Ian Mitchell

Last weekend saw the Island again swinging to the sounds of the hugely successful IW Jazz Weekend which is now a staple feature of the UK jazz scene.

The main difference between leasehold and freehold property ownership lies in control and duration. Freehold ownership means owning the property and the land it stands on indefinitely. Leasehold ownership, however, means leasing the land from the freeholder for a specific period, which can affect long-term rights and costs, including service charges and ground rent.

Germany is making steep reductions to its aid budget. Historically, it has struggled to deprioritise, with cuts spread evenly across programmes and countries. In this paper, we show how BMZ can deprioritise across the themes, partner countries and instruments. We find there is substantial room for improvement, leading to greater impact.

A great way to close out 2025—several of our partners joined BNN for a year-end wrap-up series, sharing insights across seven key sectors on the trends and developments shaping the market and driving industry forward.

Nevil Shute and the lessons of the R101 disaster

“This book tells the story of one incident in the silent, unceasing war between bureaucracy and art. As usual, the bureaucrats won, but the artist was right.” writes Ian Mitchell

The OECD's Development Assistance Committee (DAC) is discussing changes to the rules on which countries are eligible to receive official development assistance (ODA), the primary measure of foreign aid.

Official Development Assistance (ODA) is no longer a good measure of overseas or international aid or development. We have developed a new way to measure and talk about aid actually spent abroad.

While India's cooperation is undeniably strategic in nature, it demonstrates that even lower-income countries see the value in international cooperation. India has been and is a critic of the lack of transparency in others' provision of finance—and it could maximise the diplomatic benefits of its assistance and set an example to other providers by being more transparent about it. One opportunity would be for India to consolidate all data sources into a more accessible database, and to report to the UNDP-hosted International Aid Transparency Initiative.

On Tuesday, June 30, 2026, CGD's Ian Mitchell was invited to appear before the UK's International Development Select Committee to present evidence on the subject of “The UK’s International Climate Finance.”