International Development, Where Now?

Loosely defined as the transfer of funding and decision-making powers to local actors, localization is certainly not a new concept – phrases such as ‘locally-led development’, ‘community-led development’ and ‘doing development differently’ have been pretty commonplace for years. But as an all-encompassing narrative, localization took centre stage a few years ago when US Agency for International De...

Can leaders choose a development path? Who decides and how? What conditions lead to a pro-development agenda and what’s the role of external agencies in all of this? We ask leading economist and former policy advisor to the UK Foreign Secretary, Stefan Dercon, these questions and more in our latest podcast: International Development, Where Now? Chatting about his revealing book, ‘Gambling on Devel...

Thanks for listening to the first series of Policy in Pandemics. We're taking a short break while we line up the next episodes but will be back in a couple of weeks.

Despite an unexpected delay in covid-19 mortality rates, Africa is facing an 'unprecedented policy crisis'. We speak to Kate Dooley, the West Africa Regional Director for the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change. Kate talks about her experience working on Ebola in 2014-15 in Sierra Leone and the differences of covid-19 to Ebola. We discuss what is happening on the ground in Africa, what might be...

Can covid-19 bring greater transformation and morality in economic policy making? We conclude our conversation with Matt Andrews examining the longer term impact covid-19 might have on the international development sector. Matt discusses the opportunity for ‘game-changing growth’and his hope that this crisis will accelerate a shift towards countries taking greater ownership over reform, and greate...

In the first of a two part conversation we discuss what makes good crisis management, good communication, and leadership in the public interest. We speak to Matt Andrews, head of the Building State Capability Programme at Harvard, and Edward S Mason professor of public policy at Harvard Kennedy School of Government. We explore what some countries have got right, empowering people at all levels of...

We speak to the Emeritus Head of the Health Department for Western Cape, Beth Engelbrecht, about the COVID-19 response in South Africa. We discuss the challenges of a public health response the context of massive economic inequalities, large vulnerable populations, and the ever present social and economic legacies of Apartheid. Beth provides insights into the benefits of dispersed leadership, and...

We discuss the smart lockdown and kick-starting the economy in Punjab with the Chairman of Punjab’s Planning and Development Board, Hamed Yakoob Sheikh. This podcast was recorded on 23 April. As of 12 May, there are 32,081 recorded cases of COVID-19 in Pakistan and 706 deaths. There are 1932 cases in the Punjab province, and 33 confirmed deaths. In the discussion we explore the challenge of tailor...

In our first episode of Policy in Pandemics, we talk to Etjen Xhafaj, who is the Deputy Foreign Minister of Albania, about the crisis so far in Albania and how they have responded, highlighting the successes of Albania's epidemic handling so far despite a number of challenges. The conversation was recorded in the second week of April, but Albania’s epidemiological statistics have not changed signi...

Welcome to Policy in Pandemics, a new podcast from Oxford Policy Management which will be looking at the current Covid-19 crisis from the perspective of governments, leaders and policy makes around the world. What you can expect from us in the coming weeks? We’re going to be talking to a whole range of different people – people in government who are grappling with the crisis response, people outsi...