Fragile Aid (co-edited with @rgisselquist.bsky.social & @apvjustino.bsky.social) focuses on the effectiveness of international aid in fragile contexts, taking stock of existing evidence and discussing what needs to change for better aid. www.wider.unu.edu/publication/... @unu-wider.bsky.social

How States Respond to Crisis (co-edited with @rgisselquist.bsky.social) examines the role of state capacity, authority, and legitimacy in explaining different policy responses to the COVID-19 pandemic across the Global South. www.wider.unu.edu/publication/... @unu-wider.bsky.social

The human cost of Trump's gutting of USAID: By the time Tor Top’s mother was sick with cholera, the nearby clinic had been shuttered for weeks. He bundled her into a canoe & paddled toward the nearest hospital, 8 hours away. Less than halfway into the journey, his mother died. New, @propublica.org

Trump Officials Celebrated With Cake After Slashing Aid. Then People Died of Cholera.

Behind closed doors in Washington, top advisers made a series of decisions that had devastating repercussions for the poorest country on earth. We went to South Sudan and found people who died as a re...

propublica.org

100 million children are going hungry this Christmas. Elon Musk can give every child in the world a $90 gift card, creating 2 billion smiles and still be the richest man alive. What do you say, Elon - gift 44% of your wealth? We’d also settle for a 2% #WealthTax c.org/jnnZhmp6J4

🎉 GSDRC Working Paper #2 is out! 🎉 After Kabul: Addressing concerns about corruption in donor publics by rechannelling aid Fresh insights from our colleagues at the Development Engagement Lab. @soominoh.bsky.social @pmorini.bsky.social Jennifer Hudson, David Hudson @unibirmingham.bsky.social

GSDRC@gsdrc.org · last yr.

📢 New @GSDRC Working Paper! How can donors maintain public support for aid in sensitive contexts? German survey shows support rises when aid is channelled via NGOs. 🔗 shorturl.at/qGUyz #ForeignAid #PublicOpinion #Afghanistan #DevelopmentPolicy

Had the pleasure of attending this excellent symposium today—exciting work from UKRI Future Leaders Fellow @sandrapertek.bsky.social and team! IDD @unibirmingham

Sandra Pertek, PhD@sandrapertek.bsky.social · 2y ago

Call for papers! Submission deadline fast approaching! Join our Symposium in September - women in displacement and philanthropy in Muslim-majority/-minority settings. Join this event as global aid cuts deeply affect humanitarian efforts @unibirmingham @iddbirmingham @IndianaUniv

Is there a link between inequality & democracy? Our new research using global data says the story is less clear than many theories suggest. Read more 👉https://go.unu.edu/FlMw6 @rgisselquist.bsky.social

📚 At the UNU-WIDER conference, @rgisselquist.bsky.social presented Fragile Aid, a new volume on development in conflict-affected states. The book is now fully available online: fdslive.oup.com/www.oup.com/... 📢 All IDD, University of Birmingham news hee: www.devstud.org.uk/2025/07/16/i...

📢 New Policy Brief: How to make aid work in fragile states Aid in fragile contexts needs more than technical fixes. The brief calls for long-term, flexible support rooted in local legitimacy. 📄: go.unu.edu/pTvBB #FragileAid @apvjustino.bsky.social @rgisselquist.bsky.social @anvaccaro.bsky.social‬

Only one set of major civil service reforms have been implemented in Pakistan – and these were over 50 years ago. Despite decades of promises to fix Pakistan’s bureaucracy, efforts have consistently stalled.

What is the role of donors in the delivery of services in fragile, conflict-affected and vulnerable settings? Iffat Idris from @GSDRC.org explores here k4d.ids.ac.uk/resource/rol...

Role of Donors in the Delivery of Services in Protracted FCV Settings

This report reviews the ways that donors are addressing the challenging nature of service delivery in fragile, conflict-affected and vulnerable (FCV) settings.

k4d.ids.ac.uk

Enjoyed chairing this session on Welfare and Labour Effects, featuring 4 excellent papers by @timkohler.bsky.social ‪@leitemariante.bsky.social‬ ‪Shatakshi Gupta & @tsenguunjav.bsky.social

UNU-WIDER@unu-wider.bsky.social · last yr.

Fascinating research presented by WIDER Visiting Scholar Timothy Köhler on South Africa's social relief grant. The paper reveals cash transfers to the unemployed boosted 🔎job search 📦business attempts 💼employment though long-term effects aren't universal #WIDERDevConf2025

Pleased to be here at #WIDERDevConf2025!

Do codes of conduct and ethical codes reduce polticisation and #corruption in the civil service? 🏦 This study by William Avis from @gsdrc.org evaluates the impact of #CivilService codes. Read the full findings here 👇 k4d.ids.ac.uk/resource/civ...

