Gapminder.org

Huge thanks to the incomparable Chloe Day for pointing out this website. Go and have a play immediately.

Beautiful panoramic pictures of homes in megacity slums

Some amazing images, linked from this post on the excellent Blood and Milk blog:


See more on the Foreign Policy website. IRIN recently reported powerfully on the problems facing urban slum dwellers in a globalised world; read that article here.

How do humanitarians learn?

The most excellent Chris Blattman started the sort of rolling debate that makes the humanitarian blogosphere quite a useful place to have one's antennae out for this week when he posed a few questions - and offered some solutions - on his blog:

First, a lot of people aren’t in the habit of reading, either because they don’t like it or (more likely) they want to, but (like many of us) they find it hard to turn aspiration into action, especially in the frantic business of aid. Second, it’s one thing to read more research, and another to read it critically. Alone. Without falling asleep. And third, it’s another great leap entirely to turn reading into application.

He suggested getting into reading blog posts by humanitarians, absorbing the CARE academy's resources, running global reading clubs and getting cheap mp3 players packed with podcasts like Owen Barder's Development Drums series into every Landcruiser, and suggested that a humanitarian blogger supergroup could write posts, provide podcasts and even innovate some miraculous techy widget to help.

Paul Currion over at humanitarian.info was interested but unmoved. He asked where the evidence was that research, reading and learning directly improved programmes, over and above improving the minds of the humanitarians doing the reading; criticised the writing style of academic articles which are 'functionally useless' for many hands-on aid workers. He also rightly points out that on a six-hour car ride or after a 12 hour working day, the last thing anyone wants to do is 'listen to a detailed discussion of a book about nutrition'. Instead, he proposes:

1. Holding workshops in the field that bring people together across a) different organisations, b) different countries and/or c) different disciplines, focus on core transferable skills, emphasising practical skills that reflect policy. Old school!
2. Creating structures that enable the professional links developed in those workshops to be maintained more effectively over time. Call it social networking if you must, but stop looking at Facebook. This is where the technology comes in – new school!
3. Then (and this is the really, really difficult bit) let these groups define the direction of future learning. Regularly poll staff to see what they want to learn, how they want to learn and when they want to learn, and shape your approach accordingly.

There needs to be some imagination around these two approaches, a willingness for organisations to give up control of the learning process, and a long-term investment that will definitely see mixed results.

So then Michael Bear at Change.org jumps in. He appreciates the initial thought and the critique that followed it, but doesn't think much of the solutions proposed.

Blattman assumes that all aid workers are somehow alike, or at least assumes that most aid workers actually want to delve into the literature and research, and that it's only external barriers - be they technological or stylistic (cue cliche about academic writing) - that keep them from doing so.

In my experience, aid workers are just like everyone else. Some want to learn more, and some don't.

Podcasts and book clubs might entice the first group, but certainly not the second.Currion, on the other hand, does a good job of critiquing Blattman's argument, but then comes up somewhat short in terms of offering concrete suggestions - the recommendation to "create structures" without any further detail isn't all that useful.Instead, I think the answer is institutional - aid workers, like everyone else, respond to incentives.

Especially when those incentives are tied to performance evaluations. If aid agencies are serious about fostering learning, they'll make it a requirement, tying it to bonus or other incentive structures. Agencies could require that aid workers take X number of online courses a year, or organize mandatory trainings and workshops to disseminate the latest research and learning...

This costs money, but everything costs money. It's all a matter of prioritization. If learning is in fact critical to the delivery of effective aid programs, then it should be prioritized by aid agencies. If learning isn't critical to the delivery of effective aid programs, then we shouldn't worry about it overmuch.

On the other hand, Amanda at Wronging Rights liked the podcast idea, which she sees as already happening. She notes that '...aid workers are certainly receptive to new ideas and research... I get emails all the time from people in the field or freshly out of it, engaging with our posts and offering new ideas.' This certainly chimes with my experience - people in the field seem to be starved of the opportunity to debate and share learning and it's the people at Head Office who would rather swallow whole copies of Disasters than sit through another workshop. She goes on:

My suggestion: don't think of the aim of this project as getting people in the field to read, or to listen. Think of it as getting them to write, and to talk. Measure success in terms of posts blogged, tweets tweeted, pods casted, and articles published by the workers you're trying to reach, on the subjects you want to publicize.

