Podcasts about dfid

Today we discuss the New Scramble for Africa! Dominic and Ian Linden dive into the differences between the ‘new' scramble for Africa and the ‘old' scramble of Africa, how strong the US influence is and whether it is currently weakening - or not, the economic opportunities offered by foreign investments, and much more!Professor Ian Linden formerly taught at the School of Oriental & African Studies in London and is a visiting Professor at St Mary's University, Strawberry Hill, London. He worked for the Swedish Government in the 1980s liaising with the African National Congress in apartheid South Africa.  A past director of the Catholic Institute for International Relations where he first worked on the southern Africa desk, he was awarded an Order of St Michael and St George for his work for human rights in 2000. His research for the former- British Government Department for International Development, DfID, has been on faith and development with special emphasis on Muslim approaches to development in West Africa, and for the Commonwealth Foundation on multi-faith programmes in the Commonwealth. He has written books on conflict in Zimbabwe and Rwanda and his latest book Global Catholicism provides an historical analysis of the political impact of the Catholic Church.The International Risk Podcast is a weekly podcast for senior executives, board members, and risk advisors. In these podcasts, we speak with experts in a variety of fields to explore international relations. Our host is Dominic Bowen, Head of Strategic Advisory at one of Europe's leading risk consulting firms. Dominic is a regular public and corporate event speaker, and visiting lecturer at several universities. Having spent the last 20 years successfully establishing large and complex operations in the world's highest-risk areas and conflict zones, Dominic now joins you to speak with exciting guests around the world to discuss international risk.The International Risk Podcast – Reducing risk by increasing knowledge.Follow us on LinkedIn and Subscribe for all our great updates!Tell us what you liked!

Following up on the discussion in Episode 129, Santiago Borio questions David Stern further on the implications of Donald Trump's executive order terminating USAID funding. They analyse the immediate and future consequences of this decision, and compare the situation with the UK's DFID closure, noting differences in impact and response.

In this episode of the IDEMS podcast, co-directors David Stern and Kate Fleming discuss the breaking news of the proposed shutdown of USAID. Highlighting the immediate and long-term implications, they consider the historical context of similar actions, notably the disbandment of DFID in the UK. They examine the wide-reaching effects on international development, local economies, and human lives, while recognising the potential for future innovation and systemic change.

From its creation in 1997 to its merger with the Foreign Office in 2020, the Department for International Development (DfID) managed nearly £200 billion in total and played a global leadership role in reducing poverty. While DfID also had to deal with high-profile failures and public criticism, sustained political support from Labour, coalition and Conservative governments helped the department to achieve a record of delivery during its 23-year existence.   A new book, The Rise and Fall of the Department for International Development, will be published in October. Sir Mark Lowcock, the book's co-author with Ranil Dissanayake, joined an expert panel at the Institute for Government to discuss what we can learn from DfID's history, with a particular focus on building the institution, how to maintain civil service capability, targeting resources and developing ways to measure value for money – with essential lessons for the new Labour government and what other departments can learn from DfID's focus on delivery.   Joining Sir Mark Lowcock on the panel were:   Sarah Champion MP, Chair of the International Development Select Committee Andrew Mitchell MP, Shadow Foreign Secretary and former Secretary of State for International Development   The panel was chaired by Alex Thomas, Programme Director at the Institute for Government. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

From its creation in 1997 to its merger with the Foreign Office in 2020, the Department for International Development (DfID) managed nearly £200 billion in total and played a global leadership role in reducing poverty. While DfID also had to deal with high-profile failures and public criticism, sustained political support from Labour, coalition and Conservative governments helped the department to achieve a record of delivery during its 23-year existence. A new book, The Rise and Fall of the Department for International Development, will be published in October. Sir Mark Lowcock, the book's co-author with Ranil Dissanayake, joined an expert panel at the Institute for Government to discuss what we can learn from DfID's history, with a particular focus on building the institution, how to maintain civil service capability, targeting resources and developing ways to measure value for money – with essential lessons for the new Labour government and what other departments can learn from DfID's focus on delivery. Joining Sir Mark Lowcock on the panel were: - Sarah Champion MP, Chair of the International Development Select Committee - Andrew Mitchell MP, Shadow Foreign Secretary and former Secretary of State for International Development The panel was chaired by Alex Thomas, Programme Director at the Institute for Government.

Aron Cronin, Managing Director and Anthony Gardner, Principal Consultant at GIC Limited, join Mike Shanley to discuss the UK Aid Market and the impact of the elections.  RESOURCES Subscribe to the FCDO Supplier Portal, enabling you to receive its weekly supplier engagement newsletter free of charge here. BIOGRAPHIES Aron Cronin established GIC Limited in 1991 where he is the Managing Director responsible for the firm and its services. Previously he led the London international development practice at Touche Ross Management Consultants (now Deloitte Consulting). He is an established consultancy practitioner who brings over 40 years' experience of planning and management of studies and projects in advanced and emerging market countries, most recently in relation to economic diversification and growth, private sector development and increased access to finance. He is a widely recognised authority on the correct application of the financing, tendering and procurement procedures of DFID (where he held an interim Private Sector Development Adviser position), FCDO, the EBRD and other major donors He has wide training and mentoring experience in Proposals and Tender Dossiers preparation and Monitoring and Evaluation and has led numerous tailored in-house seminars and strategy development workshops internationally. He leads and now concentrates on the firm's Bid Management service line working with client organisations to strengthen their new business acquisition, bidding skills and capacities and has authored several official guides to effective business development and tendering processes. Tony Gardner spent over 40 years as a member of the UK Department for International Development (DFID) as a development and procurement professional. A longtime member of the Chartered Institute for Purchasing and Supply, he was the Head of the Procurement Department, leading a large department responsible for contracts worth over £1bn per annum. His last post with DFID was as deputy head of the Kenya office from 2014-17. He joined GIC Limited in January 2018 to work on the firm's Bid Management service line. As a consultant, he provides significant advice in contract tendering and management, notably value for money, risk management, due diligence, and capacity building. He has wide training and mentoring experience and leads tailored seminars and strategy development workshops. Aron and Tony are currently concentrating on developing training and support to the provider market to respond to the changes in UK LEARN MORE Thank you for tuning into this episode of the Aid Market Podcast. You can learn more about working with USAID by visiting our homepage: Konektid International and AidKonekt. To connect with our team directly, message the host Mike Shanley on LinkedIn.

SummaryWhat does it Busara's tagline mean: 'transformational leadership, from the inside out'?To what extent are there truly different global south-normed leadership models?Does personality still play an important role as well, in addition to national or regional cultural differences in leadership approaches?In this NGO Soul+Strategy podcast episode, I interview Taaka Awori, Founder & CEO of Busara Africa, a leadership development services company, on redefining leadership in Africa. Taaka's Bio:Founder and CEO of Busara Africa, a pan-African leadership development firm based in Accra, GhanaAuthor of the book Leadership Redefined: Untold StoriesAssociate Certified Coach with International Coaching Federation (ICF)Podcast host of Leadership Redefined: Untold StoriesMember of the editorial board of Coaching PerspectivesChair of the board of the African Women's Development Fund (AWDF)Former Country Director of AAIAssistant Social Development Adviser, DFID (now called FCDO)Degrees from Harvard and Columbia Universities We discuss: Taaka started specializing in leadership development and organizational development, after discovering as a Country Director at ActionAid that what was most needed from her was good leadership – not any technical specializationBusara's tagline is - transformational leadership from the inside out – signals that leadership starts with self-awareness and self-regulationEqually, good leadership is a combination of not just intellect or analytical capabilities, but also innate and learned wisdom, and the heartOther premises of Busara: let's build on the examples of excellent leadership in Africa (not the negative examples); and feminist leadership70% of Busara's clients are NGOs; the rest are private sector and government agenciesHow are African leadership models distinct, if in any way, from global North-formed models? Another distinct element is the explicit inclusion of politization and thus the need for leaders to be aware of this, and to navigate it in a mission focused manner Busara is also interested to learn more about what's to be learned from leaders of informal, non-registered organizations: informal worker associations, social movements and networksInteresting sub-continental dimensions of leadership within the African continent Resources:Taaka's LinkedIn ProfileTaaka's WebsiteTaaka's book: Leadership Redefined: Untold StoriesLeadership in Africa Redefined PodcastBusara Africa Website  YouTube video Click here to subscribe or email Tosca at tosca@5oaksconsulting.orgTwitter LinkedIn Facebook Youtube

An old Angolan proverb suggests it is the voyage not the ship that is important. And for the people of Angola the voyage has been a long one, from the era of the might Kongo empire, through the slave trade, colonialism, an independence struggle, and more recently decades of civil war. Despite this, in 2015 the capital city Luanda was in was listed as the most expensive city in the world, But new high rises built off the back of an oil boom sit uncomfortably alongside squalid outskirts of the city in the former Portuguese colony.  In this episode I speak with Alex Vines OBE was a UN observer when Angola held its first elections 30 years ago, as the Director of the Africa program at Chatham House, Alex has seen the growth of the nation, its slow transition towards real democracy and has expert insights into the nation, and the challenges it continues to face. Alex Vines OBE Chatham House Alex Vines has led the Africa Programme at Chatham House since 2002. Previously he has held roles at Chatham House as director for regional studies and international security, and director for area studies and international law. He chaired the UN Panel of Experts on Côte d'Ivoire from 2005 to 2007, and was a member of the UN Panel of Experts on Liberia from 2001 to 2003. He was also a member of the Commonwealth Observer Group to Nigeria in 2023 (Mozambique in 2019 and Ghana in 2016) and a UN election officer in Mozambique (1994) and Angola (1992).   He worked at Human Rights Watch as a senior researcher on its Africa, Arms and Business and Human Rights programmes, and has served as a consultant including for the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC); JICA, DFID, USAID, the EU and for the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS). He has also written expert reports for the EU parliament and has testified to law makers including for the US Congress and Senate, the EU parliament, the UK and Finnish parliaments and the Angolan and Mozambican National Assemblies. Music: Pixabay This episode is sponsored by World History Encyclopedia, one of the top history websites on the internet. I love the fact that they're not a Wiki: Every article they publish is reviewed by their editorial team, not only for being accurate but also for being interesting to read. The website is run as a non-profit organization, so you won't be bombarded by annoying ads and it's completely free. It's a great site, and don't just take my word for it they've been recommended by many academic institutions including Oxford University. Go check them out at WorldHistory.org or follow this link: World History Encyclopedia.

