Terence Wood

@terencewoodnz.bsky.social

160 followers 140 following 280 posts

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

Videos

Political science 40%

Sociology 28%

Posts Replies Media Videos

Terence Wood @terencewoodnz.bsky.social · 2d

New Zealand businesses are lobbying the government to tie more of its aid to the Pacific. In this post I explain why this would be a terrible idea: open.substack.com/pub/terencew...?

Tying New Zealand aid is an awful idea

Some people want New Zealand to tie its aid. Here's why that would be a bad idea

open.substack.com

Reposted by Terence Wood

Dr Sharon Bell @sharonbell.bsky.social · 13d

Dr @terencewoodnz.bsky.social “said that New Zealand's aid approach, amid an ever-increasing scarcity, is becoming more transactional rather than being based on a larger vision for long-term outcomes”. 😬

www.rnz.co.nz/internationa...

Pacific faces major aid shortfall as NZ and Western donors scale back - Lowy Institute report

Lowy Institute report says New Zealand is expected to reduce its overseas aid funding by about 35 percent in the next two years.

www.rnz.co.nz

Terence Wood @terencewoodnz.bsky.social · 19d

Welcome to the new world of aid influencing. This from @timhirschelburns.bsky.social makes me think I need to get out more often, or actually stay in more often and watch YouTube: timhirschelburns.substack.com/p/mrbeast-is...

MrBeast is Aid's Biggest Spokesperson

If you're surprised, it's because you're living in yesterday's media environment

timhirschelburns.substack.com

Terence Wood @terencewoodnz.bsky.social · 20d

Note to self THEA (used to be CLEA) has election data on a lot of Pacific countries: electiondataarchive.org/wp-content/u...

electiondataarchive.org

Terence Wood @terencewoodnz.bsky.social · 21d

More interesting research on NBER: homeless shelters help www.nber.org/papers/w34376

The Social and Individual Effects of Homeless Shelter: Evidence from Temporary Shelter Provision

Founded in 1920, the NBER is a private, non-profit, non-partisan organization dedicated to conducting economic research and to disseminating research findings among academics, public policy makers, an...

www.nber.org

Terence Wood @terencewoodnz.bsky.social · 21d

Interesting research: cellphone bans are not unproblematic, but they do seem to lead to better education outcomes: www.nber.org/papers/w34388

The Impact of Cellphone Bans in Schools on Student Outcomes: Evidence from Florida

www.nber.org

Terence Wood @terencewoodnz.bsky.social · 27d

Prediction: this is all going to end in tears - www.cgdev.org/blog/other-o...

Other Official Flows: Why More Than ODA Matters

In this blog I highlight that by ignoring Other Official Flows (roughly, official finance not concessional enough to be counted as ODA), analysts are significantly misinterpreting trends in developmen...

www.cgdev.org

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 · Oct 8

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

Reposted by Terence Wood

maclellannic.bsky.social @maclellannic.bsky.social · Oct 7

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

Terence Wood @terencewoodnz.bsky.social · Oct 6

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 · Oct 1

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 · Oct 1

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 · Sep 25

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 · Sep 24

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 · Sep 23

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 · Sep 18

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 · Sep 15

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 · Sep 15

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

Terence Wood @terencewoodnz.bsky.social · Sep 10

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

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...

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.'"

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

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.

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