By Ellen Knickmeyer
Vastly more people needing help, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa, and particularly in the slums of the world’s poorest cities. More climate crises, both slow-moving and abrupt. More military involvement in humanitarian work. More …
By Ellen Knickmeyer
Richard Holbrooke, President Obama’s U.S. special envoy for Afghanistan and Pakistan, believes he knows what it takes to make the Afghan government more effective: funnel billions of dollars of U.S. aid directly into …
By Jonathan Scanlon
I enjoyed reading Sherine Jayawickrama’s post on NGO advocacy at the G-20 a couple of weeks ago. Her comments point to something that Oxfam America calls “smart development,” which is a key part …
By Sherine Jayawickrama
The swarm of advocates and activists around meetings of the G-20 and G-8 have now become the norm. As I follow the engagement of NGOs in Pittsburgh this week, however, I am struck …
By Lauren Murphy
My time spent at BRAC in Dhaka, Bangladesh, reframed my perspective on a surprising number of development and humanitarian issues. After experiencing life in both the city and rural areas of Bangladesh, I …
by Sherine Jayawickrama
Steven Lawry’s five-part series on U.S. Philanthropy’s Shrinking Amibition has provided a lot of interesting food for thought. His analysis and arguments have caused me to reflect on how this set of issues …
By Steven Lawry
In Part IV of this series I argued that large, conventional foundations, staffed by highly-qualified and increasingly specialized professional staff, are over-specifying the solutions to poverty in-house and, in the process, are increasing …
by Steven Lawry
I argued in Part II of this series that foundations as private organizations are freer than public funders to get behind new and untested ideas for reducing poverty that show promise. Foundations are …
by Steven Lawry
One of the principal criticisms proponents of so-called new philanthropy direct toward old, or traditional large philanthropies is that old philanthropies, in assessing the merits of grant proposals, don’t require prospective grantees to …
By Steven Lawry
I am arguing in this four-part series that US foundations working internationally are not making full use of their freedom to support innovation and help people claim new rights—and that progress toward reducing …
Dambisa Moyo made a stop at the Harvard Kennedy School on Monday to talk about her book Dead Aid. The book is creating a lot of buzz. I now understand why. Moyo’s message is simple, …