There will be a British general election on July 4. “The most consequential of our generation” no doubt many politicians will remind the voters. But almost exactly 45 years ago, there really was a profoundly consequential British election. Back in May 1979, Mrs Margaret Thatcher's Conservative party won power in an election that ultimately changed everything about Britain. In 1979, (Sir) Tim Lankester was the first economic private secretary to Margaret Thatcher and, in his new book, INSIDE THATCHER'S MONETARISM EXPERIMENT, he writes about the promise, failure and legacy of this radical economic gamble. Yet in spite of the economic failure of Thatcher's monetarist experiment, Sir Tim appears not a little nostalgic for a politician with the vision and will of the Iron Lady. “Mrs Thatcher never lied”, he reminded me about a politician whose success at the polls was rooted in the trust she established with the electorate. And it's this trust that seems most scarce now, not just in the UK, but also in the US and other late-stage western democracies. Sir Tim Lankester has led a distinguished career in economics and public service and is an ardent supporter of charity and the arts. After studying at St John's College, Cambridge, and Yale University, Tim went on to enjoy an career with World Bank and then in the English Civil Service, including; at the British Embassy in Washington D.C., as Private Secretary to James Callaghan and Margaret Thatcher, as Permanent Secretary at the Overseas Development Administration (now the DFID), and at the Department of Education. He retired from public service in 1994, for which he was knighted. He went on to serve as Director of the School of Oriental and African Studies (1996 – 2000), President of Corpus Christi College, Oxford (2001 - 2009), and Chair of the Council of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (2008 – 2014). From 2007 to 2015, Tim was Chair of The Place and formerly a board member of the Conservatoire for Dance and Drama and Governor of the Royal College of Music. Currently, Tim sits on the boards for many charities, including; Wells Maltings Trust, Norfolk; International Foundation for Arts and Culture; MBI AL Jaber Foundation; and Karachi Education Initiative UK. Tim also sits on the Board for the Sainsbury Institute for the Study of Japanese Art and Culture, University of East Anglia, and is and Honorary Fellow of both SOAS and St John's College, Oxford.Named as one of the "100 most connected men" by GQ magazine, Andrew Keen is amongst the world's best known broadcasters and commentators. In addition to presenting KEEN ON, he is the host of the long-running How To Fix Democracy show. He is also the author of four prescient books about digital technology: CULT OF THE AMATEUR, DIGITAL VERTIGO, THE INTERNET IS NOT THE ANSWER and HOW TO FIX THE FUTURE. Andrew lives in San Francisco, is married to Cassandra Knight, Google's VP of Litigation & Discovery, and has two grown children.Keen On is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit keenon.substack.com/subscribe

The unprovoked and illegal war of aggression of Russia against Ukraine ended the assumption that a conventional war within Europe is a relict of the past. With the European Security Architecture in crisis, if even still existing, the EU member states understood the importance of their neighboring countries in South Eastern Europe and in Eastern Europe for their own security. With the granting of EU candidate status to Ukraine, Moldova and Georgia, the nearly two decades long period of enlargement-fatigue came to an end. However, six states in the so-called Western Balkans have been in the process for many years and yet Croatia was the last country to become a member of the EU in 2013. Challenges are still manifold when it comes to the rule of law, corruption, nationalism, emigration on the side of the candidate countries. On the other hand, especially in the countries of the Western Balkans the EU has lost its credibility due to not following its own promises after reforms. The way into the EU is still long and technical, but there are many attempts to make the process more feasible and merit-based. However, the EU also needs to address the most crucial questions on how it wants to deal with an enlarged EU. How is this possible when decision-making processes on foreign policy decisions are still based on unanimity? While the decision to grant the countries in the east a European perspective has widely been acknowledged as a geopolitical decision, what does that imply for the values of the EU, codified in Art 2 of the EUV? How credible is this European perspective for the candidate countries who are all on different tracks and made different reforms? What is the cost of non-enlarging the EU? With an expected shift towards right-wing parties in the upcoming EU elections in June, what does that mean for a “New EU”? These and other questions have been addressed in this Podcast with the excellent experts Kristof BENDER and Milena MIHAJLOVIĆ. Guests: Kristof Bender (Austria) is the Deputy Chirman at the European Stability Initiative (ESI). He leads various ESI research projects on EU enlargement and on South Eastern Europe. Educated in sociology in Vienna and Paris, he has worked in South East Europe in various capacities since 1997, including managing higher education projects in Bosnia for the World University Service, as Attaché for Humanitarian Affairs in the Austrian Embassy in Belgrade, as a researcher for the International Centre for Migration Policy Development and as a consultant for various institutions, including the Austrian Federal Chancellery, DFID and SIDA. Part of the ESI team since early 2000, Kristof has been living in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Macedonia, Montenegro and Serbia, and is currently based in Vienna. He is also a Europe's Futures fellow at the IWM Vienna (Institut für die Wissenschaften vom Menschen), a board member of the Kosovo Civil Society Foundation (KCSF) and an advisory board member of Institute Alternativa (Montenegro). Milena Mihajlovic is one of the founders and Programme Director at the European Policy Centre (CEP), independent, non-profit think-tank based in Belgrade, Serbia. Milena is a proven expert in the field of public administration reform, in Serbia and in the Western Balkan region. Before co-founding CEP, Lazarevic worked for almost six years as a civil servant in the Serbian administration, first in the EU Integration Office of the Serbian Government (SEIO) and later in the Ministry of Public Administration. She is a Soros scholar and has an MA degree in European studies from the College of Europe and an MA in European Administrative Law from Belgrade University. Moderation: Stephanie Fenkart, Director of the IIP The episode was recorded on 13 May 2024.

Nearly ten years since the onset of the crisis in Yemen this discussion provided an in-depth assessment of the conflict over the past decade. Panellists examined the local origins of the war, the humanitarian catastrophe that has ensued, and the challenges for sustainable development given the prolonged violence. Regional dynamics fueling the crisis were also analysed, including factors related to the war in Gaza. With the March 2024 milestone approaching, speakers assessed stalled peace efforts and policy options for international stakeholders moving forward. Ahmed Al Khameri is the Team Leader for the FCDO-funded programme, The Yemen Support Fund at Chemonics UK. Most recently, he was the governance advisor under the DFID Yemen team leading DFID's stabilization and governance efforts. Marwa Baabbad is Director of the Yemen Policy Centre. She is a researcher and development consultant with over ten years of experience working in the fields of community engagement, gender, peace and security, and youth political inclusion. Andreas Krieg is Associate Professor at the School of Security Studies at King's College London and a Fellow at the Institute of Middle Eastern Studies. Andreas is the Director of MENA analytica – a political risk firm – that works on Yemen and the Horn of Africa. Greg Shapland is an independent researcher, writer and consultant on politics, security, resources and environment (including water) in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). Greg is also a Visiting Senior Fellow at the LSE Middle East Centre. From 1979 until 2015, he served in the MENA Research Group in the FCO.

Soji Apampa co-founded The Convention on Business Integrity in 1997. He is an Executive Director for the Convention on Business Integrity and also serves as a Consultant on CBi projects. Mr. Apampa has served as a Senior Advisor to the UN Global Compact on the 10th Principle (anti-corruption) and consultant to the Inter-Agency Task Team of the Federal Republic of Nigeria tasked with the responsibility of developing a National Strategy to Combat Corruption. In his role as a consultant, Mr. Apampa has carried out numerous assignments for international organizations including the World Bank, DFID, UNDP, UN Global Compact, Heinrich Boell Foundation and many others. Mr. Apampa has also worked in various roles in engineering, business and computing between 1987 and 2007. He was Managing Director of SAP Nigeria Ltd, and Regional Manager (West Africa), for SAP where he worked for 8 years since early 1999 championing ICT-supported governance reforms. Mr. Apampa graduated with a B.Eng. (Hons) in Civil & Structural Engineering from the University of Sheffield in 1987 and holds an MSc. in Governance & Finance from Liverpool John Moores University (2008) where he was member of faculty on the Corporate Governance Masters Programme at the European Center for Corporate Governance for one year. His research interests are in the area of Corporate Compliance and Political Economy Analyses in which he has led numerous, successful research projects. We spoke to him on his thought on The Role of Integrity & Ethics in Nigeria's Governance.

In this week's episode Ivan Vejvoda sits down with European Stability Initiative deputy chairman and Europe's Futures fellow Kristof Bender to discuss a policy that many point to as among the most successful peace projects in the history of the world: EU enlargement. As the Union decides whether and how quickly to extend EU membership to Ukraine and Molodova and formalize their move towards Europe in response to the full scale Russian invasion of Ukraine, Kristof and Ivan lead us through the history of the policy and its transformative effect on those countries who have joined the bloc, then ask why the policy seems to have stalled in recent years. Does it make sense to extend membership to new countries for geopolitical reasons? Or should the process be purely meritocratic? Is there a new approach that would offer a clear incentive to candidate countries to make necessary improvements that could sidestep internal EU politics?As deputy chairman of the ESI Kristof Bender has lead various research projects on EU enlargement and on South Eastern Europe. He has worked in South East Europe in various capacities since 1997, including managing higher education projects in Bosnia for the World University Service, serving as Attaché for Humanitarian Affairs in the Austrian Embassy in Belgrade, and working as a researcher for the International Centre for Migration Policy Development . He has also worked as a consultant for various institutions, including the Austrian Federal Chancellery, DFID, and SIDA.Find him on twitter @kristofbenderIvan Vejvoda  is Head of the Europe's Futures program at IWM where, in cooperation with leading European organisations and think tanks IWM and ERSTE Foundation have joined forces to tackle some of the most crucial topics: nexus of borders and migration, deterioration in rule of law and democracy and European Union's enlargement prospects.The Institute for Human Sciences (IWM) is an independent institute for advanced study in the humanities and social sciences. Since its foundation in 1982, it has promoted intellectual exchange between East and West, between academia and society, and between a variety of disciplines and schools of thought. In this way, the IWM has become a vibrant center of intellectual life in Vienna.The IWM is a community of scholars pursuing advanced research in the humanities and social sciences. For nearly four decades, the Institute has promoted intellectual exchange across disciplines, between academia and society, and among regions of the world. It hosts more than a hundred fellows each year, organizes public exchanges, and publishes books, articles, and digital fora. you can find IWM's website at:https://www.iwm.at/

Fractured. We are fractured as families, separated as communities, divided as nations. I, has crept into Ubuntu and the question is "Where are we going at this rate?" Can there be Unity in Community? Kupela Clarke dissects this thought provoking topic in the season finale of the Africana Woman podcast. ************************************************* Ms Kupela Clarke is the Co-Founder and Managing Partner of One Square Kilometre, a property development partnership that provides innovative financing and project management for redevelopments while creating affordable, climate smart and inspiring accommodation for young people. The partnership redevelops urban slums across Lusaka. Her past professional career focussed on public health project management in Zambia. Over the last 15 years, she managed multiple multi-year multi-million-dollar projects in the development sector funded by DFID, EU, USAID and CDC before managing multiple Sida grant recipients. Professional consultancies undertaken include reviews of various training programmes and the use of data for decision making and business development. She led the Zambia Management and Leadership Academy targeted at hundreds of civil servants in the health sector, building the capacity of decision makers at national, provincial and district level. Ms. Clarke has also managed strategic communications in the organizations she has supported, leading content curation and official communications. She holds an MSc in African Studies and a Masters in Public Health from the University of Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar, and a BSc in Human Genetics and Medical Biochemistry from the University of Cape Town. Connect with Kupela Twitter: @OneSquareK1 Instagram: @one_square_k Website: https://www.onesquarek.com/home    This season is dedicated to Jeannette Phumzile Shange-Kalala   Join the Africana Woman Visionaries: https://africanawoman.gumroad.com/l/AWVNetwork   Africana Woman Retreats 2023 Click here KNOW your Roots, Grow your Purpose LINKS: Message Africana Woman with Chulu on WhatsApp. https://wa.me/message/E3N7TH7RZSS4P1 +260978470395 Email: africanawoman@gmail.com  Website: https://www.africanawoman.com    Socials:  Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/chulu_bydesign/  https://www.instagram.com/africanawoman/  Twitter: https://twitter.com/AfricanaWoman_    Africana Woman Blog: https://www.africanawoman.com/blog

Fractured. We are fractured as families, separated as communities, divided as nations. I, has crept into Ubuntu and the question is "Where are we going at this rate?" Can there be Unity in Community? Kupela Clarke dissects this thought provoking topic in the season finale of the Africana Woman podcast. ************************************************* Ms Kupela Clarke is the Co-Founder and Managing Partner of One Square Kilometre, a property development partnership that provides innovative financing and project management for redevelopments while creating affordable, climate smart and inspiring accommodation for young people. The partnership redevelops urban slums across Lusaka. Her past professional career focussed on public health project management in Zambia. Over the last 15 years, she managed multiple multi-year multi-million-dollar projects in the development sector funded by DFID, EU, USAID and CDC before managing multiple Sida grant recipients. Professional consultancies undertaken include reviews of various training programmes and the use of data for decision making and business development. She led the Zambia Management and Leadership Academy targeted at hundreds of civil servants in the health sector, building the capacity of decision makers at national, provincial and district level. Ms. Clarke has also managed strategic communications in the organizations she has supported, leading content curation and official communications. She holds an MSc in African Studies and a Masters in Public Health from the University of Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar, and a BSc in Human Genetics and Medical Biochemistry from the University of Cape Town. Connect with Kupela Twitter: @OneSquareK1 Instagram: @one_square_k Website: https://www.onesquarek.com/home    This season is dedicated to Jeannette Phumzile Shange-Kalala   Join the Africana Woman Visionaries: https://africanawoman.gumroad.com/l/AWVNetwork   Africana Woman Retreats 2023 Click here KNOW your Roots, Grow your Purpose LINKS: Message Africana Woman with Chulu on WhatsApp. https://wa.me/message/E3N7TH7RZSS4P1 +260978470395 Email: africanawoman@gmail.com  Website: https://www.africanawoman.com    Socials:  Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/chulu_bydesign/                     https://www.instagram.com/africanawoman/  Twitter: https://twitter.com/AfricanaWoman_    Africana Woman Blog: https://www.africanawoman.com/blog

