Aidnography

Last week the UNOG Staff Coordinating Council shared the results of its 2017 Global Staff Satisfaction Survey 2017 , “in which 4,000 of you took part last week, representing ten percent of staff.” As a social science researcher I can confirm that this is a very sad case study of “how not to present survey results” and clearly not worthy of the UN system, its staff and the important issues that are raised in the report. Some of my concerns are simply about the poor presentation of findings (in the sense that most advanced undergrad students of pretty much any discipline should know better), but there are more concerning issues with the results that border on unethical (social) science research practices. First of all, sharing an unedited 200 page pdf-document that does neither list the questions that were asked in the survey nor includes basic demographic data, e.g. distribution of respondents along organizations, gender, age, country, employment level etc. makes it difficult to assess

Hi all, Lots of great development and #ICT4D stuff this week! I am also a bit tired after a long week of meetings-so no witty introduction ;)! Development news: Global Fund’s leadership drama; how to address inequality in Indonesia? Cobalt mining in DRC; South Sudan-segregation through aid? Afghanistan, the birthplace of drone warfare; hacking development-a manifesto; messaging apps and disaster response; effective feedback mechanisms; the digital development glossary; MSF staff reflects on burn-out; re-imaging volunteerism in Australia; voluntourism in Kenya; what are good exit strategies? Aid work and capitalism.  Our digital lives: Who talks on US television? Instagramming food and perpetuating stereotypes; Zuckerberg read through the lens of anthropology.  Publications: Digital development in Africa; Gendered (in)securities in South Sudan Academia: In defense of the lecture; the Oxford degree that runs the UK  Enjoy! New from aidnography Men Engaging in the Gender Equalit

Hi all, I usually don’t start the weekly review with my own stuff, but I worked quite hard on my longer essay on the state of development-there’s even a pdf-download to make it look serious ;)!  Development news : Lake Chad crisis; cash project in Lebanon challenges donor practices; rebranding health charities in Canada; Australia’s big aid conference; development & the future of work; financial journeys of refugees; gender, ICT4D & data; we need to be generous in development work.  Our digital lives : Design Thinking discovers decades-old participatory development truths; Uber is a big, bad company; can facebook fix journalism? Anthropologist researches check-cashing industry.  Publication : An interesting PhD on journalism & journalists in Kenya. Academia : Big Pharma pay s big bucks for academic expertise; a history of big data . Enjoy! New from aidnography From impact to transformation: Do-Gooders, Multicolored Saviors and development as lifestyle My post is

My post is based on a very fruitful discussion on Jennifer ‘How Matters’ Lentfer’s facebook page that was triggered by Leila Janah’s recent contribution to The Development Set . The discussion addressed many issues I have been mulling over recently-particularly how to break the cycle that even good, impactful development initiatives are caught up in, being servants to consumer capitalism and its manifestations in the second decade of the 21st century. I am aware that I am writing my post from a position of privilege as a full-time academic at a Swedish university. And my final caveat is that this is still ‘just’ a blog post, not a fully referenced academic contribution (although it is about 1700 words long and you can download a ni ce pdf file if you scroll down ). Initially, Stop Labeling Do-Gooders As White Saviors seemed to be just another a post for my weekly link review. One of the key arguments of Leila Janah’s piece is that rather than focusing critique on companies like TOMS

Hi all, A long week is wrapping up-enjoy some good readings this Friday or over the weekend! Development news: UN rapporteur challenges apolitical organizations; secret securitization of UK aid; Australian NGOs need better gender leadership; the ‘success’ of a failed expensive drone trial; treat people with respect-and they appreciate your information; researching local aid workers in Zambia; Haiti & Nepal’s slow recovery after natural disasters; the world is ‘overheating’; hair & consumerism in Uganda. Our digital lives: How Medium is failing; the hacking spirit to f i x digital democracy Publication: Sex education in the digital era Academia: The success of open access-IDS Bulletin edition; the rubbish science behind Kahneman’s successful book enterprise; economists need to integrate into society again! Enjoy! New from aidnography Who Killed Hammarskjöld? (book review) Susan Williams book Who Killed Hammarskjöld? The UN, The Cold War and White Supremacy in Africa can