- World Bank member countries have pledged $75 billion in lending to the world’s poorest countries over the next three years.
- This amount is 50% more than what was committed over the last three years. The increase will be financed through the Bank issuing debt to capital markets, the first time it has done so.
- Vox has a harrowing summary of how South Sudan is turning into another Rwanda-scale crisis in front of our eyes.
- A new article in Science details the long-term impact mobile money has had on poverty and gender in Kenya. The paper estimates that access to M-PESA, the country’s most popular mobile money system, has lifted hundreds of thousands of Kenyans out of poverty. Vox has a great summary.
- UNICEF and the FAO have produced a nifty infographic debunking the major concerns about Cash Transfers.
- The UK government is finalising and implementing its new aid strategy. Mark Goldring suggests five questions they should be asking when measuring the impact of its aid under this new framework.
- The Center for Global Development has run a panel discussion in collaboration with the BBC on whether the UK’s recent massive increases in their aid budget have been well spent.
- The UK government has also released its latest assessment of multilateral development agencies (like the UN and World Bank). Australia conducted similar assessments in 2014, which have since been discontinued.
- A new report from the Institute for Policy Studies identifies a worrying trend in philanthropy: as wealth concentrates in fewer hands, so does philanthropic giving and power. Find a summary here.
- Have a listen to this fascinating podcast about the extraordinary lengths epidemiologists in Liberia went to in order to prevent another Ebola outbreak.
- A paper I co-authored a few years ago on the relationship between support for foreign aid and private giving to NGOs within Australia has been re-released drawing upon more reliable data.
- The Australian Foreign Policy White Paper consultation is now open, with submissions due by 28 February 2017. Development assistance is mentioned in both the call for submissions and Terms of Reference documents.
- Finally, registrations are still open for the 2017 Australasian Aid Conference to be held on February 15 and 16 at the ANU in Canberra.