The European Union is collectively the biggest provider of international aid in the world, contributing over € 50 billion a year to the fight against poverty and the advancement of global development. However, while the EU's capacities and impact in foreign and security policy have been extensively discussed among scholars and policymakers, its role in promoting global development has attracted less attention. Our guest has focused her research on the contestation of international norms and values, particularly the promotion of human rights norms in the EU's development policy.In identifying the limits to the EU's approach, her recent book discusses how standardised policies, particularly in the case of human rights sanctions, may be perceived as neo-colonially intrusive and can come at the cost of recognising the experiences and interests of vulnerable groups and allowing for partner countries' democratic ownership of their own development trajectory. Johanne Døhlie Saltnes is a lecturer and collaborating researcher at the Institute for International Relations (IREL) at the University of Brasilia. She was previously a post-doctoral fellow at ARENA, Centre for European Studies, at the University of Oslo. Her book, The European Union and Global Development: A Rights-Based Approach?, was published in 2021 by Routledge. Johanne is the academic editor of ECPR's political science blog, The Loop. Twitter: @johannesaltnesKey highlights:Introduction - 00:55The current status of the Human Rights-Based Approach to development - 04:10The EU as a global development player- 07:42The application of the EU's human rights clause - 15:56Impact of applying a human rights-based approach in national contexts - 38:00Host:Professor Dan Banik, University of Oslo, Twitter: @danbanik  @GlobalDevPodApple Google Spotify YouTubehttps://in-pursuit-of-development.simplecast.com/

During the COVID-19 pandemic women health care leaders stood out. Jurisdictions with women as elected leaders or top public health policy experts seemed to manage the challenges of the pandemic a bit better, and with a bit more public trust. Well before the pandemic, in parts of rural India communities that train Dalit women as community health workers often experienced dramatic improvements in health outcomes, all the while challenging rigid gender norms. We know that gender equity in health delivery, policy and management only brings better outcomes. Yet, the glass ceiling remains, and is seemingly reinforced. In countries where more than half the medical students are women, the majority of specialists remain men. In other countries women who enter the health professions as nurses stay planted as such while men ascend to leadership roles. For Ann Keeling this needs to change. Listen to this episode of GDP where she discusses why we'd all benefit from taking gender equity seriously in global health. Ann Keeling is Women in Global Health's Senior Fellow, is a British citizen whose 40-year career in global health and social development has included posts in Pakistan, Papua New Guinea, Indonesia, the Caribbean, Belgium, the USA, and her home country, the UK. She held the post of Head of Gender Equality Policy with the UK Government and is currently the Chair of the NGO Age International and Senior Fellow of Women in Global Health. Ann Keeling has been CEO of two global health NGOs, was UNFPA Country Representative Pakistan, and Director Commonwealth Secretariat leading on Health, Education, and Gender. Between 2008 and 2012 she was Chief Executive Officer of the International Diabetes Federation, founded the NCD (Non-Communicable Diseases) Alliance, and as Chair, led the successful campaign for the 2011 UN High-Level Summit on NCDs. Ann Keeling spent 9 years in Pakistan with the British Council, DFID, and UNDP working on human development and women's rights. She also held senior posts with the Governments of Papua New Guinea and Pakistan. She studied at Oxford University UK, Ann Arbor University USA, and in 1981, at the People's University in Beijing, China. Follow Dr. Bob on Twitter: @ProfessorHuish

The global development domain currently faces huge challenges. Apart from trying to stimulate economic growth and ensuring a fair distribution of the benefits of that growth, national governments and their international partners must also tackle complex conflicts, provide humanitarian assistance, and not least address the harmful impacts of climate disruption. What then should the role of external actors be? How can good intentions be best mobilized into effective actions on the ground?Håvard Mokleiv Nygård is a Deputy Director-General of the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation, Norad, where he directs the Department of Knowledge. Until a few years ago, he was Research Director at the Peace Research Institute Oslo (PRIO), where his research focused on armed conflict and political violence, peace building, and patterns of democratic development. Twitter: @havardmnResources:Joint statement by donors on locally led development (December 2022)Norwegian aid statistics (Norad.no)Key highlights Introduction - 00:49Foreign aid vs. development cooperation - 04:52Locally led development - 13:10The aid effectiveness debate - 24:15What works in global development and how to measure success - 43:49Bridging the gap between research and policy and the future of aid - 52:45Host:Professor Dan Banik, University of Oslo, Twitter: @danbanik  @GlobalDevPodApple Google Spotify YouTubehttps://in-pursuit-of-development.simplecast.com/

What should we make of the Qatari bid to buy Manchester United? Why is Modi's government raiding the BBC offices in India? And why did Rory's appearance at the Bilderberg Meeting lead to claims he was part of a global lizard conspiracy?SIGN UP TO OUR FREE TRIP NEWSLETTER:Click here or follow this link (bit.ly/3EFxuOJ) to join our free weekly newsletter that we send out around Friday lunchtime.TRIP Plus:Become a member of The Rest Is Politics Plus to support the podcast, enjoy ad-free listening to both TRIP and Leading, benefit from discount book prices on titles mentioned on the pod, join our Discord chatroom, and receive early access to live show tickets and Question Time episodes. Just head to therestispolitics.com to sign up.Leading:Have you heard this week's episode of Leading with Shadow Foreign Secretary, David Lammy? Rory and Alastair talk to David about growing up in Tottenham, his Guyanese heritage, whether Labour would increase foreign aid spending and restore DFID, and tribalism in politics and football:http://pod.link/1665265193Instagram:@restispoliticsTwitter:@RestIsPoliticsEmail:restispolitics@gmail.comProducers: Dom Johnson + Nicole MaslenExec Producers: Tony Pastor + Jack Davenport Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Who will be Nicola Sturgeon's successor as First Minister of Scotland? What does the future hold for Russia's relationship with the West? Is Boris Johnson staging a comeback? Alastair and Rory look at these topics, plus the role of biodiversity in ecological policy, the Northern Ireland protocol, China's role in bringing peace to Ukraine, and how relevant a politician's religious views are to their campaign.SIGN UP TO OUR FREE TRIP NEWSLETTER:Click here or follow this link (bit.ly/3EFxuOJ) to join our free weekly newsletter that we send out around Friday lunchtime.TRIP Plus:Become a member of The Rest Is Politics Plus to support the podcast, enjoy ad-free listening to both TRIP and Leading, benefit from discount book prices on titles mentioned on the pod, join our Discord chatroom, and receive early access to live show tickets and Question Time episodes. Just head to therestispolitics.com to sign up.Leading:Have you heard this week's episode of Leading with Shadow Foreign Secretary, David Lammy? Rory and Alastair talk to David about growing up in Tottenham, his Guyanese heritage, whether Labour would increase foreign aid spending and restore DFID, and tribalism in politics and football:http://pod.link/1665265193Instagram:@restispoliticsTwitter:@RestIsPoliticsEmail:restispolitics@gmail.comProducers: Dom Johnson + Nicole MaslenExec Producers: Tony Pastor + Jack Davenport Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Development is a gamble because success is not guaranteed when benefits materialize in the long-term and a host of factors may undermine elite positions. Some countries are able to settle on elite bargains that favour growth and development, and others are unable to reach such settlements.While elite bargains in China, Indonesia, Bangladesh, Ethiopia, Rwanda and Ghana ended up being development bargains, the opposite was the case in Nigeria, DRC, Malawi and South Sudan. Stefan Dercon is Professor at the Blavatnik School of Government and the Economics Department at theUniversity of Oxford, where he also directs the Centre for the Study of African Economies.His latest book – Gambling on Development: Why some countries win and others lose– draws on his academic research and his policy experience across three decades. Twitter: @gamblingondevKey highlights:Introduction - 0:55Bridging the gap between research and policy – 3:09Why a general recipe for development is not very helpful – 11:22Gambling for development: Key arguments – 28:38The future of foreign aid – 45:13 Host:Professor Dan Banik, University of Oslo, Twitter: @danbanik  @GlobalDevPodInstagram: @GlobalDevPodApple Google Spotify YouTubehttps://in-pursuit-of-development.simplecast.com/E-mail: InPursuitOfDevelopment@gmail.com 

Dr. Kevin Bardosh is the lead author of the paper: "The unintended consequences of COVID-19 vaccine policy: why mandates, passports and restrictions may cause more harm than good" Dr. Kevin Bardosh (PhD, University of Edinburgh) is an applied medical anthropologist and implementation scientist focused on using social science and community engagement to improve public health delivery and policy. Most of his work, across more than 20 countries, has focused on the epidemiology and control of human, animal and vector-borne infectious disease. Current applied public health projects (as of early-2020) include the control of: lymphatic filariasis (Nepal, India), malaria (Haiti), cholera and Ebola (Democratic Republic of Congo), sleeping sickness (Uganda), chronic kidney disease (Ecuador) and onchocerciasis (Benin). Kevin has a strong commitment to capacity building, interdisciplinary science, operational research, and health system strengthening. He has (co) authored >30 peer-reviewed publications, edited two books and held positions in departments of anthropology, global health, development studies, veterinary and environmental sciences, and epidemiology. He has taught undergraduate and postgraduate courses, and numerous workshops and trainings. Current and past research has been funded by: Gates Foundation, Wellcome Trust, DFID, EU, NIH, UNICEF, USAID, TDR, CIHR, NERC, ACIAR, RTI and Carter Center. His recently edited book, Locating Zika: Social Change and Governance in an Age of Mosquito Pandemics (Routledge, 2019) explores the control of Aedes-borne diseases in Latin America and the Caribbean.

Dr. Kevin Bardosh is the lead author of the paper: "The unintended consequences of COVID-19 vaccine policy: why mandates, passports and restrictions may cause more harm than good". Dr. Kevin Bardosh (PhD, University of Edinburgh) is an applied medical anthropologist and implementation scientist focused on using social science and community engagement to improve public health delivery and policy. Most of his work, across more than 20 countries, has focused on the epidemiology and control of human, animal and vector-borne infectious disease. Current applied public health projects (as of early-2020) include the control of: lymphatic filariasis (Nepal, India), malaria (Haiti), cholera and Ebola (Democratic Republic of Congo), sleeping sickness (Uganda), chronic kidney disease (Ecuador) and onchocerciasis (Benin). Kevin has a strong commitment to capacity building, interdisciplinary science, operational research, and health system strengthening. He has (co) authored over 30 peer-reviewed publications, edited two books and held positions in departments of anthropology, global health, development studies, veterinary and environmental sciences, and epidemiology. He has taught undergraduate and postgraduate courses, and numerous workshops and trainings. Current and past research has been funded by: Gates Foundation, Wellcome Trust, DFID, EU, NIH, UNICEF, USAID, TDR, CIHR, NERC, ACIAR, RTI and Carter Center. His recently edited book, Locating Zika: Social Change and Governance in an Age of Mosquito Pandemics (Routledge, 2019) explores the control of Aedes-borne diseases in Latin America and the Caribbean.

