Aidnography

The Daily Mail campaign against ‘wasteful’ foreign aid is in full swing (see my earlier reflections in my 2016 blogging review ) and in the latest example we can see that it has real impact as DFID promptly executes the Mail’s campaign wishes. In addition, the Mail’s campaigning in the age of ‘post-factual’ journalism is unfortunately taken up by the mainstream media echo chamber and finds willing amplifiers, for example the BBC . BBC ’s article ‘Yegna, Ethiopia's 'Spice Girls', lose UK funding’ is a telling example of how the Mail’s discourse is slowly but surely poisoning the debate around development in the UK. As we are embarking on a new term in our Communication for Development MA program, it is also an important case study I will discuss with students. So let’s have closer look at the framing of the article: after reports that pop group Yegna had received millions from UK taxpayers. The reference to ‘UK taxpayers’ is usually the first red flag that news items ...

Hi all, Welcome to 2017! The first link review in the new year features reviews of 2016 from a development and communication perspective-as well as fresh links and new content to get you reading and thinking during these cold January days! Development news: Development lingo you want to avoid in 2017; cash transfers work; WWF in human rights abuse complaint; Smart phones help expectant mothers in Kenya; sanitary pads, menstruation & the challenge of keeping girls in schools in Uganda; UN leadership needs more than women to become feminist; local aid work in North Carolina; 5 development career tips; photography & short stories.  Our digital lives: How to make sense of media, technology and politics? Philanthropy and news organizations Academia: An anthropologist in the textile mill; open science; academics & emotional literacy Enjoy! New from aidnography My development blogging & communication review 2016 Now in its 6th installment, I am reviewing another y...

Dear all, In some ways, the 6th annual review (yes, this was a regular post in all previous years, 2011 , 2012 , 2013 , 2014 & 2015 !) is the second half of reflections that started in September when I shared What I learned from curating thousands of #globaldev articles on the occasion of my 200th Links & Contents I Liked post.  As many of my readers are returning from holidays and students are commencing new semesters this is still a very good starting point for many resources that provide an overview over debates pertinent to the contemporary aid industry. How to (dis)engage with post-factual attacks on development? As academic teacher, researcher and communicator this has been one of the biggest questions in 2016. As the Daily Mail launches yet another attack on ‘wasteful’ British aid spending , I am left wondering how ‘we’ can respond , when ‘we’ can disengage and how these dynamics affect the foundations of what we are doing in the academic industry. In short, aft...

Hi all, Welcome to the last link review for 2016! My annua l development blogging review will conclude the year next week and in the meantime enjoy some interesting r eadings as a bre ak from the holiday stress ; )! Development news: Aid consultants-value for money? Pentagon waste; algorithms can’t replace humanitarians; Jeffrey Sachs is not happy with Economics; humanitarian actors and power players-too close to comfort? Does automation mean the end of develop ment? Helping as ego-stroking; dangerous mining in Colombia; more Nepali men die in their sleep; the Bollywood-feelgood-complex Our digital lives: Celebrities fuel the corporate machine; new media brands & environmental journalism; Holacracy is just management BS  Publications: Doing Development Differently; open innovation; Education in Emergencies; training global health comms professionals Academia: Fighting oppression in academia Happy Holidays ! New from aidnography The corporatization of aid enables gr...

As much as I understand the Sisyphusian dimension of the task, I feel that I need to respond to recent Times and Daily Mail reporting on overpaid development consultants and excessive executive pay packages for UK charity executives: Britain's foreign aid budget pays out billions of pounds to consultants (Brendan Cole, International Business Times, 8 December) Priti Patel and Dfid must crack down on the foreign-aid fatcats (Ian Birrell, inews, 18 December) Begging bowl barons: my MoS investigation into charity chiefs earning up to £618k a year off back of the aid boom https://t.co/N7TbkrrkUX — Ian Birrell (@ianbirrell) December 18, 2016 This time it is a bit more complicated me than simply wringing hands about post-factual news reporting , because aid budget spending on consultants and for-profit consultancy firms or pay packages in excess of 500,000 GBP/year for David Miliband at International Res cue Commit tee should be criticized publicly. 'The charities ne...