Fortnightly links: ending war, food rations, rebooting aid and trade, corporate concessions, and more

By Camilla Burkot and Terence Wood
26 August 2016

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.

Global war deaths per 100k ppl (Hervey)

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!).

About the author/s

Camilla Burkot
Camilla Burkot was a Research Officer at the Development Policy Centre, and Editor of the Devpolicy Blog, from 2015 to 2017. She has a background in social anthropology and holds a Master of Public Health from Columbia University, and has field experience in Eastern and Southern Africa, and PNG. She now works for the Burnet Institute.

Terence Wood
Terence Wood is a research fellow at the Development Policy Centre. His research focuses on political governance in Western Melanesia, and Australian and New Zealand aid.

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