Blogs

Four strategic priorities for climate research and action in 2025 – and one for think-tanks and public authorities

Is green growth sub-optimal growth?

UK comparative advantage: the missing chapter in the UK’s Integrated Review of Security, Defence, Development and Foreign Policy

The challenge for global think tanks in 2018

A response to the referendum

Six questions for the new ICAI

A challenge on the SDGs

The EUEuropean Union International Cooperation and Development Results Framework: A commentary

The Conservative Manifesto: A Reading

This Changes Everything: Capitalism Versus The Climate by Naomi Klein

Did the DACDevelopment Assistance Committee (of the OECD) HLM do enough to tee up the Addis Ababa FFD?

Is teacher pleased? The DACDevelopment Assistance Committee (of the OECD) Peer Review of the UK 2014

Has Ban Ki Moon hit a six on post-2015? 

Climate change: what's next?

The political economy of climate change - a review of the IDSInstitute for Development Studies, Sussex Bulletin

I was at the Centre for International Governance Innovation for two days, for a conference on ‘Issues for 2010 Summits’. The main focus was on the G-20 and the main substantive discussion on the Financial Stability Board and the Framework for Strong, Sustainable and Balanced Growth (from last year’s Pittsburgh G20).  See here.

CIGI has a particular attachment to the G20, of course a Canadian invention, originally for Finance Ministers and now for leaders. Paul Martin was the original inspiration, when he was Finance Minister of Canada, and was at the meeting. There was quite a lot of discussion about legitimacy and representativeness, but, perhaps not surprisingly, enthusiasm for this particular contribution to what was described as ‘messy multilateralism’. CIGI has been supporting the G20 process around the world – for example, they ran a seminar in London last year, which I went to, and are doing work in Korea as well as Canada. This is track 1.5 diplomacy, apparently.

Yogyakarta, Indonesia, 25-27 May 2010

I was in Yogyakarta for two working days, mainly to make a presentation at the Asia-Europe (ASEM) development conference, but also to share a platform with Andris Piebalgs, the EUEuropean Union Development Commissioner, and Dirk Messner of the German Development Institute, at a pre-meeting for all EUEuropean Union Delegation heads from Asia. Dirk also participated in the ASEM meeting, along with Dirk Willem te Velde from ODI.

I was at the Centre for International Governance Innovation for two days, for a conference on ‘Issues for 2010 Summits’. The main focus was on the G-20 and the main substantive discussion on the Financial Stability Board and the Framework for Strong, Sustainable and Balanced Growth (from last year’s Pittsburgh G20).  See here.

CIGI has a particular attachment to the G20, of course a Canadian invention, originally for Finance Ministers and now for leaders. Paul Martin was the original inspiration, when he was Finance Minister of Canada, and was at the meeting. There was quite a lot of discussion about legitimacy and representativeness, but, perhaps not surprisingly, enthusiasm for this particular contribution to what was described as ‘messy multilateralism’. CIGI has been supporting the G20 process around the world – for example, they ran a seminar in London last year, which I went to, and are doing work in Korea as well as Canada. This is track 1.5 diplomacy, apparently.

Simon, Mikaela Gavas and Deborah Johnson were in Brussels for a public debate on the European Think Tanks Group Report, hosted by Friends of Europe, and for a series of meetings with DG Development and our think tank colleagues.  The visit came just a few days after the publication of the Spring Package, on which Simon and Mikaela had written a blog; and also on the day that the Foreign Affairs Council was debating the arrangements for the new External Action Service, on which we also had a blog.

