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Terence Wood

@terencewoodnz.bsky.social

150 followers 140 following 270 posts

Fellow at the Development Policy Centre. Aid, political economy, Melanesian politics. My writing at: https://devpolicy.org/author/terencewood/

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Political science 40%

Sociology 28%

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Reposted by Scott L. Greer, John McLaren, Christopher Wright , and 9 more Scott L. Greer, John McLaren, Christopher Wright, Megan L. Ranney, Rosemary A. Joyce, Philip N. Cohen, James M. Graham, Gerald Friedman, Helen Jefferson Lenskyj, Terence Wood, Nicole Guenther Discenza, Nathan P. Kalmoe

jamelle @jamellebouie.net · 1d

i desperately want everyone involved in the destruction of USAID to have to, st the very least, answer to the american people for the suffering and misery they have caused apnews.com/article/myan...

Starving children screaming for food as US aid cuts unleash devastation and death across Myanmar

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio has repeatedly said “no one has died" because of his government’s decision to gut its foreign aid program.

apnews.com

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Reposted by Terence Wood

maclellannic.bsky.social @maclellannic.bsky.social · 2d

Last month, Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka opened Fiji’s new embassy in Jerusalem. My Inside Story report looks at recent Pacific diplomatic support for Israel - a sharp contrast to international condemnation of Israeli policy in Gaza and the occupied West Bank.
insidestory.org.au/palestine-an...

Palestine and the Pacific • Nic Maclellan

Why have island nations been so prominent among supporters of Israel?

insidestory.org.au

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Terence Wood @terencewoodnz.bsky.social · 3d

Australians are becoming more supportive of aid spending over time. My latest blog post from our public opinion survey data. Very surprised by trends among conservative voters: devpolicy.org/australians-... @amitam.bsky.social

Australians are becoming more supportive of aid – slowly - Devpolicy Blog from the Development Policy Centre

Australians on the right and the left of the political spectrum are now more supportive of aid than they once were, says Terence Wood.

devpolicy.org

Terence Wood @terencewoodnz.bsky.social · 9d

Very useful discussion of some key development economics myths: voxdev.org/topic/mythbu...

Mythbusters: Development economics edition

Economic research plays a very useful role in testing our priors and establishing when widely held beliefs turn out to be false.

voxdev.org

Terence Wood @terencewoodnz.bsky.social · 9d

Of windmills and windbags, @pkrugman.bsky.social debunks nonsense from the usual suspects on the rise of renewable energy and the decline of coal: open.substack.com/pub/paulkrug...

Fossil Fuels and Fossilized Minds

What’s driving the doomed attempt to revive coal?

open.substack.com

Terence Wood @terencewoodnz.bsky.social · 14d

Thanks to the New Cold War the 2024 Solomon Islands elections ended up on the international stage. How did things work out? A lot better than the pundits predicted. My new open access journal article on what happened: www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

A New and Unfamiliar Sea: Politics, Geopolitics and the 2024 General Elections in Solomon Islands

The 2024 elections in Solomon Islands received an unusual amount of international attention, much of it focused on China. The elections were unusual in a range of ways: parties appeared to become m...

www.tandfonline.com

Terence Wood @terencewoodnz.bsky.social · 16d

NZ and Australia on this list. Overreach. responsiblestatecraft.org/drug-war-aumf/

Proposed war authorization could allow Trump to target 60+ countries

An 'insanely broad' draft AUMF could provide the president with wide latitude to go after supposed 'narco-terrorists'

responsiblestatecraft.org

Terence Wood @terencewoodnz.bsky.social · 16d

Globally, an increasing share of people say they feel safer walking at home at night, though it varies from country to country obviously, and is gendered too.
www.gallup.com/analytics/35...

Terence Wood @terencewoodnz.bsky.social · 21d

The latest on US aid. Likely lessons to emerge from this: vertical funds are ok actually if they get medicines to people in need; in poorly governed states NGOs are a good alternative; well given aid doesn't cause poor governance, domestic political economy does. www.nytimes.com/2025/09/18/u...

U.S. to Cut Out Nongovernmental Groups in Refocusing Health Aid

www.nytimes.com

Terence Wood @terencewoodnz.bsky.social · 24d

A blast from the past. What Australia thought about the Pacific during the Old Cold War (1987): nla.gov.au/nla.obj-3381...

