Aidnography

Hi all, This is a quite a bleak newsletter this week, unfortunately. In Sudan, Somalia & Afghanistan crises continue; even Mayotte, a tiny French outpost between Madagascar & Mozambique, is part of European migration enforcement; another week, another #AidToo moment & the likely end of VICE News may have repercussions about how people stay informed about crises, wars & developments at the margins. It's not easy & don't have an uplifting quote handy for the weekend... My quotes of the week Some mothers are deliberately making their children sick so they can take them to government-run health centres in the city where there is a chance of obtaining free therapeutic food. Typically, they force-feed their children water mixed with detergent or salt. “I have six children, and this is the only way I can get food,” explained one mother,‘I poison my children in order to survive’ (The terrible toll of Somalia’s drought) For a few short years, Vice News looked like i...

Hi all, Can Andrew Mitchell save UK #globaldev? Can we engage with the Taliban? Can AI empower marginalized people? Can economic development deliver in the future? And what about Sollywood?!? Answers to these questions & much more in this week's curated link review! My quotes of the week In light of the Taliban’s behavior and actions, it is unclear why western leaders would want to risk engaging with the Taliban when they could be excoriated by their own domestic opponents for doing so. Similarly, why would western governments commit scarce aid resources to Afghanistan – funds that the Taliban might be in a position to exploit ­– when they could much more safely provide assistance to vulnerable or needy people in other parts of the world? The lesson here is stark. It is the very nature and character of the Taliban that currently condemns the people of Afghanistan to suffer, and the situation is not going to improve in any meaningful way as long as the Taliban remain in charge. ...

Hi all, A new post on humanitarian career challenges, news from Sudan & on reduced ODA spending, stories on migration, limited spaces for journalists, the complexities of transactional sex-plus personal reflections on global health, work with refugee women & SDG leadership challenges; last not least we have to deal with question of abuse of power in the UN system & academia and take a look at UN history...past, present & future in this week in #globaldev review! My quotes of the week Artistic, literary, and cultural productions are sources of knowledge. They are types of knowledge that can be used, deconstructed, reformed and reused. This knowledge suggests the emancipation of paradigms; conjectures towards the moment when our imagined worlds live up to their speculative capacity and theorize liberation as the full expression of the richness of the people’s potential. While African knowledge has been thought to look back, scientists are now using knowledge to look forwa...

Marielys Padua Soto originally posted a list of “10 things you should know” in a post on LinkedIn and she kindly expanded the list and allowed me to repost it on the blog. I think her list is a good primer for discussions about the humanitarian industry in classrooms, but also at home with your family or inside humanitarian organizations. Marielys' list also shows the frustration that many well-qualified professionals, with the right qualifications and mindset the sector needs, have and that we need to continue to address throughout the institutions that shape humanitarian practices. 1. You will get paid poorly . Peanuts, for lack of a better word. Humanitarian work is poorly remunerated despite the important work we do. We can barely cover our living expenses, but the CEOs make millions . 2. You will never have job security . Because of funding, what you get is a six to ten months contract subject to renewal at best. You will notice that many professionals in this field are in...

Hi all, As many Easter breaks are wrapping up, I'm happy to share the usual eclectic mix of food for thought, discussion & re-discovery - from the Peace Studies department in Bradford to the gardens of Lebanon, from Canadian ODA to Central African Republic's strategic engagement with Wagner...a new #globaldev bank, migrant suicides in Nepal, ICRC's budget cuts & 10 bad things about a humanitarian career wrap up this week's post! My quotes of the week Sure, meeting the FIAP commitment to allocate 15% of bilateral ODA to gender equality-targeted programs is important, as is investing 0.7% of Canada’s gross national income on ODA. However, if we insist on the fiction that achieving these targets alone will solve our planetary threats, then we have to question our complicity in upholding the status quo. Progress towards gender equality, as an emancipatory feminist objective, is entirely reliant upon the broader agenda of global justice. GAC should improve its report...