Young people’s voices are often left out from policy conversations about health and wellbeing. We might wrongly assume that young people are healthier, with lower burdens of chronic disease compared to average adults in London. However, young people are increasingly facing challenges to...
5 December 2023
How can environmental taxes increase the sustainability of economic growth in low-income countries? Environmental taxes can be defined as any tax imposed on a base with a proven negative impact on the environment – examples include import tariffs on plastic material, charges on traffic...
5 December 2023
Brazil’s enthusiastic return to this year’s COP - the UN’s annual climate change conference - is welcome but we should interrogate the motivations of powerful players in the government’s broad-based coalition, including agribusiness. There is a danger that these players encourage the...
1 December 2023
In my role working with children and young people who have been affected by child marriage, I am evaluating child-led advocacy and reflecting on common narratives around childhood. One such narrative is highlighted in the BBC article ‘Obama, Clooney and Gates ‘We Can End Child...
1 December 2023
Municipal authorities often play a vital role to displaced populations in acute and chronic crises as key first providers of support and services. This role was recognised by the World Humanitarian Summit (2016) which set out a ‘localisation’ agenda with an aim to direct greater attention...
30 November 2023
The recently published International Development White Paper presents a profound and welcome change in tone in comparison to other UK government pronouncements on international development in recent years. There is much food for thought in the background analysis. Many are rightly commenting...
30 November 2023
The UK government recently published its new White Paper on International Development, the first in fourteen years, which sets out its approach to international development until 2030. The new strategy includes a call for fairer and more effective taxation systems which is timely given the...
29 November 2023
Within the recently published UK White Paper on International Development, harnessing digital transformation is highlighted as a core area in international development. The white paper points to the following priorities and focus areas: Digital inclusion and responsible digital...
28 November 2023
COP28 opens in Dubai later in the week and debates about how to address the climate crisis are in the news. But in the air-conditioned halls of the conference centre there will be little talk of class struggle. Technical solutions dominate – offset markets, carbon capture and alternative...
28 November 2023
Crisis and hope loom large in discussions around the UN’s COP28 climate conference. Climate change continues to be discussed as a crisis that requires rapid action. Governments around the world have made sweeping pledges to achieve net-zero emissions by 2050. Meanwhile, businesses and...
27 November 2023
Water is essential for life yet is often unavailable to many in acceptable quantities and quality. In Tamale, Ghana, evidence from the Living Off-Grid Food and Infrastructure Collaboration reveals the realities of severe deprivation, precarity and struggles that households and communities...
24 November 2023
A paper that I recently published in the journal Landscape Ecology lays out an approach for integration of social science concepts into analyses of vegetation change in rangelands of Kenya. I intended this paper to open up a reflexive dialogue between social scientists and ecologists working...
24 November 2023
