Aidnography

Hi all, Honduras, Kenya, Indonesia, China-and four very different environmental challenges, all linked to consumerist lifestyles & vague promises of 'development' contribute to a broader theme in this week's review; but there's more, from bad academic writing to humanitarians using AI, an economic history of cocoa & unconscious bias trainings. My quotes of the week “The main reason why there's a donor fatigue is because, as you can imagine, Somalia has been receiving humanitarian assistance for over three decades now and the situation has not been changing,” said Mohamed Abdi, country director for the Norwegian Refugee Council. “Many of the donors who have been paying money, a lot of money for that matter, to support Somalia will definitely get tired when they see their effort not bearing any fruits,” he said. (Donor Fatigue, Somalia Aid Cuts Worry Aid Workers) Labor exploitation, economic injustices, and environmental degradation are undermining the socio-...

It is only February and we already have another case of “how did this get through peer review??!!” in social science #highered. The piece in question is an article in Perspectives on Psychological Science , entitled Positionality and Its Problems: Questioning the Value of Reflexivity Statements in Research .  It is worth checking in on Twitter as the quote-Tweets on one of the authors’ posts (who disabled direct comments on his Tweet), more than 200 at the time of writing, provide an excellent peer review of the article from a wide range of academics. But is not simply a case of academic debate where authors publish an article and then look forward to engaging in meaningful debates and discussions. Positionality is critical in naming privilege and avoiding perpetuating racist/w. supremacists assumptions. Do the opposite of this👇🏽. https://t.co/1PJSZWT5IP — Awanui Te Huia (@AwanuiTH) February 20, 2023 As a newly minted Dr of the social sciences, any claim of the ‘universalism’...

Hi all, Sometimes a picture says more than those proverbial 1000 words and before we delve into the not-so-great news from around the #globaldev & #highered worlds let's think about the beauty of the 'soil of solidarity' for a moment... My quotes of the week If humanitarian agencies really want to help as many people as possible in Ukraine, they would make it easier for Ukrainian organisations to access their funding, and trust they know what to do with it, says Tetiana Stawnychy, president of the NGO Caritas Ukraine. “Order and transparency are important,” she says. “But building up the agency of local NGOs is also part of building up resilience in society.” (One year on, Ukraine exposes the limits of well-funded international aid) Humanitarian organization do have to address their own colonial legacy. But we should not forget that other colonial legacy that Hannah Arendt called apathy. Consumed by an individualistic way of life and the competition of all against all, ...

Hi all, A great week of teaching is coming to its close-colleagues from Brazil, the US, Pakistan, the Netherlands & Finland joined us virtually in our Glocal Classroom in Sweden together with many students from more than 15 countries!  How to maintain 'hope' in #globaldev studies teaching is addressed in one of this week's posts; but among hope & bright spots, this week's review is not entirely optimistic-aid to Syria, the impact of flooding on Pakistan or the impact of the rush to leave Haiti on children are just some of the stories; and what happened to the eHealth revolution, used cars or trade in donkeys in Africa? My quotes of the week The estimated correction required to account for armed conflict is substantial – expected national income is 25 per cent lower on average by the end of the century across countries when taking conflict into account. Strong regional patterns in countries with multiple conflicts are projected to experience much higher conflict ...

Hi all, This week's curation takes from Afghanistan to Ethiopia, Somalia, Myanmar, Dubai & Zimbabwe with a little sprinkling of USA(id) & Davos! And then there are more insights into the Effective Altruism movement/cult (?), readings & more! Happy weekend! My quotes of the week If Power really wants to reform foreign assistance (and I believe she does), she must get in the weeds. Procurement, with its mind-numbing jargon, jaw-droppingly expensive systems requirements and years-long payment schedule, prohibits innovation. It’s where ambitious reform goes to die. (USAID’s largest-ever foreign assistance package doubles down on colonial aid) The humanitarian catastrophe in Myanmar is, at its core, a political crisis. Donors and aid organisations face a choice. They can continue working with the illegitimate junta and risk becoming complicit in their atrocity crimes, or they can support the people’s resistance: grassroots frontline humanitarian responders, ethnic civil so...