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I have been researching global development for more than 20 years-and I am really not optimistic right now

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The beautiful thing about blogging is that it remains such an evolving, flexible and reflective genre for me. Almost three weeks after my recent post on the impact of dismantling USAID -one of the most viewed posts in a very long time, I have thinking about a follow-up post. And then I read Ken Opalo's post What will become of international development after the end of the aid paradigm? with great reflections and advice on what the current crisis means for careers in global development. And then I read Kristof Titeca’s long-read Ali Kony and the twilight of the Lord’s Resistance Army on Joseph Kony’s son who deserted the infamous LRA. And then I browsed through my archive and found a post I wrote almost exactly 13 years ago, in March 2012, 5 questions for a post-Kony 2012 debate . I wrote: How can we channel the energy, ideas and good intentions of young people into sustainable change for communities at home and abroad? Both the number of viewers of the Kony 2012 documentary and...
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The dismantling of USAID & the paradoxes of global development

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What is happening to USAID now is an unprecedented attack on global development and humanitarianism. If we zoom out a little bit it is also an almost unparalleled moment to revisit some of the great paradoxes of giving aid, of two things being true at the same time and the many shades of grey in-between. The bigger picture that is emerging, not just in the US, but across OECD donors, is that the global, post WWII development consensus is being dismantled and most of the legitimate criticism about the aid-industrial complex is replaced with vindictive, right-wing politics. I am convinced that very little good will come from this “disruption” and that more people globally will be worse off in the aftermath than benefit from short-term notions of cutting off overpaid Western consultants from the taxpayers’ purse. And yet, giving and receiving aid has always be a complicated endeavor and I am going to look at some of the paradoxes that are coming to light right now. Paradox (Merriam-Webst...
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The War That Doesn’t Say Its Name (book review)

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I submitted my slightly revised short review of Jason Stearns' The War That Doesn’t Say Its Name – The Unending Conflict in the Congo to Global Responsibility to Protect (GR2P) at the end of 2024. Since the review has not been published yet and the situation in Congo deteriorating as I write this, I find it important to highlight the book. Although published in 2021, it provides an important background to the complexities of the conflict and to the challenges of (liberal) peacebuilding and thereby is a very timely book to pick up! The humanitarian situation in North Kivu is dire with close to three million displaced people in the province,” the truce statement said. “The recent expansion of fighting in North Kivu has prevented humanitarian workers from reaching hundreds of thousands of IDPs in the area around Kanyabayonga and displaced more than 100,000 people from their homes," the statement added. The M23 have almost completely encircled Goma, the capital of North Kivu ...
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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...
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Global Development Substacks I Like

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The other day a friend asked me about recommendations for development-themed Substacks and rather than responding to him directly, I decided to share my favorite "blogs-send-out-as-newsletters" resources on the blog... For many years a group of German media entrepreneurs has been awarding the Goldenen Blogger and one category they had for many year was "bloggers without a blog"-this is a bit how I feel about Substack and the concept of (mostly) long newsletters instead of traditional blogs. So which are some of my favorite writers and concepts then? An Africanist Perspective Ken Opalo is a towering figure in the #globaldev Substack community-his posts, fully developed essays really, set the standard for long-form post-blogging... Disability Debrief I am so grateful to learn every week something new about (dis)ability & development thanks to Peter Torres Fremlin's newsletter! Suvojit's Newsletter "I currently live in Nairobi, and write regu...
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