- Recently appointed Shadow Foreign Minister Penny Wong has called for Australia to commit to dispute resolution with Timor-Leste in a post on The Interpreter. Stephen Grenville provides an update on the conciliation process here.
- Government funding makes up approximately 20% of all revenue to Australian development NGOs, but does this silence their advocacy? Not according to new research from Terence Wood and Sachini Muller.
- Devpolicy's Ashlee Betteridge assesses Australia’s aid communications efforts in a new Policy Brief (summary here), arguing that they are a far cry from what they once were under AusAID.
- The Economist has an excellent obituary of Donald Henderson, the epidemiologist who led the herculean 10-year effort that led to the eradication of smallpox in the 1970s.
- Deirdre McCloskey writes about the roots of prosperity for the NY Times, arguing that development is caused by ideas, not experts (h/t William Easterly)
- India is rapidly shifting its subsidy and welfare schemes towards direct benefit transfers straight to the bank accounts of 300 million beneficiaries. The CGD assesses its progress.
- Alan Wheatley has profiled Nancy Birdsall, who co-founded and has led the Centre for Global Development for the past 15 years.
- Ahead of the UN General Assembly this month, the World Bank has released a paper arguing for the role that the World Bank can play in advocating for international migration for development (summary here).