Reorganising Europe's foreign affairs: what role for international development, ODIOverseas Development Institute (London) Blog, April 2010

European Union Foreign Ministers are meeting today to agree the shape and functions of the new European External Action Servicecreated by the Lisbon Treaty. This is not the final stage of the approval process. The European Parliamentmust agree the required budget and can thus require further change. Nevertheless, Monday's meeting will mark the point at which European Foreign Ministers sign up to the deal that gives Baroness Cathy Ashton her mandate as the EU's first Foreign Minister. International development forms part of the deal. Will the EU's contribution to poverty reduction, human security and environmental sustainability be well or badly served?................ (see link in title for full article)

The spring package is a promising start, ODIOverseas Development Institute (London) Blog, April 2010

The EUEuropean Union Commission’s ‘Spring Package’ on development, launched this week, will be scrutinised with special care, as the first major policy statement by the new Development Commissioner, Andris Piebalgs. Does it mark new strategic leadership? Does it suggest the Commissioner will take political risks? Will it excite and challenge the Member States? There are five key points................. (see link in title for full article)

Simon, Mikaela Gavas, Deborah Johnson and Leah Kreitzman were in Brussels for two days on 17-18 March 2010. The highlights were a presentation of our European Think Tanks Group Report in the European Parliament, and a private breakfast with the Development Commissioner for the four think-tanks in the EUEuropean Union Think Tanks Group. 

I attended Davos principally as Chair of the World Economic Forum’s Global Agenda Council on Humanitarian Assistance, but also pursued interests in climate, business/development linkages and development more generally. I must say ‘my’ Davos is very different to that of those who focus mainly on global economic and financial questions: no more or less valid, but a reminder that there are many Davos pathways.

I was flat out all week, but did not attend any public sessions, except for those I moderated or spoke at. In addition to lots of private meetings and briefings, key engagements included:

1. Being a table leader at the big opening plenary on Redefining the Global Commons;
2. Moderating a session on humanitarian issues in the main public programme;
3. Helping to lead a meeting hosted by WFPWorld Food Programme on nutrition;
4. Presenting the work of the Global Agenda Council in the IdeasLab;
5. Speaking at the annual WFPWorld Food Programme dinner, devoted this year mainly to Haiti;
6. Attending a working lunch on practical ways forward after Copenhagen;
7. Attending a dinner on carbon capture and storage;
8. Moderating a two and a half hour workshop for political and business leaders on new Models of Collaboration for Economic Development; and
9. Speaking as one of three rapporteurs at the final plenary round up on the agenda for 2010.

From regional club to global player: how Lisbon could transform Europe, ODIOverseas Development Institute (London) Blog, Oct 2009 - with M Gavas

The Irish ‘yes’ to the Lisbon Treaty brings ratification one step closer.  Attention now turns to the Czech Republic and Poland. If ratification proceeds without delay, the Swedish Government will hold the ring on the next stage of political appointments. By the end of the year, we could know who will be the first President of the EUEuropean Union and the new, more powerful foreign affairs chief, as well as the leadership team supporting Jose Manuel Barroso in the European Commission................. (see link in title for full article)

G-20 -- a starting gun for recovery, ODIOverseas Development Institute (London) Blog, April 2009

The G-20 communiqué offers many of the right right words and some of the right measures.

The alarm bells are ringing on aid, but the UK is leading the way, ODIOverseas Development Institute (London) Blog, April 2009

Latest aid volume statistics look good, but are not adequate to reach the agreed targets for 2010 and beyond. This blog rings alarm bells for European aid, but welcomes the UK Government's commitment to agreed aid levels................. (see link in title for full article)

Dealing with the crisis: here comes the EU, ODIOverseas Development Institute (London) Blog, 2009

Simon Maxwell blogs on the publication of new proposals by the European Commission for tackling the global crisis

The G-20 is a temporary sticking plaster, not a full organ transplant, ODIOverseas Development Institute (London) Blog, March 2009

Simon Maxwell, outlines why we need to reinvent globalisation and international institutions to ensure they genuinely reflect and represent regional, cultural and income diversities and provide a framework to govern the world amid new global threats.

The seven principles for a global 're-boot', ODIOverseas Development Institute (London) Blog, November 2008

This blog comments on the recent World Economic Forum's Summit in Dubai, which has called for a global 're-boot' for human progress.............

