Best of the Blog 2023

This is our last blog for the year.

The editorial team of Robin Davies, Amita Monterola, Anne Moorhead and Sadhana Sen would like to thank you everyone who has written for, read, commented on, promoted and supported the Devpolicy Blog in 2023.

We hope you are able to enjoy some rest over the holiday period until we resume on Monday 15 January 2024.

Here are suggestions for your summer reading and a recap of the year with some of our favourite and most popular blogs.

Summer reads

Gordon Peake’s book Unsung Land, Aspiring Nation (free to download) is based on the four years he spent in Bougainville as an Australian aid-funded adviser. Stephen Howes recommends reading it for enjoyment, for understanding, and for better aid policy.

Donating to NGOs that deliver development assistance might be morally desirable if it helps, but what if it doesn’t actually help – what if it causes harm? These are the questions that Terence Wood reflects on in a two-part review of Larry Temkin’s latest book, Being Good in a World of Need.

Prema Clarke launched her new book Education Reform and the Learning Crisis in Developing Countries at the 2023 Australasian AID Conference. Robert Cannon praises her frank, personal account of growing up in India which offers rich insights into the challenges faced in educational development.

And if you have time, there’s plenty more good reading among the Devpolicy reviews.

Australian aid

Devpolicy series on Australia’s new International Development Policy

Local leadership in donor-funded programs

A shot at the title: why DFAT should change its name

Questions about Australian aid to fund the Pacific Games

Why are two in five Australian aid investments rated unsatisfactory on completion?

Is Australian public support for aid on the wane?

Doubling down on governance?

Global development

Global aid 2022: Australia risks becoming a minnow on development

If Malpass had to go, will Banga offer a brighter future for the World Bank?

Malaria: fight half done