Does the world really spend more than three times as much on on ice cream each year as it does on humanitarian assistance? The BBC’s More or Less team have a look at this factoid and conclude it’s basically correct. Note though, that this is for humanitarian assistance, not all ODA. A comparison of More or Less’s number for ice cream consumption, and OECD data, shows that the world doesn’t spend three times more on ice cream than it does on ODA, but it does spend more. Depressing.
Lisa Denney from ODI looks at likely consequences of the Global Gag Rule, with some horrifying anecdotes from her fieldwork in Sierra Leone.
Also at ODI Dirk Willem te Velde discusses DfID’s new international development strategy. And David Booth celebrates the same document, alongside the new World Development Report ‘Governance and the Law‘. Plenty of useful food for thought for Australia here.
This excellent multimedia feature from the New York Times looks at the emergence of cholera in Bangladesh — and the promise of a new, cheap and effective cholera vaccine developed and now manufactured in that country too.
Michael Edwards has a great piece musing on the future of advocacy oriented NGOs.