Multilateralism in action, ODIOverseas Development Institute (London) Blog, October 2008

A renewed commitment to multilateralism may be one of the benefits of the financial crisis. Coordinated action by Governments and Central Banks is one indicator of change. There are others.

For example, Douglas Alexander (the UK Secretary of State for International Development) gained a victory in Washington at the weekend, securing agreement that the next President of the World Bank should be appointed through open competition, rather than simply through US nomination. The Guardian reported that ‘Douglas Alexander, brokered a deal to throw open the post to candidates from any country. Backed by European governments and developing countries, Alexander overcame resistance from the US and Japan’. Good job. This is a long-standing item on the multilateral reform agenda..............

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..............

High drama at the High Level Forum, ODIOverseas Development Institute (London) Blog September 2008

I've just returned from the ministerial day at the third High Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness, where I moderated the two main plenary discussions (for other resources prepared by colleagues in advance of the Forum, see ODIOverseas Development Institute (London) on... the Third High Level Forum). The High Level Forum, 2-4 September, was held in Accra, Ghana and generated a great deal of drama. For those who don’t live and breathe aid effectiveness, this is a triennial ministerial event of the Development Assistance Committee of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD/DAC). The last Forum, in 2005, generated the Paris Declaration on aid effectiveness, enshrining principles and targets for things like harmonisation, alignment and mutual accountability between donors and recipients. The process is designed to remedy all those shocking facts we cite – 700 donor missions to Vietnam last year, 25 health donors in many African countries.......................... 

The Millenium Development Goals are at risk: The EUEuropean Union should give them new momentum, ODIOverseas Development Institute (London) Blog, Sept. 2008

A high profile European report on the MDGs is being launched in Brussels on Friday and in New York on 24 September. The report has been written by an independent group of European economists, led by Professor Francois Bourguignon, Director of the Paris School of Economics, and of which I am a member. It says the Millennium Development Goals have been a force for good in the world, but that progress is uneven, too slow and threatened by the global economic slowdown. The authors argue that the European Union brings particular strengths to the MDG project. The EU’s own history shows the advantages of regional cooperation, support to weaker members and joint action to secure public goods of value to all. Its development policy and implementation capacity provides a unique marriage of political, economic and aid instruments, underpinned by a structure of mutual accountability. All this provides a platform to do more................. (see link in title for full article)

The food crisis: are we making progress?, ODIOverseas Development Institute (London) Blog, July 2008

If every word written about the global food crisis were a grain of rice, hunger in the world would be a distant memory. But let’s not be cynical - there is cause for cautious optimism. Progress is being made on the policy front and the commitments are beginning to stack up. That does not mean the crisis is over. Events in the Horn of Africa remind us that weather-induced famine is a risk for the poorest, quite independently of what is happening to international grain markets. Nevertheless, the food crisis has been testing our capacity for collective action this year, and we have not been entirely disappointed................. (see link in title for full article)

Reform of the International System: the momentum is building, ODIOverseas Development Institute (London) Blog, June 2008

The Commonwealth mini-Summit in London is the latest sign that reform of the international system is moving rapidly up the agenda. The Summit discussed reform of the UN, the Bretton Woods Institutions and global environmental governance. On all these, there is enthusiasm among Heads of Government for faster and better coordinated change. We can expect to see this translated into specific proposals at the EU Council, the UN MDG Summit, and the Doha meeting on Financing for Development, and in discussions leading up to the Copenhagen conference on climate change........ for the full article follow the link above.

The food price crisis: another 'lost decade' for development?, ODIOverseas Development Institute (London) Blog June 2008

This blog outlines four key items to be delivered at the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) crisis summit on food prices in Rome, June 2008...............

Rome exceeded expectations; will the G8Group of Eight do the same?, ODIOverseas Development Institute (London) Blog, June 2008

The Food Summit in Rome turned out better than expected. It was not derailed by Robert Mugabe. It survived the unedifying wrangling over a final communiqué. It gave the topic a good hearing. It confirmed some practical actions. And it passed the torch successfully to the G8 in Japan in July.

