Global
It's not really such a great aid mystery
The latest edition of The Spectator carries an opinion piece by Jonathan Foreman entitled 'The great aid mystery'. In a diatribe laced with rather tired tropes, and whose style undermines the argument he makes, Foreman’s main points when stripped of rhetoric can be summarised quite simply as:
The anti-lexicon of peacebuilding: listening to Edward Saïd and George Orwell
I think Edward Saïd wrote somewhere that the USA can never hope to contribute to sustainable peace in the Middle East until it is willing and able to describe the situation there objectively, comprehensively and accurately. Good advice for President Obama and his new Secretary of State as they embark on four challenging years in the region. And good advice meanwhile for anyone, be they doctor, secretary of state, international NGO staff member or anyone else, who takes on responsibility to help others fix their problems.
Spain In Focus
- Juan Garrigues's blog
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Firstly, thank you to International Alert for inviting me to join this forum. The blog entries so far promise to provide for plenty of interesting debate tomorrow. I hope to be able to contribute to this debate with some comments on Spain's experience.
The end of aid effectiveness?
I took part in a round table discussion in a post-conflict country recently, looking at aid effectiveness there.
Among the salient details on the table, and which will be familiar from elsewhere:
Peacebuilding in Europe?
On 10th December we held our first Conflict Ideas Forum at the Royal Commonwealth Society in London.
London High Level Panel: Reflections
It had been a long time coming. Since the first meeting of the High Level Panel, set up by Ban Ki Moon and co-chaired by the British, Liberian and Indonesian Heads of State in New York the massed ranks of civil society had been looking forward to this meeting with expectations and anxiety in equal measure.
Remembrance Sunday: Thoughts on peace
One of my first jobs after finishing university was a temporary post at the Royal British Legion in 1997.
Photo by David Tett for Hammersmith and Fulham Council (www.flickr.com/photos/hammersmithandfulham)
Programming Framework for International Alert
Our Programming Framework provides International Alert peace practitioners with some guidance in the complex and difficult task of building peace. It also offers those we work with and are accountable to greater clarity about what we do and why we do it. Most importantly, it is designed to enable peacebuilders to be better able to identify and measure the impact of their actions, so that they can be more effective in what they do.
Our Programming Framework provides International Alert peace practitioners with some guidance in the complex and difficult task of building peace.
What should replace the UN's Millennium Development Goals?
International Alert has called for a radically different approach to the UN’s Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) in our written submission to the UK’s International Development Committee (IDC).
UN General Assembly
Here Chris Underwood, Senior Policy Advisor at International Alert, recounts his recent trip to the UN General Assembly in New York.
Photo of UN staff raising awareness of the MDG deadline of 2015 by MT_bulli (www.flickr.com/mt_bulli).
Photo of the UN General Assembly by Africa Renewal/John Gillespie (www.flickr.com/africa-renewal).
Do British development NGOs not want to discuss development?
The UN High Level Panel looking at development goals after 2015 is coming to London and will meet representatives of British development NGOs who, it seems, don’t want to discuss development with them.
Taking stock
To be effective as peacebuilders, we need to respond to the power dynamics and norms that influence peace and violent conflict at the household, community, national and international levels.
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