As of March 2026, this website is no longer being updated.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.
Where next for DfID? A public debate is needed on the forthcoming PSAPublic Service Agreement and budget settlement, ODIOverseas Development Institute (London) blog Dec 2007
In the heart of Whitehall, negotiations are currently underway on two matters that will shape the Government’s actions on international development until 2011. Surprisingly, there is little public debate about either. Yet there should be. Aid volumes are increasing sharply. At the same time, the development agenda is changing very fast, in some ways extending or moving beyond the poverty reduction paradigm that has dominated for the past decade. This challenges the Government as a whole to be clear about its objectives, and particularly challenges DFID. Will the Department fulfil its mandate as the lead agency across government on all aspects of international development? Or will it find itself concentrating its efforts on spending the additional aid volume, in some ways reverting to the mission of the old ODA?................. (see link in title for full article)
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