Did you know that a Colombian ceasefire signed in June means that half of the earth — the entire Western hemisphere — is now free of official armed conflict? Angus Hervey writes about the fact that “war, one of our species’ most abiding and defining social practices, is at its lowest ebb ever”, including this remarkable graph.
On Somatosphere, anthropologist Emily Lynch takes a critical look at rations, cash for food programs, and chronic illness in the Gihembe Refugee Camp, a UNHCR camp for Congolese refugees in Rwanda.
A former development adviser to Australia’s trade negotiations asks whether this is the right moment to reboot the aid, trade and private sector agenda in this post on the FP2P blog.
An interesting discussion paper from the UNDP, released earlier this year, links the growth of violence extremism to growing ‘horizontal inequalities’, and sets out a framework for how inclusive development can help to prevent violent extremism.
This working paper written by University of Denver academics studies how citizens organise against corporate human rights abuses in Indonesia, Mexico, Nigeria, and South Africa, and how corporations respond. Among their findings: corporations undergoing leadership change, those in countries reliant on labour-intensive extraction (such as coal or minerals), and those in countries with a more robust rule of law are more likely to make concessions.
Lastly, from the BBC Media Action blog here are some tips on who to follow on Twitter if you’re interested in development and humanitarian work (obviously we would add @devpolicy to the list!).