Focus on the conversation, and getting it to become self-perpetuating, and the information dissemination/absorption will take care of itself. No one wants to sound like an idiot, so they'll need to process the information before they can comment on it. (And if they do go ahead and put out uninformed blather, then that's a useful signal for anyone thinking of hiring them...)

Equally importantly, making this project about discussion will also ensure that the flow of information runs both ways: not just academia to field, but field back to academia.

So what do you think? Do we need to worry about getting people in the field and at Head Office to learn, and discuss what they take in? Have these guys missed the point a bit by not talking about the importance of sharing what you've learned, not from books, articles and blog posts, but from programmes and the people they work with and for? How can we help either of those things to happen? Let us know your views in the comments field below - I know I and everyone else whose role it is to support learning in the humanitarian sector would really value the debate extending beyond us lot - people who by definition spend their time geeking out on the internet.

Great graphic on humanitarian gaps

From Reliefweb, via Change.org, the snappily-titled 'Major Humanitarian Crises Requirements Snapshot':

Silly name or not, it's an interesting and informative glance.

Federation West Africa food security video on YouTube

This food security work is funded by the DFID IS.

IRIN Radio: English-language audio interviews on hot humanitarian issues

See IRIN's website for 10 mins or less audio files on:
Security hampering the aid effort in Somalia (including the ICRC HoD)
Assessment and analysis
Food security assessment in Somalia
Data analysis approaches

...more to come no doubt. Thanks to @paulcurrion.

PBS: Tweeting with meaning

Twitter has gone mainstream, with Oprah Winfrey and Ashton Kutcher each racking up over a million followers. Critics have panned the microblogging site as narcissistic at best, but media-savvy people around the world have adopted Twitter for far more serious purposes. Moldovans used Twitter to organize protests against fraudulent elections, witnesses to the terrorist attacks in Mumbai kept the world updated via Twitter, and citizens in Myanmar used Twitter to circumvent media censorship and report on the true severity of last year’s deadly cyclone.

Humanitarian relief workers in particular have taken to Twitter’s short messaging technology. Its 140 character limit and ability to reach multiple people simultaneously have proved extremely useful for communicating in rapidly-evolving situations.

Read more on the PBS website.

Alertnet: Obama's First 100 Days: A Humanitarian Perspective

Update: Astrid Zweynert, Alertnet's Deputy Editor, adds her views (again, not necessarily ours) on the first 100 days for aid. More a round-up of events than anything else.

Joel R. Charny, vice president for policy with Refugees International, weighs in, and while we don't endorse or share his views, we think it's interesting, so we're sharing it for information's sake!

The President has changed the tenor of the U.S. approach to the world, and this has humanitarian ramifications. Obama, joined by Secretary of State Clinton and Secretary of Defense Gates, has been stressing in multiple public settings the importance of development assistance, humanitarian aid, and diplomacy, in addition to military action, as tools for U.S. engagement and problem solving....

The change in message and tone, however, amounts to meaningless rhetoric without the resources to back it up.

Read more on the Alertnet website.

Mobiles in Africa

The impact of mobile technology in Africa deserves its own post, but suffice to say it is incredible. Where Africa got left behind in physical infrastructure, it is compensating with mobile systems. The only land lines in Kawambwa are at NGO and UN offices, but literally everybody has a cell phone. There is a single bank that always has lines out the door and a broken ATM, but all bank customers can access their accounts and transfer money through their phones. Mail takes months to arrive in Kawambwa -if it arrives at all- but because of text messages and mobile internet, it is hardly even necessary. We don't get any newspapers, but regularly get texts from Congo with political updates.

From Kala

This is the tip of the iceberg - lots being written at the moment about the impact of mobile technology on Africa, development, and entrepreneurship - and also on humanitarian relief efforts. For a good resource on this see the excellent humanitarian.info.

Public health experts can save us from invasion of killer undead

If you’ve ever seen a zombie movie, you’ve seen an introductory guide to public health. The flesh-eating undead are an epidemiologist’s worst nightmare, but they can teach us a lot about public health crises and begin a philosophical discourse on the trade-offs between individual liberties and public safety.

Read more on the Yale Daily news website.

An experience of cash transfer programming in Somalia

From Vasco Pyjama.

'...in theory, our method for selecting beneficiaries was picture perfect. Theoretically speaking, we should have got the poorest third of households in each village. ... The donor loved our beneficiary selection methodology. They even told other NGOS to use the same methodology.

