Newsletter

Subscribe to Aidnography's newsletter!

* indicates required

Please select all the ways you would like to hear from Aidnography:

You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the link in the footer of our emails. For information about our privacy practices, please visit our website.

We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform. By clicking below to subscribe, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing. Learn more about Mailchimp's privacy practices.

Intuit Mailchimp

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Should I consider a PhD in International Development Studies?

After the Economist’s piece on the (non-)value of doing a PhD and some comments later (e.g. Prometheus doesn't read the Economist (I like the slightly cynical dichotomy between ‘civilians’ and the ‘academic insiders) or the ' 100 Reasons NOT to Go to Graduate School ' (they are only halfway through so check it out regularly in the future...) I had an interesting conversation with a prospective PhD student a few days ago. This was not the first time that I had been approached about doing a PhD and I always try to be as frank as possible, even playing the ‘devil’s advocate’ when it comes to the complicated ‘should I or shouldn’t I?’ decision-making process. At the end of our conversation I sat down and tried to summarize a few important and generic points from the point of view of doing a PhD in Development Studies and in the UK . I understand that every case is different and involves a range of motives, options and rationales, but there a few important questions and t...
Read more

Conan O'Brien visits Haiti-the remarkable story of how Team Coco is communicating development

Image
When a friend drew my attention to Conan O’Brien’s trip to Haiti following the infamous ‘sh&€hole’ debate which named the island among other countries, I did not see myself writing about the program as an excellent example of how a celebrity gets broadcasting from a distant, foreign place right. Unlike most celebrity ambassadors for large global organizations or celebrities with their own organization and mission to ‘eradicate poverty’, Conan’s independence and authenticity are his biggest assets as he strolls around Port-Au-Prince and talks to Haitians. His self-depreciating brand of humor clearly helps him in connecting with people and he is not afraid to sport the worst French accent I have heard in a long time or fool around with kids in a primary school. His secret to me is that he does not seem to do it for the photo-op or the instagrammable moment when the celebrity kicks the football across the dusty pitch, but he is immersing himself as much as possible within the co...
Read more

Oxfam, Haiti & the aid industry's #MeToo moment-a curated bibliography

Image
Last update: 4 July 2018. There are now more than 120 resources featured in this bibliography! For the time being, my bibliography will not be updated regularly anymore, but the July update includes new sources that are diretly linked to the financial fall-out from the original scandal. The debate has branched out in so many different directions since the original scandal broke that I want to keep this thread more narrowly about the Oxfam scandal and how media the aid industry responded to it. I find curated and annotated collections a useful way to share and save links, Tweets or videos on topics that produce a lot of food for thought and discussion on #globaldev issues. There have been quite intensive discussions these past few days after The Times broke the initial story on Oxfam's handling of the Haiti affair. I can't possibly claim that my curated overview is even anywhere near complete, but I have tried to compile quite a few news media articles and a first round of com...
Read more

Handbook on Humanitarianism and Inequality - Chapter 24 - Climate change, disaster and humanitarian action

Image
Every two weeks I am going to feature one of the chapters of our Handbook on Humanitarianism and Inequality which was published in spring 2024. This week we are taking a closer look at Chapter 24 - Climate change, disaster and humanitarian action - contributed by Ilan Kelman and Eija Meriläinen.  From the introduction  Integrating climate change mitigation and adaptation credibly would require a shift toward development (of which climate change mitigation and adaptation are subsets) – while facing and aiming to resolve the social inequalities embedded in climate change, disasters, and humanitarian action.  This chapter surveys how climate change affects humanitarian action. The next section (1) turns to social inequalities, humanitarianism, and climate change. Then, through illustrations of disasters, conflicts, and forced migration, Section 2 applies this framing to climate change and humanitarianism. Section 3 considers future directions and unanswered questions, foll...
Read more

Racism in the aid industry and international development-a curated collection

Image
In addition to my weekly curated #globaldev link collections, I set up special curated collections on Oxfam, Haiti & the aid industry's #MeToo moment and hurricanes Harvey and Maria before. The current debate about racism in the aid industry is another milestone into how 'development' is perceived, discussed, challenged, dismissed and encouraged to transform. Below is an ongoing collection of media articles and op-eds that I have come across in my digital networks in the last two weeks or so. DevEx and The New Humanitarian have covered the topic continuously (and not just since June 2020) and the diverse female leadership in these discussions is noticeable, but not surprising. There are already other excellent, comprehensive collections online such as the Resource pack: Educate yourself on racism and #BlackLivesMatter from the 50 Shades of Aid collective, Alyssa Bovell's Resources on addressing racism in development and decolonizing development practice , Heal...
Read more