Opinion

Opinion

Financing for social protection in 2025 and beyond: anyone any clearer?

Six months after the USAID cuts tilted the aid world on its axis, donors and agencies are still finding their feet. Humanitarians are emerging from last week’s Geneva meetings – with talk of ‘cruel math’ of hyper-prioritisation and of resetting the system. Meanwhile, development folk are...

Sophia Swithern

24 June 2025

Opinion

The power of communities during civic space closure in Central America

Lea la versión en español de esta opinión. Every time a community organises, learns, and cares for its members, it is exercising power. That power doesn’t always make the headlines, but it is still there. We see it when someone speaks out, when one person defends another against...

Rocío Elizabeth Ramírez Argueta, Oficial de programas y proyectos, COMCAVIS TRANS

& 3 others

24 June 2025

Opinion

El poder de las comunidades frente al cierre del espacio cívico en Centroamérica

Read the English version of this opinion. Cada vez que una comunidad se organiza, aprende y cuida de los suyos, está ejerciendo poder. Ese poder no siempre aparece en los titulares, pero allí está. Lo vemos cuando una persona alza la voz, cuando alguien defiende a otra frente a la...

Rocío Elizabeth Ramírez Argueta, Oficial de programas y proyectos, COMCAVIS TRANS

& 3 others

24 June 2025

Opinion

What does ‘success’ look like in Zimbabwe’s communal areas, and how does this compare with land reform areas?

The previous blog series explored ‘success’ in A1 areas across our sites in Mazowe, Gutu, Masvingo and Matobo districts. How does this compare with local perceptions of success in communal areas? This is an important question as most people in A1 areas came originally from communal areas....

Ian Scoones

23 June 2025

Opinion

Shaping the future of AI: The role of non-binding agreements

The UK Government set out in January 2025 a ‘blueprint to turbocharge’ AI use. But the principles that guide international and state actors’ use of artificial intelligence (AI) have – and continue to be – at the centre of global conversations. International organisations and...

Kaitlin Ball

23 June 2025

Opinion

What children teach us about belonging on World Refugee Day

World Refugee Day reminds us of the staggering numbers: according to UNHCR estimates, 49 million of those forcibly displaced were children, which includes roughly 19 million children registered as refugees or asylum seekers. But what if we shifted focus - not just to how many children are...

Dr Rosalind Willi

20 June 2025

Opinion

UK Spending Review: government needs to fix mixed messaging on research

The Spending Review was published in the UK this week, with the Chancellor Rachel Reeves setting out the government’s spending plans for the next few years. It is of course dismaying to see the reduction in funds associated with the Overseas Development Assistance (ODA) budget, and...

Peter Taylor

13 June 2025

Opinion

Uganda’s tax system is a drain on small businesses: how to set them free

Uganda is one of the countries most exposed to recent cuts in international aid, particularly with the dissolution of the US Agency for International Development (USAID). In 2023, about 5 per cent of gross national income – a measure of a country’s total income, including income from...

Adrienne Lees

11 June 2025

Opinion

How to finance social protection finance in protracted crises: Five lessons

These turbulent times strengthen the case for social protection – when there’s so much precarity, a solid floor is all the more important. And it’s clearer than ever that we can’t dodge the difficult questions: how do we deliver on global social protection promises in places where crises...

Sophia Swithern

11 June 2025

Opinion

It is genocide: Humanitarian law must be enforced in Gaza

On 30 May 2025, IDS Honorary Associate and former UN Humanitarian Chief Martin Griffiths described the situation in Gaza as genocide. Alongside IDS Research Fellow Philip Proudfoot, here he calls for a decisive realignment of humanitarian law and humanitarian action to halt genocide and other...

Martin Griffiths

Philip Proudfoot

10 June 2025

Student Opinion

Life after IDS: setting up a think tank in Sri Lanka

Yolani Fernando, MA Governance, Development & Public Policy, Class of 2022-23, is the Co-Founder and Executive Director of Arutha, (Arutha on Instagram) a Colombo-based policy think tank focused on economic research and communication with a special interest in public debt and taxation. In this...

Yolani Fernando, MA Governance, Development & Public Policy Class of 2022-23

10 June 2025

Opinion

The dynamics of ‘success’ in A1 land reform areas of Zimbabwe

There are many different versions of ‘success’ in Zimbabwe’s A1 land reform areas as we found out across 11 different ‘success ranking’ exercises in our sites in Mazowe, Gutu, Masvingo and Matobo districts. A total of 208 people (113 men, 95 women) were involved in different workshops,...

Ian Scoones

9 June 2025

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Financing for social protection in 2025 and beyond: anyone any clearer?

The power of communities during civic space closure in Central America

Rocío Elizabeth Ramírez Argueta, Oficial de programas y proyectos, COMCAVIS TRANS

El poder de las comunidades frente al cierre del espacio cívico en Centroamérica

Rocío Elizabeth Ramírez Argueta, Oficial de programas y proyectos, COMCAVIS TRANS

What does ‘success’ look like in Zimbabwe’s communal areas, and how does this compare with land reform areas?

Shaping the future of AI: The role of non-binding agreements

What children teach us about belonging on World Refugee Day

UK Spending Review: government needs to fix mixed messaging on research

Uganda’s tax system is a drain on small businesses: how to set them free

How to finance social protection finance in protracted crises: Five lessons

It is genocide: Humanitarian law must be enforced in Gaza

Life after IDS: setting up a think tank in Sri Lanka

Yolani Fernando, MA Governance, Development & Public Policy Class of 2022-23

The dynamics of ‘success’ in A1 land reform areas of Zimbabwe

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