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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 April 3, 2014
By Tim Hanstad, President and CEO of Landesa and Board Member of Global Washington
This post is part of a series developed by The Chicago Council on Global Affairs and GlobalWA member Landesa to highlight the importance of securing land rights for smallholder farmers. This series is running concurrently with the World Bank’s 2014 Land and Poverty Conference taking place in Washington, DC. Follow the conversation on Twitter with hashtag #landrights.
More than one billion of the world’s poorest people share three traits: they live in rural areas, rely on the land to survive, and they lack secure legal rights to the land on which they depend.
Most either toil in other people’s fields for pennies a day or struggle on land which they temporarily control, but insecurely — with the constant threat of displacement.
The coins they earn can never stretch far enough to allow them to buy their own plot, and they have little long-term incentive to improve the plot they currently farm. Often, they can’t send their children to school or obtain other government services, like agricultural credit or inputs, because they are not landowners. As a result, they lack opportunity and are vulnerable to displacement, exploitation, and calls to extremism. Without a fundamental change, their children and grandchildren face a similar future.
Creating a better and safer future for us all depends upon giving these modern-day serfs the opportunity for better life.
Land is at the center of both the problem and the solution.
Continue Reading
Posted on March 31, 2014
By Gena Lux
Former President Bill Clinton, His Highness Shaikh Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, vice-president and prime minister of the United Arab Emirates and Ruler of Dubai, were among senior world officials who attended the Global Education and Skills Forum (GESF) in Dubai on March 15. Shaikh Mohammad personally thanked Clinton for Varkey GEMS Foundation’s significant donation to Dubai Cares to support educational initiatives and programs in developing countries. Clinton is the honorary chairman of Varkey GEMS.
A Gulf News article described the forum events in detail, noting that Clinton expressed praise for Dubai Care’s use of educational opportunities to nearly one million primary school-aged children in economically impoverished countries. Clinton said he admired Shaikh Mohammad’s initiative to modify education to the so-called “smart model,” in addition to creating education outcomes that are equivalent to word-class standards. Continue Reading
Posted on March 24, 2014
By Gena Lux
If you were near the Seattle Center last Friday, you might have felt the collective energy of the 15,000 students and educators packed into Key Arena.
They screamed at the top of their lungs to break the world record for the loudest We Day ever with help from someone who knows a little something about being loud at a stadium, Seahawks Coach Pete Carroll. Carroll, along with several of his players from the 2014 championship team – Russell Wilson, Derrick Coleman, Bobby Wagner and Jermaine Kearse – and a jaw-dropping lineup of actors, singers, activists and community leaders, participated in Seattle’s 2nd annual We Day, a one-day event culminating Free the Children’s We Act program, a year-long initiative which offers curricular resources, campaigns and materials to help harness the energy and passion of young people and turn it into sustained activism. Microsoft, a valued member of Global Washington, sponsored the day’s activities, and their YouthSpark Reporters talked about how young people can create global change. Continue Reading