As usual, delegates spent too much time arguing about statements of principle and too much time on political issues only loosely linked to the summit theme. Not surprisingly, they found it hard to reach agreement on contentious issues, like biofuels. But there have been some large new pledges, and a high degree of consensus on the twin issues of agricultural development and social protection for the poorest....................

Tackling the food price crisis: 5 steps, ODIOverseas Development Institute (London) Blog, May 2008

The word 'crisis' is much abused. But the current food price crisis constitutes a genuine emergency. Urgency in tackling it is essential.

The very poor in the developing world may spend up to 80% of their income on food. The recent spike in food prices has had an immediate impact on their welfare and has already cost lives through civil unrest. Many more lives are now at risk from hunger................. (see link in title for full article)

Will rising food prices derail development efforts?, ODIOverseas Development Institute (London) Blog, Feb 2008

Rising food prices are very much in the news.  Farmers may gain, but poor consumers are hard hit – and don’t hesitate to let the politicians know. Governments and aid agencies are under pressure to provide more robust safety nets, while simultaneously facing higher costs................. (see link in title for full article)

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)

Re-imagining EUEuropean Union development aid, ODIOverseas Development Institute (London) Blog, Oct. 2007

Imagine the Berlaymont late at night. A full moon hangs in the sky. High up in the building, an office lamp still shines. It illuminates four people. They are sprawled comfortably in armchairs for an intimate conversation. The four lead the EUEuropean Union on international affairs. They are Commission President José Manuel Barroso, two of his commissioners - Benita Ferrero-Waldner and Louis Michel - and High Representative Javier Solana. Their topic is the new European political landscape, following the arrival in office of President Nicolas Sarkozy and Prime Minister Gordon Brown, and the June 2007 agreement on the new 'Reform Treaty'.

Important messages from the UK government on international development. Are we listening? ODIOverseas Development Institute (London) Blog, Oct. 2007

There have been some important messages on international development from the UK Government since the change of administration in June – and they signal changes of emphasis to which we might want to react.  A first set of changes was to do with structure, especially the appointment of Mark Malloch Brown to the post of Minister for Africa, Asia and the UN in the FCO, and the appointment of Gareth Thomas as Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State jointly in DFIDDepartment for International Development and the new Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform, with special responsibility for trade policy.  Both these signal a commitment to joined-up thinking across Government................. (see link in title for full article)

A master-class in bridging research and policy, ODIOverseas Development Institute (London) Blog, Oct 2007

I approached The Bottom Billion with trepidation, but do you know what – I loved it.  I was wary because I’m not naturally sympathetic to the kind of heavy-duty econometrics which is Paul Collier’s stock-in-trade, especially when the results depend on the use of unexpected transformations or recondite instrumental variables.  Let’s be honest: it doesn’t help that I can’t do that kind of work and don’t usually understand it.  However, I have always recognised that Paul has an extraordinary ability to apply sophisticated technique to answering high-level common-sense questions about the world, and that he then uses his results to tell stories that, In Diane Stone’s phrase, ‘capture the political imagination’................. (see link in title for full article)

What future for the World Bank?, ODIOverseas Development Institute (London) Blog, Aug. 2007

The World Bank’s Chief Economist and Senior Vice-President, Francois Bourguignon, was in London yesterday, for informal consultations on the future strategy of the World Bank.  This contributes to the Long Term Strategic Exercise (LTSE), described on the World Bank website, on a page which also provides opportunities for electronic comment................. (see link in title for full article)

Globalisation and Global Poverty Policy Group Report, ODIOverseas Development Institute (London) Blog, July 2007

The Conservative Party’s Globalisation and Global Poverty Policy Group reported today. Without being party political, we are going to use the blog to discuss the analysis and recommendations.................