Terence Wood @terencewoodnz.bsky.social · 25d

This is very helpful. From PNG's NRI a bibliography of all chapters, papers, studies etc. on elections in Papua New Guinea: pngnri.org/images/Publi...

pngnri.org

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Terence Wood @terencewoodnz.bsky.social · 29d

File under trivial curiosities: in the 2002 general election in Papua New Guinea a party called National Front stood 30 candidates. My guess is that their ideology was somewhat different from their northern hemisphere namesakes.

Terence Wood @terencewoodnz.bsky.social · Sep 10

Interesting on attitudes to Israel in the Pacific. In North Malaita there are actually people who believe they are lost tribe of Israelites. Other support is to do with evangelical Christianity and the internet. www.theguardian.com/world/2025/s...

As censure increases over war in Gaza, Israel finds support among Pacific Islands

Countries including Fiji, Papua New Guinea and Tonga have given Israel vital backing at the UN

www.theguardian.com

Terence Wood @terencewoodnz.bsky.social · Sep 7

What might the Trump administration's proposed pocket rescission mean for aid flows? Good explainer on @cgdev.org: www.cgdev.org/blog/pocket-...

The Pocket Rescission Gambit: Trump's Strategy to Cut Foreign Aid Without Congressional Approval

Official word came Friday that the administration would pursue a pocket rescission of $4.9 billion in international assistance funding. The move sets the stage for a larger fight over Congress’s const...

www.cgdev.org

Terence Wood @terencewoodnz.bsky.social · Aug 29

Is Australian climate adaptation aid really on the rise? Alyssa Leng and I dug into the data. Much of the rise is due to recoding of projects. To make matters worse projects are now more likely to have an adaptation focus in countries less vulnerable to climate change: devpolicy.org/assessing-au...

Assessing Australia's climate adaptation aid - Devpolicy Blog from the Development Policy Centre

In the rush to increase climate finance, Australia is focusing more attention on climate adaptation in places where it is needed less, say Wood and Leng.

devpolicy.org

Terence Wood @terencewoodnz.bsky.social · Aug 29

New Zealand's development NGOs need to take action on Gaza: terencew.substack.com/p/new-zealan...

Reposted by Terence Wood

ABC News Bot (unofficial) @abcnewsbot.bsky.social · Aug 28

Papua New Guinea's state-owned electricity company is trading while insolvent, with insiders describing the situation as "hopeless" and "untenable".

PNG's only electricity provider more than $1.5 billion in debt

Papua New Guinea's state-owned electricity company is trading while insolvent, with insiders describing the situation as "hopeless" and "untenable".

www.abc.net.au

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Reposted by Daniel W. Drezner, Bessma Momani, Terence Wood

Dylan Williams @dylanwilliams.bsky.social · Aug 28

NEW: 50% of Americans think Israel is committing genocide in Gaza, including 77% of Democrats and 51% of Independents.

60% of Americans oppose sending Israel more military aid for use in the Gaza war, including 75% of Democrats and 66% of Independents.

Quinnipiac poll: poll.qu.edu/poll-release...

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Reposted by Anna O. Law, Kim L. Scheppele, Brendan Nyhan , and 12 more Anna O. Law, Kim L. Scheppele, Brendan Nyhan, Mark Alfano, Eric Goldman, Efrén O. Pérez, Daniel W. Drezner, David R. Miller, Samantha Brennan, Terence Wood, Mark Rice, Olúfẹ́mi Táíwò, Dan Immergluck, Ernesto Castañeda, David Darmofal

Aaron Reichlin-Melnick @reichlinmelnick.bsky.social · Aug 28

🚨Border Patrol arrested two firefighters who were actively fighting a wildfire at the time.

When the other members of the crew asked for a chance to say goodbye, a Border Patrol agent told the crew member “you need to get the f*ck out of here. I’m going to make you leave.”

In images shared by firefighters from the scene, a U.S. Customs and Border Protection vehicle is parked nearby. Officers wearing
"Police" vests are seen arresting a firefighter, while another appears to be restrained.
According to one of the firefighters, they were denied the chance to say goodbye to the detained crew members.
"I asked them if his (family) can say goodbye to him because they're family, and they're just ripping them away," the firefighter told the Times. "And this is what he said: 'You need to get the (expletive) out of here. I'm gonna make you leave.'"

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Terence Wood @terencewoodnz.bsky.social · Aug 27

Good post on @cgdev.org from @ianmitchell1.bsky.social & Sam Hughes. How and where should the UK focus its aid amidst cuts. www.cgdev.org/blog/uks-aid...

As the UK’s Aid Cuts Begin, Which Countries Should the FCDO Protect?

