As governments wrestle with the trade-offs between continuing their lockdowns in support of public health during the Covid-19 crisis and easing restrictions to boost ailing economies, everyday life is changing. While it is hoped that some aspects of life before Covid-19 will resume, a new ‘normal’ will also likely emerge. And this is also the case with research and data collection. As this webinar reveals, the pandemic has brought new and existing challenges to the fore, not least in relation to...
Jul 15, 2020•1 hr 37 min
We discuss the recent announcement by the UK government to merge the Department for International Development with the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, with perspectives from the Commonwealth, Development Assistance Committee countries and the aid sector.
Jul 08, 2020•1 hr 18 min
In these unprecedented times, millions of refugees face lockdown in environments where social distancing or access to essential financial or medical support are limited or non-existent. As families and communities struggle to access resources, schools or opportunities, child-marriage and unsafe underage labour are beginning to take priority over education, and concerns are mounting that adolescent refugees will be left behind during the pandemic response. Based on real-time virtual interviews wi...
Jun 23, 2020•1 hr 2 min
The ongoing coronavirus pandemic is posing unprecedented challenges across the world, putting considerable strains on leadership, the health sector and our way of living. Insurgent groups from the Taliban to Al Shabab, have provided health advice and produced propaganda highlighting their action against Covid-19. Gangs in Rio have sought to enforce pandemic restrictions and notorious cartel leader El Chapo has produced health kits emblazoned with his likeness, unmasking in some cases state fragi...
Jun 18, 2020•1 hr 1 min
'What if some African governments are doing a better job than our own of managing the coronavirus?' (New Yorker, May 2020) Covid-19 has gripped the world, shaken the multilateral system and caused widespread uncertainty. One thing remains clear, there is no going back and adaptations will need to be made to shift towards a new normal. The key to this will be developing new forms of cooperation between countries and communities around the globe. Early signs from Africa are that in many countries ...
Jun 17, 2020•1 hr 23 min
The spread of the Covid-19 virus is testing the health and economic systems of individual countries and the world as a whole. The standard response ‘toolkit’ initially focussed primarily on containing the spread of the virus, with some adjustment of economic and social policies required to address the needs of people in or near poverty. Across countries there are growing concerns about the impact that the pandemic and the policy responses will have on the lives of the poorest and most marginalis...
Jun 16, 2020•1 hr 21 min
The effects of the Covid-19 crisis in sub-Saharan Africa through trade, commodity prices, remittances, tourism and global value chains are likely to be devastating. The World Bank is forecasting a decline in growth in the region from 2.4% in 2019 to between -2.1 and -5.1% this year, estimating African economies could lose between $37 billion and $79 billion in output losses. This will have huge financial impact. On one level, economies will struggle to achieve financial stability and recover as ...
Jun 10, 2020•1 hr 26 min
Decades-long commitments to supporting more ‘local’ responses to crises have not resulted in significant shifts in the traditional humanitarian system. Funding, decision-making and capacity continue to be concentrated in large international aid actors. Experts are now highlighting the critical role that local responders will play in relation to Covid-19 given their ability to act fast, engage communities and maintain delivery in the context of national and international travel restrictions. Will...
Jun 04, 2020•1 hr 30 min
India’s federal government has taken a cautious approach in response to the social and economic impacts of the coronavirus crisis. The initial fiscal support provided was equivalent to just 0.8% of GDP – despite millions of workers losing their jobs since the lockdown has been put in place. More recently, Prime Minister Modi has promised a much larger economic stimulus package, although there seems to be limited direct grants or subsidies available. This stands in contrast to the much larger fis...
May 26, 2020•1 hr 4 min
The ongoing coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic is posing unprecedented challenges to leadership across the world. The pace at which policymakers, practitioners and researchers react to this emerging and complex crisis will make a profound difference to people’s lives and livelihoods. But how can we ensure effective, collective decision-making based on emerging evidence, changing trends and shifting scientific understanding, all in the face of considerable uncertainty? Recent experience highlights t...
