ODI Blog
The ODI Blog features the personal views of ODI experts on a range of current events and issues. This page contains our most recent blogs. For a full list of ODI blogs, use the search on the left (selecting 'ODI blog posts' under 'Flagship resource series').
With food prices rising again, concern rightly mounts over land being used to grow biofuels. While there is good reason to criticise US and EU policies to replace transport fuels from oil by biofuels, the real issue is protecting tropical forests and other land from mass conversion to oil palm groves and sugar cane fields... (more)
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Steve Wiggins on
Tuesday, November 09, 2010 1:36 PM
568 Views,
While the High-Level Advisory Group on Climate Change Financing (AGF) report is a step in the right direction for climate finance, Neil Bird considers the unanswered questions and challenges that remain.
.. (more)
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Neil Bird on
Friday, November 05, 2010 1:02 PM
804 Views,
The number has been secured, the definition has not. Following publication of the High-Level Advisory Group on Climate Change Financing (AGF) report, what we really want to know is which climate finance activities achieve the best results. .. (more)
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Dirk Willem te Velde on
Friday, November 05, 2010 1:01 PM
652 Views,
Ahead of the UK's Comprehensive Spending Review, ODI Director Alison Evans asks what kind of settlement for development can we hope for, given these 'difficult economic times'... (more)
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Alison Evans on
Tuesday, October 19, 2010 2:41 PM
1187 Views,
With World Food Day being marked this weekend, sensitivities to the price of food have rarely been higher. Many still see volatility in international grain markets as their number one priority. It shouldn’t be. Curtailing speculation on grain futures is a red herring. Despite what some claim, there is little evidence that this was a major factor in the 2007/08 price spike... (more)
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Steve Wiggins on
Friday, October 15, 2010 3:18 PM
1333 Views,
A staggering 925 million people worldwide are currently undernourished, according to the 2010 edition of The State of Food Insecurity in the World, published by FAO earlier this month. As we approach World Food Day on Saturday, this is a stark reminder that hunger remains a daily reality for millions of men, women and children around the world... (more)
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Sara Pavanello on
Thursday, October 14, 2010 8:32 AM
1071 Views,
Many of the major disasters of 2010 (the Pakistan flood, the Russian heat wave and a slew of landslides in East Asia and Central America) match the IPCC’s 2007 prediction that climate change will cause rains to become more intense, and hot and cold snaps to become more extreme. A new report from the DFID-funded 'Strengthening Climate Resilience' consortium, launched today on the UN’s International Day for Natural Disaster Reduction, suggests that climate change will have diverse impacts on disaster risks and not just on weather hazards. .. (more)
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Tom Mitchell on
Wednesday, October 13, 2010 6:50 AM
1555 Views,
Breathe the atmosphere here at the UN Summit on the Millennium Development Goals this week and, for the first time in several years, there's a whiff of hope. Less of the language of ‘Development Emergency', and more encouraging numbers – on just how many.. (more)
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Liesbet Steer on
Thursday, September 23, 2010 10:29 AM
2120 Views,
It is easy to criticise the Millennium Development Goals . Some consider them, at best, naïve and, at worst, a sop to misguided global welfarism. Not surprisingly, there are plenty of sceptics who predict a damning failure to reach the goals by the 2015.. (more)
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Alison Evans on
Tuesday, September 21, 2010 2:45 PM
1828 Views,
The Report of the Commission for Africa five years on: ‘Still Our Common Interest’ headlines with a strong message about Africa’s progress. The Commissioners note that 'There is much to celebrate. African governments have done more than ever before.. (more)
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Alison Evans on
Wednesday, September 15, 2010 9:08 AM
1954 Views,
The economy in sub-Saharan Africa is scheduled to grow by 5 per cent this year, and 6 per cent next, after a meagre 2 per cent in 2009. Some argue that current growth prospects have been inflated by rising commodity prices and the growing trade and investment links between Africa and emerging markets, notably China.
However, African growth prospects had already turned around in the mid 1990s, long before the more recent upturn in commodity prices and growth spurt in emerging markets. This blog argues that we need to look again at what Africa has been doing right all along. Joint research by ODI and IPPG, published in a new set of essays, Effective state-business relations [SBRs], industrial policy and economic growth, shows that structural factors have also contributed to African growth, highlighting in particular the nature and scope of state-business relations as a key institutional feature behind the growth process... (more)
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Dirk Willem te Velde on
Friday, September 10, 2010 6:38 AM
2255 Views,
New research by ODI suggests that the climate change mitigation policies of rich countries could have as big an impact on growth prospects for developing countries as climate change itself.
These policies will also determine how the costs of reducing.. (more)
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Karen Ellis on
Thursday, September 09, 2010 10:51 AM
2014 Views,
One antidote to pessimism lingering from China's strategic stalemate at last December's climate change negotiations at COP 15 in Copenhagen is to spend time with China's next generation of leaders. My recent encounter with an energetic, impassioned cohort.. (more)
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Michelle Kooy on
Tuesday, August 24, 2010 5:18 PM
1313 Views,
Today is the second annual World Humanitarian Day. The day aims to increase public awareness about humanitarian work and the importance of international cooperation, to honour humanitarian workers in the field , and commemorate all of those who have lost.. (more)
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Sarah Bailey on
Thursday, August 19, 2010 9:21 AM
1788 Views,
Shares in India's largest microfinance institution, SKS, are now on sale and are expected to raise as much as $360 million. But is there a real link between the commercialisation of microfinance and actual results for the poor? Or is India in danger of.. (more)
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Milford Bateman on
Tuesday, August 17, 2010 6:28 PM
2871 Views,
Climate research and policy make extensive use of two concepts, ‘mitigation' and ‘adaptation'. And while these are a helpful starting point, a broader focus on 'climate
compatible development' may now be needed.In the Kyoto Protocol (1997), and more.. (more)
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Simon Maxwell on
Friday, July 23, 2010 4:50 PM
2320 Views,
Current debates on South-South cooperation (SSC) and its effectiveness are marked by the absence of some of the most prominent providers of financial and technical assistance to the South. Brazil is a case in point. But is the country ready to engage.. (more)
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Lidia Cabral on
Thursday, July 22, 2010 3:13 PM
2342 Views,
The debate over whether the UK should continue providing development assistance to India is not new, but it has become a lightning rod for those who argue that the UK aid programme has lost its way. In reflecting on the specifics of the case it is worth.. (more)
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Alison Evans on
Tuesday, July 20, 2010 9:46 AM
3814 Views,
The UN system has long been criticised for not matching its often impressive and widely supported commitments to gender equality with the human and budget resources, as well as the requisite institutional muscle, to translate commitments into reality.. (more)
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Nicola Jones on
Tuesday, July 06, 2010 6:04 PM
2511 Views,