Where are the political divides on international development?,ODI Blog, June 2007

With Gordon Brown about to take office, ODIOverseas Development Institute (London) asked representatives of the three main political parties in the UK to speak on the theme ‘What’s Next in International Development?’.  These three speeches tell us something about the issues that will shape political debate in the months to come..............

Will the new EUEuropean Union Code of Conduct on Division of Labour improve or undermine aid quality?, ODIOverseas Development Institute (London) Blog, May 2007

The EUEuropean Union Code of Conduct on Complementarity and Division of Labour in Development Policy, approved by the Council on 15 May 2007, is potentially revolutionary, with significant implications for the future of British and other bilateral aid......................

Is Tony Blair’s legacy on Africa at risk?, ODIOverseas Development Institute (London) Blog, May 2007

With the trade talks failing and aid volume way below target, is Tony Blair's legacy on Africa at risk?  The G8Group of Eight meeting in Heiligendamm, Germany, in June, provides a last opportunity to persuade the most powerful leaders in the world to deliver on their promises.  Angela Merkel will need to show some muscle.

Africa is only on the agenda in Germany because Blair won Merkel over.  He persuaded her not to focus exclusively on her preferred topic, energy security (for which read relations with Vladimir Putin).  This was a brave decision, because Germany is one of the countries in the firing line for not meeting pledges made at Blair’s own G8, at Gleneagles, in 2005..........

Is Sir Mike Aaronson right to call for DfID to be merged back with the FCO? ODIOverseas Development Institute (London) Blog, May 2007

Participants at the launch of Roger Riddell’s new book, ‘Does Foreign Aid Really Work?’ at ODIOverseas Development Institute (London) last week were surprised to hear Sir Mike Aaronson, former director of the Save the Children Fund, suggest that DFIDDepartment for International Development should be merged back with the FCO................ (see link in title for full article)

Is DfID any good or isn't it? And who's asking? ODIOverseas Development Institute (London) Blog, April 2007

This has been a challenging couple of weeks for DFID. On 19 March, Bronwen Maddox published a sceptical piece in The Times newspaper, that was followed up in its tabloid stablemate, The Sun, and then in a series of interviews on 25 March on the World This Weekend, a flagship current affairs programme on the BBC’s Radio 4. There was then a flurry of questions in the House of Commons on 28 March, dealing in different ways with the need for more independent audit of DFID’s work. In the same period, the Civil Service published its own Capability Review of DFID; and in the previous week, the department itself published its own policy paper on Preventing Violent Conflict, relevant because much of the case against DFIDDepartment for International Development has been about political analysis and about working with other departments................ (see link in title for full article)

What will the High Level Panel on UN Reform announce this Thursday?, ODIOverseas Development Institute (London) Blog, November 2006

Kemal Dervis, the UNDPUnited Nations Development Programme Administrator, spoke for ODIOverseas Development Institute (London) and the UK All Party Parliamentary Group on Overseas Development on Wednesday and hinted at the recommendations of the UN High Level Panel on System Wide Coherence..........................

Blunt and brutal. But UN reform is possible. Blair, Brown and Benn can make it happen, ODIOverseas Development Institute (London) Blog, November 2006

I welcome the release of ‘Delivering as One’, the Report of the High Level Panel on UN Reform.   The Report is blunt and brutal.  That’s what happens when you commission a report from three serving Prime Ministers and have Gordon Brown on the team.

The Report criticises the incoherence, fragmentation and unpredictability of UN work on international development.  Quite right too, we can’t have 20 UN agencies in every country, all fighting for the Minister’s ear.  Nor can we expect the UN to do its job, when donors withhold funding and cherry-pick their favourite projects.....................

What do readers think of Bill Easterly's book, 'The White Man's Burden'?,ODI Blog, November 2006

'Bill Easterly has been criticised - by no less an authority than Amartya Sen - for being 'swept up by the intoxicating power of purple prose'. Unkind, I think. This book is a hoot from start to finish. Whether he is poking fun at UN jargon on donor coordination, describing his experience with an electric blanket, or citing the 'bons mots' of his small children, Easterly is nothing if not entertaining. Add the fact that he segues rapidly from history to statistical analysis to anecdote and back again, and Easterly has delivered a classic page-turner. This is one you can take to the beach.................

