Aidnography

Hi all, AI & ChatGPT, fast fashion, weaponization of social media, refugee protection & many challenges for humanitarian aid in Ethiopia, Somalia, Burkina Faso, Bangladesh & Myanmar are so of this week's stories-plus a little Gates foundation skepticism & a leading humanitarian scholar who joins Extinction Rebellion in her home country! My quotes of the week “Fraud is not restricted to aid, and it’s not restricted to cash. The question for me is how, then, agencies deal with it after they uncover it.” (GiveDirectly loses $900,000 in DRC mobile cash fraud) “The world has failed to support the most vulnerable, but this can be reversed. The lives of millions of people suffering in silence can improve, if funding and resources are allocated based on need, not geopolitical interest, and media headlines of the day.” (Burkina Faso is the world’s ‘most neglected crisis’ as focus remains on Ukraine) When he first started working at the market 24 years ago, he remembers bein

As AI, ChatGPT & broader discussions on the tools & technology behind it enter the digital #globaldev discussion sphere, I started a curated collection of articles & podcasts that have caught my attention so far. Much of the content is about early experiments with ChatGPT with a few writers sharing broader reflections on potential opportunities & problems-often along the lines of what has previously been discussed in the ICT4D field around 'digital divides', 'technology not solving deeper-rooted political issues' & 'we don't know yet'... Not surprisingly, almost all of the authors are based (in organizations) in the Global North, but not as gender-imbalanced as I would have thought, given that (technical) #globaldev writing on the Internet is still dominated by male writers. I will update the collection on a rolling basis-so don't hesitate to point me to stuff I have overlooked so far! P.S.: I asked Nightcafe for an AI-generated ima

Hi all, Welcome to another review after the weekly tour-de-Internet to highlight some great #globaldev readings; global governance, human rights, US arms sales, UN peacekeeping, the capitalistic history of sugar & many more development, humanitarian & global solidarity connections! P.S.: Next week will be peak thesis examination season-so the Tuesday newsletter should still go out, but no full review on Friday. My quotes of the week Mitchell said: “It’s absolutely a core argument that development is about building safer and more prosperous societies over there, so that the people don’t come over here. It’s absolutely at the heart of it all.”  (Giving aid to poorer countries helps prevent migration to UK, says minister) One of their partners used the (unrestricted) funding to get an office because having their meetings in cafes meant that partners didn’t take them seriously. “Even paying rent – such a basic thing – helped raise the profile and the diversity of funding for this

Hi all, Welcome to a this week's edition of 'around the #globaldev world in (well, not quite...) 80 links'! #globaldev news, insights from global organizations, commentary, reports & more! Happy critical reading! My quotes of the week When asked by the U.K. Parliament’s International Development Committee if the aid cuts had impacted the lack of communication and understanding officials had about the Sudan crisis before it erupted, Kholood Khair, founding director at the think tank Confluence Advisory, said the answer was a “resounding yes.” (Experts link UK aid cuts to crisis in Sudan at parliamentary hearing) Suddenly, community members and people with lived experience of the issues discussing applications and making decisions is not seen as a risky way to make grants. Getting those you fund together and genuinely listening to them talk about the impact they are having, what is working and what is not working becomes a much more reliable way to get a ‘report’. It bec

Hi all, When it comes to failing the Syrian people entities from the Arab League to the IOM & the Australian government feature in this week's newsletter; the Taliban, Mugabe's daughter & Sudanese generals complete a picture of rather undesirable dinner guests...'migration management' meets #globaldev again & getting #globaldev right is hard-especially if you are the World Bank...and should indigenous 'pretendians' in #highered return grant money & honorary degrees? My quotes of the week Now that most foreigners have left the country, resupplies and reinforcements for both parties are pouring in; the battle is set to escalate. This is the revolution no one wanted. (The Revolution No One Wanted) The stoppage has rankled local relief workers, alarmed U.N. relief experts, and triggered allegations that the migration agency had intentionally torpedoed the program, which is deeply unpopular with the government in Damascus, to help patch up its relati