Aidnography

Imagine if I told you a story about a high school drop-out without any formal credentials who moved into a career with more humanitarian front line work and foreign policy impact than entire NGOs have-chances are that you think that the pandemic got the better of me or that I am talking about the humanitarian Jurassic period of the first half of the 20th century perhaps… But in fact, it is the real story of The Good American-The Epic Life of Bob Gersony, The U.S. Government’s Greatest Humanitarian . I have reviewed a fair share of aid worker memoirs and (auto)biographies during my blogging and Robert Kaplan is a real master in weaving together the life story of Bob Gersony with broader narratives of American foreign policy from the 1970s well into the 2010s with a focus on key humanitarian responses and the institutional politics behind it. It is difficult not to be taken in by the “American dream” that Gersony has built throughout his career: the son of Jewish immigrants who stumbles

Hi all, From the UK, Germany & Sweden we are venturing further afield to the DRC, Myanmar/India, Brunei Durassalam & even Australia! We are also continuing debates on sexual abuse in the aid sector, what is means to be a humanitarian, better research practices & being good travellers! Enjoy! My quotes of the week UK civil servants were given five to seven working days to prepare 30% cuts in the overseas aid budget last summer, including a £730m cut to bilateral aid that it later emerged was unnecessary. (UK civil servants given just days to prepare £2.9bn aid cuts in 2020) There's a lot of cost to being a humanitarian. You pay for it in terms of your mental health, your physical health, broken relationships, missed occasions with family and loved ones. I have suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder as a result of my early experiences in difficult, brutal civil wars. But the way I deal with that is through something very joyous actually. I choose to be inte

Hi all, I think this week's highlight is the 'new reports' section with so many great new readings to discover! There're also links to old men, Sean Penn & peacebuilding done right, but also mining in Kyrgyztan, contractors in Afghanistan & much more! Enjoy! My quotes of the week Reflect on your identity and motivations for working in the sector, and what privileges and ‘baggage’ you bring to your work. Remain humble. Shift access and power to those who don’t have it, in whatever ways you can. Organise and connect to networks and groups that support this agenda. (Time to Decolonise Aid) humanitarian country missions are not required to understand the contexts they work in. They are required to implement. Understanding is a bonus. From a managers’ point of view, having a staff member whose job was to ask difficult questions about the mission was at best a curiosity, at worst a threat. (Not a priority: the lack of contextual understanding in humanitarian missio

Hi all,  When I was compiling this week's post I deleted/excluded more articles than I usually do; a long read on the terrible impact of Assad's air force on civilians, an essay on racism that call center workers in the Philippines encounter & all the notes on the impact that the cuts of the UK's #globaldev budget will have. And there are Colombia, Myanmar or India, of course. I am not ignoring these stories, but I opted for a mix between critical insights, positive stories & including other formats, including architecture from Senegal, a poem from South Sudan & a literary essay focusing on Kenya. There is still space for more musings on decolonization, but also great open access book recommendations on Bulgaria, Finland & global education! Enjoy! My quotes of the week Write that crime novel. Write that romance novel. Write that weird ‘Amos Tutuola-style’ epic that weaves sheng’ or pidgin in with English or French and takes the reader on a fantastic journey