Aid & Development

To solve the social costs of congestion, such as long commuting times and high pollution, cities in developing counties often turn to Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) systems. But in Indonesia, BRT made things worse. Arya Gaduh et al. look at the case of TransJakarta to understand why.Yuhua Wang explains the

Since coming into office in 2013, the Coalition has cut aid by 17% in nominal terms and 27% adjusting for inflation. More cuts are in the pipeline, and by 2021 aid will have been subject to a real cut of 31%. Given that the Coalition’s justification for cutting aid was the budget deficit, you

Among all the things the Oecussi enclave in Timor-Leste needed for its development, a luxury hotel, a state-of-the-art airport, and posh villas weren’t high on the list. Michael Rose looks at the implementation of the original concept behind the “development” of the region.In 1995, more than

“Category 5 strength cyclones have occurred in some years with similar conditions leading into the 2019/20 season,” New Zealand’s National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research recently reported. “Therefore, all communities should remain alert and well-prepared for severe events.”

“Debt trap” diplomacy has been a recurrent rallying cry for critics of China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) and its overseas infrastructure lending activities. Over the past two years, this debate has taken centre stage in the Pacific, with China accused of drowning these tiny economies in

In response to Donald Trump’s scepticism about climate change, French President Emmanuel Macron is now offering US scientists four-year grants to move to France and carry out research on global warming.In this blog and working paper, Lauren Post, Rachel Landry and Cindy Huang argue that both the

Each year, former World Bank economist David Evans releases his five tips on education. This year, among his key findings are: let your kids learn from MTV, go to school, don’t just enrol, and education is not just for children anymore.Mark Hayward looks at a program that has embraced adaptive

Media forecasts ahead of natural disasters are often misunderstood. The New York Times has a great visual piece about trying to communicate statistical uncertainty about hurricane paths.Linda Calabrese offers a very interesting view on China and development issues, from domestic inequality to debt

This month, Timor-Leste is in a festive mood, celebrating the 20th anniversary of its independence referendum. On 30 August 1999, the people of Timor-Leste cast their ballots in a United Nations–administered popular consultation to determine the fate of the country, with 78.5% voting to separate

Car crash rates run high across the world, and often proportionally higher in developing countries. But a simple nudge can change this. In India, a firm is now using behavioural science to decrease the number of accidents on the roads.Why do parents invest in girls’ education? In this analysis

Rory Stewart, Britain’s international development secretary, announced the UK will have an “ethical” development policy focusing on climate emergency and environmental protection. It will consist of spending on low-carbon energy and projects to help developing countries adapt to the effects of

The UN has partially suspended its aid to parts of Yemen controlled by Houthi rebels, accusing them of misappropriating supplies.Interesting piece by Richard E. Feinberg on Cuba, talking about how the weakening of two foundational pillars of the revolution – regional equality and social betterment

A group of adolescent girls in Solomon Islands huddle around a piece of butcher’s paper. They are considering their answers to a question put to them as part of a research project: What makes it so hard for girls and young women in Solomon Islands to finish high school? The spur for the research

Devex reporter Lisa Cornish looks at how the Australian election result will affect the aid sector.Alwyn Chilver compares two schools of thought to escape poverty: market systems and social protection. He explains how Palladium International succeeded in taking the best of both approaches.Amr Darrag

China has renegotiated US $50 billion in loans to developing countries in recent year, according to the findings of a new study, countering the talk of debt-trap diplomacy that surrounds Beijing’s loan activity.Good news! We might have found a vaccine against malaria, one of the world deadliest

Book Review: Utopia For Realists, And How We Can Get There, by Rutger Bregman (Bloomsbury, 2017) Rutger Bregman shot to public fame calling out billionaires at this year’s World Economic Forum meeting in Davos. “1500 private jets flying in here to hear Sir David Attenborough speak about

“Foreign policy alignment” was the political “abracadabra” used to explain how the late 2013 integration of what was then AusAID into the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade would deliver better outcomes. DFAT would have direct control over Australian aid and by virtue of that,

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Mergerplomacy Five years after the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) swallowed AusAID in the first major spending cuts of the new Coalition Government, two contradictory trends seem to be emerging. The reality of the takeover is getting some grudging acceptance in the

The aid industry is complex. Dozens of bilateral donors, hundreds of multilateral agencies, and thousands of non-governmental organisations litter the development landscape in all corners of the globe. In aid jargon, this is known as “fragmentation”. Conventional aid-effectiveness literature

Chris Hoy and Franziska Mager conduct the first cross-country survey experiment on preferences for redistribution in the developing world and find that poor people are not as in favour of greater redistribution as what you might expect. Simon Murphy interviews Salma, a worker in a&

Mark Cutts, UN Deputy Regional Humanitarian Coordinator for the Syria Crisis, warns the killing of an aid worker last week in Syria brings into focus the daily risks faced by humanitarians working in conflict zones. Figures from 2018 on aid worker security show that Syria is the most dangerous

In Australia, Labor’s foreign affairs spokeswoman Penny Wong announced that a future Labor government will lift foreign aid every year. Caelin Briggs comments on the donor fatigue impacting the Democratic Republic of the Congo and explains what the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade