The UK Govt has updated its #IntegratedReview of foreign, defence, diplomacy and development.

10-point thread on the implications for #development

Overall, UK development policy is past its nadir but still short of development leadership. 1. First, there are some big improvements to the overall approach:

- very little boasting/ boosterism;
- it actually mentions Europe;
- the commitment to multilateralism is consistent and strong

Where are we on the 2022 food price spike?

The FAO released its latest food price index today, 10 weeks since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine sparked a spike in grains and vegetable oils.

A few developments this week, a thread: 1. The FAO confirmed that prices in April steadied - albeit at a record high, 60% above the 2014-16 average

The EU is planning a tax on African carbon with its Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (C-BAM)

Our new analysis shows material -ve impacts on some African economies.

@SPleeck, Fatima Denton @UNUINRA, and I analyse impacts and implications for #EUAUSummit.

Thread: 1. The EU’s C-BAM should reduce Greenhouse Gas emissions by preventing ‘leakage’ to places without carbon pricing. The most-affected imports are from middle-income countries inc China, Russia

But the impact for some African economies will be very significant

With the UK's aid commitment being debated a commonly-cited argument (inc by @BBCNews) against it is

"A household that is having to borrow every year wouldn’t give to charity: it should pay off its own debts first”

Four reasons this analogy is wrong and the counter-arguments: First, the Government isn’t a household - it won’t die, or retire, so the imperative to pay off debt isn’t the same. Indeed, as this @ICAEW chart shows, every G7 economy is in debt, the UK not particularly so.