By Zuhour Gharaibeh
Funding ends, but needs do not. A project may close successfully: activities were delivered, the budget was spent, and the target number of participants was reached. But did anything actually change in people’s lives? Are they now more able to make choices and influence decisions, or did success remain confined to the project indicators during its implementation?
Continue reading “When Funding Defines the Need: Are We Developing Communities or Projects?”
By Iliana Olivié, Antonio Sianes, María Santillán O’Shea, Gustavo Cadenas Delascio, Adam Timothy Mayemba and Matthew Winkler / Shaping Sustainable Futures conference series
Development finance is increasingly taking place between worlds. It is expected to reconcile goals that are often in tension: preserving multilateralism while accommodating more flexible coalitions of the willing; responding to shrinking official development assistance (ODA) while mobilising larger volumes of public and private finance; and adapting to a shifting balance of power between North and South while responding to long-standing calls to decolonise international partnerships.
Continue reading “From Ideas to Impact: The Missing Links in Financing for Development”
By Peter Taylor / Third post in a mini-series on large grant-funded research centres: read the previous ones here and here)
For many years, I have had the opportunity to work in large grant funded initiatives in different forms – projects, programmes and centres – as well as in many smaller collaborations. Often I have been a partner within an initiative, and at times I’ve had the privilege to lead large programmes. There is rarely time to pause and reflect amidst the hectic nature of these collaborations, but a recent initiative with Southern Voice has encouraged me to take the time needed to reflect on my experiences.
Continue reading “The “Equitable Partnerships” Conundrum: Reflecting on how Aspirations for Equity in Large Research Consortia Can Lead to Action”
By Albertino Francisco
On 13 December 2024, São Tomé and Príncipe left the list of least developed countries. Its gross national income per head had reached $2,271 against a graduation threshold of $1,306. Its Human Assets Index stood at 91.4 against a threshold of 66. However, its Economic and Environmental Vulnerability Index stood at 40.0, which should have been at 32 or below to pass. Two out of three. Under the rule the Committee for Development Policy applies, two out of three is enough, and so a small island state graduated with exactly the indicator that measures its exposure to shocks sitting eight points on the wrong side of the line.
Continue reading “Your Country is Doing Fine on Average”
By Kibui Edwin Rwigi / Second post in a mini-series on large grant-funded research centres: read the first one here)
In November 2019, I sat across the table from an older African professor — a well accomplished intellectual, the quintessential renaissance man: poet, philosopher, scholar-activist. “How is decolonisation different from what my generation was doing through post-colonial work?” he asked, after I had too exuberantly recounted work I had been part of in a North-South research consortium with a Dutch university as lead partner.
Continue reading “Decolonising Grant-Funded Development Consortia: Some Reflections”
