September 2011
5 posts
3 tags
The World Bank - Mapping for Results →
roomthily:
visualization of World Bank-financed projects with socio-economic indicators
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The Global Sociology Blog: Why I Keep Harping on... →
globalsociology:
Because it is THE issue facing many societies today, with negative effects across the board, and yet, it is largely ignored:
“The incomes of the richest sections of society are soaring in the UK, China and India, and in most other countries as well. The poorest groups are seeing slow…
8 tags
Peace Dividend Trust: Aid still benefits companies... →
pdtglobal:
Despite a pledge made 10 years ago to end ‘tied aid’, recipients of aid are still being forced to buy goods and services from donor country firms, a report reveals
Claire Provost
guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 7 September 2011 13.13 BST
Article history
Information on who…
12 tags
Peace Dividend Trust: AID “INDUSTRY” VS... →
pdtglobal:
We don’t call it this, but there is a “PDT Doctrine”, a general world view among PDT staff that informs what we do and how we do it. Regular readers of this blog or those with whom we work can sketch the rough outlines without much trouble. We believe job creation comes from private…
4 tags
August 2011
4 posts
3 tags
International Development - Kathy Calvin: UN... →
Mainly just for my reference.
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A Livable Career in International Development Work →
Invaluable advice for any undergraduates.
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Food is a human right, not a corporate commodity.* →
niennaweeps:
This podcast is from last year, but the information presented and trends discussed are, unfortunately, still quite relevant. Felicity Lawrence speaks with Duncan Green, Jayati Ghosh, Olivier de Schutter, and Raj Patel about the causes of and possible solutions to the global food crisis.
While acknowledging that domestic policies and inequalities play significant roles in food...
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Lyss C Guatemala: Millions of children and adults... →
lysscguatemala:
Why is education important?
Education increases quality of life. Education is a fundamental human right and essential for the exercise of all other human rights.
A more educated society is more productive, consequently creating more prosperity.
A larger educated population contains more…
June 2011
3 posts
Development Today and Microfinance on the Edge
twolayersdeep:
By Matt Borden for Women’s Initiative.
June 20 2011
The word’s richest 500 people alive today control more wealth than the world’s poorest 416 million. Unfortunate in more ways than one, that’s like comparing the collective populations of Mexico, Russia, Japan, and Canada to the size of my college economics class last year.
Ananya Roy presents this statistic in her new...
Cogito Ergo Sum: If The Earth was A Village! →
summerskiies:
If we could shrink the earth’s population to village of precisely 100 people, with all the existing human ratio remaining the same, it would look something like the following:
There would be:
57 Asians
21 Europeans
14 from the Western Hemisphere, both north and south
8…
May 2011
5 posts
Neglect
With my current course coming to an end it’s crunch time. This place has taken a back seat while I finish off my essays, exams and what not.
Good news though, one of the assignments I have is a research project and it’s due in in a few days. So with a bit of luck I’ll be able to publish in on here shortly, and that should mark the return of more frequent updates.
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Test
Tes test test test
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Research Project, part ii
Well, it’s live. Watching the data come in is really interesting in a I’m-a-massive-geek kind of way.
Please complete and share!
UK aid: a public opinion http://bit.ly/mG3sIX
edited 09/05/11, wrong URL!
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Research Project: Student opinion of UK aid to...
I’m finally getting this project started, and the questionnaires will be going out shortly.
Google Forms seems to be the way forward, easy enough to put together and it gathers all the data in a spreadsheet so it’s easy to show pie charts, graphs and such.
April 2011
15 posts
3 tags
Back issues of Developments
In the first post on this blog, I mentioned trying to get hold of the back issues of the discontinued DfID magazine Developments.
I’d forgotten that I’d emailed DfID regarding these, so had a nice surprise when they responded and offered to send some of the hard copy of the issues not archived on the DfID website. While they could only send six out of a thirty-five or so I was...
6 tags
How much is cheap High Street clothing really...
Just a quick one, this Guardian article highlighting that sweatshops are still a problem.
‘Factories in three countries – the Philippines, Indonesia and Sri Lanka – were surveyed, and not one of them paid a living wage to their combined 100,000-strong workforce. Many of them didn’t even pay the legal minimum wage.
Such precarious employment makes it harder for trade unions to...
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It's all gone quiet
My original plan was to update the blog every day/every other day but I’ve quite rapidly let that slip. I’m trying to get a several essays out of the way and then I can finish a post I’ve been doing on the Millennium Development Goals.
As you were.
3 tags
Mapping UK Aid from 1960 - 2009
Brilliant animation of UK Aid, showing the amount of Aid countries received from the UK from 1960-2009.
I’ve tried to embed it on the blog but it breaks the format, so follow this link.
Note the dramatic spikes in Aid during conflict, notably Iraq.
Full analysis on the Guardian.
There’s also a similar animation below, showing US Aid but it’s not quite as clear.
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World Bank Data →
More open data, this time from the World Bank. Some great stuff here, reminiscent of the Gapminder software.
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I Am A Book, Torn: So, →
iamabooktorn:
I spent Friday/Saturday helping out at a conference for International Development on campus. I missed a couple of the speakers but the ones I did see were extremely interesting, particularly a talk on human rights and international aid. A talk by The Global Poverty Project was also really good, I…
7 tags
Using satellite & aerial photography in natural...
Satellite imaging has come a long way in the past twenty years, not to mention that public access is now easier than ever. While Google Maps et al are useful for navigation and looking up where you live (and of course looking at some of the amusing things captured on Google Street View), satellite and aerial photography have been used to highlight the devastation caused by some of the recent...
1 tag
Put your shoes back on. →
passportpages:
Today is TOMS’ annual A Day Without Shoes event.
Basically, they’re asking people around the world to walk around in bare feet. The goal is to raise awareness for kids in underdeveloped countries who don’t have shoes, and thus are more prone to illness and injury.
In addition, they’re giving away thousands of pairs of shoes to underprivileged kids worldwide.
Sounds lovely,...
Nomaddict: Travel and International Development →
nomaddict:
Travel means different things to different people. It may be an all-inclusive cruise vacation, a car and an open highway, or a backpack and a raised thumb. Similarly, development has been defined differently throughout history. From the mid-forties when increasing GDP meant progress, to the…
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Erol User | Tumblr: The World Bank Group: Funding... →
eroluser:
By: Erol User As a graduate of the Istanbul University Faculty of Economics, I double majored in Finance and Management. Prior to developing my own financial concerns, I served under the Turkish government and the World Bank Group. Vital to the interests of international development and…
6 tags
Rest easy! Stats are now fun (official)
Hans Rosling is becoming a hero of mine.
His work on global health issues is inspiring, and his knowledge and passion can be seen in his presentations. He uses the Gapminder software to visualise data, which makes it infinitely more useful than your standard linear presentations of still images, bullet points and and a YouTube video (on that note, Prezi isn’t bad for non-linear stuff).
...
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Japan, Fukushima and the media
As reports come in of another earthquake on the coast of Japan, the coverage shifts away from the nuclear disaster and back to reports of possible tsunami.
Little coverage is given to the massive reconstruction effort and search for bodies, but I guess it’s just not as newsworthy. It certainly doesn’t make for good TV reports, after all, who wants to see thousands of people...
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It's all about the networking darhhling
For lack of some inspiring introduction, I’ll just get started.
I met Martin Degg & Gill Miller at the University of Chester applicants day last weekend. They are both wonderful, and both are really inspiring and active in their fields which I believe is invaluable and hopefully this will come through in their teaching.
Gill was very helpful, she gave me some resources for a...
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