Tag Archives: international development
A Far-Away Summit That Will Impact Your Neighborhood
If you’re reading this blog, you probably stay somewhat knowledgeable of current events. And you’ve surely heard of the face-to-face meeting between the leaders of the US and North Korea now underway in mid-June 2018. It is of great importance, and why am I writing about it. So much of the media is scoffing about […]
Complexity of NAFTA negotiations
The US, Canada, and Mexico are in several rounds of negotiations to change the North America Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). This has been a promise in the present Trump administration, and despite views on Trump, you have to give him credit for addressing his campaign promises – which many politicians can’t claim. NAFTA includes a […]
Getting from Disasters to Development
Is there a connection between development and disasters? Emphatically yes! The line may not be straight, but the more developed is the country, the less is the impact of disasters. I am speaking mostly of natural disasters, because these seem to be the most frequent events in developed countries. What do we mean by ‘developed’? […]
A Brief Observation of Development
Although I now focus primarily on emergency mitigation and preparedness, I ‘backed into’ working in disaster settings while serving overseas as a volunteer in ‘rural development’. This was following a couple of degrees in agriculture, both teaching it in high school after a Batchelor’s at Clemson, and co-oping as an irrigation engineer while finishing a Masters […]
The Great Foreign Aid Debate
You may recall that I’ve worked in a dozen developing countries. During that time, I witnessed the complex world of foreign aid. In fact, my very presence in Africa or Asia was a form of ‘foreign aid.’ Now that’s a bit scary! On one level, we applaud aid as an attempt to relief suffering and […]
Training Wheels
I spent most of today assisting in a local mobile medical unit training. The International Red Cross Federation calls it an Emergency Response Unit. The ERU can be deployed worldwide when a disaster occurs. This weeklong exercise takes an enormous amount of time, money, and human effort. The operative word is ‘training’. The question is whether the […]
Human-induced Disasters
When a natural disaster occurs, the story is splashed for days in the media. As reporters say, “If it bleeds, it leads.” However, in a random walk through human history, by far the most devastating disasters have been ‘human-induced’. We used to call them ‘man-made’. In other words, caused by us humans. Countless people have […]
Relief vs. Development: The Agony and the Ecstasy (Part 2)
In the last blog, I discussed advantages and challenges of relief programming in a disaster. I will now discuss “development model” considerations in an international disaster response. By definition, the international NGO (INGO) is present because the host country is considered “under-developed” by one or more recognized international indices. The lack of development is usually sectoral, i.e. […]
Relief vs. Development: The Agony and the Ecstasy
Most relief responses by international agencies take place in settings where the groups already have a presence, primarily implementing development programs. However, the approach to relief and the approach to development are different by their very natures, which has the potential to cause tension between the programs. These tensions can and must be mitigated before they escalate into […]
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