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Special Report: Greening the global economy

February 03, 2010 Jeffrey Sachs , Peter H. May

The global crises have prompted calls for new ways of thinking about what can be done to steer economic development in a greener direction. Since, in politics, one should ‘never let a serious crisis go to waste’, this is the time to take bold steps. Jeffrey Sachs, director of the Earth Institute at Columbia University, and Peter May, past president of the International Society for Ecological Economics, offer their views on the possibility and necessity to develop a new, green economics.   Read more>>

From Aid to Global Justice

February 15, 2010

In the run-up to the MDG +10 conference in New York (preceding the UN General Assembly in September), The Broker wants to generate an in-depth and visionary discussion on the future of aid. The Dutch report 'Less pretension, more ambition', published on 18 January by the Scientific Council for Government Policy (WRR), serves as the kick-off.
Click here for the Dutch discussion blog>>
Click here for the international discussion blog>>

Latest blog posts

345 personal blog posts, 105 comments

Joep Houterman: Hoger onderwijs, een noodzakelijke voorwaarde voor ontwikkeling: we zijn er verder mee dan de WRR denkt

Posted by Joep Houterman on 12/03/2010

Joep Houterman, Directeur Nuffic, Directie Capaciteitsopbouw en Beurzen De Nuffic (1) heeft met grote interesse kennisgenomen van het WRR-rapport ‘Minder pretentie, meer ambitie’. Met deze reactie willen wij bijdragen aan de discussie over dit rapport, zowel vanuit onze brede doelstelling als vanuit onze verantwoordelijkheid als beheerder van de hogeronderwijsprogramma’s van de minister vo...
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Previous blog posts

  1. »  Johan te Velde: Cowboy prefereert paard als vervoersmiddel
    12/03/2010
  2. »  Dirk Elsen: Ontwikkelingshulp: ondernemerschap gevraagd
    12/03/2010
  3. »  Gemma Crijns en Marieke de Wal : De toekomst voor OS ligt in de dialoog
    11/03/2010

In praise of learning

Posted by Mari-Lise du Preez on 12/03/2010

“When I was 17, my parents didn’t know a thing. It’s amazing how much they’ve learnt in 10 years!” Now is not a good time to draw me into the blogosphere. You should have gotten hold of me five years ago, when I still knew everything. When Professor James C. Scott and I could have told you why certain schemes to improve the human condition have failed. Five years ago I could have awed you...
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Previous blog posts

  1. »  Making a difference has nothing to do with complexity
    12/03/2010
  2. »  The treadmill…
    12/03/2010

Gerald F. Hyman: Focus on the particular: yes and no

Posted by Gerald F. Hyman on 11/03/2010

Gerald F. Hyman, senior advisor to CSIS (Center for Strategic and International Studies) and president, Hills Program on Governance at CSIS, Washington, D.C. Two opposite spectres hang over the article Aid for development can be better by Peter van Lieshout, Monique Kremer and Robert Went (hereafter 'the article') and, to a lesser extent, over the WRR Report 84 Conclusion ('the conclusion...
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Previous blog posts

  1. »  Liesbeth Inberg & Nathalie Holvoet: What happened to the Dutch ambition for gender equality?
    10/03/2010
  2. »  François Bary: L’aide publique au développement : la fuite en avant ?
    09/03/2010
  3. »  Wieck Wildeboer: Towards performance based financing in development assistance
    05/03/2010

The Barroso II Commission: one small step for European development policy

Posted by Mark Furness, Davina Makhan on 08/03/2010

Note from the editor: the below article was published on the 1st of March on the website of the German Development Institute, and in German on the sites of Die Zeit and Deutsche Welle The approval of the second EU-Commission of José Manuel Barroso by the European Parliament on 9 February should prove a defining moment for European development policy. The Lisbon Treaty changes the instituti...
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Previous blog posts

  1. »  Four institutes joined forces to call for new beginnings in European Development Cooperation
    24/02/2010
  2. »  Article by Otto Holman: "Europe's moment of truth"
    16/12/2009
  3. »  How can the new European Commission make further progress on Policy Coherence for Development?
    03/12/2009