May 01, 2020•1 hr 31 min
Twenty-five years after the world's leaders committed to transforming women's rights in the Beijing Platform for Action (BPfA), girls still remain a missing piece of the roadmap towards gender equality. While tremendous progress has been made, there is still a long way to go and it is more important than ever to make sure girls are not left behind. We know that during a girl’s lifecycle the years between ages 10 and 19 are increasingly recognised as the critical time to protect and promote their...
Apr 20, 2020•1 hr 30 min
The urgency of the Covid-19 threat is increasing the demand for governments to use existing technologies in new ways and to use untested new technologies on urgent problems. The use of these technologies are part of a rapidly deployed ‘digital safety net’ aimed at saving lives and protecting citizens. Without the usual time available to test new ideas it is more important than ever that best practice is identified and shared. This event contributes to further thinking about the role of digital t...
Apr 09, 2020•1 hr 31 min
Ensuring healthy lives and promoting well-being at all ages is essential to sustainable development. As the Covid-19 crisis illustrates all too vividly, not only is health important in itself, but healthy people are better able to learn, be productive and contribute to their communities. Achieving universal health coverage (UHC) is critical to this and essential to ensuring that no one is ‘left behind’ in accessing quality health services because of who they are, where they live or their socio-e...
Apr 09, 2020•1 hr 30 min
Stories of irrelevant aid regularly arise in humanitarian assistance. People affected by disasters or crises receive food they cannot eat, services they do not want or technologies they cannot use. If they are not getting what they really need, something is going wrong. Relevance is central to humanitarian principles and standards, however putting it into practice is profoundly difficult and potentially disruptive. Realigning the humanitarian offer with the priorities of affected people opens un...
Apr 03, 2020•1 hr 32 min
The world’s second largest outbreak of Ebola was declared on 1 August 2018 in the Democratic Republic of Congo. More than 2,200 people have died and over 3,300 have been infected. The response to Ebola has been complicated by conflict between central government, local political actors and armed groups in the affected areas. Rumours about the virus and the response have also been spread and shaped by that conflict. Attempts have been made to apply key lessons from the 2014-15 Ebola outbreak in We...
Mar 20, 2020•1 hr 35 min
PFI conference 2020: closing panel by ODI Global
Mar 10, 2020•1 hr 8 min
Chair: Cathal Long, Research Fellow ODI • Binta Zahra Diop, PhD. Candidate, University of Oxford • Khuram Farooq, Chair of IFMIS Community of Practice, World Bank • Jess Gartner, CEO & Founder at Allovue • Jacqueline Musabende, Assistant Professor, Mount Royal University
Mar 10, 2020•1 hr 35 min
Chair: Alina Rocha Menocal, Senior Research Fellow ODI • Joe Abah, Country Director DAI, Nigeria and formerly head of public sector reform, Government of Nigeria • Kalipso Chalkidou, Director of Global Health Policy, Centre for Global Development • Adnan Khan, Professor of Practice, London School of Economics • Jodi Wishnia, University of Witswaterand and Public Health Consultant
Mar 10, 2020•1 hr 29 min
Session 4: Promoting accountability for results Chair: Tom Hart, Research Fellow, ODI • Seye Abimbola, Lecturer, Public Health, University of Sydney • Ivor Beazley, Senior Public Sector Specialist, World Bank • Loraine Hawkins, Governor, The Health Foundation • Dan Honig, Assistant Professor of International Development, John Hopkins University
Mar 10, 2020•1 hr 36 min
Chair : Catherine Dom, Principal Consultant Mokoro • Bernard Gauthier, Professor, Department of Applied Economics, HEC Montreal • Dorcus Kiwanuka Henriksson, Karolinska Institutet • Marcel Mukeshimana, Accountant General, Government of Rwanda • Benjamin Tsofa, Deputy Director, Kenya Medical Research Institute (KEMRI)
Mar 10, 2020•1 hr 32 min
Chair: Maia King, Lecturer in Economics, Kings College London and ODI Research Associate • Andrew Blazey, Deputy Head of Division OECD • Fiona Davies, ODI Research Associate • Kenneth Mugambe, Director Budget at the Uganda Ministry of Finance, Planning and Economic Development • Tsegay Tekleselassie, Research Fellow at the Ethiopian Development Research Institute
