Aidnography

In 2013 I posted some readings that I found particularly helpful in the aftermath of Typhoon Haiyan that struck the Philippines. Many articles are still relevant in the current situation with Harvey and the flooding in the South of the United States. But there are also new, relevant articles that have started to link Harvey to broader questions of international development and humanitarian aid and that are interesting food for thought in 'our' industry. So I just start an annotated special link review and will add readings as I come across them-and please feel free to highlight interesting readings in the comments or on Twitter! Epic Floods — Not Just In Texas — Are A Challenge For Aid Groups Anzalone: For better or for worse, when people look at the U.S. response system, we have a very mature federal disaster response system, starting with FEMA [the Federal Emergency Management Agency]. It's a machine. Immediately before landfall of Hurricane Harvey, the governor of T...

Hi all, Development news: Louise ' In Congo's Shadow ' Linton is back! Bill Easterly admits that he was wrong! A special section on a ' Reading The Congo '; quitting Peace Corps ; how to get into the conservation industry? Reality TV & humanitarians; global health & men - and so much more! Our digital lives : Uruguayan Barbie; do advocacy documentaries work? The UK Home Office 'disrupted' NGO data; how men are shaping our contemporary cities. Publications: Agribusiness in Latin America. Enjoy! Development news In the line of fire Finally, we must provide better duty-of-care to all staff on the frontlines, particularly national staff. International aid agencies are increasingly providing aid remotely in highly insecure environments. This means they are delivering relief through local partners and transferring the risk to them. Local and national partner organizations face an inadequate level of security and support from their international partner...

Hi all, August still seems to be a bit quieter as we are slowly getting into gear for a new semester and new academic adventures! Nonetheless, there's always great food for thought and excellent weekend readings! Development news: UNICEF & the YouTube ambassador; China joins the pop-cultural discourse of White Saviors; Are ‘beg-packers’ a thing in Vietnam? Tanzania’s ghost safari-an old tale of modernization & development in today’s Africa; Africans are not waiting for their diaspora; new ways of being a digital Nigerian; chatbots & humanitarian assistance; ICC uses social media as evidence; Indonesia’s restrictions of the Internet also determine SDG success; how to involve communities in SDG monitoring; the history of foreign aid & American public opinion.  Our digital lives: Facebook & platform capitalism. Publications: Climate change meets humanitarian aid discourses; online protests harm companies; Nkrumah’s legacy of national self-determination. Academi...

Hi all, I'm wrapping up a fantastic week of teaching at a summer academy in Northern Germany! Lots of great discussions about the past, present & future of development and aid work! I even managed to get a new book review on the blog, but since I spent a bit less time online there are also fewer links in this week's review. Nonetheless, they are still worth exploring and provide ample food for thought as always! Development news: The ultimate guide to the cash-based aid debate; South Sudan's bleak humanitarian situation; a neat overview over the economic cost of accepting refugees; how feminist is Canada's new foreign policy really? Why do UN peacekeepers rape? the value of spiritual lives of aid workers; MUST-READS: A charter school travels to Thailand; the preservation of privilege in social activism. Our digital lives: UN Social 500; an archive on the history of the chemical-industrial complex.  Publications: New insights into participatory video; challeng...

To be honest, I am not much of a military history person. I am also not exactly a WWII person either when it comes to readings at the intersection of work and leisure. But Philip Woods’ Reporting the Retreat-War Correspondents in Burma intrigued me for its sub-title and I really enjoyed the reflections it sparked vis-à-vis today’s challenges of war reporting and the complexities of truth in media more generally. Philip Woods’ book about ‘the six-month, one thousand-mile retreat of the British and Chinese armies from Burma in the first half of 1942’ (p.1) is a very well researched historical case study of journalism, news media and the work of foreign correspondents. The book looks at a group of twenty-six correspondents who reported from Burma for newspapers and weekly newsreel broadcasts and, equally important, about half of the group wrote memoirs shortly after their assignment in South Asia. The discrepancies between their daily work, always impeded by military censorship, and t...