Blog

I dag våknet jeg til vanvittige bilder fra Chile:  Over 1 million mennesker ute i gatene som synger og går fredelig i protest mot det som for hele verden har sett ut som Latin-Amerikas største suksess-historie.  Forklaringen som har festet seg er at det dreier seg om ulikhet. Men er det hele historien?

På mandag ble det klart at opposisjonen i Venezuela brøt de Norges-støttede forhandlingene på Barbados. Det var et langt mindre dramatisk slag mot forsøk på å finne en fredelig løsning på krisa, enn kvasiløsningen som Maduro presenterte bare timer senere. Den avslørte at han har gått bak ryggen til både forhandlere og tilrettelegere. Nå bør Norge tenke nytt om sin rolle - iallefall for en stund. 

Jeg synes begrepet influenser snarest burde forvises til historiens skraphaug, og at verden hadde blitt et bedre sted om flere hadde vært mer opptatt av å skape kunnskap og endring enn å skape seg selv. Jeg liker folk som har et engasjement for verden utenfor seg selv. I denne bloggen håper jeg ikke bare å formidle mitt eget engasjement, men også gi én av mange veier til kunnskap for andre engasjerte mennesker, og kanskje til og med skape engasjement. 

Business can help grow local communities, or they can exploit them. How should the private sector operate in fragile parts of the world?

Young people today have the mind-set and creativity to address planetary challenges, but their potential is still underutilized.

The youths mobilizing in the streets of Europe is the next cohort of university students. They will not only demand action and change from governments, but also from us.

The transformative agenda may be weakened, and distorted. We recommend that the most problematic indicators be re-examined.

Moving to other planets may be our only shot at long term survival. But for that to work, we cannot view these new habitats, like Mars, as just another pile of resources to consume.

Researchers can often appear as too negative when discussing the Sustainable Development Goals. To join the discussion, I recommend what I call critical engagement.

Should aid serve purposes other than ‘doing good’?

The world is far too complex to fit into neat categories and theories. Nevertheless, it is important to develop concepts and theories as a means to compare experiences from different corners of the world and draw lessons for the future.

Why continue to publish journal articles documenting climate change and the real mechanisms behind poverty and inequality, when one mans’ derailed rhetoric can reject it with no further proof?

Possible outcomes of aid fragmentation is that no one has the total overview of what the needs really are.

Professor Harold Wilhite explains how our unsustainable behaviours emerged from the values of capitalism, and why those behaviours remain just so difficult to change.

This is cause for celebration - But making the benefits real for the population depends on careful next steps.

According to my research, these are the main causes of persistence of poverty.

Obtaining access to electricity tends to have a positive effect on the lives of women and girls.