Author Archive:
Barry Knight
‘This has to be a wake-up call’: Final warning for philanthropy and civil society
The title of this article is a direct quotation from Hanna Surmatz, Head of Policy at Philea, who warned about the consequences of the June 2024 EU elections: ‘The anti-democratic and anti-EU forces are gaining …
The emerging story of philanthropy and peace
Recent growth in violent conflict across the world means that philanthropy has little choice but to address it. While the world’s media are focused on Ukraine and the Middle East, other regions including Sudan, Ethiopia, …
The change is now – but how?
After 18 months of work with the H & S Davidson Trust on its Reforming International Development programme, it is clear that the system is broken. As the world drifts towards ever more violent conflict, …
Peace needs more than one per cent of giving
Philanthropy should re-engage with peacebuilding in 2024. A gathering in Belfast must be the start of something bigger ‘We live in an age of war, and this is a perilous moment for the world’ is …
Breaking out of echo chambers: Expanding constituency conversations
Our consultations about the future of international development show that responsibility for deciding how money is spent should be transferred to people who receive the money rather than retained by those who give it. This …
Progress on reforming international development
In this article, we report progress on our consultations across the ‘development’ ecosystem in the nine months since the publication of the Jigsaw report that called for root and branch reform of international development. The …
An end to aid failure
Despite manifest failures and repeated criticisms, the machinery of international development remains substantially unchanged. It’s time for a radical overhaul A recently-launched study demonstrates overwhelming support for root and branch reform of international development. The …
25 years of philanthropy
From the flourishing of civil society to the fall of philanthrocapitalism and shift to a more trust-based philanthropy, our field has changed considerably in the last 25 years Alliance was born into an age of …
The peace deficit
A major new survey reflects concerns that philanthropy doesn’t give enough support to peace-building activities. If only it would, its qualifications for doing so are striking This article gives early results from a survey called …
The strange case of dignity
We need to build the capacity of actors on the ground to deliver an empowering strategy for users and beneficiaries, while satisfying the needs of multiple stakeholders, so that we can deliver our sustainable goals in accord …