it is still the country of the future.
Photo courtesy of Flickr user JJ OO Rio de Janerio