Aidnography

Hi all, Many readers are enjoying their Thanksgiving week & I will enjoy a week in Armenia next week! In the meantime, some food for thought & discussions at the dinner table ;)! Enjoy!   My quotes of the week If there is a single ideological glue to (current revolutions), it is, I think, desire to have one’s voice heard. At the time of tectonic political shifts where politicians and old ideologies have lost much of their credibility, a thing which has not lost its credibility is the desire and the right to be heard and counted (Revolution Number 9. Why the world is in uproar right now) (T)he “marketplace of ideas” works similarly to the idea of “meritocracy”, in that it stresses you get what you deserve, and if you have got it is deserved. The discourse, then, works to reinforce the status quo and serves to hide deep power and resource inequalities within society by stressing that the playing field is level when it is anything but. (Don’t Buy the “Marketplace of Ideas”...

Hi all, Friday, end of a packed week; the weather is really grey and miserable in Sweden today and I will head home soon to enjoy some hot chocolate + a good book :) ! My quotes of the week There are so many events on women’s rights going on, Abirafeh later told Quartz, that the feeling is they have just become avenues for a community to talk to each other. (The case against holding any more women’s rights conferences) Are we sure we are accounting properly for costs? What are the associated costs of locally sustaining such systems? How will we determine those costs if markets are only minimally functional in this space? And more importantly, the benefits have to be understood broadly, systematically, and comparatively. What is the value of improved speed in critical logistics? How do we make sure that improved health outcomes are both understood in these projects and adequately accounted for in our understanding of financial benefit? (WeRobotics, Pfizer Use Cargo Drones...

Hi all, I was at a great workshop last week, discussing communicating #globaldev research with EADI member organizations in Germany. So I took a short break from my link review and focused on discussing development communication IRL ;)! But without further delay, another packed blog with reviewing content for the 345th time :) !! My quotes of the week Donors tend to spend their funds on short-term, cosmetic interventions, which fail to address the systemic constraints that beset Africa’s media. Just as development organizations can overly focus on capacity building initiatives, donors channel the majority of their efforts into trainings and workshops, believing that African reporters need to hone their journalism skills. But this is often not the case. Most African journalists know what constitutes good reporting; they speak with multiple sources, support claims with primary sources, and provide critical analysis.  (The mistakes donors make when funding African media) Pa...