Think Change

On the cusp of the Women Deliver Conference in Kigali, Rwanda this episode explores the growing anti-rights agenda relating to women and sexual minorities. Women’s rights and freedoms are being compromised and are under threat in many parts of the world. Well-funded, ultra conservative forces are pushing a narrative which directly targets the liberties of women, girls and sexual minorities. How ca...

To mark Refugee Week, we highlighting the transformational impact that refugee leadership and expertise can bring to refugee responses. The importance of refugee leadership is now widely recognised. It is a key focus of the Global Compact on Refugees, which pledges to support refugee-led organisations (RLOs) and enable meaningful participation. But is this rhetoric materialising into practical act...

Next week, world head to Paris for the Summit for a New Global Financing Pact. In the words of French President Emmanuel Macron, the Summit will ‘provide a forum to take stock on all the means and ways of increasing financial solidarity within the South.' It builds on the so-called Bridgetown Initiative launched at COP by Prime Minister of Barbados, Mia Mottley, but goes beyond Bridgetown’s c...

African countries have had close economic relationships with China for many years. China is a major trade and investment partner, technology and infrastructure collaborator and development finance player in Africa. This has challenged traditional Western donors who had colonial relationships with many African countries as well as the US, until now the unquestionable dominant security and military...

The current terrible violence in Sudan comes almost twenty years to the day of when the genocide in Darfur started. Darfur was headline news at the time, but forgotten by the international community since. Only the recent escalation of violence between powerful armed groups in Khartoum has put Sudan back in the spotlight. This episode continues the conversation from an ODI event this week on the f...

On the face of it, the global outlook for democracy looks pretty bleak. Democratic norms are eroding all over the world. According to International IDEA, ‘half of the world’s democracies are in retreat’. In Tunisia we have seen President Saied dismiss parliament and re-write the constitution. In Hungary, President Orbán has packed the courts and attacked the press. And in the US, Trump refuses to...

In just over a week’s time, the Spring Meetings of the World Bank and IMF will see the first formal session for a Global Sovereign Debt Roundtable.  The problem of debt, and debt sustainability, has become one of the most urgent issues facing many low and middle-income countries around the world. The IMF estimates currently 36 low-income countries are at high risk of, or are currently in, debt dis...

The rhetoric around immigration in Europe has become increasingly politicised and polarised. National governments are taking a more hostile approach in both the narrative used, and the implementation of regressive policies that are costly and ineffective. In the spirit of ‘deterrence’ we are seeing pushbacks of migrants arriving by sea in southern Europe and at numerous land borders with severe co...

This International Women's Day, we ask how and why men should care more about feminist visions for a fairer society. Every year on 8 March, women organise together to collectively demand their rights – specifically to transform gendered inequalities in paid and unpaid labour.  But there is an aspect of this conversation that is not talked about enough. It is about men’s neglected role at home...

On 6 February, two major earthquakes struck Türkiye and Syria, bringing widespread destruction to both countries. Scientists had issued warnings, but the scale of damage caused was never anticipated and had not been prepared for. In this episode we hear a range of perspectives, including from those on the frontline of the response in both Türkiye and Syria, to build a picture of the different chal...

Protests have gripped the country over the past four months. It’s not the first instance of civil unrest since the Iranian Revolution 44 years ago, but is there something different about how today’s women-led movement, whose rallying cry of ‘zan, zendegi, azadi’ – ‘woman, life, freedom’ – has galvanised activism today? This episode dives into the current situation in Iran. We hear what the protest...

Until recently, conversations about ending poverty were very mainstream. The sustainable development goals spoke of ending extreme poverty, and reducing poverty in all its forms to very low levels by 2030. But poverty seems to have fallen out of common parlance when discussing the many crises we face today. More fundamentally, are traditional notions of ending poverty simply by increasing individu...

This final episode of 2022 reflects on the year that has just been and looks ahead to 2023. It has been a year of major and often cascading crises. Many have been covered on this podcast, from the war in Ukraine and its spill over effects, to other shocks like the US decision to overturn Roe v Wade . But there have been some positive steps towards solutions . We have discussed some of those too, i...

