CBeebies on international aid architecture

by | Apr 20, 2011


If you have young children, then you will of course be familiar with In the Night Garden, a TV show on CBeebies which goes out each evening just before bedtime.

But what you may not have realised is that the show is in fact a complex and highly sophisticated metaphor for international aid architecture.

Here, then, is a summary of my observations, with input and advice from a range of experts on Twitter.

Upsy Daisy is clearly meant to represent the World Bank. She’s confident, outgoing, never shy of sharing her views, and thinks the sun shines out of her behind.

Iggle Piggle is DFID: the inseparable partner of Upsy Daisy / the World Bank, but has a tendency to fall over when surprised (due, one suspects, to drastic headcount reductions).

The Pontipines are the NGOs. They run around in a little swarm and make a lot of noise, but it’s easy to forget that they’re there.

The Ninky-Nonk is UNDP. It charges around at breakneck speed, enthusiastically joining in with whatever looks fun at the moment, and tends not to stay long in one place.

Makka Pakka is USAID. He obsesses over detail and overlooks the big picture, and is also fixated on issues of cleanliness and transparency.

The Pinky Ponk is the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs. It takes a highly strategic overview, but is irrelevant to anything happening on the ground.

The haahoos are the EU and the regional development banks. They’re enormous, but no-one has any real idea of what on earth they do.

The tombliboos are the IMF. They do strange, mysterious things in the half-dark, and frequently get caught with their trousers down.

So there you have it. Presumably we can now look forward to a special In the Night Garden Live show at the Overseas Development Institute?

Author

  • Alex Evans is founder of Larger Us, which explores how we can use psychology to reduce political tribalism and polarisation, a senior fellow at New York University, and author of The Myth Gap: What Happens When Evidence and Arguments Aren’t Enough? (Penguin, 2017). He is a former Campaign Director of the 50 million member global citizen’s movement Avaaz, special adviser to two UK Cabinet Ministers, climate expert in the UN Secretary-General’s office, and was Research Director for the Business Commission on Sustainable Development. Alex lives with his wife and two children in Yorkshire.


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