Constructing celebrity advocacy
Celebrity is a normal part of development business these days. While we can all point to famous development advocates, I suspect that most of us do not know the extent to which development NGOs in Britain, and indeed the whole NGO sector, has transformed itself as part of an effort to work more effectively, and successfully with celebrity advocates. This blog describes this transformation and some of the tensions it has produced.
Beyond the PhD: careers in the NGO sector
By Jessica Hope, PhD student at IDPM, and a Postgraduate careers workshop.
If you are working on research in a University and are thinking of joining the NGO sector this blog will help you to prepare.
With the end of her PhD on the horizon, Jessica Hope co-organised a postgraduate careers workshop, held at the Royal Geographical Society (RGS) in London and delivered by their Developing Areas Research Group (DARG). The day provided information and practical advice about building a career in the NGO sector, as well as raising key questions about the roles that both academia and NGOs assume in international development. Here are Jess’ observations on the day, an outline of opportunities presented and her unanswered questions about how academia and the NGO sector relate to one another in the development world.
Carbon Expo: Small Market, Tainted Image
Leverhulme Centre PhD researcher Robbie Watt attended the 2014 annual gathering of experts and practitioners working in the fields of carbon markets and climate finance at Carbon Expo in Cologne, to gain new insights into the current state of carbon offsetting. In this short piece, Robbie argues that the tarnished reputation of carbon offsets is a key reason why people find it difficult to sell their carbon credits.
Will ‘Rising Powers’ lower global labour and environmental standards?
By Khalid Nadvi
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| image by photoeverywhere.co.uk |
A recent special issue in Oxford Development Studies explores how new players from the Rising Powers (mot notably China, Brazil and India) may challenge the global ‘rules of the game’ on social and environmental issues. In his introductory article on “Rising Powers” and Labour and Environmental Standards, Khalid Nadvi outlines what makes the Rising Powers special and in what ways they affect global labour and environmental standards.
The effects of antipoverty programmes on economic growth
We can use innovative data and methods to explore how human development policies effect economic growth. Juan M. Villa finds significant change from conditional cash transfer programmes on economic growth in Colombia using satellite data.
The study of planned development has largely been shaped by the division between a focus on economic growth on one hand and on human development on the other. This division has arguably influenced and continues to influence approaches and priorities in international development. To illustrate, if one analyses the emphasis of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, most of the policy recommendations are aimed at boosting economic growth as a means of reaching prosperity. The emphasis of the United Nations Development Programme in contrast, tends to be more focused on human development issues, such as literacy, life expectation and some others reflected on the Millennium Development Goals. However, the divergences of these two perspectives of development can be potentially bridged by generating evidence on the effects of human development policies on economic growth. In this regard, recent research, which I conducted during a PhD internship at UNU-WIDER in Helsinki, found that certain policies seeking to enhance human development can also boost economic growth. One such policy is the conditional cash transfer programme (CCT).
Reform of world trade long overdue
More commonly, the WTO is associated with what are rather wearisome disagreements between industrialised economies and their developing counterparts, as well as with the periodic crises that have afflicted the Doha round of multilateral trade negotiations which have staggered on for almost a decade and a half.
What is the future of the green economy?
By Carl Death
As the 2015 Millennium Development Goals target date looms near and the successor to the Kyoto Protocol on climate change is due to be negotiated, Dr Carl Death, senior lecturer in International Political Economy, considers the increasing focus on the green economy and breaks the concept down into four key discourses that are competing to define its meaning. He argues that it is a big idea for dramatic change but it could also reinforce rather than challenge prevailing forms of inequality and injustice.
Training in Political Economy Analysis
by Sarah Hunt.
Over the past year training donor agency staff in Political Economy Analysis (PEA), I have found the topic inevitably means facilitating a debate. The overt aim of training is to introduce practical tools for carrying out Political Economy Analysis. But, from the outset, talking about politics in development means engaging with ideas of change – and this touches not just on the contexts where donor agencies work, but on the internal systems of donors themselves. In my experience, practitioners value the space to reflect on these issues.
Buying with a conscience: Should we buy clothes from Bangladesh?
A year on from the collapse of the Rana Plaza building which claimed more than 1,100 lives, Stephanie Barrientos and Rosey Hurst ask whether the world has since changed for garment workers in Bangladesh.
Only collective action from all key actors will ensure worker rights and safety standards improve in Bangladesh’s garment industry in the wake of the Rana Plaza building collapse. This was the key message from a special debate at The University of Manchester held as part of their Social Responsibility Goal and Capturing the Gains research programme promoting better worker rights and fairer international trade. Panellists from across Bangladesh’s clothing industry relayed their own experiences in the country since last year’s tragedy which claimed more than 1,100 lives, and whether the disaster had led to a step-change in the industry.
Restructuring ICT4D and WSIS Beyond 2015
By Richard Heeks
Around the time of the MDGs, ICT4D became the focus for a critical mass of activity; a “sidestreaming” approach that saw specialist ICT4D units arise in a number of international and national organisations. Following the 2005 World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS), this was largely mainstreamed with specialist units being disbanded or shrinking, and ICT4D expertise seen as diffused into the main development sectors. There is a logic to mainstreaming – if done right – in ensuring integration of ICTs into a broad range of development goals.