How Matters / Guest Bloggers

Archive for the ‘Guest Bloggers’ Category

December 3rd, 2011 - 12:05 pm § in Guest Bloggers

Transparency. Accountability. Impact.

These buzzwords are everywhere these days, but what do they really mean? Kimberly Lemme, Sr. Manager, Program Finance & Compliance at Water for People, shares how her organization re-defines and approaches these concepts.[...]

Tags: accountability, aid buzzwords, aid effectiveness, community ownership, community participation, community-based organizations, donors, evaluation, foreign aid, foreign assistance, grassroots organizations, impact, international aid, international development, Kim Lemme, M&E, Médecins sans Frontières, monitoring, MSF, Ned Breslin, transparency, water and sanitation, Water for People, watsan 3 Comments

November 27th, 2011 - 3:00 pm § in Guest Bloggers

Letting the snark flow

Does snark among aid bloggers go too far? I share this guest post by Orietta L’Abbate, CEO of the Association Amis des Enfants de l’ile de la Gonâve in Haiti, in an attempt to even the score.[...]

Tags: aid bloggers, aid effectiveness, aid workers, Association Amis des Enfants de l’ile de la Gonâve, capacity building, community ownership, community participation, community-based organizations, disaster management, donors, foreign aid, foreign assistance, grassroots organizations, Haiti, Haiti earthquake, international aid, international development, local activists, organizational development, relief and recovery, snark 2 Comments

November 17th, 2011 - 12:41 pm § in Guest Bloggers, Reflection & Rumination

Random Nomad

Link to my interview in The Displaced Nation: "RANDOM NOMAD: Jennifer Lentfer, International Aid Consultant, Writer & Blogger"[...]

Tags: aid blogger, aid workers, foreign aid, international aid, international consultant, international development, Jennifer Lentfer, The Displaced Nation, voluntourism, Zimbabwe No Comments

November 3rd, 2011 - 9:04 am § in Good Practice, Guest Bloggers

Local Realities, Local Adaptation

Tanya Cothran, Executive Administrator at Spirit in Action, writes about how an idea, some information sharing, and a little bit of money can go a long way at the local level when people are behind an initiative.[...]

Tags: aid effectiveness, capacity building, community ownership, community participation, community-based organizations, donors, foreign aid, foreign assistance, grassroots organizations, IGAs, income-generating activities, international aid, international development, Malawi, organizational development, site visits, small grants, Spirit in Action, Tanya Cothran, TrickleUp, village savings and loans, VSL 8 Comments

October 19th, 2011 - 8:20 pm § in Good Practice, Guest Bloggers

How would you measure the strength of a partnership?

Ruiari Nolan of Peace Direct offers the following guest post, sharing their experience of trying to determine what is important in relationships with grassroots organisations, and how they’re trying to measure performance in this area. [...]

Tags: aid effectiveness, aid partnerships, aid relationships, capacity building, community ownership, community participation, community-based organizations, donors, evaluation, foreign aid, foreign assistance, grassroots organizations, Insight on Conflict, Institute for Cultural Affairs, international aid, international development, Keystone INGO Partner Survey, M&E, monitoring, organizational development, participatory processes, Peace Direct, peacebuilding, Ruairi Nolan, spider diagram, transparency, Uganda 1 Comment

October 18th, 2011 - 2:50 am § in Guest Bloggers

Can allies help Palestinians to reform aid? How?

Nora Lester Murad of the Dalia Association, Palestine’s first and only community foundation, shares their progress in a current advocacy campaign to reform international aid in Palestine and poses questions to how-matters.org readers.[...]

Tags: advocacy, advocacy campaigns, aid effectiveness, aid reform, AIDA, Busan, capacity building, community ownership, community participation, community-based organizations, conditional funding, donors, foreign aid, foreign assistance, Fourth High Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness, grassroots activists, grassroots organizations, international aid, international aid system, international development, Ma’an Development Center, OPT, organizational development, Palestine, Palestinian NGOs, restricted funding, USAID 1 Comment

September 19th, 2011 - 3:55 pm § in Guest Bloggers

The Joy of Aid Work

A friend shares her description of the joy of aid work from Zambia.[...]

Tags: aid workers, ART clinics, foreign aid, foreign assistance, HIV/AIDS, international aid, international development, Kirsten Weeks, nutrition, small holder farmers, Zambia 6 Comments

August 30th, 2011 - 11:12 am § in Good Practice, Guest Bloggers

The Curious Aid Worker: Storytelling with Marc Maxson (Part II)

“If your general impression [is that most grassroots organizations are incapacitated], then you’ve been driving a white SUV through a village to get the ‘authentic’ feel of some project.” ~Marc Maxson of GlobalGiving’s Storytelling Project[...]

Tags: aid effectiveness, aid partnerships, capacity building, cash transfers, Chewy Chunks, community ownership, community participation, community-based organizations, corruption, development jargon, donors, foreign aid, foreign assistance, funding mechanisms, GlobalGiving, grassroots organizations, HIV, human rights, international aid, international development, Kenya, knowledge management, Marc Maxson, neuroscience, NGOs, ODA, organizational development, qualitative data, remittances, social prosperity, storytelling, The Storytelling Project, Uganda, USAID, World Bank 3 Comments

August 29th, 2011 - 6:04 pm § in Good Practice, Guest Bloggers

The Curious Aid Worker: Storytelling with Marc Maxson (Part I)

“Half the stories of community change are not about NGOs at all, but individuals. It’s time NGOs realized they’re not the center of the community, and figured out how to work with the individuals who are.” ~from my interview with Marc Maxson of GlobalGiving’s Storytelling Project[...]

Tags: aid effectiveness, aid partnerships, capacity building, Chewy Chunks, Cognitive Edge, community ownership, community participation, community-based organizations, donors, downward accountability, East Africa, Facebook, foreign aid, foreign assistance, funding mechanisms, game theory, GlobalGiving, grassroots organizations, impact, international aid, international development, Kenya, knowledge management, Liberia, Marc Maxson, monitoring and evaluation, neuroscience, NGOs, online fundraising, organizational curiosity, organizational development, Peace Corps, qualitative data, qualitative methods, SenseMaker, storytelling, The Storytelling Project, Uganda 4 Comments

August 23rd, 2011 - 12:39 pm § in Good Practice, Guest Bloggers

BrandOutLoud: Own Branding Makes Local NGOs Less Dependent

BrandOutLoud argues that a strong profile and professional marketing communications will enable local aid organizations to reach out on their own, create new partnerships, and diversify their funding.[...]