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13 thoughts for aid in 2013
As I was sitting in a year-end retreat, I started jotting down this list of things that the development aid world could use more of in 2013. I offer it as some food for thought for the year ahead. Aid...
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“I am a drum major for justice.”
Listening at the taping of Vision for a New America: A Future Without Poverty last week (airing this week on PBS in the U.S.), I was reminded of just how much wisdom the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr....
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Not your usual listening exercise: 6000 people’s perceptions of aid delivery
Guest post by Mike Keller, a self-described aid agnostic. When a friend recently pointed my attention to Time to Listen: Hearing People on the Receiving End of International Aid, a “book” by an...
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Friday’s Poetic Pause: The Bridge Builder
When I came across this poem by Will Allen Dromgoole twice in one week, I thought it might be wanting to be shared. The Bridge Builder An old man going a lone highway, Came, at the evening cold and...
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Subjective, squishy, touchy, feely, and fundamental: Partnership matters
Mary Ann Mhina kindly asked to feature the following interview with me in the “Partnership People” section of her great website, Partnership Matters. She created the site to address “a rhetoric [in...
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The Source of Our Power
I don’t want to just celebrate women. I want to call forth all that is feminine and mothering, and all shades of both, that is the core of many women’s identity. I want to see more in international...
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Friday’s Poetic Pause: “Bewilderment” by Rumi
Bewilderment There are many guises for intelligence. One part of you is gliding in a high windstream, while your more ordinary notions take little steps and peck at the ground. Conventional knowledge...
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To change the world, a pulse is required
No matter how self-aware we are when we come into international aid, philanthropy, or social enterprise, most people, especially in the beginning, operate from a worldview in which change in poor...
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7 things you need to speak truth to power
Financial mismanagement. Lay-offs of local and international staff. Inappropriate conduct by leadership. Finally, a visit planned from headquarters to see what’s going on. What do you do? A superior...
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I just came from Haiti too…
A blog comes in handy at times, like when Nora Schenkel‘s piece in the New York Times yesterday was not open for comments. “I Came to Haiti to Do Good…” is one of those pieces that elicits mixed...
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Something “knowing thyself” requires
When emotional intelligence is missing in a leader, everyone knows it. Ian Thorpe on KM on a dollar a day yesterday discussed the elements of this and the challenges in developing one’s self-awareness...
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Don’t change the message. Change the messenger.
After reading Atul Gawande’s article in The New Yorker earlier this week, “How do good ideas spread?“, I thought of sharing again this guest post by WehYeoh. Gawande (on Colbert below) argues that the...
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Moving day: An aid analogy
What does it feel like to be a citizen on the receiving end of international aid? Here’s an analogy to try to help do-gooders understand: Let’s say you’re moving across town. You have to be out of your...
View ArticleWhat could unionizing mean for the aid industry?
Tweets from Service Employees International Union Local 500‘s Nonprofit Summit today in Washington DC. [View the story "What could unionizing mean for the aid industry?" on Storify] Read more: “Why...
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Wanted: Films that illustrate how aid works
The Social Impact Media Awards, organized by DEEDA Productions, have announced their 2nd annual call for submissions for their juried 2014 awards. Filmmakers and do-gooders, show us your video-based...
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“Create” nothing: A new social good mantra
Aid workers and development practitioners, how many times have you seen a paragraph like this in a proposal? “Community Mobilization: To ensure communities are… community management committees (CMCs)...
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#HowMatters
A “big game” and a yogurt commercial may have led you to stumble upon this website today. But you won’t find a grizzly bear here. When we talk about #HowMatters, it’s about how well-intentioned people...
View Article“The Samaritans”: Why are some laughing? Some offended?
Al Jazeera’s The Stream discusses the real-life inspiration for a new Kenyan TV comedy mocking aid workers and examines NGO culture around the world. Highlights from the accompanying Twitter...
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Is the aid architecture crushing young aid workers?
I have asked myself this same question many, many times. So when I read the phrase above in my inbox yesterday, I jumped to share it on how-matters.org. Kenden Alfond and Charles Vincent of Dialogue...
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Exploring the tension between theory and practice in community development
Koissaba Ben R. Ole is a PhD candidate and research assistant at Clemson University. I was employed by World Vision as a community motivator in one of their first Area Development Programs (ADPs) in...
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