Our Views

Out viewpoints / opinions on a specific top or news event.

New Deal - real deal?

A blog by our Secretary General

In both low and middle income countries, well established arguments and solid evidence confirm that there is no real development without peace and only the peace of the graveyard without development. These conclusions have shifted the fulcrum of discussion about development over the past several years. But they have not yet added up to telling anybody how to do it.

Thu, 18/04/2013

Women, men, violence - neither from Mars nor from Venus

Opinion piece by Henri Myrttinen, Senior Research Officer – Gender in Peacebuilding

This opinion piece appeared in The Huffington Post on 12 March 2013

Recent high-profile cases of gang rapes and murders of young women in India and South Africa have caused anger, anguish and soul-searching across the world. However these brutal cases are only the tip of the iceberg.

Henri Myrttinen
Sun, 31/03/2013

The welcome richness and diversity of debate about the post-2015 goals

A blog by our Director of Programmes

Back in mid-2010, in time for the MDGs-plus-10-years summit, International Alert published a review of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) which criticised the MDGs for being too narrow and too technical; for confusing ends with means; for being top-down and for being used in statistically illiterate ways; and for creating perverse and unhelpful policy incentives.

Fri, 29/03/2013

Development aid and peacekeeping: what can the money be spent on?

A blog post by our Secretary General

Crown Copyright 2010This week it was confirmed that in 2013 the UK will hit the target of spending 0.7 per cent of GDP on official development assistance (ODA). A long-standing campaigning goal for development NGOs and a moral goal for the country have been achieved.

Fri, 22/03/2013

Resilience: too accurate to be useful?

A blog by our Director of Programmes

Resilience is a wonderful metaphor. It somehow conveys in a single word the qualities of bending without breaking, of healing after an injury, of tensile rather than brittle strength. Oak and palm trees are resilient to the power of strong winds, before which they bend and then straighten again. Resilient people pick themselves up after being knocked down, draw on their reserves of ideas and strength to deal with difficult challenges, or hunker down until the gale has blown itself away.

Tue, 19/03/2013

Kenya elections: good for justice?

A blog by our Director of Programmes

To many disinterested observers last week's Kenya elections seem like a victory not only for President-elect Uhuru Kenyatta, for his Jubilee Alliance, and for the Kikuyu and Kalenjin tribes represented by Kenyatta and his running mate William Ruto.

Wed, 13/03/2013

Value for money: a very simple idea

A blog by our Director of Programmes

There has been a great deal of noise, confusion, and at times sound and fury, over Value for Money (VfM) among overseas development NGOs based in the UK, of late. This is because so many of us depend on UK government funding from DFID, which has been taking VfM more seriously since the last election – and not surprising it has, given the degree of scepticism about overseas aid among UK taxpayers, some MPs, and journalists.

Wed, 27/02/2013

Heads of state sign DRC peace deal

Alert's response

 

Massimo Fusato
Sun, 24/02/2013

The state of the world’s states

A blog from our Secretary General

The state is the organising principle of national and international politics and states are the subject of abundant historical research, academic theory and contemporary analysis.  That perhaps makes it a little strange to say that both the state as a category and states in general tend to be taken for granted. But that’s how it is – and it’s a problem.

Fri, 22/02/2013

The emergence of political order: how can we foster it?

A blog by our Director of Programmes

I recently read volume one of Francis Fukuyama’s The Origins of Political Order (Profile Books, 2011) in which he explores how different models of governance have emerged and decayed “from prehuman history to the French Revolution”. Volume two is forthcoming, and will bring the story up to the present day. As someone who works in peacebuilding, which is largely about fostering good governance today, I have a keen interest in how different governance regimes have emerged and decayed in history, if they provide us with clues for the present.

Peacebuilding central to post-2015 development agenda

Alert responds to High Level Panel communique on post-2015 development agenda

Group photo of High-Level Panel on Post-2015 Development AgendaThe panel established by the Secretary General of the United Nations to determine a new global approach to international development has concluded that peacebuilding is a central part of that new vision for human progress.

Chris Underwood, Senior Policy Advisor
Mon, 04/02/2013

UK Parliament on post-2015: A missed opportunity

An opinion piece by our Senior Policy Advisor

The International Development Select Committee, which scrutinises the Department for International Development (DFID), has issued a long awaited report on the post-2015 agenda.

Tue, 22/01/2013

The world's state of war and peace

A blog post by our Secretary General

Most of the trends that The State of the World Atlas looks at are ones that are visible across the last two decades since the Cold War ended. During that period, peace is one of the big, under-reported (though not unqualified) good news stories.

Fri, 18/01/2013

The unequal state of the world

A blog post by our Secretary General

16% of global economic output is owned by 0.000016% of the global populationThe state of the world is not just one thing.

Mon, 14/01/2013

The state of the world

A blog post by our Secretary General

16% of global economic output is owned by 0.000016% of the global population

Thu, 10/01/2013
Syndicate content