Civil Service Codes and their Impact

This report reviews the value of Civil Service Codes in reducing corruption and improving independence and objectivity.

k4d.ids.ac.uk

Elon Musk's conflicts of interest: $2.37 billion in potential federal penalties, report says

Elon Musk's conflicts of interest: $2.37 billion in potential federal penalties, report says

On the day Trump took office, Elon Musk, Tesla and his other companies faced at least $2.37 billion in potential penalties from federal agencies, according to a Democratic congressional report.

latimes.com

New #OpenAccess book out now! How States Respond to Crisis reveals how state capacity, authority & legitimacy influenced outcomes during the COVID-19 pandemic with 7 in-depth case studies from the Global South. Read the full book 👉 go.unu.edu/DhF08 @rgisselquist.bsky.social @anvaccaro.bsky.social

288 people have been rendered to El Salvador’s mega-prison. We only know 257 of their names—and not because the US or Salvadoran governments shared them. It shouldn't be up to civil society to compile things like this table. Of course, none of this should be happening at all. See admis.me/b/2un

I had been doubtful that we were going to have a "this is the crisis moment" with Trump, as opposed to "everything about this is a destructive catastrophe." But the Abrego Garcia case is the crisis moment. 1/

Before press came in — but while live feed was running on Bukele’s feed — Trump said to him: “home-growns are next. … You’re gonna need to build about 5 more places.” x.com/nayibbukele/...

Rare earths & other critical minerals are discussed in our new @unu-wider.bsky.social open access book. Download via www.wider.unu.edu/publication/...

The letter sent to Harvard shows why they and every other institution have no choice but to resist. It would amount to a government takeover of the university, giving the Trump regime control over hiring and admissions. www.harvard.edu/research-fun...

Translated primary sources for teaching the history of ethnicity in medieval China. A fabulous resource! #GlobalMiddleAges #MedievalSky www.academia.edu/community/ln...

Unprecedented corruption happening right in front of us

Data Bear 🏳️‍🌈@dataandpolitics.net · 2y ago

Someone bought 30,000 SPY call options at 1:01 pm, just 29 minutes before Trump announced pausing tariffs. Options cost $0.85 each ($2.5M total) and jumped to $25+ each ($70M+) after the announcement. The timing, volume, and precision are virtually impossible by coincidence.

I gave a campus talk last night on Trump's first 100 days for the WUD Society & Politics group. A student asked me if I thought that, at some point, we might start to describe the US as a competitive authoritarian regime. I said that we were already there, it's just that most folks haven't noticed:

American Social Security Administration is cutting staff and shifting all its communications to X, owned by Musk. You could not make up the corruption now in US politics www.wired.com/story/social...

The Social Security Administration Is Gutting Regional Staff and Shifting All Public Communications to X

The SSA’s shift to Elon Musk’s X comes as the agency plans to cut its regional office workforce by roughly 90 percent, WIRED has learned.

wired.com

I’m not kidding; this is DOGE at work; multiple US citizens getting notices that they just leave the country because USCIS is revoking their humanitarian parole. www.politico.com/news/2025/04...

Inside the DOGE immigration task force

The taskforce, led by Musk confidante Antonio Gracias, is providing the technical infrastructure for a sweeping set of actions aimed at revoking parole and terminating visas.

politico.com

Nicole Micheroni@nicolemicheroni.bsky.social · 2y ago

Some personal news: the Department of Homeland Security has given me, an immigration lawyer born in Newton, Massachusetts, seven days to leave the U.S. Does anyone know if you can get Italian citizenship through great-grandparents?

AI's electricity demand is accelerating: by 2030 data centres will consume as much energy as Japan today, says new @IEA report. Much of the energy will come from renewables & gas (though Trump is inevitably trying to promote coal). www.iea.org/reports/ener...

Energy and AI – Analysis - IEA

Energy and AI - Analysis and key findings. A report by the International Energy Agency.

iea.org

♻️ What do we know about plastic reuse models in LMICs? 📚 See this new rapid evidence review by @gsdrc.org's William Avis:

Knowledge for Development and Diplomacy (K4DD) @k4dd.ids.ac.uk · 2y ago

Plastic reuse schemes hold the potential to hugely reduce plastic #pollution driven by single-use plastics. But how can these models be scaled effectively in low- and middle-income countries? William Avis explores here 🔗 k4d.ids.ac.uk/resource/sca... #ZeroWaste #Sustainability

NEW: @nytimes.com reports that the Trump admin is moving to strip hundreds of thousands of immigrants of Social Security Numbers they got when they were granted work authorization, repurposing a "death master file" to try to erase their previous legal presence in the United States.