How can Ethiopia’s coffee farmers get more from your $3 latte?

September 30, 2010
According to legend Kaldi (left), a 9th Century Ethiopian goatherd, discovered coffee when he saw his flock start leaping around after nibbling the bright red berries of a certain bush. He gave them a try, and the ensuing buzz prompted him to bring the berries to an Islamic holy man in a nearby monastery. The holy man disapproved of their use
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Top tips on interviewing people in groups

September 29, 2010
They may not qualify as ‘proper focus groups’, as when it comes to that horrible word ‘methodology’, I am largely self-taught, but for decades, I have been sitting down under trees, in people’s houses or in NGO offices and talking to groups of men and women about their lives. It’s one of the most fulfilling aspects of working in development.
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Should we buy roses from Ethiopia?

September 28, 2010
OK, back to Ethiopia week. On leaving Addis, we head off to the Rift Valley on one of Ethiopia’s many excellent roads (shame about the driving…) to an enormous flower farm owned by a company called Sher, which rents them out to three large Dutch flower companies, including Herburg Roses Ethiopia plc, who we are meeting. And I mean enormous
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How butter leads to women’s emancipation: a self help group in Ethiopia

September 24, 2010
In societies where women are traditionally confined to the home and denied any voice, how can NGOs help bring them together? Ethiopia week on the blog continues with a visit to a women’s group supported by an Oxfam partner, Rift Valley Children and Women Development. On the way, Hussen Delecha, an ex-Save the Children staffer who decided to switch to
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Ethiopia is Beautiful

September 23, 2010
And I’ve just got back from a fantastic five day field trip there, so I’m going to subject you to a week of posts on it. I go on two kinds of trips for Oxfam – laptop and notebook. Laptop trips are usually to conferences, with powerpoint, wifi, memory sticks, email and all the paraphernalia of the modern wonk, which
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How has campaigning changed since slavery was abolished?

September 22, 2010
Recently I discussed ‘public action and influencing change’ with a small group of NGO types at an aid conference in Edinburgh. We started off by reviewing the factors behind the victory of the abolitionists back in the early 19th Century, and what had changed (or stayed the same) since then. Same: many of the tactics (petitions, boycotts, killer facts and
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How Change Happens: Campaigning on Early Marriage in Yemen

September 21, 2010
Here’s another interesting example of how to do advocacy where you might not expect it, in this case on women’s rights in Islamic contexts. If you are born a woman in Yemen you have a 50% chance of living in absolute poverty, a 70% chance of being illiterate and an 80% chance of never holding a paid job. You have
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The Guardian goes global; development success stories; China v US on sustainable energy; Americans love the UN; stats made easy; emergency universities; what really happened in Copenhagen: Links I liked

September 20, 2010
Welcome to this blog’s 500th post….. Check out the Guardian’s new Global Development website and its accompanying  ‘GD Blogosphere‘ portal  The ODI has launched a new website on ‘development success‘, with some great case studies. China overtakes the US on sustainable energy finance – who’s walking the walk on climate change? How about this for a US opinion poll? · 54% think
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Social Protection for Cows?

September 17, 2010
Cows, camels and goats are a crucial store of value in many countries. They provide meat, milk and clothing, they can be a quasi currency and can be passed on to children. In some countries, they are used as a kind of high interest revolving loan – you borrow a pair of breeding animals, look after them til they have
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We love road blocks; flushing toilets and murder rates: random facts about Latin America

September 16, 2010
The Economist has a big report on Latin America this week, to coincide with the 200th anniversary of the start of its struggle for independence (unfinished business, some would say). Here are some of the more striking statistical nuggets and other bits and pieces. The region has 15% of the world’s oil reserves, a large stock of its minerals, a
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How Change Happens: Improving the Education system in Niger

September 15, 2010
I’m always keen to pick up and explore examples of ‘how change happens’ in different situations (feel free to send suggestions). Here’s one from a conversation with Oxfam’s country director in Niger, Mbacke Niang, As one might expect in one of the world’s poorest countries, Niger has a dysfunctional, poorly managed and inaccessible primary education sector. Adult literacy is less
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Ha-Joon Chang’s new book: 23 Things They Don’t Tell You About Capitalism

September 14, 2010
I still remember watching with delight as Ha-Joon Chang kebabed a US trade negotiator, shortly after the launch of the WTO’s Doha round of negotiations. At one of those ‘schmooze the NGOs’ sessions in Geneva, the diplomat was explaining to us the folly of governments ‘picking winners’ – industrial policy. Those who did so were doomed to fail, apparently. From
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