The Lighter Side

The Center for Sustainable Development—CSDi—is launching a course on Climate Smart Agriculture. May 7, 2013

The Haiti Earthquake response was characterised by unprecedented participation. Even the Asian Tsunami, as messy as it was, was not the free-for-all that Haiti became almost overnight.

Alguns Links:

Assistance needed for research paper focusing on the conditions routinely encountered by aid workers in different regions of Africa.

I’m coming to the end of one... Another one. And I’m tired in that special way.

PostAdjust - http://www.postadjust.org

Does any one of you have experience with battery inverter electricity supply systems?
How are they designed, how is the capacity calculated of the inverter and how many batteries are required?

Karsten Weitzenegger took over the moderation of the Aid & Development Professionals group on XING (http://www.xing.com/net/aiddevprof

Hilar

On a lighter note, imagine you had $ 100 million and 7 issue areas where would you allocate your money?

It is tough for most of us ...have your say

Does your organization have an intranet that can be accessed by field staff? Or have you ever worked for an organization that has this? If so...

That time of year is upon us again in Ghana – the time where every international flight that arrives, pours out scores of the bright and bushytailed, the hopeful and positive, the naïve and trustin

A play about aid workers: 'Think global, fuck local'. Not a bad title. If anybody was able to see it, in London, I'd be interested to hear what they think.

From OneWorld UK:

I had to share this, it came into my inbox today. It is the kind of story that as aidworkers share but sometimes miss the significance of...

ebrealitycheck.blogspot.com

Now here is one presentation that anybody in development should see.

New insights on poverty and life around the world

TedTalks 2007: Hans Rosling on poverty

Hans Rosling
Professor of International Health, Karolinska Institute
Co-founder, Director of Gapminder Foundation

http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/view/id/140

A professor of global health at Sweden’s Karolinska Institute, his current work focuses on dispelling common myths about the so-called developing world, which (he points out) is no longer worlds away from the west. In fact, most of the third world is on the same trajectory toward health and prosperity, and many countries are moving twice as fast as the west did.

The Development Executive Group invites you to its international development happy hour in Geneva, Switzerland:
DATE: Wednesday, January 30, 2008
TIME: 7:00 pm - 10:00 pm
LOCATION: Heaven Lounge Bar, Rue Phillippe Plantamour 25

During the lull the week before NYE, I thought I'd throw out something a little light-weight but possibly helpful: what novels (fiction only) have you read that you thought were either a good representation of what it's like to work in the developing world, or, that you thought offered good background for aid/development workers?

Off to Juba to work for two years. Delighted to find that I am getting a "company" tent..which has to be better...you would think, than a bog standard (in this case no bog in the standard) "aid workers" tent, surely? Impressed that within a few months...I am getting my own Portakabin. Coo. That's progress. After 15 years as an aid worker and 3 years as a consultant I get a...tent. But a company one. What does that mean? A logo that doesnt have stars or stripes or just stars in it? The privilege of having a personal tent pitched near other company tents? I think back to the Tanzanian border days of refugee camps and wonder...will there be snakes in the shower? Will there be a shower...or a company bucket?

Ever been "world banked"? I first heard the term while studying for my Master's a few years back, but had certainly experienced it often enough while working with the UN or with corporate partners, even if I didn't know it had a name. It's when you are brought in to a "participatory meeting" where you are supposed to provide inputs for a strategy. You spend the day -- or even several days -- with other employees or representatives from other organizations, breaking into small working groups, discussing and debating, identifying this and that, etc. You take it seriously. You all share with each other your concerns, hopes, fears, and what you think whatever resulting project should be all about. You walk away feeling great.