COP27 ended with the launch of a new ‘loss and damage’ fund, which will provide financial assistance to poor nations stricken by climate disaster. But this money is unlikely to reach fragile communities in areas affected by conflict. These communities are also the most vulnerable to the impacts of climate change and the least ready to adapt. So the more unstable a state, the less climate finance i...

With COP27 now under way in Sharm El Sheikh, this episode explores why loss and damage is a key focus for this year’s negotiations through the perspective of Small Island Developing States (SIDS).SIDS are most heavily impacted by the impacts of climate change, despite being the least responsible for them. Average annual losses from extreme weather events are projected in the trillions of dollars b...

The International Energy Agency last year found that there is no room for any new coal, oil or gas if the world is to achieve net zero emissions by 2050 – a crucial target to keep global heating to 1.5°C. But how do we balance this with the stark reality that fossil fuels today account for around 80% of the world’s energy consumption and that in many countries these energy needs are growing? Renew...

Finance Ministers, Central Bank Governors and leaders of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF) are heading to Washington for the Annual Meetings, to discuss how to respond to the grim forecast captured in the latest outlook for the global economy. The IMF and the World Bank emerged from a pact between world leaders in the aftermath of another international catastrophe – World War II...

Global energy prices continue to rise. Coal prices are projected to increase by 81% in 2022, crude oil prices by 42% and natural gas prices by 74%. But these costs aren’t shared equally, especially for natural gas which requires specialised distribution infrastructure. The Russia-Ukraine war has therefore had an especially profound impact on Europe, which has been beset by a cost of living crisis....

Twenty years of western intervention in Afghanistan were bought to an abrupt end a year ago after the Taliban’s swift advance on Kabul. Their takeover sparked international disarray. Short-term, humanitarian solutions have failed to address the most critical challenges Afghans face. The Taliban were ‘semi-governing’ everyday life in parts of Afghanistan long before the fall of Kabul. Reports from...

Since the birth of Bitcoin in 2008, cryptocurrency (or crypto) has had a significant impact on the way we think about money and financial services. It has even prompted discussion of a ‘new dawn’ in global financial inclusion. Many argue that cryptocurrencies – as well as the blockchain technology that forms the basis of this digital money – can help create more open and democratic financial syste...

The Rwanda asylum plan refers the UK’s government’s controversial proposed policy to deport people identified as illegal immigrants, or seeking asylum, to Rwanda for resettlement. A judicial review of the policy is now set to take place in September, but the UK government continues to defend it and has not ruled out deportation flights over the summer. The case itself has been hugely divisive in t...

This month global trade ministers held talks at the World Trade Organization for the first time in five years. As the conference spilled into a sixth day, an agreement was finally reached to waiver Covid-19 patents (the TRIPS waiver).This deal temporarily removes intellectual property barriers around patents for Covid-19 vaccines and postpones the discussions on extending the waiver to treatments...

Following four failed rains and with the threat of a fifth, the Horn of Africa is now facing the worst drought for 40 years, with up to 20 million people at risk of going hungry. The current crisis is drawing parallels to the famine in 2011 that killed nearly 260,000 people in Somalia alone. Aid agencies and food security experts raised the alarm about the impact of failed rains long ago, so why a...

What does overturning Roe vs Wade mean for people living beyond US borders? We discuss the international aftershocks of the news that this 1973 Supreme Court decision is likely to be overturned. How can global activists safeguard existing abortion rights and at the same time prevent backsliding? How can we collectively navigate this new context while supporting a comprehensive agenda on reproducti...

This episode examines how we can stop wars and better support peace efforts around the world. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has again put the spotlight on the failures of current approaches, but could this also be a critical moment to reform the agenda? Our experts discuss what we have been getting wrong and what needs the change. Speakers:· Sara Pantuliano, Chief Executive, ODI· Elizabeth Spehar,...