In practice, I'm not sure what happened. Last October, during my final trip to Somalia, I went out to talk to beneficiaries the day before the cash payment was due. "What will you do with the money you earnt?", I asked. Invariably, they told me that they would share it with another three to five households. Typically, four others. Apparently, people said that the amount of money was so large (EUR50) and the need within the community was great. They did not feel that one family should be entitled to the grant. So they would share it five ways. Each family receiving a measley sum of EUR10. Just enough to buy a sack of sorghum, and that's all.

I was furious! Our careful targeting was a waste of time! Plus, I was convinced that the elders were placing pressure on the poor to share their money. But a colleague pointed out a few valuable points to me. Somali culture, she said, was sophisticated and nuanced in its coping mechanisms and sharing of resources. The fact that the poor families shared this precious cash probably meant that, later on, they could call on the other four households to support them in lean times. And perhaps, this way, even though they 'gave away' EUR40, they essentially leverage much more in future support. Or perhaps, they were just bullied and their money taken away.'

BRC Sierra Leone Child Advocacy Programme

BRC Bangladesh DP Programme

BRC video: Bangladesh Recovery programme

British Red Cross podcast for World AIDS Day

In honour of World AIDS Day, a new podcast on the work of British Red Cross peer educators in Scotland and their link with peer educators in Nepal is up on our external website.

Other podcasts include episodes on the aftermath of Cyclone Nargis in Myanmar, and child soldiers in Sierra Leone.

British Red Cross Uganda Appeal Microsite now up

A fantastic microsite has gone live today supporting our Uganda Appeal - featuring our very own Ros Armitage.

Ten best.... humanitarian aid podcasts

A new feature from the International Bulletin blog, the Editor's selection of the best fixtures on the Interweb.

First off, for the tech-friendly among you - our selection of the ten best podcasts from the humanitarian sector and related fields. In no particular order:

• LSE: Humanitarian Aid and Independence: Do no harm? Part of their public lectures and events podcast series
  
• The MSF Voice and Frontline podcasts - aimed at the general public but including the voices of those they work for
• UNICEF - 'Beyond Schoolbooks' - a podcast series on education in emergencies
• Christian Aid - content both for laypeople and for humanitarians - includes podcasts on the reality of experiencing a hurricane, and DRR
• International Rescue Committee - Updates from International Rescue Committee staff and volunteers doing humanitarian work around the globe.
• The British Refugee Council's podcast series on vulnerable women
  
• The New Internationalist - hear from 'rebels, radicals and realists with voices and ideas not often heard through mainstream media'
• Institute of Development Studies podcast series - the controversial views and latest arguments of leading development experts
• Forced Migration Online - a small collection of discussions between experts on forced migration issues from academia, practitioner organizations and international agencies. In the near future, they plan to add interviews and life histories of refugees and other displaced people.
• The International Herald Tribune - customisable podcast for daily news updates
  

Away days and emergencies - yes folks, Brangelina is televising our lives. Sort of.

Reuters are reporting that Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt are making their first joint producing effort with an HBO series about aid workers.

The as-yet untitled drama will explore the behind-the scenes politics of an international aid organization, and chronicle the lives of humanitarian workers assigned to dangerous zones and the needy people they assist.

Jolie and Pitt will serve as executive producers, along with Scott Burns, who will write the pilot. Burns co-wrote "The Bourne Ultimatum" and was a producer of "An Inconvenient Truth."

Matthias Schmale of BRC interviewed by UK news programmes following BRC Africa Floods Appeal

Following BRC's urgent Africa Flood appeal, launched on the 20th September (press release and main donation page available on BRC website), Matthias Schmale gave interviews on the 21st September to Channel 4 news and BBC News 24. Moira Reddick gave a further interview later in the day to the BBC.

Channel 4 news have very kindly posted a video of their report on their website - follow the link and click on the 'watch the report' link.

Sadly the BBC have not posted video of either interview, but they are reporting in some detail on the Red Cross response to the floods, including mention of the BRC appeal and an interview with Benonita Bismarck of the Ghana Red Cross.

On Friday 21st September, Humanitarian Coordinator for Uganda Theophane Nikyema announced a Flash Appeal for around $41m to 'address urgent humanitarian and some limited early recovery needs for 300,000 people affected by the flooding over the coming six months'.