Filed under: Uncategorized
When I was a journalist, many years ago now, it never really occurred to me that we spent much more time on “bad news” than on “good news”. In fact, sometimes people caricatured the “good news” attempts as being Pollyanna-ish; they thought “good” news was not really news.
But these days, as I spend so much time on the web, I really appreciate the “good news” sites. It provides a healthy balance to the daily diet of so much “bad news” in the media – what my friend Jim Lord calls “deficit thinking”, and what he replaces with “appreciative thinking”.
One example is South Africa: The Good News. It’s a website that focuses on positive developments in South Africa. Here’s how they describe themselves and their work:
We are well aware of the challenges that we face and the extent of these challenges. We address these challenges full on, but we choose to concentrate on the solution, rather than the problem
Bad news sells. That is a global reality and it is no different in South Africa. Arguably, the news mass media tend to focus on the bad news and largely ignore the positive developments in this county, creating an “information imbalance”. This imbalance fuels the perception that bad news is predominant in South Africa, whereas the reality is that we have many reasons to be exceptionally proud of our country’s recent past and optimistic about our future.
And here’s one example of that good news in action, from Nov. 11, 2008:
The City of Johannesburg was among the world’s cities who were recognised for their efforts in tackling pressing environmental concerns in the 2008 World’s Most Liveable Communities Awards. The awards are endorsed by the United Nations Environment Programme and are hosted annually by LivCom. The UK-based organisation aims to promote the environmental management and community liveability of the world’s cities. The 2008 awards took place in Dongguan, China on Monday.
Johannesburg was the only South African and African city to feature among this year’s winners taking home a total of five awards. Among these awards was the Criteria Award for Planning for the Future. This is given to the city that best demonstrates the use of sensitive and creative planning techniques for the creation of a sustainable, liveable community.
Johannesburg came third overall in the Whole City Awards for the World’s Most Liveable Community with an average daytime population greater than 1 million. South Africa scored just below the Municipality of York, Canada and Jiang Yin, China in this category.
Read the rest of the story here. There are lots of “good news” stories in Africa. You can also find many such stories on Hopebuilding Wiki.
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: aid, disasters, humanitarian agencies, information
When disaster strikes, people need information as much as they do food, shelter, and medical attention, says a new report from the BBC World Service Trust, the BBC’s international charity. And in the area of providing information, the humanitarian community’s track record could be improved, says the October 2008 report, entitled The Unmet Need for Information in Humanitarian Responses.
Effective information and communication exchange with affected populations are among the least understood and most complex challenges facing the humanitarian sector in the 21st century. Recent evaluations of disasters – including those of the 2004 Asian tsunami and the 2005 Pakistan earthquake – have identified the failure to consider the value of information and communications with affected populations as a critical and unmet need.
Effective communication can also help agencies be more effective, the report argues:
There is also growing evidence to show that effective communications strategies for beneficiaries … hold huge potential for aid organisations themselves. This is not just because they can save lives but because they enable better accountability, more effective management of expectations and ultimately improved humanitarian response.
One example of this beneficial effect is illustrated in the following story told in the report:
In Galle, Sri Lanka, staff from the Office for the Coordination of Humantarian Affairs (OCHA) noted that there was much confusion among the local populations about their rights and entitlements concerning housing, and little capacity within the government to provide the information required.
The OCHA team worked with several different agencies and local officials to design a campaign including radio spots, posters, a leaflet explaining housing rights and crucially a week long open house day at the offices of the local government department in charge of housing, during which beneficiaries could ask questions, register for assistance and talk to government officials and aid agencies on how to access assistance.
The campaign was a huge success, with both local government officials and populations responding enthusiastically and benefiting from better understanding of each other’s roles and needs.
The Humanitarian Practice Network of the Overseas Development Institute, which is holding a discussion on the report December 4, 2008, also included a positive example in its announcement.
