Anders Nordström is Director General of SIDA since January 2008. Read more...
Almost ten years ago, the UN resolution 1325 marked a milestone in international efforts to address the marginalisation of women in conflict resolution and peace-building. But implementing this in practice remains a huge challenge to the international community.

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The global financial and economic crisis, and how to fix it, has dominated newspaper headlines and public policy discussions this year. The financial turmoil which started with the collapse in the US Sub-prime mortgage market is of a scale not seen since the 1930s. However, recent positive economic data from Asia and Europe have raised hopes of a turnaround in the global economy, and vindicated the robust fiscal stances of many governments who sought to apply countercyclical traction to their economies. The stimulus packages seem to be working - or at least have prevented the situation from becoming even worse - but of course, the immediate stimulus needed will only treat the symptoms of the crisis. Addressing the deeper causes will require a different set of measures, targeting reform at the system of global finance.

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Since the 1990s, some donor countries have made part of their aid conditional on a set of policies, including economic liberalization, political liberalization and democratization. This triptych, which can be assembled under the heading of 'good governance', has also been promoted by multilateral financial institutions.

Today, because of the economic crisis, forceful criticism of this gamut of conditions is again being expressed in both North and South.

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Summary : Despite the economic downturn, the development industry is growing and fragmenting as more and different actors enter the field. This is in a context of wider changes in global governance in which new alliances are emerging to solve different global challenges like poverty or climate change. All development organisations need to find their niche in this more complex architecture and developing countries need to become more assertive about aid being aligned with their country strategies and systems. Given the absence of market forces or enforceable regulation, these trends in the aid industry place a higher premium on transparency, benchmarking and independent evaluation. [1]

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How do you see development? How to portrait the human face of development processes? How development initiates and programmes improve the lives of people?


Development is often portrayed by images of desolation and despair despite the uncountable number of initiatives, programmes, ideas and partnerships that are changing the lives of millions of people in our developing and transition world. In order to raise awareness of the successes in the development process and share innovative and successful actions, the International Policy Centre for Inclusive Growth (IPC-IG) in collaboration with many partners launches the Global Photography Campaign on "Humanizing Development"

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The recent economic downturn has led to several voices round the world questioning the merits and effectiveness of capitalism as an economic system to promote the general welfare of human society.

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Dear bloggers,

I would like to share with you some of the reflections of an article my colleague Olivier Ray and I just published in the Center for Global Development's working papers (accessible here), as they fit nicely in the mandate of this blog - i.e. 'sharing information, viewpoints and visions for the future with the common goal of advancing the cause of development'. In this piece we reflect on some of the changes taking place in the world of international development. We describe a transformation of official development assistance (ODA) into a global public policy whose objectives, instruments and actors are profoundly different from the ones that characterized development aid only ten to fifteen years ago.

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I wanted to react to several very powerful pieces - each accompanied by concrete proposals - which we have just read on our blog about how to manage the present crisis. Achim Steiner demonstrated that a Green New Deal was not an additional response to the crisis but that it should lie at the heart of whatever strategies are selected to combat it. Kemal Dervis also appealed for us not to relax our efforts in fighting climate change but, on the contrary, to seize the opportunity of the stimulus packages to strengthen our actions in that field. Moreover, Minouche Shafik reminded us that the dramatic impact the present economic downturn will undoubtedly have on the very poor required enhanced social protection measures. By the way, may I take this opportunity to welcome Minouche to our small community of bloggers! Finally, using the WFP as an example, Josette Sheeran has targeted a fundamental issue: that of the demand for the goods of developing countries. 

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The link between human activity and climate change is established. There is uncertainty as to how exactly the physical processes that mediate between greenhouse gases emissions and changes to our planet's climate will unfold, but these processes are not easy to reverse, and may even be irreversible. Catastrophic effects are possible in the long-run and the more we wait the greater the risks.

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The collection and distribution of unwanted, but still-usable goods is one of the many ways in which the populations of the North demonstrate solidarity with those of the South. This discreet flow of aid has an immediate impact and is appreciated by the beneficiaries. However, it is not held in great esteem, is badly quantified and has become increasingly complex

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