ODI live events podcast

Among the many failures laid bare by the coronavirus, the failure of ‘club diplomacy’ to adequately respond to the current global pandemic is one of the most damaging to the cause of global prosperity, safety and stability. Held in the run-up to the G20 Summit in Riyadh over November 21-22, we explore several questions with leading scholars and policy makers relating to the future of the G20 as a...

The Covid-19 pandemic has disrupted lives across the world, highlighting the potential of the digital technologies but also exposing the need for more equitable opportunities for young people to use tech and advance their educational capital and skills for work. With an increasingly connected world ahead, we explore what is needed to help youth be more prepared for life and work. This includes not...

With over half of internet users under the age of 25, young people are central to any discussion about peace and security in the digital space. Young people are leading the way with using the internet in innovative ways and creating online peacebuilding initiatives where millions of active users are thriving in challenging contexts. Yet, while digital peacebuilding can help shape positive discours...

The search for durable solutions is at the heart of policy debates on internal displacement, but gender is still frequently sidelined from those conversations. Displacement affects all aspects of life – security, access to services, housing, social and political engagement – with implications felt in distinctive ways by people of different genders. With the establishment of the High-Level Panel on...

A recent analysis by ODI found that a small share of development finance investment is explicitly directed toward the health sector. However new health sector initiatives from the US Development Finance Corporation (DFC) and the UK’s CDC following the onset of the Covid-19 crisis indicate that this may be changing. In response to the crisis, development finance institutions (DFIs) have supported c...

The past five years have been pivotal for advancing disability inclusion in the humanitarian sector. The World Humanitarian Summit in Istanbul in 2016 was a key moment at which it was recognised that while persons with disabilities are disproportionately impacted by conflicts, disasters and other emergencies, they also face barriers to accessing life-saving humanitarian assistance. The Inter-Agenc...

The November 2020 pledging conference in Geneva will provide a vital platform for the Government of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan (GoIRA) and the international community to demonstrate progress and recommit to a peaceful future for the country. Given the recent deal between the United States of America and the Taliban, and tentative steps forward on an intra-Afghan dialogue including all key...

The UK contributes around £181 million a year to the three organisations that make up the African Development Bank Group, representing around 1.3% of the UK’s development budget. A recent review by the Independent Commission for Aid Impact (ICAI) found that the institution’s reach and deep expertise in Africa meant that contributing to the Bank could be a more effective way for the UK to achieve d...

In 2018, the ILO estimated that approximately 42% of the global workforce, 1.4 billion people, were in vulnerable employment, for developing countries this proportion was 76%. The 2020 Covid-19 crisis will significantly reduce the number of people in jobs and proportionally increase the number in vulnerable employment. As market demand comes to a sudden halt, developing country firms that are link...

The negotiations for COP26 were always going to be tough, but the need to secure more ambitious nationally determined commitments now comes at a time of profound economic turmoil within the global economy due to Covid-19. On the one hand, there are concerns that efforts to address climate change will receive less priority as efforts to reboot economies dominate. On the other hand, efforts to build...

2020 was set to be the year when governments upped their ambition for action on climate and biodiversity. Yet, we know the reality – exacerbated by the coronavirus – has been different. The world has only a few years left to deliver drastic greenhouse gas emission reductions and stem the loss in biodiversity, or we lose any realistic chance of addressing the climate crisis successfully. While poli...

Governments worldwide are relying on cash and tax transfers to households with children in response to the Covid-19 crisis, amid growing calls to strengthen and expand cash transfers and social protection. A recent UN SDG report states: 'It is particularly urgent to rollout or expand social assistance to families, preferably through the use of universal child benefits.' Universal child benefits (U...

The behavioural challenges of post-conflict life by ODI Global

Please note this podcast is in Arabic. To listen to the event in English, please visit https://soundcloud.com/odi-live-events/coronavirus-and-local-peacebuilding-efforts-in-north-africa-soundcloud-e. في مارسوسط جائحة كوفيد19 و بعد أن دعا الأمين العام للأمم المتحدة أنطونيو غوتيريس إلى وقف إطلاق النار في العالم ، رأى العديد من المحللين السياسيين فرصة للسلام. ومع ذلك، فإن الواقع في العديد من مناطق ال...

Please note this podcast is in English. To listen to the event in Arabic, please visit https://soundcloud.com/odi-live-events/coronavirus-and-local-peacebuilding-efforts-in-north-africa-soundcloud-a. In March, after UN Secretary-General Antοnio Guterres called for a global cease-fire amid the Covid-19 pandemic, many political analysts saw an opportunity for peace. However, the stark reality in man...

As governments wrestle with the trade-offs between continuing their lockdowns in support of public health during the Covid-19 crisis and easing restrictions to boost ailing economies, everyday life is changing. While it is hoped that some aspects of life before Covid-19 will resume, a new ‘normal’ will also likely emerge. And this is also the case with research and data collection. As this webinar...

We discuss the recent announcement by the UK government to merge the Department for International Development with the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, with perspectives from the Commonwealth, Development Assistance Committee countries and the aid sector.

In these unprecedented times, millions of refugees face lockdown in environments where social distancing or access to essential financial or medical support are limited or non-existent. As families and communities struggle to access resources, schools or opportunities, child-marriage and unsafe underage labour are beginning to take priority over education, and concerns are mounting that adolescent...

The ongoing coronavirus pandemic is posing unprecedented challenges across the world, putting considerable strains on leadership, the health sector and our way of living. Insurgent groups from the Taliban to Al Shabab, have provided health advice and produced propaganda highlighting their action against Covid-19. Gangs in Rio have sought to enforce pandemic restrictions and notorious cartel leader...

'What if some African governments are doing a better job than our own of managing the coronavirus?' (New Yorker, May 2020) Covid-19 has gripped the world, shaken the multilateral system and caused widespread uncertainty. One thing remains clear, there is no going back and adaptations will need to be made to shift towards a new normal. The key to this will be developing new forms of cooperation bet...

The spread of the Covid-19 virus is testing the health and economic systems of individual countries and the world as a whole. The standard response ‘toolkit’ initially focussed primarily on containing the spread of the virus, with some adjustment of economic and social policies required to address the needs of people in or near poverty. Across countries there are growing concerns about the impact...

The effects of the Covid-19 crisis in sub-Saharan Africa through trade, commodity prices, remittances, tourism and global value chains are likely to be devastating. The World Bank is forecasting a decline in growth in the region from 2.4% in 2019 to between -2.1 and -5.1% this year, estimating African economies could lose between $37 billion and $79 billion in output losses. This will have huge fi...

Decades-long commitments to supporting more ‘local’ responses to crises have not resulted in significant shifts in the traditional humanitarian system. Funding, decision-making and capacity continue to be concentrated in large international aid actors. Experts are now highlighting the critical role that local responders will play in relation to Covid-19 given their ability to act fast, engage comm...

India’s federal government has taken a cautious approach in response to the social and economic impacts of the coronavirus crisis. The initial fiscal support provided was equivalent to just 0.8% of GDP – despite millions of workers losing their jobs since the lockdown has been put in place. More recently, Prime Minister Modi has promised a much larger economic stimulus package, although there seem...

The ongoing coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic is posing unprecedented challenges to leadership across the world. The pace at which policymakers, practitioners and researchers react to this emerging and complex crisis will make a profound difference to people’s lives and livelihoods. But how can we ensure effective, collective decision-making based on emerging evidence, changing trends and shifting s...