Aidnography

Hi all, This week's debate about MSF's use of images in their communication is a important reminder that the industry has barely started to engage with the past, present & future of visual communication-but also that blanked accusations that humanitarian organizations just do it for the fundraising brushes over so many nuances & important work on the ground. Compassion, humanitarian instinct, upstream vs downstream #globaldev, white supremacy & social capital are some of the other big words that we are tackling in this week's post from Romania to Yemen. As I already mentioned in Tuesday's newsletter , it's thesis examination time so there won't be a newsletter next Friday as we are celebrating our students in real life with a Syrian dinner in Malmö! My quotes of the week This research serves as a reminder that Yemenis are interested in more than just the satisfaction of their essential needs (such as water, food, and shelter). It highlights the diver...

Hi all, One of your favourite #globaldev newsletters is back-with UK aid, land reform, historical insights into China & Africa, philanthropy, racist professionalism, Marxism & classic photo op where Bono met... ;) Enjoy! My quotes of the week In contrast, grassroots organizations like mine that give out small grants require far less proof of need, just brief stories. Take a widow’s request for money for clothes: We will not ask for pictures of her in old dresses to believe that all she had were old dresses. Nor do we ask for pictures of her wardrobe as evidence of her need, nor ask for her account statement with M-Pesa — a mobile money service — to see how well she’d spent whatever funds we gave her. Philanthropy is about the human in need — if she asks for help, I trust that she needs help. (Philanthropy needs to remember the 'human' in humanitarian) Not only is professionalism a double standard in how it’s applied, but the actual standard itself is grounded in a set ...

Hi all, It's really not easy to stay positive in the #globaldev universe, is it...'Frustrations', 'held back democracy', 'blame', 'losing faith', 'monetise data' & 'intellectual masturbation' are just some of the phrases from this week's headlines...but these phrases are also an indication of the (constructive) critique, investigative work & critical communication that is necessary to tell the Emperor that they sometimes don't wear clothes... I will be visiting wonderful colleagues at the University of Guelph in Canada next week and will focus my attention 'on the ground'-so no link review next week! My quotes of the week We take back these narratives with hopeful words that bring back the courage that sometimes disappears with everything that has been happening. That we have a hopeful future, that we are succeeding every time we continue sowing, every time we continue protecting life, every time we continue or...

Hi all, In the first part of this week's review stories from the Gambia, Afghanistan, Ethiopia, Syria & Niger. We are also celebrating the history of #globaldev feat Robert Chambers! And there is dust in Cairo, 10,000 World Bank policy papers & AI racism in Brazil as well! My quotes of the week Nothing about this approach was new. So-called farmer-managed natural regeneration had been practiced around the world in dryland systems for centuries. It was essentially how farmers in Niger had operated before colonialism. Rinaudo sought only to re-popularize and promote it—to convince farmers to capitalize on the deep roots their ancestors had left, both literally and figuratively, in the land. (How farmers in Earth’s least developed country grew 200 million trees) Move away from a Eurocentric, White savior view of humanitarian interventions. View humanitarian functions as separate from the geopolitical hegemony of the Global North. Move away from the pretense of “apolitical” hum...

Hi all, An ethnography of bread in Jordan, co-designing algorithms, why UN staff accept precarious work conditions, Samir Amin, notes on a UNOPS scandal & expensive pre-Weddings in Zimbabwe-as always, an interesting mix of what 'development' means today awaits you this week! My quotes of the week Bread has undoubtedly been at the center of a wide array of contentious episodes in the Middle East. Yet in no instance was bread a passive symbol or facile evidence of anger, indignation, and rage. Insomuch as the hold that states have on us is shaped by our experience of particular governmental programs, the milieus within which citizens are formed will play a key role in determining how and when unrest forms. But to assume that hunger and deprivation, or the price of bread, are the straightforward drivers of dissent, obscures the complicated ways people encounter and respond to their historical emplacement. ( José Ciro Martínez, States of Subsistence: The Politics of Bread in C...