The UK government is finalising country finance allocations, with £3 billion in cuts to its international budget planned over the next two years. Here, we offer recommendations on which countries to p...

www.cgdev.org

Terence Wood @terencewoodnz.bsky.social · Aug 26

Does news of US aid cuts change Australians' attitudes to aid? Today's blog answers this question drawing on our latest survey experiment. It also details broader trends in Australian attitudes to aid. devpolicy.org/have-trumps-... @amitam.bsky.social @leecrawfurd.bsky.social

Have Trump’s cuts made Australians kinder? 2025 aid attitudes survey - Devpolicy Blog from the Development Policy Centre

Australians are less hostile to the Australian Government spending on aid than they were a year ago, say Terence Wood and Cameron Hill.

devpolicy.org

Reposted by Michael A. Clemens, Terence Wood

24 Karat Gold Labubu 🪑 @jotabosco.com.br · Aug 21

Pra encerrar a noite com chave de ouro

Moraes dá 48h para Bolsonaro explicar descumprimento de cautelares que pode gerar prisão preventiva

Risco de fuga e obstrução no curso do processo podem fazer o ex-presidente perder o direito de permanecer com tornozeleira em casa

sem-paywall.com

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Reposted by Brendan Nyhan, Paul E. Johnson, Terence Wood

Prof Sheena Cruickshank @sheencr.bsky.social · Aug 13

Such an important article by @jakescottmd.bsky.social looking at the “evidence” used by RFKjr to support the decision to revoke mrna vaccine research: omit s large studies, misrepresents data, uses irrelevant studies and done without science ie immunology expertise 🧪

Kennedy's case against mRNA vaccines collapses under his own evidence

“This isn't scientific disagreement. It's either staggering incompetence or willful misrepresentation,” writes infectious disease physician Jake Scott.

www.statnews.com

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Terence Wood @terencewoodnz.bsky.social · Aug 12

The latest on the complexities of US aid cuts from @charlesjkenny.bsky.social : www.cgdev.org/blog/fixing-...

Fixing the Spending Crisis at the Department of State

The House Appropriations Committee has advanced a spending bill that suggests bipartisan support for continuing a similar level of global health funding next fiscal year. If realized that could help p...

www.cgdev.org

Terence Wood @terencewoodnz.bsky.social · Aug 12

Good new paper by @leecrawfurd.bsky.social. Investing in basic education delivers. www.cgdev.org/blog/childre...

Children Who Can Read and Count at Age Ten Earn More Later in Life: New Evidence from Indonesia

Children with stronger foundational reading and math skills go on to earn about 11 percent more as adults, even after accounting for family background and years of schooling. These skills offer value ...

www.cgdev.org

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Terence Wood @terencewoodnz.bsky.social · Aug 12

I thought the paper was convincing. This take a good additional point. I'm curious though as to why there was no impact on economic performance. Poorly designed programme, too small a programme to have a visible impact, too soon to for the impact to be clear?

Dani Rodrik @drodrik.bsky.social · Aug 12

Agreed, though the paper cited at the outset claims to answer your question. But a real test for “deliverism” would check whether policy delivered the desired economic outcomes. It turns out GDP in Texarkana actually grew less rapidly than nation as a whole, and unemployment fell at slower pace.

Reposted by Terence Wood

Dani Rodrik @drodrik.bsky.social · Aug 12

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Terence Wood @terencewoodnz.bsky.social · Aug 11

Devpolicy's new Australian Aid Transparency Audit is out. Not much good news in the world of aid at present, but Australian aid has become a lot more transparent, which is great: devpolicy.org/2025-develop... @amitam.bsky.social

How transparent is Australian aid? - Devpolicy Blog from the Development Policy Centre

Australian aid transparency has improved markedly but there is scope for further improvement, say Terence Wood & Estelle Stambolie.

devpolicy.org

Terence Wood @terencewoodnz.bsky.social · Aug 10

Note to self the @qoginstitute.bsky.social data tool is amazingly comprehensive and easy to use: datafinder.qog.gu.se/dataset/fe Where has it been all my life...

QoG Data

datafinder.qog.gu.se

Reposted by Terence Wood

Yanis Varoufakis @yanisvaroufakis.bsky.social · Jul 31

60,000 Gazans have been killed. 18,500 were children.
These are their names.
www.washingtonpost.com/world/intera...

60,000 Gazans have been killed. 18,500 were children. These are their names.

Palestinian children have been killed at a rate of more than one per hour since the war began.

www.washingtonpost.com

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