Category Archives: Economy

Aid or Trade: Why You Should Read These Top Development Blogs

© Arhuis School of Business

THIS MONTH THE U.K. ANNOUNCED IT WOULD END AID TO INDIA, saying it would focus instead on trade It brought up the ever-present question.

What good does development do, and how will it work moving forward?

If you’re like me, you want to hear what development does, and doesn’t, do. Here’s where you find insight:

NYU Development Research Institute: This is where you’ll find William Easterly, development expert and the founder of the myth-busting, watchdog blog Aid Watch. Although Aid Watch is no longer updated, you can still get a scholarly view of international aid through the Institute’s blog.

Blood and Milk Alanna Shaikh is a 10 year veteran of international aid. Her voice is clear, concise and always enlightening. She’s an insider. Which is brings us to our next blog:

AidSource: Billed as the “Humanitarian Social Network,” AidSource was founded by Shaikh, “J.” from Stuff Expat Workers Like, and Shotgun Shack (which, while we’re here, is definitely another blog to bookmark). If you are interested in development as a career (or as an “industry”), the community here is open, fun, and very knowledgeable.

Wait…What? Linda Raftree’s blog explores her experience and interests in community development and participatory media. Her day job’s with Plan International, and she’s also a tech manager. She wrote recently on the intersection between ICTs and child migration.

Good Intentions Are Not Enough How do you know if your aid donation is doing good? If you’ve ever given to a charity, or even thought about it, Saundra Schimmelpfennig’s nonprofit blog is a must-read.

From Poverty to Power Written and edited by Duncan Green, strategic adviser for Oxfam GB, this blog features guest bloggers, mostly those who work for Oxfam, giving you a look at the challenges behind the people-behind a large aid organization, with good insight, such as what it means to be in India’s new middle class.

Owen Abroad Owen Barder is the Europe Director for the Center for Global Development. Read this blog if you like to know things like transport costs for US food aid programs can be as high as 97 percent of the total cost of aid.

ReliefWeb A one-stop site for news, crisis and emergency updates, and policy and funding analysis.

Where do you do your aid and development reading? Whose writing on development do you never miss?

You should follow me on Twitter here.

How Close Are We to Ending World Hunger?

HUNGER TAKES MANY FORMS: from food insecurity in the United States to global large-scale famines. As the Thanksgiving holiday approaches in the U.S., how close are we to ending global hunger?

This video breaks the problem down into who’s hungry and why, and what we can do to solve the problem:
Source.

How Can You Help?

Want to help end hunger? Here’s how you can get started:

Become a food activist: learn more here.

Find Out Who’s Hungry: Watch the stories behind hunger at PBS’s Series Food for 9 Billion.

Aid those in your community: here are 3 ways you can help food-insecure Americans now.

Please share this post to help end world hunger today!

What are you doing to help end hunger in your community?

We Are The Dollars and Cents

NOW THAT WORLD FINANCIAL MARKETS ARE PLUNGING yet again and people everywhere face rising income inequality, I thought I’d post this song by Radiohead called “Dollars and Cents,” from their 2001 album, Amnesiac. As with most songs, meaning is open to interpretation, but with lyrics like We are the dollars and cents/and the mark and yen/We’re going to crack your little souls…, the group predicted the economic and social conflicts we find ourselves mired in today:

Oh Why don’t you quiet down?
(Maybe I want peace and honesty)
Why don’t you quiet down?
(Maybe I want to live in the children’s land
And you know maybe, maybe I)
Why don’t you quiet down?
(Maybe I’ll wander the promised land
I want peace and honesty)
Why don’t you quiet down?
(I want to live in the promised land
And maybe wander the children’s land)
Quiet down! (Yeah, and there, there we can free)”

Give the song a listen to below. Lyrics and more info from Green Plastic Radiohead.