Gabriella Jóźwiak - Freelance Journalist

"To be able to respond to modern-day challenges, U.K. development agencies need to shift their focus away from aid toward greater policy coherence. Given that the   U.K. will no longer provide aid to some middle-income countries such as India, its Department for International Development should form new models of cooperation within the health, education, culture, law and science sectors. Doing so will place more emphasis on working with small organizations, rather than larger delivery partners. These were the recommendations of a new report launched this month by the International Development Committee, where a group of influential members of Parliament argued that while aid is essential to reduce poverty and reach development and environmental goals, aid alone is not enough. Recommendations in the report were based on evidence collected over a period of seven months from more than 60 development organizations and experts. And glo...

" When people in developing countries don’t have access to a bank account, physical proximity to a bank is usually the first challenge that springs to mind, but sometimes the reason a person is unable to access a secure place to store their savings is as simple as them not having a piece of paper to prove who they are. Banking regulations vary between countries, and some allow banks to set their own rules about what proof of identity they accept for new customers to make sure no one is excluded. In South Africa  Standard Bank  accepts a  letter  verifying a person’s address from a tribal chief for certain accounts, while Postbank offers a Mzansiaccount , which does not require any proof of address but only offers basic transactional services and has a balance limit of 25,000 South African Rand (£1,362). However, international banking standards set by the intergovernmental Financial Action Taskforce recommend that people opening an account provide  spec...