For your summer/winter reading list
Sharing excerpts from the 8th pages of the following books that have been on my reading list this year, in celebration of how-matters.org’s 8th year!
Sharing excerpts from the 8th pages of the following books that have been on my reading list this year, in celebration of how-matters.org’s 8th year!
“There are better approaches that can be employed to make sure that our development approach is participatory and strategic. But if we continue to force on communities ideologies born out of top-down approaches, we are not going to see the impact and change we desire.” A guest post by Clement N. Dlamini of the Institute of Development Management in Swaziland.
An excerpt for international do-gooders from Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s last sermon, “The Drum Major Instinct.”
“When I was a boy and I would see scary things in the news, my mother would say to me, ‘Look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping.’” ~Fred Rogers
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.”
How-matters.org’s Friday feature! Sharing “The Development Set” by Ross Coggins, written in 1976 but still relevant to international aid work.
Are we overlooking the capacity of local NGOs? My guest post on The Broker Online argues that rather than being the lowest common denominator of international assistance, local indigenous organizations should be regarded as the fundamental unit of effective development aid.
Good Fortune is an Emmy-winning PBS documentary that is a provocative exploration of how massive international efforts to alleviate poverty in Africa may be undermining the very communities they aim to benefit.
What is it about people in the developed world that elevates “stuff” to a solution for those in need in the developing world?
Highlighting key issues not often heard enough in aid effectiveness dialogues.
Parody Video entitled, International Aid Worker Meets African Villager: “I can create a community intervention for you and then you can agree with it.”
Is fundraising using ‘pitiful’ images justified if charitable organizations use the money effectively? Duncan McNicholl, founder of the “Perspectives of Poverty” project, responds on how-matters.org.
“The kids in Africa were soooo amazing and so darn cute.” And so, the smoke poured out of my ears before I could even have my morning coffee.
A local sovereign organisation is an authentic expression of the will and voice of its own constituents. While it may accept funding to provide services, it is not a surrogate vehicle for the projects of another agency’s purpose.