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The storm’s a-comin’
I’m quickly writing this post before the 100-mile wide Hurricane Sandy, which has already killed 65 people in the Caribbean, takes the power out in Washington D.C. where I live. We’ve got a little...
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What makes a thought leader?
I’ve been called a “thought leader” lately. It’s a lot better than some other things I’ve been called in my life, but still, it’s a label I’ve been trying to understand—so much so that I facilitated a...
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How do you tell a compelling story about people in need that doesn’t simplify...
I use my How Matters YouTube channel to highlight portrayals of international assistance that inspire more nuanced conversations about the politics of global development and international aid. Frankly...
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Thoughtful Conversations & Sideways Approaches: The Barefoot Guide Connection
Are there alternatives to the cynicism and disillusionment that pervades in so many organizations that are working towards ‘development’? Where are the people who are interested in creating more...
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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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When local leaders say, ‘Thanks but no thanks.’
A guest post by Scott Fifer Giving impoverished kids in rural areas—who currently have no schooling—the chance to go to boarding schools a couple hours away. Laying down a concrete floor in a...
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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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Some Haiti Highlights
It’s words that stick with me as a writer. So here’s a few phrases (translated thanks to Vanessa Guillaume and paraphrased) that I’ll not soon forget from my time in Haiti last week, where we were...
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Preserving the “I don’t know” within big data
My main concern with an increasing reliance on big data is that the space for possibility and the need for control or certainty too often operate in an inverse relationship. In international aid and...
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Palestinian civil society leaders: Reinforce us, don’t replace us.
“Foreign experts for what exactly?” Grassroots civil society activists from Palestine discuss their experiences with international aid in this Special Mention Award Winner of the Social Impact Media...
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From one Cornhusker to another: Peter Buffett, philanthropy, and how we can...
Dear Mr. Buffett, The charitable industrial-complex, philanthropic colonialism, conscience laundering and inequality – these are topics a fellow Nebraskan like me wants to have more conversations...
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It’s about more than school fees
Saeed Wame, founder and director of Namwera AIDS Coordinating Committee (NACC) of Malawi. Photo by Joop Rubens. www.jooprubens.com I always walk away from a conversation with Saeed Wame with a brand...
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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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The development “players”
“The development landscape has never been more cluttered than it is today,” wrote Marc Bellemare in Foreign Affairs last week. “Oh great, what have I missed?” I thought, as I had already prepared my...
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Building a Fire: An organizational capacity self-assessment tool for...
I developed the Building a Fire tool in 2006 to enable self-assessment processes for grassroots organizations as an alternative to capacity assessment tools that focus on the formality of institutional...
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Building a Fire: Thinking twice about how we look at organizational capacity...
When I started working with and funding grassroots organizations in east and southern Africa, my goal was to flip the script on old-school capacity building approaches. First of all, what if what was...
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Do grassroots organizations in poor countries have an image problem?
Here was the assignment: Every organization, however small, wherever it is located, has its own story to tell. This is its voice…its brand identity. But non-profits in poor countries often rely heavily...
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Knowing when (and why) to stop and listen
This is a guest post by Joe Shaffner, the second in a series of seven blog posts from my International Development Communications students at Georgetown University’s Public Relations and Corporate...
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Briefcase NGOs: How widespread is this, really?
Definition of a briefcase (or suitcase) NGO: A fraudulent nonprofit organization, set up by only one or two persons, only to obtain money from donors but having no programs on the ground. I have long...
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Excuse a little shameless self-promotion
Here’s a few places my voice has appeared in #globaldev discussions this summer: David Peck’s Face 2 Face podcast - on results and evidence, social change, and storytelling Interview with the World...
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