The Real Experts
An estimated 25,000 participants from more than 185 countries will assemble in Washington D.C. next week for the XIX International AIDS Conference. How many of them have cared for a dying neighbor or comforted a grieving child?
An estimated 25,000 participants from more than 185 countries will assemble in Washington D.C. next week for the XIX International AIDS Conference. How many of them have cared for a dying neighbor or comforted a grieving child?
The general (and often pejorative) assumption in the development sector that the capacity of “local partners” should be measured by the degree of formal structure is something that must be re-examined.
Is a lack of humility on the part of the international aid community the real obstacle to creating more well-resourced funding mechanisms that reach grassroots organizations?
Relating James Mackie’s video, The Parable of the Blobs and Squares, to international aid, which shows that there is more to people than their problems, that the solution to problems lies in the problem itself, not in an imposed solution.
Effective funding and capacity development initiatives, such as the one featured in this video from Results for Development Institute, are needed to increase the demand for human rights and development at local and international levels.
Justin Timberlake got me thinking on that flight back from Johannesburg… How would aid partnerships change if real-time, on-the-ground data had the same value as aid dollars?
Donors stuck in the old ways of moving money around don’t offer useful capital to new and innovative organizations that don’t fit the mold. Here’s four things a new kind of aid donor does better.
Akhila Kolisetty, creator of the blog Journeys towards Justice, explores how social entrepreneur funders can reduce power imbalances and enable marginalized groups and leaders from around the world to be heard
Some thoughts on and from inProgress’ new manual, “Integrated Monitoring: A Practical Manual for Organisations That Want to Achieve Results.”
More people should hear about the effectiveness and sustainability of community-led development. Helping IIRR get to the TEDx conference in Chicago in 2013 to share this “idea worth spreading.”
Leaders from four African organizations sat down to give their “real”, though too-often-unheard insights on site visits from the perspective of the ones being visited.
Nobody believed that writing a book together could happen, but forty community leaders produced 27 stories about their work in development and empowerment in just 4 hours. Independent consultant Lucia Nass shares her story from Myanmar.
It still shocks me a little when a colleague will look at me and ask, “Now, what do you mean by ‘downward accountability’?”, as if I’ve uttered an oxymoron.
The estimated 595,000 aid workers around the world (ALNAP, 2010) are rarely called to examine the bureaucratic rigidities that govern their day-to-day work. By supporting each other to create more trust, equity and mutual accountability with those we serve in the developing world, system-wide reform becomes more possible.