Is ‘human security’ a neat way of framing a poverty-focused aid programme, or a clever device for the EUEuropean Union to appropriate development aid for the purposes of foreign policy?, ODIOverseas Development Institute (London) Blog, October 2006

This blog asks whether human security a neat way of framing a poverty-focused aid programme in the modern era, or a clever device to appropriate development aid for the purposes of foreign policy?...............

Can the International Health Partnership deliver a new way of funding health spending?,ODI Blog, 2007

The International Health Partnership was launched in London on 6 September, signed by 8 bilateral donors, 7 developing countries, 9 international organisations, and 2 other donors.  Importantly, the ‘signature party’ was led by two Prime Ministers, Gordon Brown from the UK and Jens Stoltenberg from Norway.  A high profile initiative, but here’s the interesting thing – no new money was involved.  The key focus of the initiative is ‘coordination’.  Two Prime Ministers and all those others, spending time and political capital on a dry subject like coordination.  What’s that about?.................

Six approaches to fragile states, ODIOverseas Development Institute (London) Blog, January 2006

Put aside the controversy about the term 'fragile state', which many developing countries find offensive; and also the debate about which countries at which times fall into the category. The key questions policy-makers ask are about the instruments available to outsiders who might wish to take an interest, and about the principles that should govern their deployment. What lies between mild exhortation and full-scale military invasion? And who, when, in what combination and in what sequence, should do what?

The ultimate objective is relatively straightforward. As Ghani et al have proposed, it involves developmental states which are representative and accountable, and which are able to deliver the things people require of their governments: law and order, infrastructure, the supply of public goods, and the provision of social services (Figure 1)............

Is the WTOWorld Trade Organization too complicated? Or not complicated enough?,ODI Blog, January 2006

The WTOWorld Trade Organization is certainly complicated, and not just because of the profusion of acronyms and the arcane detail of trade policy. The real complexity lies in the way many different issues are brought to the table, with the idea that losses in one area may be offset by gains in another. There were some obvious examples in Hong Kong: the best known was the EUEuropean Union demanding better access to developing country markets for its manufactures and services in countries like Brazil, as a quid pro quo for reduction in its agricultural subsidies and for further reform of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP)................

The cost of war: DRC seeks £10 billion from Uganda, ODIOverseas Development Institute (London) Blog, December 2005

Is anyone following the judgement of the International Court of Justice on Uganda’s activities in the Democratic Republic of Congo?

This is an extraordinary story, which I first noticed on the BBC website. The BBC reported that the International Court of Justice had found Uganda guilty of looting and human rights abuses in DRC, and that DRC was claiming $US 10bn in compensation.................

Diplomats and NGOs to blame for UN Summit failure – send them all to boot camp, ODIOverseas Development Institute (London) Blog, September 2005

Two main groups carry the blame for the relative failure of the UN Summit in New York last week. The first group are the NGOs, whose error was to focus on the wrong priorities. They should be sent back to campaigning school. The second group are the diplomats, whose collective error was to mismanage a year’s worth of negotiation. Diplomacy school would be too generous. Boot camp seems more appropriate: long hours and scant rations until re-education is complete on how to create the right incentives for reform..................

UN Summit: Getting the structures right and securing effective collective action, ODIOverseas Development Institute (London) Blog, September 2005

There are two big agendas at the UN MDG Summitin mid-September. One matters and one does not. Keeping this thought in mind helps greatly in sorting through the Bolton amendmentsand in helping to focus debate during the last days before the meeting.

The agenda which does not matter is the one on which most NGONon-governmental organisation attention has focused: the MDGs themselves. The draft outcome document, named for Ambassador Ping, the President of the General Assembly, reiterates the principles underlying the MDGsMillennium Development Goals and lays out sectoral priorities..............................

