ODI’s Post

More than 600 million young people live in fragile contexts. But they are often not included in conflict resolution and peacebuilding processes. Instead they tend to be seen as drivers of instability, needing protection from radicalisation and extremism. In an ever-changing world, young people play a vital role in promoting social cohesion and tolerance, and bring important viewpoints to the table. Joyce Mendez, Member of the UN Secretary General's Youth Advisory Group, joined our latest Think Change podcast to discuss the role of youth can in promoting global peace and stability. Alongside Joyce, our host Sara Pantuliano is joined by Elizabeth Spehar (Assistant Secretary-General for Peacebuilding Support) and Dr. Jago Salmon (Senior Research Associate, ODI) to discuss how to build peaceful societies in a fragmented world. Listen here: https://buff.ly/4f9iE2D #SummitOfTheFuture #ThinkChangePodcast #Peacebuilding #Youth #YouthInPeacebuilding

This World Teachers' Day, let's talk about fostering gender-equitable values in schools! 🏫 While gender-transformative education is critical for shifting norms, working with boys on this front can be challenging. Not all educators or teachers have the resources or know where to start. But with the right tools, masculinity norms can shift! A new blog by Rachel Marcus for the ALIGN Platform shares seven insights for working with boys on gender norms: https://lnkd.in/egavhWYZ #WorldTeachersDay #GenderEquality #EducationMatters #GenderNorms #TransformativeEducation

Between 2022 and 2023, the UN estimates that amount of people needing humanitarian assistance increased by 33%. This is not only a tragedy in the humanitarian sense, but also presents a huge economic cost for the global community. On our latest Think Change podcast,  Assistant Secretary-General for Peacebuilding Support Elizabeth Spehar explains how much conflict is costing us. 🎧 Listen to the episode here: https://buff.ly/4ez45Wc #ThinkChangePodcast #HumanitarianCrisis #ConflictResolution #EconomicCosts #Peacebuilding

This week, ODI hosted the inaugural President of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), Mr Jin Liqun, for a panel discussion. The event formed part of ODI’s MDB Leaders Series, which features leaders of Multilateral Development Banks sharing their experience and vision for the future. Our main takeaways: 🛣 With infrastructure being the driver of growth and prosperity and being a big CO2 emitter, climate-resilient infrastructure projects are more important than ever. 💵 Given the shortage of public funds, providing an enabling regulatory environment for the mobilisation of private capital is essential. 🤝 Trust and reputation increase the viability of successful partnerships and need an institution to uphold high governance standards. As President Jin said, “Suspiciousness must always be forgiven, because there is no hope of a cure.” 👨👩👧👦 Effective human and financial resource planning is crucial for success. International staff should only be deployed to where technical expertise is needed, and not be established in countries by default. Thank you also to our colleagues Hans-Peter Lankes and Sara Colenbrander for joining the panel, and our Chief Executive Sara Pantuliano for moderating. View the event here: https://buff.ly/4gSvJ1C #MDBLeaders #InfrastructureForTomorrow #GreenInfrastructure #SustainableDevelopment #PrivateCapitalMobilization #GovernanceStandards #EffectiveResourcePlanning #ODIEvents

As conflicts continue to spiral across the world, global instability is increasing in the context of forced displacement, climate change and food insecurity. How do we step up our collective commitment to mitigate conflict and invest in prevention at a time where we are faced with new and pressing challenges such as new warfare technologies and an ever-changing geopolitical world order? The recent #UNSummitOfTheFuture offered an opportunity to harness the creativity and the innovation of young people. Will it deliver on its promise of creating more peaceful societies? Listen to our latest episode of “Think Change” featuring Elizabeth Spehar, Assistant Secretary-General for Peacebuilding Support, UN; Joyce Mendez, Member of the UN Secretary General's Youth Advisory Group; and Jago Salmon, Senior Research Associate, ODI. 🎧 Listen here: https://buff.ly/4eNknug #ThinkChangePodcast #OurCommonFuture #SummitOfTheFuture #PactForTheFuture

Can Multilateral Development Banks (MDBs) forge a path towards financing solutions to global crises such as the climate emergency, poverty reduction, and inequality? To address this burning question, ODI’s Deputy Chief Executive Hans Peter Lankes, along with Kathrin Muehlbronner, Senior Vice President at Moody's Ratings, joined Sarah Carlson, Senior Vice President at Moody's Ratings on Moody's The Big Picture podcast. MDBs function under an all-important mandate – financing development across the world. As such, the panel convened to discuss structural reforms that can better position these financial institutions to tackle the most pressing global challenges.  The discussion ranged across:  - Structural constraints that MDBs operate under  - MDBs’ appetite for risk-taking without comprising credit ratings   - Banks’ potential to increase lending capacity to meet immense global financing needs   - Harnessing strengths such as callable capital to broaden its financial scope   - #G20SouthAfrica’s capacity to lead on setting future ambitions for MDBs 🎧 Listen to the full podcast: https://lnkd.in/gaSsJeb5 #EconomicDevelopment  #DevelopmentFinance #TradeandInvestment #MDBs