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.
By Ed Cable, President
Mifos Initiative
A gathering of Mifos partners. Photo: Mifos
Governments everywhere are seeking to soften the blow to small and microbusinesses from the COVID-19 pandemic, and to provide transfer payments to the most vulnerable individuals. At Mifos, we’re intent on bringing open source technologies for financial inclusion to meet this moment. Continue Reading
By Julie Budkowski, Operations Director, Future of Fish
Pedro, a fisherman and youth leader in La Islila, Peru, carries boxes of donated soap to support the health of his fellow fishermen. Photo credit: Future of Fish.
Fishers are essential workers, but what happens when they don’t have the gear they need to work safely in a pandemic?
In Peru, small-scale fisheries play a critical role in food security, supplying approximately 95% of the seafood consumed domestically. But without personal protective equipment (PPE), even essential work such as fishing becomes too high risk, leaving communities without food or fishers risking their own health or livelihood. Sourcing the PPE and sanitation resources needed for businesses to open safely has been difficult in the developed world, and even harder in countries like Peru, where it is urgently needed and for many small-scale fishers and market vendors, nearly impossible to find.
The need for PPE is especially acute in Peru’s small fishing villages like La Islilla, where limited medical infrastructure, dirt road access and no running water means that the spread of COVID-19 would be catastrophic. La Islila is a small town on Peru’s north coast that was settled by fishermen back in the 1800s. It is a tight-knit community of 300 fishing families who use traditional fishing techniques to supply fish for both domestic and international markets.
By: Kelly Pendergrast, Communications Specialist; Julie Budkowski, Operations Director Translation by Ivan Greco, Research and Implementation Lead (Future of Fish)
Versión en Español más abajo
Fernando Jorquera and Luis Solis (right), Chilean open-air market vendors, implement new public health measures in response to COVID-19. Credit: Luis Solis for Future of Fish.
Luis, born and raised in Renca, Chile, is a tireless worker and champion for his community, dedicated to working with small scale producers and businesses to improve food supply chains and access to nutritious food for all Chileans. Over the course of his career in both the private and public sectors, he observed a lack of connection and organization between workers, causing inefficiencies in the food supply system, as well as a growing concern over the declining nutrition, health, and wellbeing of his fellow Chileans. Luis’s passion for finding solutions to these two issues drives the work he does today.