The internet and sustainable rural development

Posted by Janelle Ward on 04/03/2010

While perusing the latest issue of a journal that I try to follow regularly (Information, Communication & Society), I came across a piece entitled “NGOs, the Internet and Sustainable Rural Development: The Case of Indonesia.” It was written by Yanuar Nugroho, a research associate at the Manchester Institute of Innovation Research, and published in February 2010. Nugroho mentions the im...
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Previous blog posts

  1. »  Haiti, online donations and social networking
    02/02/2010
  2. »  Special issue on Citizens’ Media and Communication: Development in Practice
    18/01/2010
  3. »  NGOs and the News: Exploring a Changing Communications Landscape
    20/11/2009

Blogging for The Good

Posted by Marieke Hounjet on 23/02/2010

As a last blog on the ‘theory vs policy’ conference I thought it might be appropriate to write about the function of ‘blogging’ for improving the research and policy interface. This topic was given some serious dedication through a roundtable with well known academic bloggers. In order to wrap up the main thoughts of this debate in the typical blog style - short and accessible – I made two li...
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Previous blog posts

  1. »  Human Development vs Washington Consensus
    20/02/2010
  2. »  Frustrations and Opportunities
    19/02/2010
  3. »  Beyond Sachs & Easterly
    19/02/2010

Building peace, states and hybrids

February 02, 2010 Mariano Aguirre , Chris van der Borgh

International missions that aim to support stability, peace- and state-building in crisis areas are often unsure of how to move forward. The idea is gaining ground that a ‘revisioning’ of such interventions is needed. Hybrid is the new buzzword.   Read more>>

Is the aid system at a tipping point?

February 02, 2010 Nils Boesen

Complexity approaches have a lot to offer the aid business, if it is not already too late. We asked Nils Boesen to comment on the blog postings from a recent conference.   Read more>>

Winning hearts, changing mindsets

February 03, 2010 Jeroen de Lange

International development, humanitarian and military interventions aim to bring about change, but with mixed results. The fields of change management and complexity science offer useful lessons for those engaged in poor and fragile states.   Read more>>

The French Connections

February 03, 2010 Danielle Barret , Henri Rouille d'Orfeuil

Faced with new geopolitical and environmental challenges, the French government as well as NGOs are changing their rhetoric. A focus on European and international efforts to promote a sustainable world is replacing old slogans of development.   Read more>>

Heritage for the future

February 04, 2010 Jurjen van der Tas , Ellen Lammers

The Aga Khan Trust for Culture is restoring historic buildings in cities across the Muslim world. While culture can be a catalyst for development, urban poverty remains a massive challenge.   Read more>>

The long shadow of slavery

February 04, 2010 Erwin Bulte

A few months ago I was in Ghana and visited St George’s castle in Elmina, the infamous fort used by the Dutch to hold large numbers of African slaves prior to their ‘export’ to the New World. The Dutch captured the fort from the Portuguese in 1637, and when the slave-trading days were over they handed it over to the British in 1871. St George’s castle is imposing and grim. Its current status as a UNESCO world heritage site is well deserved.   Read more>>

Future uncertain

February 03, 2010 Ahmed H. al-Rahim

Globalisation and the Future of Terrorism: Patterns and Predictions, by Brynjar Lia. Contemporary Security Studies Series, Routledge, 2006, 280 pp. A review by Ahmed H. al-Rahim   Read more>>

Editorial: From aid to global justice

Is aid in crisis? Probably it is, but only in its current form. Because there will always be people who want to care for others in our interconnected world, whether for reasons of solidarity or ‘enlightened self-interest’. But, for the sake of argument, let’s say that aid is in crisis. Because that opens up the space for a fresh debate about the future of global development. The Broker would like to invite all readers to contribute new ideas, insights and experiences in the run-up to the...

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Degrees of movement

What motivates people to migrate? How do they decide to leave their homes, maybe to never return? These are some of the questions addressed in the two studies featured in this issue. The theses were reviewed by Jan Pronk, former Netherlands minister of development cooperation and UN special representative in Sudan, and currently professor at the Institute of Social Studies in The Hague, and Nicky Pouw, director of the graduate programme of international development studies at the Univers...