Today, livelihood projects often form the backbone of women’s empowerment and economic development programs spearheaded by local and international NGOs alike. Many organizations have theorized that empowering women with opportunities for income generation – through training in skills and investment in microfinance, in particular –  ultimately reduces violence against women. Microfinance, for instance, is primarily given to women – with the hope that as women begin bringing more income into…

 Applying the principles of the "deadly diamond" to our travel planning

On the morning of 30 November 1989, Mr. Alfred Herrhausen, Chairman of Deutsche Bank,  traveling in his armored Mercedes had just left his suburban home (FRG) protected front and back by security vehicles. Within minutes he was dead, the armored door of his limo pierced by a bomb placed…

This post first appeared at the AidSpeak blog. See the original here.

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Never Again

I don’t think I can specifically recall the last time there was something other than “Syria” as the leading headline on Alertnet.  I notice this because…

A guest post on how-matters.org by Mary Fifield

The power of learning is not just a slogan for many of us working in the non-profit sector. It's the value that undergirds the programs that we help deliver—programs designed to support people in discovering their own talents and skills to better their well-being, their environment, and their society. It's a value that supports our own…

This post originally appeared on AidSpeak, the external blog for AidSource admins. Read the original here.

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How YOU Would Make Aid Better

We want to thank those of you who took the time to churn out a few hundred words and go through the 5 or so mouse clicks necessary to add your thoughts to our collection of blog posts on how you would make aid…

People have been playing more games these days in Washington D.C. And I don’t mean the strategies of the Obama and Romney spin teams.

Two recent events suggest games’ growing popularity in D.C. aid circles: this one I attended at the World Wildlife Fund earlier this month and this Tuesday’s upcoming …

In three separate blog entries I look at how to find out about European Commission funding opportunities, tops tips for securing the funds and then where to find the best resources to…

Original published on Wait... What?

When working with women and girls in conflict or displacement situations (actually, when working with anyone, in any situation), we often make assumptions. In this case, the assumption is that “economic opportunities for women and adolescent girls have positive roll-on effects”, according…

I discuss this topic on my own blog - why not read it and add your own thoughts on the topic? Did I miss a sneaky trick that led to your success? 

This post originally appeared at AidSpeak, the external blog of the AidSource admins. Check it.

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Gender Based Violence and Livelihoods – How do we do better?

Yes, we know we’ve been delinquent about blogging here. We’ll publish a roundup of your posts about how to make aid better within a few days. First, however, we’d like to…

Last week at happy hour, we found ourselves giving advice as to a budding aid worker who was about to have her first round of interviews for her first "real" aid job. She wanted to know what questions she should be asking of the organizations and people with which she's interviewing. These are the questions that one has to have ready, when inevitably interviewers say, "Now what questions do you have for us?"…

A guest post on how-matters.org by, Clement N. Dlamini, Senior Lecturer at the Institute of Development Management based in Matsapha, Swaziland

Communities have inherent in their systems, means of survival and a tenacity that has seen them through very difficult times. There is heart in communities that keeps pumping and keeping people alive even in the midst of…

How do people whose livelihoods are so intrinsically linked to livestock recover from a disaster when their animals are injured, sick or dying?

A new exciting online resource has just launched, bringing together actors from across the humanitarian and animal welfare sectors to exchange information in real-time and coordinate emergency response when a disaster strikes.

This resource is the Virtual Disaster Platform (VDP), a…

If you're in Washington D.C. this Wednesday , August 22nd, please join me for a "How Matters Hub" at 6:00pm EST. You can view the invite and RSVP here.

And if you're not in D.C. or won't be able to join us, you can listen to my recent interview on AidWorks, an Australian radio program started in 2010 by Cate Coorey and Tim…

Looks like Volume 33 No 8 could be a rather interesting edition of the venerable Third World Quarterly academic periodical. Selected highlights from the table of contents:

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Simple narratives of aid are problematic. I think they're problematic whether they're presenting the problem over and over again or a simple story of success for one person. Smart aid needs smart donors and smart donors need more than just a simple narrative to stay interested.

Aid marketing is, after all (at least for the most part), about trying to get people to part with their…

A Brief Update From the AidSource Admins

Dear awesome members (you),

Just a quick note from us to you to let you know a bit of what's going on in AidSource lately.

The main thing to be aware of is that two of the admins (Alanna and J.) have lost family members within the past few days, and the third (Shotgun Shack) is slammed with an unusually busy summer work season. What this means is that we'll be keeping lower than normal profiles here on AidSource (as well…

Aidspeak called for three changes to make aid better by August 1^st. Oops – instead they’re getting one by August 3^rd.

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Give every aid worker (local and international, cleaner to country director) a social change investment fund of US$1,000, over which they have total personal discretion.

Task each…

If you've ever had any doubts that international aid or global health is a business, then one visit to an International AIDS Conference will clear them away. Between the free frozen yogurt from big pharma and bookend speeches from the Clintons, it was hard to ignore what a "sexy" disease HIV was last week in Washington D.C.…