Aidnography

Hi all, I have to start this week's post similar to last week's one -thanking Monica Mukerjee , Tara Todras-Whitehill & Ben Chesterton for taking the time to talk at our students again, discussing Decolonizing MSF, medical ethics in humanitarian situations & digital storytelling with us! A really interesting, passionate panel + discussion! We are also looking at Myanmar, the UK, Haiti & Congo as well as multilateralism, hunger, feminism & EU-Global South relations; new research on IOM & colonial continuities & participatory visual methods in Mali wrap up the #globaldev section. Plus, bad academic presentations continue online & offline and mining bitcoins is pretty bad for the environment...  My quotes of the week “I do believe we need a new deal on how to articulate international, national, local, in a different way, and that local actors need a bigger say – and need a different say – in articulating what needs are. And what they expect is obvious....

Hi all, NRC's Giulio Coppi as well as Dante Licona &  Léa Salwan from IFRC 's social media team joined our Glocal Classroom this week & it was such a powerful reminder of how important it is to invite practitioners to share their knowledge with students; it was also a great reminder of what a fantastic network I have access to & that with all the criticism and sometimes cynicism in the sector there are many, many excellent people doing great digital work! But there is also a more sobering #globaldev week in review from sexual violence in Sudan, trouble at various development banks, a complicated story of a Belgium prince in DRC, charter cities reloaded & reflections on a sector that needs to change + a reading section with open access articles & much more! My quotes of the week Celebrities here can take an easy stand, without crossing domestic partisan political lines. Everyone from Korean megastars BTS to American actors like Matt Damon and Goldie Hawn use...

Hi all, A solid #globaldev round-up this week tackling Pakistan, climate change & lack of accountability, the forthcoming UNGA, bitcoin failure in El Salvador, Bill Gates bashing, the humanitarian system, ending capacity building, UNDP's 'flagship report' + Swedish elections & the positive thinking industry! My quotes of the week The world’s rich countries (...) have deprived Pakistan of the long-term climatic conditions on which it has built its economy, homes, farms, and infrastructure. If there was a global climate court, Pakistan’s government would have a strong case against the US and other high-income countries for failing to limit climate-changing greenhouse-gas emissions (GHGs). (Pakistan and the Fight for Climate Justice) “Capacity building is the consolation prize money that foundations offer when they are willing to pay for us to get advice, but they aren’t willing to resource us to help our people get free.” The second quote resonated with most of the f...

Hi all, Just as the #globaldev community started to discuss the new UK government, including a new minister for development, another breaking news story may have appeared in your newsfeeds as well...even your trusted #globaldev link review kicks off with a thoughtful reflection on Queen Elizabeth's passing-but we are also looking at the state of the humanitarian system, UN politics, Eritrea & Nigeria plus long reads on global nomads & how Silicon Valley conquered the post-Cold War consensus. My quotes of the week Death is not the solution to injustice, nor does it heal the wounds caused by life for those who remain in the wake of a leader who refused to stand boldly against injustice. Collective change and each person benefitting from racial and economic castes surrendering that privilege is the answer. I warmly embrace the opportunity for change, and each of us seeing our part (not a monarch’s) in loving one another. (Xavier Ramey on the death of Queen Elizabeth II.) We d...

Hi all, First full teaching week, welcoming 150+ students to our courses with our team, happy days :). #Globaldev also happened this week, featuring the US, Ukraine, Equatorial Guinea & Brazil, plus Ponzi schemes, UN movers + shakers, important charities, journalism-humanitarianism & the poetics of birth, loss and limbos. My quotes of the week the conflation of traditional protection programming aimed at addressing external threats with the internal risks posed by organisations and their staff; the fusion of abuses against beneficiaries with abuses against staff resulting in a detraction in focus from those most vulnerable and lacking in recourse; the pursuit of criminal justice solutions for behaviours that either do not reach the criminal threshold or do not have a realistic prospect of criminal conviction; and the blind transference of approaches used in stable Western democracies for tackling child abuse and sexual violence into war-torn contexts without any semblance of th...