Mar 10, 2020•1 hr 29 min
Chair: Andrew Lawson, Co-Founder and Technical Director of Fiscus Limited • Neil Cole, Executive Secretary, Collaborative African Budget Reform Initiative • Suzanne Flynn, IMF and Centre for Excellence in Finance • Sam Freedman, Chief Executive, Ark’s Education Partnerships Group • Dorjan Marušič, Former Minister of Health, Slovenia
Mar 10, 2020•1 hr 51 min
Sara Pantuliano, Chief Executive, ODI – Introductory remarks • Mark Miller, Director, Public Finance and Institutions Programme, ODI – Framing a future international agenda on PFM and service delivery • Rathin Roy, Director, National Institute of Public Finance and Policy – Country perspectives on PFM and service delivery
Mar 10, 2020•44 min
Over the past years, Universal Basic Income (UBI) has increasingly been discussed in countries across the world. India’s 2019 elections featured UBI in a prominent way; a presidential candidate in the United States 2020 elections has made UBI a core platform of his campaign; a decade-long trial is underway in rural Kenya; and since 2010, an average of a book per month is published on the topic. While such policy research and practice are yielding important lessons and learning, UBI is also subje...
Feb 17, 2020•1 hr 32 min
The UK is an important investor across Africa. Projected population and economic growth across the continent, as well as a high regard for British products, heighten the prospects of future UK investment. Against the backdrop of Brexit and growing momentum over the African Continental Free Trade Area, we bring together representatives from government, research and the private sector to consider how the UK and Africa can work together to secure mutually beneficial trade and investment. Using key ...
Jan 22, 2020•1 hr 43 min
Over the past decade, several developing economies have achieved strong and sustained economic growth, moving them up the income per capita ladder and away from aid. Some of these countries are expected to graduate from official development assistance (ODA). What can we learn from these countries that have started or completed the transition from aid to ensure that their development outcomes are sustained and expanded? What type of support would countries in transition from aid need from their d...
Dec 17, 2019•1 hr 34 min
Nearly 132 million people worldwide are in need of assistance and protection due to conflict, persecution and disasters. Women and girls are disproportionately affected by crises, and are at higher risk of violence, abuse, neglect and discrimination. The specific humanitarian needs of women and girls are often inadequately identified nor addressed in humanitarian responses by governments and agencies. They are also at far greater risk of losing their livelihoods and are exposed to a heightened r...
Dec 09, 2019•1 hr 3 min
By 2050 more than half of Africa’s population will be under 25 years old. The booming population is posing challenges to African countries to meet the educational and employment needs of young people. Governments and organisations need to think creatively if they are to address these challenges. Investing more on gender-sensitive programmes and considering the potential of digital technologies could develop opportunities for youth on the continent. Drawing on research from the Youth Forward init...
Dec 09, 2019•1 hr 36 min
We cannot wait any longer to shift gender norms, reduce inequalities and set the course for good health for generations to come. Addressing gender inequality and restrictive gender norms benefits the health and development of all genders and is essential for achieving the Sustainable Development Goals, protecting human rights for all. With the global health community working to ensure healthy lives and promoting well-being, attention is being turned to the barriers of achieving this goal–namely ...
Dec 06, 2019•1 hr 26 min
Adolescents are a driving force for development. If we are to deliver on the 2030 Agenda and ‘leave no one behind’, young people must be provided with the tools needed to reach their full potential. Particularly those who are disadvantaged and often face high levels of stigma, discrimination and exclusion. In commemoration of Universal Children’s Day and the 30th Anniversary of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, we discuss ways to develop and strengthen the voice and agency of disadva...
Nov 22, 2019•1 hr 31 min
