Aidnography

Hi all, Capitalism suggests that today is Black Friday in connection with another holiday in the US, so why not treat yourself to some free readings instead :) ?!? News from inside #globaldev organizations, from the Amazon rainforest to the Congo basin, from Puerto Rico to India plus beautiful essays, book reviews & more! Enjoy! My quotes of the week Life has accelerated, attention spans have shortened. Awareness of the limitations of top-down development has grown. I haven’t read any of those big docs for years. So the arrival of the first UK Government ‘White Paper on International Development’ since 2009, launched on Monday, had a distinctly retro feel. ( What to read on the new UK White Paper on International Development?) Here are five ideas for improvement: 1. Brand your building, vehicles, or team uniforms — not the supplies or gifts. 2. Use a unique identifier like a barcode if you need tracking or traceability. 3. Communicate stories — not just pictures of logos — to donor...

Hi all, A truly global set of readings from Canada, Brazil, South Africa, Tuvalu, Myanmar, India, Kenya, on topics such as influencer well-building to long term effects of baby formula, youth job search & much more! Enjoy your weekend! My quotes of the week By October, Ms. Stafford and a friend with whom she had dodged dogs and brothels took charge of more than a dozen toddlers. She expects to earn 500 rand, or $26, a month — below minimum wage, but coupled with the welfare she receives for her son, it will nearly double her income. Ms. Stafford is already planning to open her own child care center. It isn’t what she dreamed of or trained for, but it’s her first reliable paycheck since graduating from high school nearly two years ago. As she cleaned up the bowls of watery sorghum porridge she had fed the toddlers, she was feeling overwhelmed but, after long last, hopeful. (One Year in the Infuriating and Humiliating Search for a Job in South Africa) Currently, Canada’s foreign aid...

Hi all, Glad to be back with a fresh curation of #globaldev links! USAID with little impact, climate refugees in Tuvalu, the challenges of growing megacities like Mexico-City & Lagos, pracademics, internships, AI & much more! Happy reading! My quotes of the week After eight years and billions of dollars, there is little independent evidence that USAID, Chemonics, and its partners have actually strengthened a global supply chain that millions rely on for lifesaving medical supplies. ('Too big to fail': How USAID's $9.5B supply chain vision unraveled) a colleague working in the area of participation, inclusion and social change asked “What does it mean if we no longer ‘swim’ in the data?” As evaluators and researchers we live it, breathe it, dream it, and ponder it endlessly. We feel a kind of emotion or connection with data when we are “in it.” Do we want to hand that over to a machine to spit out some conclusions? (What’s next for Emerging AI in Evaluation? Takeaw...

Hi all, Migration, carbon offsetting, politics around UN jobs, deforestation, urbanization & impact of thinks tanks + World Bank reports are only some of the topics this week; and does it pay off to do a PhD...well, that depends... P.S.: This is the time of the semester again where things get a bit busy-so next week I will be examining student blog projects with my colleague among many other things and then I'm off to Germany for a week for family time & a conference-so the links will be back in November :) ! My quotes of the week Yes, the Pakistani government is wrong for making this rash announcement, which won’t begin to address the security issues plaguing its citizens. But it also offers a reminder that those claims of empathy from supposed rights champions in Western capitals now ring more hollow than ever. ( Deporting a million Afghans won’t solve Pakistan’s problems) Our findings show that aid can cause a short-lived reduction in migration aspirations, except in fra...