Theory in Practice

The World Humanitarian Summit was held last week, the culmination of over two years of work by the UN’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), and based on my Twitter and Facebook feeds, there was a lot to say about it. Now, I’m not always a fan of ‘summits’; I feel they are often talking shops or rubber stamp exercises that mostly result in lots of photos of smiling people, a suitcase full of reports and briefing papers, and an inbox full of emails that you have to catch up on when the event is finished. I’m not cynical, I’m pragmatic. A lot of money is spent for an outcome that runs along the lines of ‘the next steps.’ However, as I know quite a few of the people who worked tirelessly to make the WHS happen, credit is due to them for actually making it happen.

Development data is a big deal. In fact, there is so much literature and analysis out there on development data and the data 'revolution' that it is simply impossible to keep up. So forgive me if some of the following is dated or lacks in robustness - there are only so many hours in a day and I like to things that don't look like work on occasion.