Happy New Year!
Dear all,
I hope my message finds you reasonably well.
I recently spoke to a friend and that discussion rekindled my idea to send out a more regular newsletter in 2021. To be perfectly honest, I haven’t thought about it very strategically yet and I hope that some of you will provide feedback about the type of content you find useful.
You are probably aware of my weekly #globaldev link review (the first one in 2020, no.390 in total, just went up) and perhaps I could send it out as a separate newsletter each week as well?
I was also contemplating to send out a very simple message every other (?) day with ‘3 must-reads’, but I’m worried that I fill up everybody’s Inbox a bit too much?
Do you have good examples of newsletters you like and that could be adopted to fit the small niche of curated #globaldev content?
I shared my first annual ‘development blogging review’ in 2011 and wrote:
”blogging is a product of our times: Internet-based, sophisticated, time-consuming if done well and hopeless with regard to ‘value for money’. I do not want to frame it as a trend, but a lot of development blogging is likely to remain on professional and organisational margins and there will be more coming and going in the blogosphere”.
Almost 2 years ago I shared my last annual overview highlighting the Oxfam scandal & #AidToo movement, decolonization & a sitcom pilot that was never realized into a full show…
So as a newsletter exclusive I will share a few reflections on my #globaldev 2020…in all fairness, it wasn’t the most prolific year, but there are some interesting posts I’d like to highlight: I reviewed Sergio “not the kind of movie I need to arrange a special screening for our students-it is a Netflix movie that will provide close to two hours of global diplomacy escapism and plenty of food for reflections and the odd snarky comment when you watch it in the guesthouse or with friends during lock down in Geneva or New York” and a book from 1989 that thanks to the author’s social media channels quickly became my most visited book review ever…personally, I enjoyed People in Glass Houses much better-perhaps the quirkiest memoir about work & live in the UN system I’ve read so far…
But more importantly, my two curated resources on Racism in the aid industry and the DfiD-FCO merger highlight two of the most important topics of 2020 for the #globaldev industry.
Perhaps the most surprising insights from the blog are that my 2019 post Dear white middle class British women: Please don't send used bras (or anything, really) to Africa is still extremely popular for reasons only the algorithm deities could explain and that my post from the first year, Should I consider a PhD in International Development Studies? is a digital gift that keeps on giving…
But before this newsletter gets to long and self-centered I want to end with 6 digital projects that have impressed me most in 2020:
But before this newsletter gets to long and self-centered I want to end with 5 digital projects that impressed me most in 2020:
1. Best traditional #globaldev blog
Perhaps not really surprising, but Duncan Green’s From Poverty to Power keeps the original #globaldev blogging spirit alive with excellent stamina
2.Best non-pandemic blog for pandemic-related challenges
Jayne Cravens Blog on digital volunteering has become increasingly relevant and her expertise and archive on online volunteering is more timely than ever!
3.Best non-traditional journalism project
Mail & Guardian’s The Continent has delivered some of the best journalism from Africa throughout 2020
4.Best project on decolonization
There have been SO MANY excellent books, articles, webinars,…in 2020, but Convivial Thinking is an exceptionally great marketplace to dig into the topic from a more academic angle
5.Best podcast
There are so many excellent podcasts (and I’m still planning to curate a proper blog post about them), but the New Humanitarian’s Rethinking Humanitarianism project is particularly well done.
6.Best Newsletter
This Week in Africa!
There is so much more to write & share, but I’ll leave it at that for the moment.
Happy reading! Keep in touch & expect a few more newsletters from me in 2021!
Tobias