When Cyclone Nargis hit Burma in May of this year, it was weeks before a valiant local effort was reinforced by a massive international response. But one lifesaving commodity was able to get through from the outset: information. Dedicated radio broadcasts helped many to survive in those first critical weeks, telling them how to purify water, treat minor ailments, identify serious medical problems, and build basic shelters.
After reviewing evidence about how affected populations see the need for information and what information they need, and then exploring why such demands are rarely met “and what structures, systems and skills are missing”, the report concludes with detailed recommendations, short-term and long-term. Key recommendations are for agencies to “mainstream communications with affected populations” and to “make someone responsible for understanding and responding to the information and communication needs of affected populations”.
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: agriculture, aid, donor policy, food security
A study just released by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development and the United Nations Environment Program, Organic Agriculture and Food Security in Africa, provides a resounding vote of support for organic agriculture as a way of addressing food insecurity in Africa. Its conclusions have significant implications both for international donors and for African governments themselves.
The study notes that food security is not just a question of producing enough food to meet demand; more food does not automatically mean food security for everyone. “What is important is who produces the food, who has access to the technology and knowledge to produce it, and who has the purchasing power to acquire it.” (emphasis added).
Key conclusions of the study::
- Organic agriculture can increase agricultural productivity and can raise incomes with low-cost, locally available and appropriate technologies, without causing environmental damage. Furthermore, evidence shows that organic agriculture can build up natural resources, strengthen communities and improve human capacity, thus improving food security by addressing many different causal factors simultaneously.
- All case studies which focused on food production in this research where data have been reported have shown increases in per hectare productivity of food crops, which challenges the popular myth that organic agriculture cannot increase agricultural productivity. Organic production allows access to markets and food for farmers, enabling them to obtain premium prices for their produce (export and domestic) and to use the additional incomes earned to buy extra foodstuffs, education and/or health care. A transition to integrated organic agriculture, delivering greater benefits at the scale occurring in these projects, has been shown to increase access to food in a variety of ways: by increasing yields, increasing total on-farm productivity, enabling farmers to use their higher earnings from export to buy food, and, as a result of higher on-farm yields, enabling the wider community to buy organic food at local markets.
- Organic and near-organic agricultural methods and technologies are ideally suited for many poor, marginalized smallholder farmers in Africa, as they require minimal or no external inputs, use locally and naturally available materials to produce high-quality products, and encourage a whole systemic approach to farming that is more diverse and resistant to stress.
- The recent food-price hike and the contribution rising fuel prices have made to it highlight the importance of making agriculture less energy and external input dependent. Enhanced transition to sustainable forms of agriculture in general, and organic agriculture in particular, needs to be part of an effective response strategy to escalating food prices.
- Certified organic production for the export market, with its premium prices, can undoubtedly reduce poverty among farmers, which is a major contributor to food insecurity. However, monocropping farming systems for the export market, whether conventional or organic, still leave farmers vulnerable to export price fluctuations and crop failure. Where organic farming principles are adopted as a holistic approach for the whole of an integrated agricultural system, “organic” can be synonymous with “sustainable”, and increased food security in a region is more likely to occur, while also building up natural, human and social resources.
The study notes that its conclusions are confirmed by the April 14, 2008 report of the International Assessment of Agricultural Knowledge, Science and Technology for Development (IAASTD) panel. This intergovernmental process, supported by over 400 experts under the co-sponsorship of the FAO, GEF, UNDP, UNEP, UNESCO, the World Bank and WHO, said that “the way the world grows its food will have to change radically to better serve the poor and hungry if the world is to cope with growing population and climate change while avoiding social breakdown and environmental collapse.”
Filed under: Uncategorized
I have been maintaining Hopebuilding wiki for the past few years, and felt the need for a place to share some of the stories I am working on, as well as to reflect on what I learn as I search the web. It is an experiment, of course, so please feel free to join me on this journey of exploration.
Rosemary
