From the Financial Times comes news that David Cameron and Nick Clegg are planning to employ more political special advisers than the previous government; while the media and public try to work out whether there is anything improper about the Defence Secretary’s working relationship with Adam Werritty. The role of Read more…
Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your Read more…
This is very impressive. Here in the UK we do not have paid political advertising: instead political parties are given a limited number of slots on British TV for a ‘party political broadcast’ to put their point across. This year the UK Conservative party gave up their party political broadcast Read more…
There was an interesting programme on BBC Radio 4 on Monday night, Analysis, which looked at the following question: The government is committed to protecting the aid budget. Frances Cairncross asks whether a more relaxed policy on economic migration might help the developing world more. I was interviewed for the Read more…
This joint post with Rita Perakis first appeared on the CGD blog. Has the aid industry introduced the reforms it agreed in 2005 to make aid more effective? No, according to the survey published last week by the OECD DAC. In this blog post we reflect on why this matters, Read more…
Here is my talk at the Power of Information Conference about open aid data.
On Friday the World Bank London office had a meeting on ‘the Future of Aid’. The meeting was, according to the tortuous language of the invitation, “conducted in an informal manner with interested stakeholders from governments, civil society, private sector, media and academia with a view to explore new Read more…
This blog post was first published on the CGAP Microfinance blog. It seems extraordinary that after 50 years of international aid, there is still no consensus on whether it works. Zambian economist Dambisa Moyo (Dead Aid) has argued that aid is not only ineffective, but is actually detrimental to development. Bill Read more…
David Cameron said in the House of Commons that the Government is going to consider a social media kill switch: Mr Speaker, everyone watching these horrific actions will be stuck by how they were organised via social media. Free flow of information can be used for good. But it can Read more…
I really believe that this is how some organisations and government departments view knowledge sharing: (h/t Ian Thorpe)