Governance blogs
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Reading into the future this Christmas
23 December 2013Future generations will thank those of today's leaders who take a longer-term view of the many challenges we face, says Camilla Toulmin.
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Time to hear LDC voices on Post-2015 development goals
10 December 2013The post-2015 development agenda will most profoundly affect the least developed countries (LDCs), so it's essential that people in these countries have a greater say in what the goals look like.
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Mali election: A Presidential run off
6 August 2013A second round of elections will now have to be held following a “calm” first vote. Challenges to be overcome include poor voter turnout in the north and heavy rains.
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G8 summit: A revolutionary agenda
14 June 2013The G8 leaders meet in Northern Ireland on June 17, with the UK in the chair, and trade, tax, and transparency as the text. It’s a revolutionary agenda, if seen through to the end.
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Green Growth and equity must go hand in hand
13 June 2013The OECD’s latest report begins to bridge the growing divide between international institutions’ focus on green growth, and developing countries’ need for greater equity.
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Bamako baroke – talking politics and drinking tea
12 June 2013People in Bamako, Mali support different politicians — but share remarkably similar political priorities.
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Transparency: can it work for sustainable development?
23 May 2013The world is finally waking up to the need for transparency in business deals. New EU transparency legislation was announced earlier this month and next month transparency will be a major theme at the G8 summit. This week the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative has its bi-annual conference, and the UK and France have just announced they will join the initiative. The big question is can greater transparency help sustainable development?
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Mali – A pathway out of crisis
14 May 2013Tomorrow in Brussels a meeting will be held of governments and multilateral organisations to discuss with the Malian government and civil society groups how best to help the country overcome its cu
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Five moments from 2012 that could spell change for the planet
7 January 2013The big events and non-events from this last year that could have long-term repercussions on the sustainable development of our planet, from IIED's Director.
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How do we tell whether climate change adaptation is making headway?
6 December 2012IIED and its partners are developing tailored frameworks to help developing countries evaluate their climate adaptation investments.
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As global agri-investment increases, policies must put local people centre stage
6 December 2012Agricultural investment policies favour big businesses, a new report shows. We must reshape them so investments meet local people's needs.
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China’s leadership transition
27 November 2012China’s new conservative leadership means any changes to help the country's environment will come through the existing policy framework, and not an overhaul of the system.
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Students on Fair Ideas and the future they want
10 July 2012Among the experts and practitioners attending Fair Ideas, a group of highly-engaged students discussed the future of our generation, questioned speakers, filmed short video interviews and brainstor
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Five things we’ve learnt from Rio+20
3 July 2012While the outcomes from Rio +20 may not currently give grounds for much optimism, its value is likely to be in less tangible, longer-term changes in attitudes and understanding.
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Rio+20: where are the G8 leaders?
8 June 2012Many G8 leaders are snubbing this month’s landmark sustainable development summit in Rio, but surely they have a duty to engage and play their part.
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Moving beyond the preamble to creating a new story at Rio+20
24 May 2012The panelists, Tony Cunningham MP (Labour), Martin Horwood MP (Liberal Democrats),
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Influencing the outcomes at Rio+20
24 May 2012IIED is playing an important role in getting government representatives and environmentalists together at our
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Mali: Uncertainty as all sides wonder, 'What Next?'
29 March 2012Nearly a week has passed since a group of mid-level officers led by Captain Sanogo carried out a coup d'etat in Mali's capital, Bamako.
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Defining the agenda for Rio +20: my analysis
12 January 2012The UN draft agenda revealing the vision for Rio +20 sustainable development goals and what might be decided at the conference in June 2012 has been made public and reported on in the media.
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What makes a citizen?
9 January 2012Citizenship is a topical issue in the UK: it’s a compulsory school curriculum subject and immigrants are required to sit a Citizenship exam to show their knowledge of their adoptive country. But what does `being a citizen’ really mean?
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Freedom or a free for all? Creating an open but safe cyberspace
1 November 2011The difficulty I experienced getting past the media security cordon and into the London Conference on Cyberspace today served to highlight one of the conference’s key themes: how do you manage the security of cyberspace while protecting freedom of expression? Prime Minister David Cameron likened it to “the balance…between freedom and a free-for-all” in his speech.
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Do prizes work?
13 October 2011After recent announcements of winners for the Nobel prize, the World Food prize and the African leadership prize for good governance this blog asks, do prizes work?
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Good governance: a timeless principle
31 August 2011As Libyan rebels prepare for the final act in the downfall of Gaddafi’s regime — defenders of the pro-Gaddafi stronghold, Sirte, have until Saturday (3 September) to surrender — questions are already being raised about the country’s future. In particular, asking how the country can successfully move from Gaddafi’s autocratic and corrupt rule to a democratic constitutional order and an economy that brings prosperity for all.
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Lessons from the Murdoch affair
28 July 2011For the past two weeks, UK newspapers have charted the decline and fall of the Murdoch media empire, News Corp. It’s a story of a hugely powerful company, led by a dynasty, that exerted great influence over governments across the world. For many years, Rupert Murdoch has had easy access to 10 Downing Street, with politicians great and small seeking his approval, hoping that his media group will come out in favour of their particular party. With two police investigations underway and the abandonment of plans to acquire a yet larger share of the UK media, it looks as though Murdoch’s powerful grip on UK politics has finally been broken.
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A month with the wastepickers
27 May 2011The informal sector has so much innovation that often goes unnoticed by academics, government and mainstream businesses alike. My month in Chile working with a grassroots movement of wastepickers reminded me of this — as well as the potential to harness some of the power of this informality in more organised models that benefit the poorest.