Policy and planning blogs
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Climate action: let’s be bold in Bonn
14 June 2019As the UN climate change conference kicks off in Bonn on Monday (17 June), Subhi Barakat calls for negotiators to be bolder and braver with an emphasis on action
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Making Indian cities inclusive means making them more walkable
5 June 2019Walking, cycling and using public transport are the main ways of getting around Indian cities. But as India's cities expand and car ownership increases, pedestrians are being marginalised – and their safety is being put at risk
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To stay ahead of climate change, cities need to act now
4 June 2019How can cities in low- and middle-income countries address climate change risks? IIED's David Satterthwaite looks at the challenges facing city governments across the world
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Leading on nature: can the new Secretary of State deliver bold action on environment and poverty?
31 May 2019The UK's new Secretary of State for International Development has impressed with a strong public statement on the need to focus aid funding on climate and environmental challenges. IIED welcomes his commitment, and suggests an agenda for action
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2019 – the way forward is a Green Decent Work Guarantee
30 December 2018How can the world achieve a step change in the fight against climate change during 2019? IIED director Andrew Norton looks at the issues and suggests that a radical approach may hold the solution
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Celebrating 10 years of the UK Climate Change Act: an influential law beyond its borders
26 November 2018IIED director Andrew Norton says the UK's Climate Change Act provides a clear and ambitious framework for addressing climate change, and says it can be a model for other nations for turning the Paris Agreement into national action
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Momentum builds for ambitious agreements at COP24
19 November 2018When COP24 starts next month, the least developed countries will again be in the spotlight. In a special guest blog, LDC Group chair Gebru Jember Endalew outlines the group's hopes for Katowice
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Biodiversity on the brink: local people must shape nature’s new deal
16 November 2018Ahead of the Convention on Biological Diversity on Saturday, which will start shaping the post-2020 agenda on biodiversity, IIED director Andrew Norton calls for a process that truly includes indigenous peoples and local communities
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Addressing the political and technical challenges of measuring adaptation
18 September 2018Susannah Fisher outlines the challenges that need to be addressed in order to effectively measure progress on adaptation as part of the first global stocktake in 2023
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Transforming aid for urban areas
4 September 2018There is a new way to finance community-driven development, working with local funds set up and managed by grassroots organisations. This can work well at scale with local governments to meet basic needs and reduce urban poverty. David Satterthwaite explains why it’s time external agencies took note of this
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How can insights from CBA12 inform global discussions on the SDGs and resilience?
16 July 2018Delegates to this week's UN High Level Political Forum on sustainable development will be considering the subject of resilience. Clare Shakya highlights some of the insights from CBA12 in Malawi that are relevant
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How Bus Rapid Transit can make housing affordable to low-income households
6 June 2018A paper in the latest issue of the journal Environment and Urbanization explores how affordable public transport – via a Bus Rapid Transit system – can make housing affordable for low-income groups. David Satterthwaite describes how a roll-out of this public transit could work in Mumbai
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Is urban development too complicated for us?
17 May 2018Aid agency staff find it difficult to work in informal settlements. There is little or no data about their residents. For many, there are no maps or street names. There are often complex political struggles that frustrate development projects. But this can be addressed by working with grassroots organisations and federations – as they have the knowledge and it is their needs that aid is meant to be addressing
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Changing landscapes: key issues for action on sustainable development in 2018
5 January 2018As we face up to the challenges of the coming year, how does the global landscape for sustainable development look? IIED director Andrew Norton offers his thoughts on the key debates and changes we may see during 2018, and what they might mean for IIED's work
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LDCs approach Fiji COP with high expectations
1 November 2017When COP23 starts next week, the least developed countries will again be in the spotlight. In a special guest blog, LDC Group chair Gebru Jember Endalew outlines the group's detailed preparation and hopes for Bonn
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Engaging for change – refreshing our strategy for the next two years
9 August 2017IIED's new strategy update will sharpen our focus on how we tackle the challenges of climate action, global social justice and sustainable development over the next two years
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Insuring against climate risk in Kenya
6 June 2017Vincent Mutie Nzau from the National Treasury of Kenya highlights how innovative approaches to disaster risk finance can help communities manage climate uncertainty
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Sustainable development in the UK – an issue for party manifestos?
3 May 2017A cross-party report finds the UK government is falling behind on its commitment to sustainability but the election provides an opportunity for all parties to show the way forward.
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SDGs: from adopted framework to political force for change
17 February 2017One year on from the Sustainable Development Goals coming into effect, IIED asks whether the international consensus underpinning the goals is strong enough to drive the shift from vision to creating real political change
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Can ecosystem-based adaptation help deliver the promise of Paris?
13 January 2017Ecosystem-based adaptation (EbA) is gaining traction as a way to help manage the threats of climate change. But for the policy community to realise EbA's real potential as a viable response for climate vulnerable communities, we need to plug knowledge gaps on how it works, when and why
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Fighting for the future – sustainable development and the battle for ideas in 2017
4 January 2017Following the landmark global agreements on sustainable development sealed in 2015, including the Sustainable Development Goals and the Paris Agreement on climate change, the end of 2016 prompted the question: can the world sustain this hard-fought momentum?
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Civil society organisations in the global South and disruptive change: implications for funders
23 December 2016Southern civil society organisations increasingly face numerous disruptive forces and are often effective sources of necessary disruption themselves. Halina Ward and Tom Bigg explore how funders can support these organisations in ever more uncertain times
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One people, one vision
22 December 2016Countries with a strong sustainable development planning framework are finding that the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) work best as a political motivator for domestic action, rather than as a literal set of targets. Tighe Geoghegan explains the political case for SDGs from a Jamaican perspective
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Mapping the disruptive change ecosystem for Southern CSOs
21 December 2016Getting good at disruption has become a key challenge for Southern civil society organisations (CSOs) – and it's very different from the methods taught by business leaders. A three-day retreat at the Rockefeller Foundation Bellagio Center explored what it takes for Southern CSOs to get good at disruption
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Money where it matters: how to deliver finance to the local level
15 December 2016At an IIED-hosted event, financiers, decision makers, practitioners and researchers tackled three key questions on how to get climate finance to where it's needed most