Aidnography

Finding Fernanda sheds light on the highly politicized landscape of Guatemala’s adoption industry, a multi-million dollar trade that was both highly profitable and barely regulated. Erin Siegal takes the reader on an important and worthwhile journey, especially since ‘helping children’ has always been a popular discourse in international development and critical examination of familiar practices and ideas is always important. She manages to tell the story of the international adoption industry as a balancing act on cultural tightropes – between legitimate interests and concerns and self-serving perceptions of North-South relationships. Based on her research at the Stabile Centre for Investigative Reporting at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism, Siegal traces the case of Mildred Alvarado and two of her children who are kidnapped from her through the complexities of the ‘orphan industry’, including the roles of baby-finders, caretakers, judges, government officials a

Hello all! The emphasis on this week's link edition is definitely on shoes-and more generally on the challenges of dealing with 'gifts in kind' in the context of developing countries. Not surprisingly, giving its persistently high quality, WhyDev's post on 'International volunteerism; who benefits most?' is highly recommended. Another piece I found noteworthy in the more eyebrow-raising way is BuildingsMarkets' post on how 'Big Aid' (not necessarily the often scolded ' Development industry ') is lobbying the U.S. Congress to stop legislation that would probably mean less money for American consultancy companies and more money reaching recipient countries out of the USAID budget. Lastly, a quick editorial note: I'm leaving for Germany today and there may not be weekly 'Links I Like' in the next 2 or even 3 weeks-however, there will be regular posts on interesting things that I'm sure will keep you entertained ;)! Take care! Ne

In late February this year I came across an article in a local newspaper about a young student who collected 80,000 shoes that he wanted to ship to Zambia and distribute in local communities. In addition to my brief comment in my weekly link round-up , I sent Shoes For Souls * founder Kyle Warkentin a longer email, outlining some of my concerns. The reason why I am making parts of our email conversation public, which I rarely do on my blog, is to be transparent about the tone of the exchange and to document a specific case rather than falling back on general or generalised summaries. Dear Kyle, I came across your shoe initiative in the Metro News a few days ago and want to take this opportunity to express my concerns about your project as I believe that it does not fall under good development practice. As I have mentioned on my blog , there have been disucssions [sic] going on about in-kind donations and the negative impact they have on recipient countries, markets and commu

Hello all, Another week-another questionable development idea appears-or at least so it seems. Buy a girl her life back is the slogan of the Girl Store - a bit of virtual Barbie doll dressing with a 'development' twist to it...two well-known old men make an appearance, too. And speaking of men, there's an interesting piece on men in the Indian construction industry that got me thinking about a large community that is rarely addressed in development debates. 10 Things Your Commencement Speaker Won't Tell You speaks for itself and in yet another example of how great anthropologists are we are extending the 'multi-sited' lens to outer space (seriously!)... Development The Girl Store-Buy A Girl Her Life Back Even today there are chances of Indian girls being sold into marriage or sex slavery. But you can help. Simply purchase an Indian girl the items she desperately needs to attend school. Because the most effective way to break the cycle of exploitation i

Hello all, Let's cut to the chase: My three top reads for this week include 'The Aid Bitchslap' (not, unlikely to be awarded 'gender-sensitive post of the year'...), a detailed critique of Foreign Policy's 'Sex' issue and, depending of whether you are more interested in development or academic stuff, a piece on how the Conservatives have changed foreign aid in Canada or the long and detailed story of how Sonoma State University in California came to represent a lot of the things that have gone wrong in US higher education finances. Enjoy! New on aidnography Only get an MBA if you are not interested in sustainable development My response to Charles Kenny's post in Foreign Policy Influencing policy, or: Why nobody in Germany will be reading this My comment on a recent study on how policy-makers, 'influentials' and the general public engage with development-related information Development NYC Department of Records announces on-line access to a

My initial thought when reading Charles Kenny’s latest Foreign Policy article, ' Get an MBA, Save the World ', was that he was writing for a new ‘Development Onion’ and I was jealous because I hadn’t been invited to join. But then I had the strange feeling that he was at least half-serious that joining a large multinational corporation (with an MBA) could be your entry ticket into ‘development’, or, as he put it ' If you want to work in international development, go work for a big, bad multinational company'. There are two flawed assumptions that I want to highlight in my reply: First, I have no idea why Charles Kenny put ‘MBA’ in the title and second, I have serious doubts that the lifestyle that many multinational corporations promote will be beneficial for developing countries; quite the opposite, to put it bluntly: Once obesity, diabetes and other 'Western' illnesses have reached countries like India for example, companies like GlaxoSmithKline or Unil

The Building Support for International Development study provides a roadmap for the development community for connecting more meaningfully with key constituencies in donor-country discussions about international development policy issues and priorities. The study, launched by InterMedia in 2011 with support from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, included qualitative and quantitative research with three key target groups, interested citizens, influentials and government decision-makers My post focuses on the German case study of the project, mainly because I know the German context quite well and it's interesting to share some views on non-Anglo-Saxon development debates. Nobody reads blogs and uses social media Government decision-makers rely heavily on specialised and mostly formal sources to stay informed about international development. They use traditional media for current news and events, but generally not for information on international development. Government d