Foreign Aid Reform: In a recent Huffington Post article, Carol Peasley writes about the “what next” of foreign aid reform, beyond giving development a stronger voice in the larger policy discussions. She asks: how can we make aid more effective through greater local ownership- what would that look like, in terms of process and funding? She also says that much of the discussion about USAID reform has become “contractor bashing,” which is not constructive.
House Foreign Relations Committee Hearing, Combating Climate Change in Africa, next Thursday, April 15th. See the live webcast on the House website.
The collapse of aid? Owen Barder, author of the insightful and sometimes controversial blog Owen Abroad, writes about the “coming collapse of the development system.” In sum, he writes that aid has become more and more complex, and based on the literature, complex systems are bound to fail when they are too rigid to change.
Global Jam: USAID held its first ever “jam” called Global Pulse last week, and the number of participants from around the world was impressive – 11,000 “jammers” from 150 countries, according to an article on the virtual event by Devex.
Blogger Chris Blattman remarks on the fact that there is a “market for everything,” even in pretty harsh conditions. Like manicures in a Haitian tent camp. See the feature presentation on PBS.
The Bad Old Days Were Better, in Zimbabwe: Kristof writes in the NY Times about how badly President Mugabe has destroyed Zimbabwe: people are nostalgic for the good old days of living under the rule of a nasty, oppressive regime run by a tiny white elite.