Can a new set of unbinding promises really accelerate progress towards a more equal aid ecosystem by 2030?
ON DEVELOPMENT | Five international NGOs launch fresh bid to tackle power imbalances in aid
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On Social and Economic Development
ON DEVELOPMENT | The Solution to the Global Food Crisis Isn’t More Food
There’s plenty [of food] to go around, but it’s going to the wrong places.
ON THE MEDIA, ON DEVELOPMENT | Humanitarian communication: a future that is more ethical, sensitive and inclusive
Language [and images are] part of a cycle that retains and reinforces historically rooted unequal power relations, which are often expressed and reinforced in colonialist, racist, sexist and other forms of oppressive practices.
ON AFGHANISTAN, ON DEVELOPMENT | Unfreeze Afghan assets or more hungry children may die
With international monitoring and more trust in Afghanistan’s central bank, t
ON HAITI, ON DEVELOPMENT | The international community must own its role in Haiti’s food crisis
It’s time for a different approach in Haiti – one that reckons with the enduring harms Global North policies have inflicted in the country.
ON DEVELOPMENT | The Global South’s Looming Debt Crisis—and How to Stop It
Many poor countries face major economic disruption and possible default on their sovereign debt in 2022.
ON AFGHANISTAN, ON DEVELOPMENT | Afghanistan: ‘38 million people are suffering because a few hundred are in power’
A year after the Taliban took power, humanitarian needs are rising even as foreign aid has dried up.
During the former Islamic Republic, foreign aid grants funded 75 percent of public spending. Since the Taliban takeover in August 2021, the United States has provided $775 million in humanitarian assistance to Afghanistan, but the UN says at least $4.4 billion is needed to address the emergency needs of more than 24 million Afghans – 60 percent of the population.
ON DEVELOPMENT | Policymakers and racial justice activists came together to discuss decolonizing aid. Here’s what happened…Behind closed doors: Views on decolonizing aid
Earlier this year, dozens of senior policymakers in humanitarian response gathered virtually to discuss “decolonising” an international aid sector accused of being top-down, unaccountable, and – in some cases – racist and with unhealthy levels of power over the people it serves.
ON AFGHANISTAN, ON DEVELOPMENT | Do Targeted Killings Weaken Terrorist Groups?
The war on terrorism will not be won with targeted strikes on leadership. That will require political and economic reforms to address popular grievances and create more responsive governance in Muslim-majority countries.
ON AFGHANISTAN | Hunger crisis – 6 million people at “near-famine conditions”
19 million people in Afghanistan will encounter “potentially life-threatening levels of hunger” from June to November of this year, while 6 million people will be under “near-famine conditions.”
The lack of food will leave 1.1 million children at risk of death due to malnourishment if they do not receive more help.
ON DEVELOPMENT | How the focus on Ukraine is hurting other humanitarian responses
The Russian invasion is sucking up attention, funding, and resources. Aid workers say it’s starting to cost lives. The UN’s appeal for Ukraine is more than 80 percent funded for this year. In comparison, the UN response plan for Afghanistan is around 38 percent funded, Yemen’s is around 27 percent funded, and Sudan’s is around 20 percent funded.
ON DEVELOPMENT | New World Records: More Weapons than Ever. And a Hunger Crisis Like No Other
While the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) Summit ended with net commitments to double spending on weapons and to increase by eight-fold the number of troops in Europe, the total of hungry people worldwide now marks an unprecedented record.