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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 December 16, 2009
The Climate Summit in Copenhagen is on our minds this week. The big question: by how much will we agree to reduce emissions? And how much funding will we commit to give to developing countries to help them adjust to climate change and avoid climate-busting energy use as their economies grow? So far, the United States has proposed cutting emissions by 3 to 4 percent of 1990 levels by 2020, whereas the European Union has agreed to a 20 percent cut. Neither is considered sufficient, but at the rate the negotiations have been going, we might be lucky to have any deal at all. The COP15 has been full of the usual ups and downs of any multilateral negotiating process- complete with walkouts, accusations, and really boring speeches that say nothing new (see Washington Post article). Officials hope to have a deal by this Friday, but many observers fear that failure is looming.
Some environmental organizations are concerned that the big polluters of the world are not going to agree to reduce emissions by enough, and that the summit will not achieve anything big enough to have a significant impact on climate change. There is also concern about a great “greenwash” – where no matter how lackluster the outcome of the summit, all the publicity will gush about whatever small thing was accomplished no matter how insignificant.
The EU has offered $3 billion per year over 3 years to help developing countries cope with climate change. Experts disagree about whether this amount will have any impact, and what a sufficient amount would be.
Global Washington member Mercy Corps is one of the many NGOs represented in Copenhagen. From the perspective of Jim Jarvie on the Mercy Corps blog, it sounds like the ultimate climate change conference is taking place on the sidelines of the negotiations, with presentations and discussions led by NGOs and government agencies from around the world. Dory McIntosh writes about the peaks and troughs of the conference, especially the dismal predictions laid out by Al Gore and scientists about the effects of global climate change: “Not only are the Greenland ice cap and Western Antarctica melting far faster than was previously thought, but the Himalayan glaciers are melting at a rate that is placing the lives of more than a billion people in jeopardy. Sea level rises of around one meter are predicted by the end of the century, which would displace an estimated 100 million people from their homes and livelihoods.”
Eco-Encore is a Seattle organization throwing its support behind the goals of the summit. It has organized a media recycling drive to benefit 15 northwest environmental organizations, in conjunction with COP15.
Need more background? The Seattle Times has a good quickie background piece on the talks.
thanks to Darren Nowels for help with research on this post
Posted on December 11, 2009
by Global Washington intern, Pat Orozco
Writer Joel Connelly’s biggest takeaway from Global Washington’s first annual conference: “Helpers often need to take a back seat to those they are helping.” He cites several speakers and panelists from over 300 conference attendees, leaders in the global development field, who underscore that “local buy-in” is crucial for successful development, particularly efforts to combat poverty by empowering women and girls.
Connelly highlights panelist Margaret Willson of Bahia Street, a successful school for girls in impoverished Brazil, who makes clear that the organization’s record—12 alumna placed in Brazilian colleges and not a single unexpected pregnancy among its girls—is credited completely to the local African Brazilian women who run it. “It’s following their road map, not ours.”
Also “underscoring the Monday conference was a reality of local life: Seattle is an international city, and Washington is a state that looks outward.” Connelly points out that by thinking and acting locally and globally, the state is widely recognized for its contributions to the global development field. He quotes Mark Emmert, president of the University of Washington, who said students today dream about having “impact on a global scale” in a way that Baby Boomers “used to think about on a national scale.”
For the full blog post, check it out here.
Posted on December 8, 2009
MFAN, the modernizing foreign assistance network, is circulating a petition for a global development strategy to give development a strong voice in foreign policy decisions. They already have collected over 30,000 signatures- let’s help them reach their goal of 50,000 signatures by December 22nd!
Right now, President Obama and his senior White House advisors are preparing recommendations that will shape the future of U.S. efforts to alleviate poverty, fight disease, and create economic opportunity for the world’s poorest people. Your voice needs to be heard in this debate! Sign the first-ever development community petition asking the White House to send a strong signal about America’s commitment to development.
Sign the petition here.