Blog
Contributor Guidelines
Submitting guest blogs is open to Global Washington’s members of the Atlas level and above. We value a diversity of opinions on a broad range of subjects of interest to the global health and development community.
Blog article submissions should be 500-1500 words. Photos, graphs, videos, and other art that supports the main themes are strongly encouraged.
You may not be the best writer, and that’s okay. We can help you shape and edit your contribution. The most important thing is that it furthers an important conversation in your field, and that it is relatively jargon-free. Anyone without a background in global development should still be able to engage with your ideas.
If you include statistics or reference current research, please hyperlink your sources in the text, wherever possible.
Have an idea of what you’d like to write about? Let’s continue the conversation! Email comms@globalWA.org and put “Blog Idea” in the subject line.
Posted on August 1, 2013
By Emma McKay
On Tuesday, July 30th, GlobalWA hosted Gregory Myers, Division Chief for the Land Tenure and Property Rights Division at USAID and Tim Hanstad, President and CEO of Landesa at The Hub Seattle for a discussion on global property rights’ affect on food security, the environment and poverty levels. Hanstad moderated the discussion, asking questions about Myers’ experience working in the land tenure division at USAID, and why land tenure is an issue worth paying attention to.
The discussion began with a question about Myers’ hefty title as Chief of Land Tenure, and what it really means. Myers explained that he approaches the issue of property rights as an issue of power, and described it as a “very multilayered fabric.” According to Myers, often times, land is effectively owned by a variety of different people. On a cocoa farm for instance, there can be the person who actually owns the land, and the one who’s allowed to lease it out. All the while the actual cocoa trees are individually owned by different people. It can get tricky when it comes to who actually reaps the benefits from the cocoa.
“That’s why it’s so important when I fight for property rights,” Myers explained. “I want to protect everyone in that fabric.” Continue Reading
Posted on July 11, 2013
By Winona Rennick
Raymond Offenheiser, President and CEO of Oxfam America, as well as other senior Oxfam leaders, met in Seattle at The Great Nabob on Monday, July 8th to speak about Oxfam America and Oxfam International’s policy and advocacy work. The reception was hosted by Jonathan Scanlon, Lead Organizer, Economic Justice, of Oxfam America, and attracted a bustling crowd of business, government, and non-profit professionals. One couple in attendance have been supporters of Oxfam since 1974—as Oxfam America was founded in 1970, they are easily some of the earliest supporters, and demonstrate the engagement and dedication of Oxfam’s network of donors and volunteers.
A short presentation and overview of ongoing and planned development work by Oxfam staff highlighted important efforts, including the recent G8 Summit in Northern Ireland, the upcoming G20 Summit in Russia, Oxfam’s campaign to make U.S. foreign aid more effective, Oxfam’s work on food security, and their community outreach programs across the country. Barbara Durr, Oxfam America’s Deputy to the Vice President of Policy and Campaigns, oversees the Oxfam International Confederation Grant, which contributes to Oxfam’s advocacy work around the world. Her office additionally works to measure the impact of Oxfam’s work, evaluate it, and learn from the experience and data analysis. Durr expressed pride at the success of Oxfam’s programs as assessed by their evaluations, stating, “We are probably the best in the business”—though some campaigns are more challenging in terms of measuring effectiveness, Oxfam strives to be a leader in impact measurement. Continue Reading
Posted on June 14, 2013
By Anna Jensen-Clem
Global Washington convened more than 200 people at Microsoft’s Redmond campus Thursday evening for a panel discussion centering around innovative solutions to global health problems. The two panelists—Dr. Helene Gayle, president and CEO of CARE and Steve Davis, president and CEO of PATH—engaged in a wide-ranging discussion of global health challenges, solutions, and new resources for aid and nonprofits.
Bookda Gheisar, Global Washington’s Executive Director, moderated the panel. The discussion focused around two main themes: educating and empowering women and girls, and forming strong and strategic public-private partnerships.
Both Gayle and Davis repeatedly emphasized the importance of providing access to education, economic opportunities, and health resources to women and girls across the globe. “If you’re trying to solve a problem, go where the problem is largest,” Gayle said of selecting projects and countries for CARE’s programming. Access to healthcare, especially prenatal and maternal care, is one of the most important stepping stones out of poverty; Davis noted that PATH’s primary focus is now reducing mortality of women and girls, and managing access to care in “environment[s] of extreme disparity.” This includes HIV/AIDS education and prevention, and work on gender-based violence. Any society, Gayle said, “is going to do better if you’re not leaving 50% of the population behind.” Continue Reading