Hosted by Andrew Keen, Keen On features conversations with some of the world's leading thinkers and writers about the economic, political, and technological issues being discussed in the news, right now. In this episode, Andrew is joined by Stefan Dercon, author of Gambling on Development: Why Some Countries Win and Others Lose. Stefan Dercon is Professor of Economic Policy and Director of the Centre for the Study of African Economies at the University of Oxford. Combining an academic career with long experience in international development policy, he is a former DFID chief economist and a policy advisor to the UK foreignsecretary. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Stefan Dercon is the author of Gambling on Development, in which he details his theory of the elite bargain framework for development in low-income countries. Stefan is a Professor of Economic Policy at the University of Oxford, and also serves as the Director of the Center for the Study of African Economies. Prior to his current academic posts, he has extensive experience in the world of policy, as the Chief Economist at the Department for International Development and as an advisor to the UK's Foreign Secretary. In our conversation with Stefan in today's show, we get to delve deep into his elite bargain idea, the impact of effective altruism, the need for self-awareness within governments, and how far lessons from certain examples can be applied to other states. We also get to talk about political settlements and how his framework fits into the context of current popular theories and explanations for economic growth. So to catch all this and a whole lot more, be sure to listen in to this great chat with Stefan Dercon! Key Points From This Episode: •   Stefan's perspective on the different skills needed for policy implementation and idea generation. •   The challenges of communicating the need for policy experimentation to politicians. •   Some key ingredients to effective government meetings and common mistakes that Stefan has seen. •   Examples from Stefan of the kind of practical implementations he has seen used well in governance.  •   Stefan shares some examples that underline his book's main thesis about successful development. •   An approach to determining a country's emerging development bargain. •   Our guest unpacks the three conditions for development bargains noted in his book. •   Why a certain model for development cannot be expected to have the same success in a different context. •   The impact that studying Asia later in his career has had on Stefan's frameworks and philosophy. •   Stefan talks about his findings on possible lessons from urbanization in China. •   Issues that Stefan has with the idea and terminology of political settlements. •   Contrasting Stefan's argument with the thesis of Why Nations Fail. •   Suggestions on how to motivate elites to engage and gamble on development.   •   Stefan's personal perspective on economic growth and its role in poverty alleviation.  •   Why meaningful progress is dependent on a certain amount of risk.  •   How Stefan would suggest spending money on growth interventions and lessons from Africa in the 1990s.  •   What the situation in Sri Lanka right now teaches us about investment in people. •   The danger of consolidating authoritarianism in countries such as China and Rwanda. •   How the mobility of a burgeoning middle class can impact the development of a state.  •   Stefan weighs in on the potential scalability problem in a technocracy. •   Some of Stefan's reflections on his time at DFID and its challenges. •   Looking to the horizon with Stefan and his forthcoming projects.     Links Mentioned in Today's Episode: https://www.bsg.ox.ac.uk/people/stefan-dercon (Stefan Dercon) https://www.gamblingondevelopment.com/ (Gambling on Development) https://twitter.com/gamblingondev (Stefan Dercon on Twitter) https://www.ox.ac.uk/ (University of Oxford) https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/department-for-international-development (Department for International Development) https://www.gov.uk/government/people/justine-greening (Justine Greening) https://www.rorystewart.co.uk/ (Rory Stewart) https://www.bsg.ox.ac.uk/people/paul-collier (Paul Collier)...

La proposta di legge sullo ius scholae è molto moderata, eppure sta rischiando di far esplodere il governo. Decine di migliaia di persone, però, vedono i propri diritti negati dalla legge attuale, attempata e razzista.È arrivata finalmente in aula alla Camera il disegno di legge sul cosiddetto “ius scholae,” la riforma che permetterebbe di ottenere la cittadinanza ai minorenni stranieri che abbiano frequentato “almeno 5 anni di scuola” in Italia. Ieri la Commissione Affari Costituzionali di Montecitorio ha dato il via libera al testo, spaccando il centrodestra: Lega e FdI hanno votato contro, insieme alla deputata di Forza Italia Annagrazia Calabria, mentre Renata Polverini, da sempre favorevole alla riforma, ha votato a favore insieme al centrosinistra. Gli ultimi ritocchi al testo del ddl — qui la scheda sul sito della Camera — riguardano i “requisiti essenziali” che gli istituti di istruzione e formazione professionale dovranno garantire per l'idoneità al rilascio della cittadinanza, e la possibilità che sia soltanto uno genitore — e non entrambi, come previsto in precedenza — a richiederla. Tutti gli emendamenti presentati da Lega e FdI — come quelli sulla conoscenza delle sagre e del folclore italiano — sono stati respinti.La riforma è attesa da una platea di oltre 800 mila bambini e ragazzi senza cittadinanza — non tutti famosi come Khaby Lame, il tiktoker a cui il ministero dell'Interno ha deciso di conferire la cittadinanza con un decreto ad hoc. Per sostenere l'iter della legge, a Roma è stato organizzato ieri pomeriggio un flash mob con un “finto matrimonio,” che ha inscenato le nozze tra l'Italia e i suoi cittadini non riconosciuti. Alcuni cittadini sono più cittadini di altri, come sempre: Khaby Lame è ufficialmente il TikToker più seguito del mondo, con più di 142 milioni di follower. Ieri avrebbe dovuto essere negli Stati Uniti a partecipare come super ospite al VidCon ma non è potuto essere presente per motivi burocratici: come decine di migliaia di altre persone residenti stabilmente in Italia, infatti, Khaby Lame non dispone di cittadinanza e passaporto italiani a causa delle sue origini straniere — Lame è nato in Senegal, e il passaporto senegalese non gli ha consentito di viaggiare negli Stati Uniti. Intervistato da Repubblica, Lame si è espresso piuttosto nettamente a riguardo, dicendo alla ministra Lamorgese che “non è giusto che una persona che vive e cresce con la cultura italiana per così tanti anni ed è pulito (sic), non abbia ancora oggi il diritto di cittadinanza. E non parlo solo per me.”Per evitare lo scoppio di un piccolo caso, il sottosegretario agli Interni Carlo Sibilia gli ha scritto provando a correre ai ripari: “Caro Khaby Lame volevo tranquillizzarti sul fatto che il decreto di concessione della cittadinanza italiana è stato già emanato i primi di giugno dal Ministero dell'Interno. A breve sarai contattato dalle istituzioni locali per la notifica e il giuramento. In bocca al lupo.” In realtà Lame aveva già dichiarato che “il visto e magari la cittadinanza mi renderebbero le cose più facili, ma non sarei contento pensando a tutte quelle altre persone che magari sono anche nate in Italia e non hanno lo stesso diritto.” Nonostante l'ex ministro Salvini abbia dichiarato che “basta la legge che c'è oggi,” secondo un sondaggio commissionato da Action Aid il 62,9% dei cittadini italiani è favorevole alla cittadinanza italiana per i figli di stranieri nati in Italia — una percentuale che sembra sfiorare il 50% anche tra l'elettorato di destra. Sostieni the Submarine: https://thesubmarine.it/hw-abbonati/In copertina foto CC BY 2.0 DFID

Stefan Dercon is Professor of Economic Policy and Director of the Centre for the Study of African Economies at the University of Oxford. He is a former DFID chief economist and a policy advisor to the UK foreign secretary. Stefan Dercon argues that countries develop if they achieve an elite bargain, in which the country’s […]

Welcome to The Nonlinear Library, where we use Text-to-Speech software to convert the best writing from the Rationalist and EA communities into audio. This is: Baby Cause Areas, Existential Risk, and Longtermism, published by Davidmanheim on May 25, 2022 on The Effective Altruism Forum. This is a considered personal view, and discusses my understanding of a consensus among many core members of the movement. Longtermism is a big new thing in effective altruism - so big, it seems to crowd out discussion of other topics. This can lead to understandable feelings of neglect and favoritism on the part of dedicated proponents of other priorities. It doesn't mean that other areas of effective altruism are less important1 or are being discarded, but as I recall from my childhood growing up with a younger brother, older siblings don't always appreciate the situation, even when they understand different people, and different cause areas, have different needs at different times. As almost everyone I'm aware of in effective altruism has made clear, there is tremendous value in improving global health and welfare, in reducing animal suffering, and in reducing extreme risks, all areas which effective altruism has long prioritized. And despite reasonable claims that each area deserves to be prioritized over the others, there are fundamental and unresolvable debates about the relative importance of different areas. Given that, moral and epistemic uncertainties should lead us to be modest about any conclusions. And according to at least some views about moral uncertainty, that means we should balance priorities across the cause areas which cannot be directly compared. Within each area of concern, of course, there are tremendous inequities and misallocation which Effective Altruism has only begun to address. Americans spend $60 billion per year on their pets, and at most, a few hundred million dollars on EA-oriented animal welfare. (In contrast to the $500 billion spent on animal agriculture!) Similarly, $10 trillion is spent on healthcare globally, but that overwhelmingly goes to rich countries spending on their citizenry, rather than increasing quality of life and buying QALYs in the poorest countries, focusing on the most vulnerable. There is a tremendous amount that can be done! But just like animal welfare is relatively neglected compared to spending on healthcare, existential risk reduction is neglected relative to both, and longtermist areas other than near-term existential risk are barely getting any funding at all, especially outside of EA circles. Neglectedness is one critical part of explaining what is happening - that is, because some areas are relatively neglected, there are far larger opportunities for impact. Existential risk reduction was, historically, the focus of far less spending than the other cause areas. In EA this was presumably due to less perceived and/or actual tractability, and globally was more likely due to the same poor prioritization we see elsewhere. But as people have made stronger arguments for both importance and for tractability, and have found clear ways to actually address the problems, they have become the focus of far more effort within EA. But because of these changes, organizations within EA are also less mature, and need more attention as an area to determine what is most effective. And that goes even more for longtermism. But these have not and will not displace other causes. Thankfully, we can keep putting money into GiveDirectly, Deworm the World, and various anti-malaria campaigns - and we have! And so have many, many non-EA donors - In 2021, GiveDirectly gave $10m/month, but USAID, the US government foreign aid program, has embraced the strategy, as had the UK's DFID. Not only have we started chipping away at the highest leverage paces to give, but neglectedness has been decreasing. Similarly, Effective Altruists have donated tens of millions to reduce the burden of malaria, but the world has s...

The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) was created by the merger of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) and the Department for International Development (DfID) in 2020. Since then, the department has implemented a substantial cut to the UK's aid budget, dealt with the foreign policy implications of Brexit, handled the UK's presidency of the G7 and the COP climate conference, and responded to the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan and the Russian invasion of Ukraine. But has the merger of the FCO and DfID been a success? Are the prime minister's objectives being achieved by the FCDO? Does the department have good relations with the rest of government? And what lessons does the FCDO need to learn to ensure it can achieve the UK's global priorities? To discuss all this we were joined by: Sir Alan Duncan, former Minister of State at DfID and FCO Sarah Champion MP, Chair of the International Development Committee Lord McDonald, former Permanent Under Secretary at the FCO Stephanie Draper, Chief Executive Officer at Bond This event was chaired by Tim Durrant, Associate Director at the Institute for Government. #IfGFCDO

“You should never pick me for any job which is business as usual… I am my best or worst, depending on your point of view, when dealing with change.” From helping to establish the UK Department for International Development (DfID) after its separation from the Foreign and Commonwealth Office to managing a prisons crisis as justice department permanent secretary, Suma Chakrabarti has never been afraid to take on big, complex challenges. Quite the opposite – the opportunity to create change is, he says, what energises him. In this episode, Suma reflects on his long career in the UK civil service – which also included stints in the Cabinet Office and Treasury – and his time as president of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development. Discussing his decision to leave the civil service because he was at loggerheads with the minister, why he thinks the merger of DfID and the Foreign Office is a mistake, the future of work, his advice to ambitious civil servants, and much more besides, Suma reveals himself as a bold, astute, and empathetic leader with a truckload of lessons to share.

