Aidnography

Hi all, This week's review features insights from Uganda, Madagascar, North Africa, Afghanistan, Mexico, India, Brazil, Australia, UK, the UN system & the World Bank! So enjoy your critical #globaldev readings! My quotes of the week Hunger is everywhere in southern Madagascar. Those who have livestock or land will sell it to buy food but they are taken advantage of because they are so desperate. Then there are others who have nothing. They eat cactus leaves mixed with ashes, just to not be hungry, to get rid of that empty feeling.  ( Madagascar is drying out – there’s no harvest, only hunger) It’s also important to take into account that the line that divides government and organized crime is often nonexistent. This needs to inform the discussion about whether it’s wise to create a centralized database of all people in Mexico with biometrics, where that information can be weaponized against its citizens. Because, obviously, the Mexican institutions are infiltrated by organized ...

I first heard about InteRoots' work in Uganda through recent articles that featured their work in connection with decolonizing philanthropy and ethical storytelling , so I happily agreed to share their guest post on how they work with/in communities! By The InteRoots Initiative The Tat Sat Community Academy Project (TaSCA) is underway in Kasasa, Uganda, and while it seeks to improve the livelihoods of all community members, there is a particular emphasis on uplifting women and girls. Mrs. Namayega Agnes, a TaSCA community board member, says the project is a “generational quest to turn around our livelihoods – and by livelihoods, I am referring to our social norms and values, and our communal ways of life – letting our social communal abilities blossom for a happier Kasasa.” In Uganda, access to secondary education is extremely limited, with only 19.7% of children attending secondary school (4.9% for Uganda’s poorest girls). Agnes says many girls in the community get married at a...

Hi all, I will keep it short & sweet today-so happy #globaldev reading from/about  Taliban, Tanzania, Libya, Yemen, Germany, China & more! My quotes of the week The carbon footprints of the richest 1 percent of people on Earth is set to be 30 times greater than the level compatible with the 1.5°C goal of the Paris Agreement in 2030 (Carbon emissions of richest 1% set to be 30 times the 1.5°C limit in 2030) Informed analysis has been hard to come by in the Yemen humanitarian response, which is marred by a willingness to tolerate partial data that is often biased, usually out of date and lacks nuance, all of which has made it easy to manipulate or ignore to suit priorities. An inflexible security framework, which prevents aid workers from engaging in the fieldwork needed to gain a true understanding of the operational environment, assess needs and determine what is required to resolve them, has allowed this flawed data to stand. (When Aid Goes Awry: How the International Hum...

Hi all, More than 40 of our students presented 10 group blogging projects today & yesterday and it's always amazing to see the breadth of topics & approaches that emerges around ICT4D & #globaldev-from podcasts to Clubhouse chats, to posts about contemporary issues including decolonizing aid, reflective practice & Matt Hancock's spectacularly short career as UN envoy...if you are teaching: I can't recommend (group) blogs highly enough as tools for collaboration, reflecting on digital practices & #globaldev theories, case studies & complexities! There's a special COP26 section this week & all sorts of other intellectual, sometimes scary (Melania Trump returns...), treats for holiday reading! Happy Halloween! My quotes of the week In 2019 Trump picked Malpass to run the World Bank, where he was mostly silent on climate before delivering a plan that watchdog groups denounced as a failure due to its refusal to phase out support for fossil fuels. ...

Hi all, Sometimes it happens that my weekly #globaldev review aligns along a certain theme & this week it is borders-border regimes, surveillance, migration control & various aspects of surveillance & oppression that are similar, yet different whether they concern EU's Frontex, the US border regime or China's policies in Xinjiang; this topic is extended with pieces on ad trackers on non-profit sites & surveillance law across Africa. Happy reading! My quotes of the week Direct attacks on and degradation of energy infrastructure, lack of maintenance, and failing environmental governance capture the conflict-linked pollution in a microcosm. (Syria’s coast becoming a conflict-pollution hotspot) But the toughest part is to see how much this world is still exactly the same as it was when I started in 1990. Instead of gender mainstreaming, we now obsess over intersectionality. Instead of aid effectiveness, we pander to localization. Instead of evaluation we now have im...

Hi all, Do you remember when Ice Cube had a Good Day (yep, that was 1992...)? Well, it hasn't been exactly a good week for the multilateral #globaldev system...a questionable UN appointment, trouble with Covax & refugees, peacekeeper abuse, the fallout from the World Bank ranking scandal plus continued debates around diversity & inclusion...the aid system is in trouble and there are no pumpkin-spiced pics from pet Twitter to ease our collective pain... My quotes of the week “Covax really was flawed in the beginning. I think it was naively ambitious.” (How Covax failed on its promise to vaccinate the world) The uncertainties and inconsistencies that mar our decisions about whom to protect tell us something about the broader task of refugee law. What if we began from a different, more radical formulation of ethical responsibility? To acknowledge another life as the source of an ethical obligation is not, I think, to examine empirical descriptions in order to see whether it m...