“Aid is the smart thing to do”
As he prepares to leave Africa for Afghanistan, UN Assistant Secretary General Toby Lanzer speaks to the Guardian: ‘Donors are stretched – there are more mega crises than ever’.
Aid in reverse?
The Guardian recently stated that aid is flowing in reverse – more leaves poor countries for rich ones than the other way around. “What they discovered is that the flow of money from rich countries to poor countries pales in comparison to the flow that runs in the other direction,” so that “Rich countries aren’t developing poor countries; poor countries are developing rich ones.” Read More…
Aid workers talk endlessly about capacity building – but what does it really mean?
Isn’t capacity building a potentially never-ending bureaucrat’s fantasy? Isn’t it time for a serious rethink?
From The Guardian: https://www.theguardian.com/global-development-professionals-network/2016/nov/10/what-does-capacity-building-mean
In broadest terms, capacity building means improving the organisational performance of institutions. But the terms technology transfer, institutional strengthening, capacity building and capacity development have all been used to describe more or less the same process – so there’s a distinct lack of clarity about the concept.
Capacity building has been a cornerstone of development policy for 70 years and vast amounts of money have been spent on it. The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development calculated that capacity building accounts for 25% of aid expenditure, representing about US$15bn (£12bn) a year. (more…)
Nudge Theory – good for YOUR projects!
A recent study illustrated the power of “nudges” in changing WASH behaviour. Robert Dreibelbis and his team tested the use of visual cues to modify behaviour. (more…)