"We need global leadership in order to prevent starvation" wrote Masood Ahmed and former U.K. Prime Minister Gordon Brown in the Financial Times. COVID-19, and Russia's war in Ukraine have created massive disruptions to the world economy, and it will be world's poor who will pay the highest price. As the spring meetings of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank commence, Masood Ahmed provides a clarion call to world leaders to say that quick fixes and piecemeal policy will not fix our current global challenges. What is needed now, more than ever, is a commitment to building trust in global development be it between nations, among development partners, and with local communities. Masood Ahmed is president of the Center for Global Development. He joined the Center in January 2017, capping a 35-year career driving economic development policy initiatives relating to debt, aid effectiveness, trade, and global economic prospects at major international institutions including the IMF, World Bank, and DFID. Ahmed joined CGD from the IMF, where he served for eight years as director, Middle East and Central Asia Department, earning praise from Managing Director Christine Lagarde as a “visionary leader.” In that role, he oversaw the Fund's operations in 32 countries, and managed relationships with key national and regional policy makers and stakeholders. In previous years, he also served as the IMF's director of External Relations, and deputy director of the Policy Development and Review Department. From 2003-2006, Ahmed served as director general, Policy and International at the UK government's Department for International Development (DFID). In that role, he was responsible for advising UK ministers on development issues and overseeing the UK's relationship with international development institutions such as the World Bank. Ahmed also worked at the World Bank from 1979-2000 in various managerial and economist positions, rising to become Vice President, Poverty Reduction and Economic Management. In that role he led the HIPC (heavily indebted poor countries) debt relief initiative, which has to- date brought relief from debt burdens to 36 of the world's poorest nations. Born and raised in Pakistan, Ahmed moved to London in 1971 to study at the LSE where he obtained a BSc Honors as well as an MSc Econ with distinction. Follow Dr. Bob on Twitter: @ProfessorHuish

Sexual and reproductive health is a human right, essential to human development and to achievement of the Millennium Development Goals. DFID is firmly committed to the Program of Action of the International Conference on Population and Development and will continue to support governments and partners to achieve reproductive health for all by 2015. Poor people, especially women and young people, face huge social and economic barriers to sexual and reproductive health. 120 million couples do not have access to the family planning services and contraception they need. Every year, 529,000 women die from complications of pregnancy and childbirth and 3 million children die in the first week of life. 38 million people are currently living with HIV and 340 million people contract sexually transmitted infections each year. Most are preventable. This paper sets out DFID's position on Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights and our view of the future. It forms the basis for planning our investment and activities and our work with partners. We have seen considerable achievements since the I994 International Conference on Population and Development set goals and targets on reproductive health and rights for all by 2015. Countries have turned ICPD commitments into policies and action, increased access to a range of family planning options, and in some countries cut maternal deaths. But faster progress is needed. We face new challenges, in particular the devastating impact of HIV and AIDS and the biggest ever population of young people entering their reproductive years. Demand for sexual and reproductive health services and commodities will continue to grow. Health systems remain weak in many countries and are deteriorating in some. There are too few health workers particularly in the poorest areas. We could make more use of opportunities to integrate HIV and sexual and reproductive health services in ways that respond better to people's needs. DFID will work with country governments and partners to: • advocate internationally and nationally for policies and resources that address people's rights to sexual and reproductive health, and continue to address controversial issues such as safe abortion and harmful and coercive practices; • improve access to comprehensive services, that are responsive to the rights and needs of poor people and other vulnerable groups; • address social cultural and economic barriers, using a rights-based approach, and tackling issues outside the health sector; and • support research, monitoring and evaluation and apply knowledge and lessons learnt in policy and planning. 1 Our aim is to achieve the following outcomes: • Improved maternal and newborn health. • Accessible, high quality family planning choices. • Elimination of unsafe abortion. • Reduced incidence of HIV and sexually transmitted infections. • Greater awareness of sexual health and reduced risky behavior. • Gender equality, rights, accountability and equity realized everywhere I am fully for https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SlutWalk. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/antonio-myers4/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/antonio-myers4/support

This event was the launch of Yaniv Voller's latest book Second-Generation Liberation Wars: Rethinking Colonialism in Iraqi Kurdistan and Southern Sudan published by Cambridge University Press. The formation of post-colonial states in Africa, and the Middle East gave birth to prolonged separatist wars. Exploring the evolution of these separatist wars, Yaniv Voller examines the strategies that both governments and insurgents employed, how these strategies were shaped by the previous struggle against European colonialism and the practices and roles that emerged in the subsequent period, which moulded the identities, aims and strategies of post-colonial governments and separatist rebels. Based on a wealth of primary sources, Voller focuses on two post-colonial separatist wars: in Iraqi Kurdistan, between Kurdish separatists and the government in Baghdad, and Southern Sudan, between black African insurgents and the government in Khartoum. By providing an account of both conflicts, he offers a new understanding of colonialism, decolonisation and the international politics of the post-colonial world. Yaniv Voller is Senior Lecturer in the Politics of the Middle East at the University of Kent. Prior to this, he was a Leverhulme Early Career Fellow at the School of Social and Political Science, University of Edinburgh. Voller received his PhD from the LSE, where he also taught courses in the International Relations and the International History Departments. In 2018-2019, Yaniv was a Conflict Research Fellow at the DFID-funded Conflict Research Programme at the LSE and the Social Science Research Council. Voller's research broadly concerns the geopolitics of the Middle East, the foreign policies of Middle Eastern states, separatism/liberation, insurgency and the role of ideas, ideology and practices in shaping international politics. He is the author of The Kurdish Liberation Movement in Iraq: From Insurgency to Statehood (Routledge, 2014). Ponsiano Bimeny is a Visiting Research Fellow at the Firoz Lalji Institute for Africa at LSE. He completed his PhD in Development Studies at SOAS University of London with his thesis examining the contradicting visions of the South Sudanese state and its implications for the processes of state formation within the country and in Sub Saharan Africa more broadly. Bimeny's thesis particularly focused on citizenship and identity in the context of conflict, violence and population displacement in South Sudan, drawing on the 2005 political settlement and the most recent conflict between the government's Sudan People's Liberation Army and the different paramilitary and social groups. Bimeny has more than six years of experience working as a development professional in Northern Uganda, including delivering the UNICEF-funded Government of Uganda's “Justice for Children” programme. Bimeny has also recently undertaken research work focusing on the post conflict settings of the Acholi and Karamoja regions of northern Uganda for the Deconstructing Notions of Resilience project at the Firoz Lalji Institute for Africa. He has provided regional insights about Africa's Great Lakes Region to the Centre of African Studies at SOAS since 2016.

In global development, ideas have power and some ideas or concepts such as social capital, human development, the informal sector, and sustainable development have been highly influential. The development agenda also includes metaphors that can shape how we think and hence how we act. Professor Desmond James McNeill has worked extensively on issues related to global governance, aid, and sustainable development and on the links between research and policy. He was director of the Centre for Development and the Environment at the University of Oslo from 1992 to 2001. And from 2001 and until a couple of years ago, he was Head of Research, and Director of the Centre's Research School.Host:Professor Dan Banik, University of Oslo, Twitter: @danbanik  @GlobalDevPodhttps://in-pursuit-of-development.simplecast.com/

Director of the IPR, Professor Nick Pearce; Professional Doctorate student and Programme Director at the Malala Fund, Javed Ahmed; and Lecturer in the Department of Education at the University of Bath, Dr Arif Naveed, are joined by Sir Michael Barber to discuss public policy delivery in the UK, Pakistan and beyond. Sir Michael Barber is Founder and Chairman of Delivery Associates, an advisory firm which helps government and other organisations to deliver improved outcomes for citizens. He is a leading authority on education systems and education reform. He is also Chair of the Office for Students, the proposed new regulator for Higher Education. From 2011-15 Sir Michael was DfID's Special Representative on Education in Pakistan. He led a radical education reform with the Chief Minister of Punjab and, in 2013, published The Good News from Pakistan about the programme with Reform, He was Chief Education Adviser at Pearson from September 2011 to March 2017. Prior to this, he was a Partner at McKinsey & Company and Head of McKinsey's global education practice. He co-authored two major McKinsey education reports: How the world's best-performing schools come out on top (2007) and How the world's most improved school systems keep getting better (2010). Sir Michael was Head of the Prime Minister's Delivery Unit from 2001-05, and Chief Adviser to the Secretary of State for Education on School Standards from 1997-2001. Before joining government, he was a professor at the Institute of Education, University of London. This event took place on 13 January 2022, as part of the Professional Doctorate in Policy Research and Practice residential.

Dr. Axèle Giroud is Professor of International Business and Head of the Comparative and International Business Group at the Alliance Manchester Business School, University of Manchester (U.K.). She is Visiting Professor with the University of Gothenburg (Sweden), and Rennes Business School (France). She previously held positions with Bradford University (U.K.), and the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD). Dr. Giroud has published widely, including books, academic articles in top journals (e.g. Journal of World Business, International Business Review, Management International Review, World Development), and policy reports for major organisations, such as DFID, the Japanese Bank for International Cooperation, the World Bank, the ASEAN Secretariat, and the United Nations. Dr. Giroud currently serves as Area Editor for Journal of International Business Policy (JIBP), and Senior Editor for International Business Review (IBR). She sits on the editorial boards of several journals, Journal of Industrial and Business Economics, Competitiveness Review, International Journal of Emerging Markets, and Asian Business & Management. Visit https://www.aib.world/frontline-ib/axele-giroud/ for the original video interview.

In this episode of the RISE Podcast, RISE Research Director Lant Pritchett speaks to Asyia Kazmi. During the episode, they walk through Asyia's wide-ranging experiences spanning her 25-year career in education—as a teacher, mentor, advisor, and educationalist—and they reflect on the legacy of Girin Beeharry, the inaugural Director of Global Education at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. They also discuss the critical importance of getting kids literate and numerate, as well as the need to build systems that champion quality teaching and restore children's confidence in their ability to succeed.  Links: The Girls Education Challenge: https://girlseducationchallenge.org/ (https://girlseducationchallenge.org/) The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation: https://www.gatesfoundation.org/ (https://www.gatesfoundation.org/) A Symposium on Girin Beeharry's Manifesto for Global Education: https://www.cgdev.org/blog/symposium-girin-beeharrys-manifesto-global-education (https://www.cgdev.org/blog/symposium-girin-beeharrys-manifesto-global-education) The Pathway to Progress on SDG 4 Requires the Global Education Architecture to Focus on Foundational Learning and to Hold Ourselves Accountable For Achieving It, by Girindre Beeharry: https://www.cgdev.org/reader/pathway-progress-sdg4-symposium?page=1 (https://www.cgdev.org/reader/pathway-progress-sdg4-symposium?page=1) Sleeping Soundly in the Procrustean Bed of Accounting-Based Accountability by Lant Pritchett: https://www.cgdev.org/reader/pathway-progress-sdg4-symposium?page=16 (https://www.cgdev.org/reader/pathway-progress-sdg4-symposium?page=16) Building on Solid Foundations: Prioritising Universal, Early, Conceptual and Procedural Mastery of Foundational Skills: https://riseprogramme.org/publications/building-solid-foundations-prioritising-universal-early-conceptual-and-procedural (https://riseprogramme.org/publications/building-solid-foundations-prioritising-universal-early-conceptual-and-procedural) Quality Education for Every Girl for 12 Years: Insights from RISE Programme Research: https://riseprogramme.org/publications/quality-education-every-girl-12-years-insights-rise-programme-research (https://riseprogramme.org/publications/quality-education-every-girl-12-years-insights-rise-programme-research) Andy Hargreaves: http://www.andyhargreaves.com (http://www.andyhargreaves.com) Guest biography: Dr Asyia Kazmi is the Global Education Policy Lead at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, with a focus on effective instructional practices, education advocacy and edtech. Nearly half of Asyia's 25-year career in education was spent as a mathematics teacher and teacher coach. Before joining the Gates Foundation, Asyia was a management consultant in PwC leading the Girls' Education Challenge, a $1bn fund set up by the UK to support the education of 1.5 million girls in 17 countries. Asyia has worked in three UK Government departments: as a senior education adviser in DFID, a project director in the Department for Education, and a senior Her Majesty's Inspector in Ofsted, where she inspected schools, local authorities, initial teacher education and trained inspectors. Her areas of expertise include teaching, learning and formative assessment; school improvement; and large-scale programme management. Asyia has a Masters in Applied Mathematics from Imperial College London and a Doctorate in Education on teaching and learning mathematics from the Institute of Education, University College London. She has a PGCE in Leadership development and educational consulting, and a PGCE in mathematics teaching. Attribution: RISE is funded by the UK's Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office; Australia's Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade; and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. The Programme is implemented through a partnership between Oxford Policy Management and the Blavatnik School of Government at...

