How-matters.org has been rather quiet the last few weeks as I am currently in the process of moving back to my hometown of Bruning, Nebraska, U.S.A. population 248. It’s a major transition, which I recently wrote about on On Sanity & Motherhood, and one that has recently required some all-important “unplugged” time.
As I catch up this week on all the aid blogosphere’s recent reactions to Wikileaks, World AIDS Day, Jumo, and the latest round of celebrity naïve-do-gooder bashing, etc. here are a few links worth sharing, a lá Good Intentions Are Not Enough. I’m also sharing these in honor of A View from the Cave’s survey of 2010’s best blogs on aid and development, for which voting ends tomorrow, December 15th.
It’s a pleasure to read the following bloggers’ and many, many others’ work—such a great sign of the aid blogosphere’s continued robustness and relevance. I look forward to reading more in 2011!
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A grad student’s guide to the international development blogosphere on Find What Works and the accompanying article on What…What?, Why aid and development workers should be reading blogs
Proposal Prepostery on Bottom Up Thinking – “Eh? Let me just get this right: you’re recommending we spend further lavish sums on you and your ilk so all the donors can wow themselves at our amazing use of the latest jargon and buzzwords?”
Scan HIV-AIDS Globally, Reinvent Approaches Locally on Aid on the Edge of Chaos – “Minimum rules mean exactly that – there needs to be the space to allow for localised processes of reinvention. Such innovations can only be effective if they are embedded in economic, social and political contexts.”
Time for a New Direction in the Fight Against AIDS, by Dibussi Tande on Pambazuka – In recognition of World AIDS Day, Dibussi Tande brings together messages from eight members of the African blogosphere “to think positive, and stand in solidarity with those infected and affected.”
The Things We Rely On on Barefoot Economics – “And that is the answer. The glue that holds things together. People. Each other. When you can’t always rely on services, when the world’s not always that predictable, you turn a little more to the people around you…It’s what keeps the country going.”
Will I spoil KM if I tell people “best practices” don’t exist? on KM on a dollar a day
Why I would like to see more critical debates on the ‘open aid data’ discourse on Ethnographic Insights into Peacebuilding & Development
Zen and the Art of Development Work on Water Wellness – “I see the challenge as this: how to work in an immensely frustrating environment without being discouraged, while maintaining a critical eye through all of the potential and possibility?”
And some from the “big names” and organizations worth a read:
Five Lessons from Haiti’s Disaster, by Paul Farmer in Foreign Policy – “The international community doesn’t know best. Local people do.”
Consultation & Participation for Local Ownership What? Why? How? Briefing by Save the Children examining how to make the Obama Administration’s emphasis on “country ownership” a successful model for stakeholder participation in development programs.
Deconstructing Development Discourse: Buzzwords and Fuzzwords a new book by Andrea Cornwall and Deborah Eade, Published by Oxfam GB
Human Rights Day 2010: Children’s rights defenders on the Children’s Rights Information Network
Microfinance: Virtuous or Vulgar? by Jonathan Lewis on Huffington Post – “The most radical and startling driver for microfinance programs is the expectation that they must be profitable or — in economic development terms — sustainable. This is not a standard typically used for other public goods and services.”
Obama’s Report Card on World AIDS Day: ‘C’ by Dr. Paul Zeitz of the Global AIDS Alliance on the Huffington Post
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Just wanted to sy fantastic work thanks for your site and blogs – they are great now may even contribute myslef sometime but wanted to give you encouragement to keep it going – iwll definitely be following and recommending your stuff here.