International partnerships, being multicultural in nature, often face cultural differences which can generate misunderstandings, tension, and inefficiency. There are both tangible and intangible cultural barriers in EU...
There was a question posed more than once at this year’s European Development Days in Brussels. Most participants agreed the concept of “resilience” has been widely embraced since a 2012 EU communication on the topic, but many...
Coordination between the 28 member states of the EU can take time. But what happens when every hour’s delay costs lives? When it comes to natural and man-made emergencies, the EU response begins before a disaster strikes...
Q&A with Rupert Simons, Chief Executive Officer of Publish What You Fund. Publish What You Fund is a non-profit organisation that campaigns for aid transparency. “We believe that information is power and we campaign to make that...
"For many communities in Myanmar who grow opium, for them opium is not the problem, it is the solution to their problems," said local project consultant, Tom Kramer, from the Transnational Institute. And therein lies one of the...
The Ebola outbreak has already taken many lives in Western Africa, and the long-term economic consequences for affected countries are likely to be dramatic. Such crises can easily spiral out of control and affect other parts of...
A study of five social protection projects in South Asia has found they struggled to create transformative change, and were unable to tackle the persistent discrimination driving poverty and social exclusion.
The government-initiated reforms in Myanmar over the past three years have provided great opportunity for increased development engagement, but the context continues to require sensitive assessments of opportunities and risks. In...
Development Progress is a four-year research project supported by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and executed by the UK-based Overseas Development Institute (ODI). It aims to measure, understand and communicate where and how...
The European Union’s Forest Law Enforcement, Governance and Trade (FLEGT) initiative calls on the involvement of civil society in the negotiation and implementation of their Voluntary Partnership Agreements (VPA) with timber...