I’m currently meeting loads of really interesting people. One of them is the author of the blog “Good Intentions are Not Enough“, subtitle “an honest conversation about the impact of aid.” I think it’s great and I think we need more blogs like this. Not only to make agencies accountable but also to educate individual donors about why certain things are just really, really bad ideas and why some well-meant initiatives can actually cause harm. Check it out: http://informationincontext.typepad.com/
You’re an aid worker with 10+ years experience under your belt. You earn a pittance but it works for you because you are non-resident at home so you don’t pay tax, you are catered for on assignment so you don’t pay rent,and your mortgage is covered by the people renting your place because you are never there. Welcome to your future – these are your life options …
I just finished reading Joel Hafvenstein’s “Opium Season“, a book that has absolutely nothing to do with social media but which I’d like to recommend to anyone working in the aid-business. Opium Season is about Hafvenstein’s time in Afghanistan in 2005, when he was working for a USAID funded cash-for-work project that was supposed to supplement the income of people who were due to lose money because of a poppy-eradication campaign. The problem with donor driven programmes What makes this book[...]