The pilot IFFInternational Finance Facility gets the go-ahead. Now is the time to start talking about the future aid architecture, ODIOverseas Development Institute (London) Blog, August 2005

Eurostat and the UK Office of National Statistics have announced an important decision which will pave the way for governments to contribute to the pilot version of Gordon Brown's proposed International Finance Facility, and perhaps eventually to the full-scale IFF. This means aid will rise even faster than already planned. A conversation about how to reshape the aid architecture becomes ever more urgent.

Both the IFFIM and the full-scale IFFInternational Finance Facility are designed to front-load aid, and work by governments borrowing capital sums from bond markets against future repayments. The question was whether statistical authorities would insist that the totality of contributions to the immunisation pilot be counted against government expenditure at the time of the original borrowing, or whether they would be counted only when repayments were made. If the former, then the benefit of the mode of financing would effectively disappear.....................

A special $20 billion aid fund for Africa? Perhaps, but not just yet…,ODI Blog, July 2005

Speaking at ODIon Friday, Professor Wiseman Nkuhlu called for most of the new aid for Africa to be placed in a special new $20bn fund – equivalent to 5% of Africa’s GDPGross Domestic Product – channelled through the African Development Bank, but administered directly by African Ministers of Finance. He amplified his remarks in a later interview for the BBC World Service’s Newshour programme. The purpose of this new fund would be to implement the programmes and activities foreseen in the NEPAD Action Plans. Professor Nkuhlu is Chairman of the NEPAD Steering Committee and Head of the NEPADNew Partnership for Africa's Development Secretariat, as well as being an adviser to South African President Thabo Mbeki. He was flying a kite, either of his own accord or as part of a strategy. But is this a kite that should fly?....................

'Yes, but... or Yes, and...': How to pitch the 2005 debate, ODIOverseas Development Institute (London) Blog, June 2005

On Tuesday, we held a media briefing at ODIOverseas Development Institute (London) on the 2005 agenda. As usual, we paid tribute to the political leadership and energy driving the 2005 agenda, and then got stuck in to the technical issues we mostly work on: absorptive capacity, investment policy, trade issues and all the rest. The first comment we received, from a senior BBC journalist, was ‘hang on, the audience out there can’t handle this complexity. The story has to be simple. The problem is poverty. The answer is debt relief, aid and trade liberalisation’. End of story. Literally........................

UK suspension of aid to Ethiopia raises accountability questions, ODIOverseas Development Institute (London) Blog, June 2005

An interesting report yesterday evening, that Hilary Benn, the UK Secretary of State for International Development, has announced suspension of planned budget support to Ethiopiaworth £20m, in reaction to the way electoral unrest has been dealt with. Two points:

First, this news comes hot on the heels of last weekend’s announcement that all HIPC completion countries, of which Ethiopia is one, would receive immediate debt relief. A question I asked in my earlier contribution was whether relief would be automatic or subject to a good governance test. This decision by Hilary Benn would seem to support the case for a review before granting debt relief......................

Debt is a Red Herring: It's Really About Aid and Trade!,ODI Blog, June 2005

The debt dealannounced by the G7 finance ministers is definitely a success, and reflects well on the political leadership provided by Tony Blair and Gordon Brown, as well as a skilful and powerful campaign by NGOs. That being said, I found myself at the weekend pondering six points.

First, it's worth remembering that taking on debt is in itself a good thing, if the money is well used and if the borrower can afford the repayments. The IDA, the soft loan window of the World Bank, has just benefited from a 30% replenishment to enable it to lend to poor countries, and Gordon Brown is busy campaigning for the International Finance Facility, which involves the UK government borrowing money to finance aid. It's important not to demonise debt. By the way, about 40% of IDA's resources come from countries repaying past loans, some of them countries like China and Korea that have used earlier loans to graduate to middle income status..................