NGOs and Uncooperative Host Countries

By Alanna Shaikh | 22 February, 200811 November, 2011 | 0 Comments |

Choking on Bureaucracy: State Curbs on Independent Civil Society Activism. Human Rights Watch has released a report on Russia, alleging that the Russian government is stifling civil society by placing unreasonable limits on NGO activity. Burma is doing something similar.

Relationships with the host government are always a tricky thing. NGOs as a general rule are there to support the country’s development, but what if the NGO feels that the best interest of the government is different than the best interest of the people.

Ideas 4 development

By Alanna Shaikh | 18 February, 200811 November, 2011 | 0 Comments |

Ideas 4 development. Despite the questionable name, this site is a source of information and opinion on international development topics. It’s not really for beginners, but doesn’t require an advanced degree, either. I’ll come back to it often to get up to speed on new thinking.

Biofuels – bad for everyone

By Alanna Shaikh | 14 February, 200811 November, 2011 | 1 Comments |

This is too depressing to save for Friday fear. It looks like biofuels aren’t going to do a thing to prevent global warming.

Kidnapped German aid worker freed in Somalia

By Alanna Shaikh | 13 February, 200811 November, 2011 | 0 Comments |

Kidnapped German aid worker freed in Somalia – I wonder if kidnapping him was an error?

Please let us see the same result for Cyd Mizell.

German aid worker kidnapped in Somalia

By Alanna Shaikh | 13 February, 200811 November, 2011 | 0 Comments |

Somalia is bad ugly territory for aid workers. Today, a German aid worker was taken. No name has been released, but he was an experienced guy who’d been in Afghanistan. He was working for Welthungerhilfe, also known as German Agro Action. Welthungerhilfe is active in Somaliland, which is actually one of the safer parts of the country to work in. There is always terrible risk to working in Somalia, but the need is so great that you can’t really ignore the ethical imperative.

Chinese Aid in Africa

By Alanna Shaikh | 13 February, 200811 November, 2011 | 0 Comments |

According to Newsweek, Chinese projects in Africa are not as successful as one might think. The winning quote for me is this:

“They’re gone,” says a scrawny guard at the entrance to Catumbela’s paper mill, as he stares disconsolately at the tracks. “I don’t know when they’re coming back—they ate their dogs and left.”