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Displaced people wait to be given food during a distribution organised by the UN World Food Programme, USAID and other local and international NGOs, in Mogadishu Somalia on September 2008.	IRIN	© Jamal Osman/IRIN	http://www.irinnews.org/PhotoDetail.aspx?ImageId=200809248Walking the line between morality and pragmatism: the new White Paper on development

The new UK Government White Paper walks the line between promoting international development because it is right, and doing so because it is in the national self interest. Alison Evans asks whether it goes far enough on the ODI blog

The looming deadline for the Millennium Development Goals: 2015

Women on a stall selling chilli and food in Tanzania	Flickr	vredeseilandenThe deadline for the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals is looming, but what should happen next?, asks a blog by Milo Vandemoortele.

Making elections count

A woman is helped by a member of the polling staff to cast her vote at a polling station in Freetown, Sierra Leone, 11 August 2007. Sierra Leone's elections were the first to be organised internally since UN peacekeepers pulled out in 2005.	IRIN	© Tugela RidleyDonors need to shift to longer-term and consistent support for the electoral process be aware that their role in elections is limited, argues Bhavna Sharma in this ODI Opinion.

ODI journals among the best for impact

ODI journalsODI journals Development Policy Review and Disasters have been given Impact Factors by Thomson ISI of 1.409 and 1.273, respectively, ranking them 8th and 14th out of 43 planning and development journals.

The UN, the great recession, and the world's poor

Scavenging for scrap metal, near Hyderabad, this man and his wife make enough to get by selling iron onto the open market.	Flickr	ODI/Antony Robbins	http://www.flickr.com/photos/overseas-development-institute/2677489425/The United Nations should take a lead on monitoring the impact of the 'great recession' on the developing world, argue Alison Evans and Dirk Willem te Velde on OpenDemocracy.

Hidden lives: refugees in the cities

A woman carries her belongings as she moves from the violent torn, Mathare slums, Nairobi, 27 December 2007. Many people have been displaced by the post election violence that has erupted in most parts of Kenya.	IRIN	© Julius Mwelu/IRINThis new blog highlights the urgent need for better strategies to support the millions of refugees and internally displaced people in cities.

Poor countries hit harder than expected by global financial and economic crisis

Picking tea in a large tea field, Kenya	Flickr	daveblume	http://www.flickr.com/photos/kioko/3065124552/in/photostream/ An ODI study reveals a vivid picture of falling trade, dwindling remittances and lost jobs. The study has been quoted by the Economist and is also summarised in an ODI blog.

Tackling child poverty in West Africa

Mother and her children in the "Jesus slum", Nairobi, Kenya	Flickr	angela7dreams	http://flickr.com/photos/angela7/128977442/A series of reports, launched at a UNICEF/ODI event, show the importance of social protection programmes for child well-being in West Africa.