Posts Tagged 'poverty'

THE WAR ON TERROR vs. THE WAR ON POVERTY

THE WAR ON TERROR vs. THE WAR ON POVERTY

McLeod Group Blog by Ian Smillie, January 4, 2017

In a recent New York Review of Books article, William Easterly argues that by conflating the ‘war on terror’ with the ‘war on poverty’, Western donor governments have made a big mistake.

Easterly, Professor of Economics at New York University and author of several powerful critiques of foreign aid (The White Man’s Burden, The Tyranny of Experts) says that Western donors, making a correlation between poverty and terrorism—for which there is little ...

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CANADA’S INTERNATIONAL ASSISTANCE REVIEW: OPPORTUNITIES AND RED HERRINGS

CANADA’S INTERNATIONAL ASSISTANCE REVIEW: OPPORTUNITIES AND RED HERRINGS

McLeod Group Blog, May 20, 2016

In his Globe and Mail column on May 12, Jeffrey Simpson took note of seven major policy consultations currently under way: Canada Post, defence, communications and culture, innovation, productivity, missing and murdered aboriginal women, Via Rail upgrades and the legalization of marijuana, all expected to report back in 2017. The very next day, Friday the 13th, Global Affairs Canada (GAC) kicked off another one: an International Assistance Review.

“See a pattern here?” Simpson asked. “Consultation. ...

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Foreign Aid Mindlessness – USAID Has Lost its Vision

Foreign Aid Mindlessness – USAID Has Lost its Vision

Guest Blog by Tom Dichter, January 7, 2016

About a year ago the U.S. government’s foreign aid agency (USAID) completed a new mission statement based on polling some 1500 of its staff members.

“We partner to end extreme poverty and to promote resilient, democratic societies while advancing our security and prosperity.”

I’ve been working in international development for fifty years and I’ve rarely seen as mindless a statement coming from any entity devoted to promoting development (Recall that USAID stands for the “United ...

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Canada is Back. But How Far Back?

Canada is Back. But How Far Back?

McLeod Group Blog, Dec. 14, 2015

December 4, 2015 saw the first throne speech of the Liberal government. The speech carried the by now familiar ‘Canada is back’ message, one that has been very successful in drumming up international applause for the Trudeau government. The speech was very compact, essentially a set of headlines, recapping the Liberal manifesto and ministerial mandates, with an emphasis on current hot topics: refugees, re-engagement on climate change and Canada’s indigenous population.

It devoted just a single ...

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Canada Balancing Budget on Backs of World’s Poorest

Canada Balancing Budget on Backs of World’s Poorest

Guest blog by Liam Swiss, April 22, 2015

Liam Swiss is an assistant professor in the Department of Sociology at Memorial University in St. John’s. He teaches courses on development, gender, globalization, and research methods.

The latest foreign aid numbers were released on April 8. Globally, aid remains at near record high levels (US$135 billion). This is good news for the global fight against poverty. The numbers tell a rather depressing story, however, if you are Canadian. In the past ...

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Good Luck/Bad Luck: Where’s Nigeria?

Good Luck/Bad Luck: Where’s Nigeria?

McLeod Group Blog, April 1, 2015

On March 15, 2015, the armies of Chad and Niger drove Boko Haram out of the Nigerian town of Damasak where it had been wreaking havoc for more than five months. The Nigerian military, one of the largest in Africa, was not part of the operation and was nowhere to be seen.

Long ago, in answer to a question about possible Canadian support for eastern Nigeria’s secessionist Biafra, Prime Minister Trudeau replied, ‘Where’s Biafra?’ One ...

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Terrorism and Development

Terrorism and Development

McLeod Group Blog, March 26, 2015

What’s the first best weapon to combat terrorism?

Good jobs-lots of them.

What’s the second best weapon?

Knowledge:  continuous, detailed analysis of the complex root causes of radicalization and terrorism that informs the fullest range of actions by governments.

Yes, we admit here to ‘committing sociology’ (an idiotic phrase if there ever was one).  For the record, we also regularly commit anthropology, and political science, and economics, and community development, and, especially, gender analysis.

It could be that truly ...

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The Rise and Rise of Poverty Porn

The Rise and Rise of Poverty Porn

McLeod Group Blog, Feb. 16, 2015

‘It used to be that the best way to raise money for the developing world was to show the abject poverty that could be found there, but NGOs are finding that tactic no longer works.’ So says Nathaniel Whittemore in a thoughtful article—‘The Rise and Fall of Poverty Porn’—which talks about focusing on solutions rather than symptoms.

Is he right? Has the ‘pornography of poverty’ declined? Is it true that it doesn’t work? If you ...

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McLeod Group at the CCIC-CAIDP Conference May 2014

Clan McLeod was out in force at this event, sharing the limelight with Joe Clark, Development Cooperation Minister Christian Paradis and a broad mix of Canadian development actors drawn from the memberships of the Canadian Council for International Cooperation (CCIC) and the Canadian Association of Independent Development Professionals (CAIDP).

The highlight of our participation was a session, ‘Taking Stock: the Changing Context for Development’. The event was informal, even if the room was packed. It was a set of frank and lively conversations ...

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Land-Grabs Expropriate Poor Farmers’ Livelihoods

Guest Blog by Roy Culpeper

Chair, Coalition for Equitable Land Acquisitions and Development in Africa

March 27, 2014

Over the past decade and a half, huge swaths of land in the developing world have been wrested from the rightful owners, peasant farmers and pastoralists who typically have no formal property rights even though they and their forebears have worked the land for centuries. Often the dispossessed are moved onto marginal lands with poor access to water, undermining ...

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