3 readings I like No. 03
Dear all,
Welcome to this week’s newsletter!
I posted my regular Links & Contents I Liked last Friday, my 393rd curated #globaldev collection. This week’s mid-week readings are:
We may need more humanitarian bureaucracy, not less
“when you examine three of the main issues currently plaguing the sector — sexual misconduct, corruption and fraud, and the politicization of resource allocation — the case for watering down humanitarian bureaucracy weakens (…). Instead (…), what might be needed is more bureaucracy, not less.”
Aaron Clark-Ginsberg & Mary Kate Adgie from the RAND Corporation (a US think tank I have some issues with given its proximity of the military-industrial complex) still make an important point that has been made often when it comes to the “overheads are bad” debate: Organizations need professional systems and well-paid professionals to do “admin” right and enhance accountability.
Why Read the Human Development Reports of the UNDP?
“Because they are a sheer example of the essentialist ontological assumptions that, for more than seven decades, conditioned and limited our understanding of development and global issues. In other words, because detecting and understanding these limitations could help in escaping ‘the Procrustean bed of development’ and in casting a new critical light on the MDGs and the SDGs”
Juan Telleria for the EADI blog with a summary of his forthcoming book. I am also an avid reader of “flagship reports”, e.g. the World Bank’s World Development Report or the OECD’s Development Co-Operation Report.
Turn off that camera during virtual meetings, environmental study says
A new study says that despite a record drop in global carbon emissions in 2020, a pandemic-driven shift to remote work and more at-home entertainment still presents significant environmental impact due to how internet data is stored and transferred around the world.
