Does the $500 million Jobs Compact for Ethiopia represent innovative finance for development or a risky gamble?
Climate change and art: just good friends
A Simon Armitage poem for the Winchester Poetry Festival prompts thoughts about climate change and art in its choice of subject – Antony Gormley’s Sound II
Third World Network website: treasure or trash?
Third World Network is one of the world’s most respected international NGOs. But the design of its website possibly dates from the 1990s. Does this matter?
Peak weather overcooks climate campaigns
Highlighting stories of extreme weather is a core strategy of many climate campaigns. Recent events should reinforce this strategy but is it working?
Salutary Clips from Copenhagen COP15
As world leaders descend on Paris today for the climate showdown, I couldn’t resist digging out the corresponding moments of the doomed Copenhagen COP15 in 2009, filmed by indefatigable colleagues at OneWorld. First, the grand entrance of Angela Merkel. Although the OneWorld crew* extracted only a single word from the doughty Chancellor, this was almost… Continue reading Salutary Clips from Copenhagen COP15
Agility trumps analysis for international NGO strategy
These are tricky times for shaping NGO strategy. The business model for the traditional UK and European agencies may be broken. Let’s go on holiday
Guilty as charged on science of GM food
Should we pay more attention to the science of genetically modified crops before campaigning against the introduction of GM food in developing countries? Yes, but science is not the only issue.
BP projections defy divestment logic
Quantitative easing in the eurozone and the BP Energy Outlook 2035 both represent last ditch efforts to maintain the status quo of bond and equity markets. The social and environmental consequences threaten to accelerate intergenerational injustice.
Gates Foundation needs vaccine for infectious optimism
The 2015 Letter of the Gates Foundation is optimistic about prospects for poor countries. It doesn’t state whether the UN goal to eliminate global poverty and hunger will be achieved.
Oil price collapse fuels case for divestment
It may be going too far to suggest that the collapse in the price of oil was predicted by the 350.org divestment campaign, but it can only boost momentum. Prospects for Global Divestment Day on Feb 13/14 will be enhanced.