Aidnography

Guillaume Lachenal’s The Lomidine Files-The Untold Story of a Medical Disaster in Colonial Africa , expertly translated by Noémi Tousignant, has been one of the most interesting books I have read so far this year. The story of Lomidine (also known as pentamidine), a ‘wonder drug’ thought to prevent sleeping sickness that was applied throughout colonial Africa in the 1940s and 1950s, is so much more than just an impeccably researched and vividly presented case study of medical anthropology. It is a historical inquiry into the very essence of how the French colonial state ‘worked’ and how a socio-political apparatus armed with a hubristic believe in the power of medical science subjugated native populations to dangerous medical interventions. Killing dozens of recipients, the mirage of a preventive wonder drug was eventually uncovered to be medically faulty and the story of Lomidine was hidden in public and corporate archives of the drug manufacturer. My broader aim, however, is more

Hi all, I almost felt overwhelmed by the amount of interesting readings, reports and articles that made it into this week's review-there is *a lot* of interesting stuff for you to explore in my latest review! Development news: That Dove campaign; female leadership at the WHO ; the power of soap opera in Rwanda ; Sierra Leone 's husband schools; tourists and Maasai meet in Tanzania ; Mali & the complexities of contemporary aid efforts; robots & inclusive growth; new African literature going global; looking back on 18 years of accountability research ; courageous conversation podcast. Our digital lives: Agile philanthropy & sweeping social movements; AI predictions; the futurist industrial complex. Publications: Social media guidelines in emergencies; UNCTAD's Information Economy Report; unfinished development projects in Ghana; cash transfers & work; gender & ICT survey toolkit; images & NGO campaigns; complexity & policy-making; labor co

Hi all, In the end, I managed to pull a new link review together for this week!  Quite a few examples of development communication #fails, but also encouraging pieces on journalism in Nigeria and Afghanistan, female leadership in the UN system and personal & organizational well-being. Plus new publications and contributions on the digital condition of life, work & teaching! Enjoy! New from aidnography Reading #Maria through a #globaldev lens This time another American territory is affected among other islands many of which still have links to European countries through various statuses as overseas territories. So new questions are emerging in the aftermath of a natural disaster of how 'them' and 'us' are linked, how humanitarian challenges are not just an issue of the 'North' helping the 'South' and how questions of development thinking and research are becoming even more important as climate change creates a truly global community of sufferi

At the end of August I started curating interesting resources that linked hurricane Harvey to broader questions of international development and humanitarian issues ( Reading #Harvey through a #globaldev lens ). My idea was to highlight how debates and issues the aid industry has been discussing for many years and crises are framed in the context of the so-called developed world when a disaster hits the United States of America. What I did not know then, unfortunately, was that Harvey would not be the only humanitarian disaster to affect the region-Maria followed very shortly after. This time another American territory is affected among other islands many of which still have links to European countries through various statuses as overseas territories. So new questions are emerging in the aftermath of a natural disaster of how 'them' and 'us' are linked, how humanitarian challenges are not just an issue of the 'North' helping the 'South' and how questi