Paul, thank you for talking with us today. The audience of this podcast is people who are interested in being involved, in building back better, and dealing with some of the big global challenges that we're now facing. In a sentence, why should they read your book?Paul Polman (PP): Well, in a simple sentence will be one question: is the world better off because your company is in it or not? This is probably the most important question to ask. What the book is trying to do is to create a movement that really describes how successful companies can profit -- not from creating the world's problems, but from actually solving the world's problems. So we describe officially in the book Net Positive as: a business that improves the well being for everyone it impacts, and at all scales -- be it product, operations, regions, countries -- and obviously caters to the multiple stakeholders. World Overshoot Day this year was July 29, which is the day that we use up more resources than the world can replenish. In other words, every day after that, we're stealing from future generations. So it's not anymore enough to be linear or to be circular. But more and more companies have to think about what can they do to have a positive impact on society. If they really can't answer that, then why should society keep these companies around? So the book talks about two things, personal transformation, because it starts with leaders, you cannot have systems changes without leader changes. So leadership transformation, and then systems transformation. And it takes you, with very simple steps, through what you need to do to get your own company in shape, to play a key role in your own value chain in your industry associations, and ultimately, in the broader society that you play in. And, the book doesn't shy away from some of the tougher choices, such as how you deal with tax, with corruption, with trade associations, with money in politics, with human rights. It's written for everybody, small and big companies, others who want to play a role in changing society for the better. So we think it broadly resonates. And, if I may, the characteristics perhaps would be good to talk about of a net positive company. That basically boils down to companies that take responsibility and ownership for all impacts and consequences in the world. Intended or not. Many only look at scope one and two under their control. But you have to take responsibility for your total handprint. You cannot outsource your value chain and also expect to outsource your responsibilities. That simply doesn't work anymore. It's companies that operate for the long term benefit of business and society, that try to create a positive return for all stakeholders. They see shareholder value as a result of what they do, not as a goal in itself. And last but not least, they partner to form these broader systemic changes that society needs.MB: So we're in a very interesting moment where in some ways, business appears to be at least talking the talk on being a more positive force in society. You know, you've had the Business Roundtable decision, that you note, to sort of abandon the Milton Friedman view of the world and to sort of focus on more stakeholder capitalism. And you've had lots of companies saying they're committed to net zero carbon emissions by 2050. And more companies generally stepping into some of the political issues around elections in America, or issues like transgender rights, and yet there's also tremendous skepticism. You take a book like Anand Giridharadas' Winners Take All, which really regards all of this as a giant charade by capitalism. How do you view this data? Because in the book you do acknowledge that, even at Unilever, with some of the things, that you didn't feel you went far enough with, but you were one of the leaders there. Are we getting there? Is this real? Is it just greenwashing? Rainbow washing? What is it?PP: I've read Anand's book Winners Take All and frankly, that's a book heavy on the analysis and light on the solutions. This book is really more practical and offers solutions to move it forward. It's very clear that governments are not functioning the way we have designed them, that multilateralism is not really delivering what we expect from it. The multilateral institutions that were designed in, basically, 1944 with Bretton Woods are not adapted to the current changes. And the bigger issues are more global -- climate change, cybersecurity, pandemics, financial markets -- and we're just not getting to it. And what I think what you see is a few things, [such as firstly] technology always developing faster than people realize. So it's easier to change things. Now take green energy [as an example], the International Energy Agency was expecting solar and wind in 2014, to be five cents per kilowatt hour in 2050. We have achieved that in 2020 already. So technology is advancing. And the other thing that is happening is the issues are creeping up on us faster than we realized, especially on climate, we're getting closer to a negative feedback loop. And business sees that pressure. You see the weather disasters -- we literally have the world on fire -- disruptions in the food supply chain, and the logistics, and many other things. And in fact, COVID has been a rude awakening that you cannot have healthy people on an unhealthy planet. Just in Europe and the U.S. alone, we've spent $16 trillion on stabilizing and saving lives and livelihoods. The economy itself has probably lost $25 or $26 trillion dollars, according to the IMF. So people are starting to realize that the cost of not acting is becoming much higher than the cost of acting. And that's why you see this high level of dissatisfaction with the young people, with employees, with your customers, with people in your value chain. And good companies understand that, they understand that they have to be part of the solution, not the problem. They're internalizing sustainability, they put it at the center of their business, they become more purpose driven businesses. And what you see is that businesses that operate increasingly under these longer-term, multi-stakeholder principles at the core are actually also better performing. That bifurcation has been even stronger during COVID. That's one of the reasons why you see ESG funds taking off, green bonds taking off, the investor community getting actively interested in it, standard setters moving forward. Some of the responsible governments, like Europe, are embedding it in legislation, like the Green Deal or the taxonomy, so it's definitely moving. But as usual, as these things are becoming more topical, thousands of flowers bloom -- for example, we have over 600 standard setting bodies. And it's time to make some bouquets.And yes, if there are no clear standards, then companies will interpret things differently. And some people might call that greenwashing. And there's undoubtedly some of that going on. But broadly, it is clear that we're moving in the right direction, but [just] not fast enough, and not at the scale that we need. We now have about 20% of the companies, for example, that have commitments to be net zero by 2050. But what about 2030? Because we cannot wait that long. What about beyond scope one and two, and including scope three, four or five? And that still is unsettling for many.MB: Because in the book, you talk about how these goals ought to be. You use the acronym SMART, which is measurable and realistic. I think a lot of the netzero pledges have been made without the companies that are making the pledges really having much of a sense of how they're going to get there. And so you feel like it's more of an ambition that may be far enough into the future that the company's current leadership need not own it and there's no pathway. Is that a problem?PP: Well, I think increasingly, for some industries, it is difficult. If you're in the fossil fuel industry where investments are being made by your predecessor or your predecessor's predecessor, and it takes 30 years before you get a return on drilling a well, etc., it's difficult to change very quickly. And some of the heavy industry, which happens to also be heavy emitters, might not have all the answers yet. How do you totally decarbonize airlines, or shipping, or steel, or aluminum and some of the other things? And the fossil industry itself needs careful reflection. But what is clear is that, increasingly, companies understand that it actually can be done, and it is within reach. Companies from Salesforce to Microsoft to Unilever, or to Pepsi and others [like] Walmart are making commitments that not only green their supply chains well before [they are expected to]  -- Amazon itself, 2039 -- and they have clear plans and pathways to get there. But they're actually going beyond that, they're looking at restorative commitments, they're looking at integrating biodiversity and planetary health into their thinking. And what we find is that companies that proactively work this are often better run, their leaders are more in tune with societal needs, they come out with better products, have more engaged employees, better relationships in the value chain, and increasingly, that is linked to better returns. You can now measure the negative environmental impacts of companies. And even within the same industries, there are some companies who take mitigating their environmental impacts more seriously than other companies within those industries. And what we clearly find is that accounting for these externalities about a quarter of these companies would not be profitable. But even within the industries, the ones that are less productive, also have lower valuations. So I think the market is starting to factor it in. And, looking very much at the leading companies that position themselves well for the future, and starting to reward those. So it is moving. But again, as I mentioned before, these issues are creeping up on us quicker than we thought. We're getting close to the situation that the Amazon are becoming negative emitters, that the Borealis melting releases methane that is up to 100 times more potent in the short term, and we don't have that luxury to wait. So what you need is to get critical mass behind this transformation, which is a big transformation, we all realize that. And that critical mass can only come from working together with civil society, with governments, obviously, and with the private sector, to drive these broader system changes.MB: You open the book with this example of [when] you were quite far along in your time at Unilever, and the the CEO of Heinz comes along and makes this hostile takeover bid offer to you. And it seems like this is a battle between the old style capitalism and the new style capitalism. In this case, you were able to persuade shareholders to back you in this new model against the old model. Do you feel like that marked a decisive turning point in the attitude of big shareholders towards how big companies should be managed -- that they seemed to be saying: now we will support this net positive type of leadership?PP: Well, it certainly raised awareness. I was happy that it happened during my eighth year of tenure in Unilever. We had produced very good returns for our shareholders. We also had worked very hard on changing our shareholder base, which was more loyal and had benefited from this value creation. So it came at a good moment in that sense. But it points out the dichotomy that there is in two legal systems. One that is focused on a few millionaires and billionaires, and financial manipulation, high leveraging up, cutting costs, frankly, something that anybody can do. And one that is more working for the billions of people invested in longer term value creation. And Unilever has certainly done that. Since the Kraft/Heinz attempted takeover bid, their share price has lost about 60%. They've had lawsuits, they've had change management three times, [while] Unilever share price has continued to grow. And I think this longer-term value creation model is also a better model over time for the shareholders, and you don't have to wait too long for that. So that game, I think that was being played there is increasingly being called out as not being constructive for society. And I broadly think that the longer-term shareholders understand that there's just so much money that we've put in the global economy, that a big part of that is chasing short-term returns at every cost. And there are some people that think their own greed is more important than the future lives of their children. So you always have to deal with these challenges, but in order to avoid that over time, and to move it in the right direction, we indeed need to be sure that the regulatory frameworks and the moral standards that we put behind it, the obligations that we demand from companies as they operate in society, that they also fulfill the needs of society and get a real license to operate. It hurts to see a company like that at the bottom of a human rights index. And it gives me pride to see Unilever at the top. And if we can square that multi-stakeholder focus, in our case there was a 300% shareholder return over 10 years, then I think that is a much better thing for society. I've always said, I'm a proud billionaire, because we've focused on improving the lives of billions of people. And that's a good way not only to live your life, but if you can also show that it is good for your shareholders, I think you square it, and give people more confidence that this should be the direction we should be pushing for.MB: I wanted to focus on the last two or three chapters of the book where I think you really push into some of the very cutting edge developments that need to happen if a business is to really achieve its full potential in improving the state of the world. One is this whole issue of how you in the industry can partner with your competitors to actually, overall raise standards across the industry. And one example you give us is the fashion industry, which, obviously, increasingly, people are scrutinizing for the fast fashion, and in particular for its lack of sustainability. What have you learned about making a cross-industry partnership successful? What are the conditions that can make that a really positive thing?PP: There's a whole chapter in the book which is called “One Plus One is 11” that deals with these broader partnerships. It's very clear that CEOs alone are held to very high standards and often higher standards than they actually can fulfill themselves. No CEO can move the whole market to regenerative agriculture, or solve the issues of plastics in the ocean, or even get to green energy, if a broader system around you doesn't pull in that same direction. And that's difficult for CEOs then to move things forward. Also, sometimes they feel that if they do it, and competitors don't, they might be at a disadvantage, because obviously there are other forces at play. So one of the reasons I created Imagine as a social enterprise is to bring a critical mass of CEOs together across the value chain, to look at some of these issues. Sometimes they are value chain issues, sometimes time availability, or knowledge issues. And together, they become more courageous. And if you have 20% to 30% of the market represented, civil society wants to join, NGOs want to be part of it, governments start to listen, and you can drive the broader system changes.An example is fashion indeed, where we have 80 companies now in the fashion industry, together under the fashion practice. It's a very destructive industry. But together, they have decided to move to regenerative cotton. Together, they are now buying green energy to get to the Paris Agreement and stay below 1.5 degrees. Together, they're learning on how to integrate, with the help of Conservation International and others, biodiversity targets into their business models. So things that they could not do alone. And I believe that, increasingly, when it concerns the future of humanity, we shouldn't compete about that. But leave enough space in other areas to obviously compete. Now many of the CEOs get that. We get an enormous demand. We're working also with the food companies, where we have 30 companies. We are starting now as private equity, with tourism and travel. So I think the needs are there. And creating these neutral platforms as we've done at Imagine is one way of addressing that. But increasingly, you see these broader partnerships emerge, with partnerships for the greater good. And what most of these CEOs find is, whilst you cannot solve all these issues in one minute, and you have to space it out over a period of time (that we, to some extent still have), that a lot of things can be done, that are also immediately beneficial to the top and bottom line of your company. And not only from a risk mitigation point of view, but also from an opportunity point of view. And that makes these partnerships so powerful. The challenge is to get that translated into working together with governments to change the frameworks. Because right now, be it the carbon transmission and decarbonizing our global economy, or changing the food chain to make it more in line with the planetary boundaries, currently, many countries have frameworks in place that actually push you in a different direction. And that's difficult, ultimately, to achieve your objectives if you can't change those.MB: But you have another chapter looking really at multi-stakeholder partnerships. It seems like we've been talking about how you get government, business, and the civil society organizations, NGOs, to work together for a long time. What have we figured out about what makes for a successful multi-stakeholder partnership? Because a lot of them haven't succeeded.PP: Successful partnerships -- many partnerships obviously don't work out -- there are numbers floating around that 75% of partnerships might fail. But ultimately, if the aligned objectives are there, you have the same purpose, you're very clear on what each partner brings to the party, you work with transparency that creates that trust, you have clear accountability mechanisms,  everybody clearly understands what his or her contributions are, then these partnerships can work very well. Unilever built a tea plantation in Rwanda, where we needed the government from Rwanda, and where we needed organizations like Dfid, the U.K. development aid, and where we actually got high net worth individuals, like Ian Wood from the Wood Foundation, that were willing to help and protect the smallholder farmers. And we could create a value chain that was good for all of its stakeholders, and delivered the quality tea that also was feeding our brands. By the way, interestingly, [speaking of] the brands, people want to know if these products are sourced sustainably and where they come from. So building these whole models with these broader partnerships are very important. When we went into Ethiopia, we first worked with the government with our brands like bar soaps or toothpastes, or [we worked] with the health workers, they have about 30,000 health workers there, to teach people the benefits of hand washing, or tooth brushing, that are far more preventative solutions than waiting for the problem to occur. And only when we created that credibility over the longer term, we [were then able to] make these brands available into society on a broader level. And these are the broader partnerships that work for us.It's interesting in the book, we talked about $3.5 billion being [spent] in lobbying in the U.S. alone -- I wonder how much money goes to self-interest? Well, one company says A and the other company pays money to say B; where politicians are in the pockets of some of these big spenders, we see, increasingly, that that's not the type of democracy that ultimately builds the value. And I think you see the enormous price we pay for that. Ceres, which is a company that is very capably led by Mindy Lubber, is pulling the financial market to a higher level of responsibility. It was looking at all this government spending and lobbying etc., and it actually found out that 40% of the companies in the U.S. were not actively even engaging with governments, or moving things forward in the right level, on let's say on climate change, when they know it's a big issue. So the book is talking about: how do you create these partnerships? Why would you do that? What benefit do you get out of that by being a participant? And frankly, the employees and the companies expect the CEOs now to increasingly participate. About 76% of the employees expect this. And it's interesting, because CEOs broadly think they do. But when you ask their employees, there's a big gap between what the employees think and what the CEO themselves think. MB: And as you say, one of the things we're seeing now is employees becoming more vocal -- in social media and elsewhere, at meetings, and so forth -- and holding their bosses to account. And we're almost out of time, and I've got two more questions. One, is really, I love your last chapter where you go, what the next frontier of…  PP: Engaging the ElephantsMB: Yeah, the elephants. And obviously, one of the elephants that you acknowledge right up front is companies trying to avoid paying taxes, and you really argue against that. Another is this lobbying issue, you want to basically end, and political donations, you want to get rid of those. And then you talk about corruption. Are you starting to see company leadership and shareholders really want to get into these, to address these elephants in the room, or do you feel like there is still a long way to go?PP: On some issues more than others, obviously. But you mentioned a few. I don't want to respond to all of them, but take tax for example -- one quarter of the Fortune 500 companies paid zero tax in 2018. 10% of GDP is in offshore accounts. 500 or 600 billion of taxes are lost as a result of that. At Unilever I put my tax principles on my website. We got out of these constructions that were purely organized for tax reasons, and the company did fine. We hire people that get free education, we would use the road systems, we need social safety nets around people. When you get things like COVID, I think it's quite normal that you pay tax as well. So it's hard to square over time that society will give you bonus points on being a purpose driven company, if you don't find a way to contribute your fair share there either.And it's the same thing with some of the other areas that we talked about. If you look at the shareholder propositions right now, the shareholder resolutions, they are actually demanding more and more transparency.Take in the U.S. the issue of money and politics. If you will have taken 2009, well before this January 6 event of storming the Capitol, in 2019, there were over 50 political spending proposals on the ballots of shareholder meetings, non-court accepted; if you look now, to date, already in 2021, there are over 40 on the proposals, and you're already running at a significantly high level of support. MB: For disclosing what the donations are and who to.PP: What the donations are and for what they are. So you see, actually, the shareholders are demanding more. Now more CEOs are getting fired for ESG related reasons, then for performance related reasons. You see shareholders demanding, like in the famous Exxon case, that they are more aggressive on mitigating climate change. We saw it with Shell and some other companies [too]. So if you don't embrace these elephants proactively, and have a strategy around that, which is what we're really talking about in the book, then I think you will be exposed. You mentioned in every company there is an activist; every company I think has a Greta Thunberg inside of them. And if they see, increasingly, these companies, on the one side, saying we want to do this and making these public statements, but then, for example, financing trade associations, like the American Petroleum Association, or some of the others actively advocating the opposite, then you lose credibility, you undermine your culture, and ultimately, the fabric of your company, and that gets reflected in your success, and share price. So it is important that you discuss these issues, it is important that you take positions on them, and it is important that you do that in a holistic way. And not do it in a CSR way, where you pick a few topics that you think suit you well, but then go horribly wrong in the other areas. That's why this book talks about net positive in a more holistic way. And which makes it such a powerful book, actually.MB: I wanted to end with asking for some career advice for our listeners. You mentioned every company having a Greta Thunberg maybe lurking within it, but the book really, I think, raises more clearly than any other book I've read, this notion that you can be a net positive leader. If you're someone who is committed to public service, you can actually go into a company and see that as a way of living a life of public service, which is an idea that 25 years ago would have seen laughable or even 10 years ago, but now seems to be a choice that many people are wrestling with. If I want to give, if I want to be part of the effort to build back better, should I go into business? Or should I go into government? Or should I go into a nonprofit? Or what? How would you advise someone trying to wrestle with that kind of calculation as to where they should focus their energies and their life, if they really want to have the biggest positive net positive impact in their career?PP: Well, I ended up in business, by a little bit of serendipity. I wanted to be a priest first, then a doctor, and none of that really worked out. So I ended up being in business. But I discovered that, business being 60% of the global GDP, 65% or 90% of the job creation and the financial flow that you cannot solve any of these famous Sustainable Development Goals, bar a few if you don't have business actively in there. So you need business, but for the same reason, you also need government, and you need civil society. It's really what the book ultimately talks about is this partnership that needs to be formed between all of them. And my advice to anybody listening and looking for a job is: find out what the world needs, what you're passionate about, and what you're good at. And if you can work on that intersection of what the world needs, your passion, and what you're good at, then you're going to have a very fulfilling and and very gratifying life.Mark Twain said there are two moments in life that are the most important: the first one is when you were born, and the second one is when you figured out why you were born. If you can operate on that intersection, it is giving you a meaningful life that I think most people aspire to. So it's not one or the other, it's really finding yourself and realizing, above all, that we are lucky. Most of the people listening here have been educated, they didn't have to deal with the issues of food security, or stunting, or open defecation. But that, unfortunately, is only 5% of the world population that you belong to, and have that freedom to some extent. And then it is important, I believe, to put yourself to the service of the other 95%, who still have not been so fortunate.MB: If I asked you to build on that, if I asked you to take a 100 mile up view of the world, I suppose you would say that for someone wanting to have a positive impact for good, there's never been greater opportunity to do that through business than now perhaps. But if you looked at each of business, civil society, and governments, and you looked at their human capital, where are people with a service orientation, most needed? Is it business? Is it government? Or is it civil society at the moment?PP: Well, I think frankly, we have a leadership deficit everywhere. It's clear that the MBA programs, which have given us the leaders for business, are a version of Milton Friedman on steroids, and are in desperate need to be reinvented. In politics it has become, for different reasons, increasingly more short-term oriented. Many of the NGOs have also been called out. Whilst they play a very crucial role, many of them are mono issue end result focused, and are not willing to walk the journey, or walk in partnership. So I think the biggest deficit is not in one or the other institutions. The biggest deficit ultimately, is the leadership. And that's why this book starts with a very famous question: do you care? And that's why we believe and what makes it so powerful, is that you need a personal transformation before you get a systems transformation.MB: Well, thank you. I think that's a great note to end on. I would like to thank both you, Paul Polman, and Andrew Winston for writing this book Net Positive: How Courageous Companies Thrive by Giving More Than They Take. It is an incredibly positive and practical book that anyone who is thinking about if they should live out their public service through business, will find very useful and very inspiring. So thank you very much for talking about the book with Books Driving Change, Paul, thank you.PP: Thank you, Matthew enjoyed it.We hope you are as inspired by these podcasts as we are. If you are, please subscribehere, or wherever you get your podcasts (Amazon Music, Apple, Google, Spotify, Stitcher), and please rate us and write a review so others can find their inspiration.  This transcript has been lightly edited for context and clarity. 

