As of March 2026, this website is no longer being updated.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.
Joining up Africa (funded by the Department for International Development)
Simon recently hosted DfID's Joining up Africa event, with Jon Snow. The event was a major international conference to promote better regional economic integration in sub-Saharan Africa.
The event - which brought 200 delegates from African politics, donors, business and civil society - was held in partnership with three key pan-African institutions; the African Union Commission, the African Development Bank and the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa.
Other partners were the World Bank, the European Commission, the Infrastructure Consortium for Africa and UK Trade and Investment.
The objective of the event was to push for faster and more substantial progress on trade in the region.
It agreed:
- Commitments to improve the way more than $6 billion in multilateral aid to regional programmes is spent.
- Practical ways of working better with business.
- New actions to accelerate progress on regional trade, transport and energy programmes