As of March 2026, this website is no longer being updated. I now work mainly on climate issues, especially in Brighton and Hove, and new work can be found on the website of Climate:Change, our independent think-tank on socially inclusive action in the City: www.climatechangebh.org.uk.
Meanwhile, however, this website has over 850 entries, mostly representing my work on international development from 2010-2025. Among much else, there are over 50 book reviews, more than 20 papers and training cases on bridging research and policy and on managing think-tanks, nearly 100 articles on climate change, and many papers on other topics, including aid, food security and nutrition, and the future of international development. See ‘Topics and Themes’ for more details. I can be reached at sm@simonmaxwell.net.
Can we move from a risk framework to an opportunities framework in international development?, ODI Blog, October 2008
In thinking about the future of international development, under the rubric of our ‘What’s Next?’ theme, I’ve found it very useful to make use of risk management frameworks, like the global risks analysis pioneered by the World Economic Forum. An example of what they do is pasted in below, taken from the Global Risks 2008 Report. This charts 26 core global risks by likelihood and by severity of economic loss. An asset price collapse is in the top right-hand corner, seen as reasonably likely and very expensive. Extreme inland flooding is in the bottom left hand corner, seen as rather unlikely and somewhat less expensive. The Report was published in January 2008. I don’t know whether the WEF tracks the accuracy of its analysis, but this year has been marked by both an asset price collapse and severe inland flooding, both very expensive in money terms and in human misery. It is worth looking at some of the other risks in the table: pandemics, nanotechnology, transnational crime, war. Not all bad things have happened at the same time. Yet..............
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