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‘If I had a Little Money’: Why Money is Not the Biggest Challenge to International Aid.

29/03/2017 by sissel Leave a Comment

ABBA – Money, money, money (pcutler, Flickr)

Ahead of last Year´s World Humanitarian Summit, Kristalina Georgieva wrote an article on IRIN about the biggest challenge to humanitarian aid not being money, but the lack of cooperation.

She was a member of the High-Level Panel on Humanitarian Financing. As a result of research made by the panel she described the aid community as : ‘An overcrowded market place… [where] turf wars duplicate effort and saps precious energy.’

I cannot agree with her more. Furthermore, this does not only hold truth for humanitarian aid but also development aid. The problems with non-cooperation within these two artificially separated communities are much the same. [Read more…]

Disaster – The Enemy Within

15/03/2017 by sissel Leave a Comment

“Disasters are manifestations of unresolved development problems”.

The quote is from the Global Assessment Report on Disaster Risk Reduction (GAR) 2015. It is an issue pivotal to development, but still mainly overlooked. It is a message that should be shouted out with a megaphone large enough to reach all politicians, donors and decision-makers around the world.

Why is that important?

That is important because disasters can no longer be regarded as external threats.

Disaster risk is by and large a product of poverty. [Read more…]

5 Essential Features of Maturity

10/03/2017 by sissel Leave a Comment

Anne Frank (1929 -1945) – a role model of maturity

This blog is called ‘From Aid to Maturity.’ Hence, in this post I will talk to you about the importance of maturity. And why the human race, and the aid community in particular, needs to evolve from its present teenager stage into a more grown-up one. Teenagers are often self-centred and unable to see the wider effects of their behaviour.

A mature person understands that they are responsible for their own lives; and are aware of how their behaviour and actions affect other people.

Sadly, I have experienced a large number of international aid people acting highly immature. This is a business where mature behaviour should be the norm, considering the severity of the causes we work on.

Agencies and individuals acting out of self-interest, refusing to cooperate or share information, are all signs of a profound lack of maturity. Even worse are the deliberate attempts to sabotage and hurt others for some short-sighted gains. We need to grow up. [Read more…]

Shit Happens: Community–Led Total Sanitation

10/03/2017 by sissel Leave a Comment

Maybe Community-Led Total Sanitation is familiar to you, but I must admit it was new to me before I came across the handbook. Hence, I assume there are several others out there who have not heard about it either.

Here is a brief presentation of the concept and its potential.

The Concept

Community-Led Total Sanitation started as a consequence of a sanitation project in Bangladesh. A project that included the provision of costly toilets no one used.

Dr. Kamal Kar, the innovator of CLTS, realised that without changing the mindset of the villagers; and making them aware of the wider consequences of open defecation, similar projects would continue to fail. [Read more…]

‘It Is the Behaviour, Stupid’

07/02/2017 by sissel Leave a Comment

Many aid and development programmes focus merely on technology and knowledge transfer or on providing services. That is the reason why many of them do not achieve their intended results. Because the heart of the matter: mindset and behaviour, is not addressed.

A good example is the recent Ebola epidemic in West Africa, described by many as a behaviour-driven crisis. Traditional burial practices together with distrust in government and health authorities were the main drivers behind the epidemic. [Read more…]