The second episode of the RISE Podcast features Dr Rachel Glennerster, Chief Economist at the UK's Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) in conversation with Laura Savage (Deputy Head of Education Research at the UK's FCDO). During the episode, they discuss Rachel's reflections on how good interventions can work in poor performing education systems, why we need to go beyond evidence of what works to think about cost effectiveness, and how to build incentives to tackle systems issues at scale.  Links: Cost-Effective Approaches to Improve Global Learning : What Does Recent Evidence Tell Us Are “Smart Buys” for Improving Learning in Low and Middle Income Countries?: https://documents1.worldbank.org/curated/en/719211603835247448/pdf/Cost-Effective-Approaches-to-Improve-Global-Learning-What-Does-Recent-Evidence-Tell-Us-Are-Smart-Buys-for-Improving-Learning-in-Low-and-Middle-Income-Countries.pdf (https://documents1.worldbank.org/curated/en/719211603835247448/pdf/Cost-Effective-Approaches-to-Improve-Global-Learning-What-Does-Recent-Evidence-Tell-Us-Are-Smart-Buys-for-Improving-Learning-in-Low-and-Middle-Income-Countries.pdf) The Global Education Advisory Panel: https://www.worldbank.org/en/topic/teachingandlearning/brief/global-education-evidence-advisory-panel (https://www.worldbank.org/en/topic/teachingandlearning/brief/global-education-evidence-advisory-panel) DFID's Education Policy “Get Children Learning”: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/685536/DFID-Education-Policy-2018a.pdf (https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/685536/DFID-Education-Policy-2018a.pdf) FCDO's 2021 Girls' Education Action Plan: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/986027/FCDO-Girls-Education-Action-Plan.pdf (https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/986027/FCDO-Girls-Education-Action-Plan.pdf) Rukmini Banerji: https://riseprogramme.org/people/rukmini-banerji (https://riseprogramme.org/people/rukmini-banerji) and Pratham: https://www.pratham.org/ (https://www.pratham.org) Teaching at the Right Level (TaRL) Africa: https://www.teachingattherightlevel.org/ (https://www.teachingattherightlevel.org) Guest biography  Dr Rachel Glennerster is the Chief Economist at the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO) and a member of the FCDO Executive Committee. Prior to her appointment at the FCDO, she was the Chief Economist at the Department for International Development (DFID). From 2004 to 2017 she was Executive Director of the Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL), a Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Economics Department research centre that seeks to reduce poverty by ensuring policy is informed by scientific evidence. Dr Glennerster's work has spanned reform of the international financial system, debt, promoting innovation, education, health, financial regulation, and women's empowerment in Russia, Africa and South East Asia. In addition to FCDO, DFID and MIT, Dr Glennerster has held positions at the International Monetary Fund, Her Majesty's Treasury and the Harvard Institute for International Development. More information at: https://www.gov.uk/government/people/rachel-glennerster (https://www.gov.uk/government/people/rachel-glennerster). More on Rachel's research: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=Vq3KWOsAAAAJ&hl (https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=Vq3KWOsAAAAJ&hl) Attribution RISE is funded by the UK's Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office; Australia's Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade; and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. The Programme is implemented...

Welcome to the Afghan Affairs podcast with Said Sabir Ibrahimi. This podcast brings you a variety of perspectives on Afghanistan. In this episode, I was joined by Mr. Nazir Kabiri, Executive Director of Biruni Institute. Prior to founding the Biruni Institute in 2019, he served as a Senior Policy Advisor to the Minister of Finance for over six years. Mr. Kabiri has nearly two decades of experience in working with the government and international donors, including working for the UK's DFID for five years. Thank you for listening. If you like this podcast, please help us grow and support through Patreon and Pay Pal. afghanaffairs.com/podcast/

Sandra Pepera is a career diplomat and international development professional. Before joining NDI as its director for Gender, Women and Democracy in 2014, she spent thirteen years as a senior officer at the UK's Department for International Development (DFID), including leading programs in the Caribbean, Rwanda-Burundi and Sudan. Prior to joining DFID, Sandra spent time in British domestic politics; lecturing in political science and international relations at the University of Ghana; and as a political analyst in the Political Affairs Division at the Commonwealth Secretariat. She has a portfolio of skills and experience which include strategy development, political and risk analysis, diplomacy, general management and corporate governance. Birgitta Ohlsson serves as the National Democratic Institute's director of political parties. She has over twenty years of experience as a leader at the national level in political parties, leadership, feminism, civil society and foreign policy She entered politics formally in 1999 when was elected president of Liberal Youth of Sweden. In 2002, she was elected for as a member of the Swedish Parliament, where she served until 2018, serving in numerous leadership roles, including in the Committee on Foreign Affairs and as her party's spokesperson. Between 2010 and 2014, she was the Swedish Minister for European Affairs and Democracy issues, serving as a strong international voice on gender equality, democracy and LGBTI-rights. She has also been the President of the women´s wing of the Liberal Party (2007-2010) and founded an independent Feminist Network, Felira, in 2003. Sandra Pepera and Birgitta Ohlsson of the National Democratic Institute talk about their work trying to get more women into the electoral process around the globe. We dish on: What it was actually like for Birgitta to be 'in power' as a Government Minister and Parliamentarian   How they are working with male politicians who have been in power for years to convince them to support getting more women into elected office    What women can do if their power frightens male politicians How they each got 'in their power' to do this world-changing work I hope you will find this episode as exciting and informative as I have. Sandra and Birgitta are leading the way for women in politics and analyzing how they can be strong in political power. Please let me know your thoughts!   Connect with Sandra Pepera Sandra on Twitter: https://twitter.com/sandrapepera? National Democratic Institute on Twitter: https://twitter.com/NDIWomen Connect with Dr. Sharon Melnick Website: https://www.sharonmelnick.com/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sharonmelnick/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/DrSharonMelnick Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Clare Short: ‘Reflecting on the Demise of DFID'; Coronavirus as a Catalyst for Global Civil Society; Philanthropy: a History. Kevin Watkins reviews a big new book; Who wins/loses if Mexico legalizes Cannabis? Not as straightforward as you might think; You can't rethink humanitarianism without also rethinking the money. Here's one way to do it. 

The UK regularly finds itself at the centre of money laundering and corruption scandals. But how dire is the situation, really, and is there any hope for change? Author Oliver Bullough does a reality check Rachel Davies Teka of Transparency International UK, Phil Mason, formerly with DFID's anti-corruption unit, Professor Elizabeth David-Barret University of Sussex and CFCS's Tom Keatinge.

Welcome to the fifth episode of The Making Of... from The Female Lead.  Our guest this week is the FGM campaigner and author, Nimco Ali. As a survivor of FGM herself, for over 10 years Nimco has been fighting to end this practice throughout the world. She is CEO of the Five Foundation and she has just been appointed as an independent government adviser tackling violence against women and girls. In 2019 she also published her first book What We're Told Not To Talk About (But We're Going To Anyway).  Our conversation covered many tough topics like FGM and violence against women, as well as race, privilege and coming to terms with the past. It was an emotional conversation at times and we were honoured to experience Nimco's total honesty and willingness to share.  We recorded the interview over zoom, at the height of lockdown, so please bear with us as some bits may sound a little wobbly.  * Nimco Ali OBE is a Somali British social activist and writer. She co-founded Daughters of Eve, a non-profit organisation which works to protect girls and young women who are at risk from female genital mutilation (FGM), in 2010 and The Five Foundation, which leverages resources for front line activists, in 2019. Nimco has helped to position FGM as a central issue in ending violence against women and girls. Her professional experience has included working for counter-terrorism within the civil service, supporting the rights of girls in the UK as part of Girlguiding UK and as network lead on The Girl Generation, the DfID-funded anti-FGM social change communications initiative. She is also a leading commentator in international media on the rights of girls and women – particularly surrounding FGM and related issues. In 2014, she was awarded Red Magazine's Woman of the Year award, and placed at No 6 on the Woman's Hour Power List. Most recently she was named by the Sunday Times as one of Debrett's 500 most influential people in Britain, as well one of the Evening Standard‘s 1000 most powerful and BBC's 100 Women 2018. * The Making Of is hosted by Bea Appleby and is edited by Lauren Lind. The production is brought to you by The Female Lead and the whole series is very kindly sponsored by Missoma

This week we are joined by Isabelle Amazon-Brown to speak about Designing Chatbots for Social Development. With ten years experience in 'mobiles for development', working on projects funded by UNICEF, DfID, USAID and the World Bank . She started out running and designing feature-phone friendly mobile sites, but in the past few years has been working on chatbots. She's “passionately jaded” about digital development, having seen more projects “fail” than succeed, but still believes in the transformative potential of mobile, if initiatives are designed and developed using the right methodologies, and as part of a considered ecosystem which leverages both traditional and digital approaches.Discover more about this interview on our website here.Twitter: @global_futuresInstagram: @global_futuresSubstack Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Today one of our co-hosts goes on the other side of the mic. Kristen Check interviews Nathan Mallonee about why your organization should have a Theory of Change. Nathan provides details about the process he led at Living Water for developing a Theory of Change and the lessons learned along the way. You can read Living Water's Theory of Change here: http://livingwater.box.com/toc This podcast was actually recorded in 2019, but this topic is more relevant than ever during Covid-19 as outlined in this article from Better Evaluation: https://www.betterevaluation.org/en/blog/adapting-evaluation-time-covid-19-%E2%80%94-part-2-define Other resources include: Think NPC's Theory of Change in 10 Steps: https://www.thinknpc.org/resource-hub/ten-steps/ DFID's review of Theories of Change: http://www.theoryofchange.org/pdf/DFID_ToC_Review_VogelV7.pdf And you can find out more about Nathan at http://nathanmallonee.com

Sarah was born in Liverpool in 1980s. For 6 years she worked for Christian Aid, DFID and most recently Oxfam as a professional campaigner & mobiliser. She started doing craftivism (craft + activism) in 2008 as a reaction to traditional forms of activism. Due to demand, Sarah set up the global Craftivist Collective in 2009.This hobby has turned her into one of the leading spokespeople in the craftivism movement (The Times featured her as the leader of one of their 5 'New Tribes' of 2012) & was shortlisted for the 2013 Observer Ethical Award for Arts & Culture- they lost out to the film Beasts of the Southern Wild so weren't too upset. Sarah works with art institutions such as V&A, Southbank & National Portrait Gallery as well as charities such as Save the Children & Unicef and has also collaborated with cult jewellers Tatty Devine & Secret Cinema amongst others. As well as collaborations, she also sells products, delivers training workshops & talks, lecturers & exhibits her craftivism work around the world & her book “A Little Book of Craftivism'” was released in October 2013 distributed by Thames & Hudson & DAP worldwide (50% crowdfunded - random combination aye?!).—Recorded live at the global event in Cardigan, west Wales in 2014.Watch Sarah's full talk here: www.thedolectures.com/talks/sarah-corbett-why-shouting-quietly-gets-you-heard

James Bianco is a leadership and career coach and the founder of 16 Degrees Coaching. He spent 11 years working for the UK Department for International Development, working with ministers and introducing the Lean Start-Up methodology across DFID's development programmes. Then, a desire to really see the positive impact of his work led him to discover coaching. He hasn't looked back, clocking up over 2,000 hours of coaching in the first four years of his practice, including running career change webinars for thousands of people.In this episode, we talk about:- How learning the craft of coaching works and how ‘trying hard' to become a great coach in fact is not the way to become a great coach.- The power of the stories we have about our success: how the simple story he had about successful coaches – that they work only on recommendation – at first empowered him to create a thriving business… and then made him doubt himself.- What he learnt from running coaching calls for over 100 people at a time for career-change experts Careershifters.- Networking: how James used his network to create opportunities, recommendations and referrals, and the importance of dispelling the myths we have about our networks.And listen out for the beautiful - and surprising - answer James gives when I ask him how he filled all the time he had when he left his civil service role to coach full time.www.thecoachsjourney.comFor more information about James, visit his website: https://www.16degreescoaching.co.uk/ or find him on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/james-bianco/For information about Robbie's wider work and writing, visit www.robbieswalecoaching.com.Music by My Good Man William: listen on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/4KmeQUcTbeE31uFynHQLQgThings and people we mentioned (that you might be interested in):~10: The Grameen Bank: http://www.grameen.com/introduction/~10: Overseas Development Institute Fellowship Programme: https://www.odi.org/odi-fellowship-scheme~13: Marianne Craig: https://www.coachlifeandcareer.com/~18: Phil Bolton – Read about Phil here: http://phil-bolton.com/ or get to know him by listening to my interview with him in Episode #2: https://www.thecoachsjourney.com/podcast/episode-2-phil-bolton-from-forensic-accountant-to-the-go-to-career-coach-in-london-and-on-to-work-with-ceos-mds-and-founders~18: The Coaching School: http://www.thecoachingschool.co.uk/~22: Jim Dethmer: https://conscious.is/team/jim-dethmer~32: International Coach Federation (ICF) Competencies: https://coachfederation.org/core-competencies~38: Oxford Brooks Certification as a Skills and Performance Coach: https://www.brookes.ac.uk/courses/postgraduate/coaching-and-mentoring-practice/~67: Jennifer Garvey Berger: https://uk.linkedin.com/in/jennifer-garvey-berger-7b4a264 and her book: Unlocking Leadership Mindtraps: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Unlocking-Leadership-Mindtraps-Thrive-Complexity/dp/1503609014~72: Omidyar Network: https://www.omidyar.com/~72: Luminate: https://www.omidyargroup.com/pov/organizations/luminate/~74: Careershifters: http://www.careershifters.org/~75: The Careershifters articles Robbie most regularly shares with clients: https://www.careershifters.org/expert-advice/the-lean-career-change-how-to-reduce-the-risk-and-increase-the-speed-of-your-shift and https://www.careershifters.org/expert-advice/struggling-to-find-your-ideal-work-why-looking-for-your-career-umbrella-will-get-you~96: The Prosperous Coach by Rich Litvin and Steve Chandler: https://richlitvin.com/the-prosperous-coach/~104: OCHA: https://www.unocha.org/~104: Social Tech Trust: https://socialtechtrust.org/

Brexit has been looming over the British conscience since the 2016 referendum. With many things unclear about what will happen in the supposed 31 October deadline to leave the European Union, equally uncertain is the status of the future of sustainable development in the UK. With British NGOs uncertain of their place with DFID and an unclear British strategy towards achieving the SDGs, we look at what is going on in the UK concerning sustainable development around Brexit and what could the future bring.

DFID's new chief economist Rachel Glennerster on her goals for the organization, how to help girls stay in school, and why even low price barriers can pose big problems for takeup of health interventions.