Aid & Development

Reporting Poverty: What stops people turning off?

Reporting Poverty: What stops people turning off?

BBC documentary “Poor Reporting”, is a must listen. Reporter NIck Fraser discusses the difficult questions related to engaging the media with the story of global poverty. What does it take to get people in the rich world engaged in the issue of global poverty? How can you avoid cliché, sentimentality and callousness? What stops people turning off?” Is the issue of poverty too complex? Is it too boring? Has it been done too many times? None of these questions are new but they’re still extremely relevant and worth contemplation.

Listen here.

 

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Turning corporate philanthropy into effective community investment

Turning corporate philanthropy into effective community investment

Anyone following the rise of philanthropy in China over the past five years will agree that it has been nothing short of extraordinary. The Hurun Philanthropy List, that ranks China’s top 100 philanthropists, reported the average donation in 2011 at US$18.5 million. With this rise in philanthropy there has also been a steady increase in the number of corporate foundations as companies begin to formalise how they give back to the community. Read More…

Support for those who support

Support for those who support

What is an international aid worker? Well like any term it’s open for debate. But for me an aid worker is someone who has dedicated his or her life to working with marginalised or disadvantaged communities to find ways to reduce poverty and improve life situations. The work of an aid worker spans everything from working with the environment to engineering. Whether it be working to build the capacity of teachers in remote schools or working in partnership with farmers to find ways to make their crops more drought resistent. Read More…

NGOs implementing digital trends

NGOs implementing digital trends

For many people who donate to NGOs it can be difficult to grasp exactly where your money goes. NGOs are increasingly under pressure to not only attract more donations but also communicate with the public about the work they do and why it is important to keep supporting them. Online (or digital) communication is where a lot of information about NGO programs and activities is happening. Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders are doing a particularly good job of engaging their audiences online. Some of their recent multimedia projects exemplify best practice digital trends. Here are two examples. Read More…

Engaging the fatigued and unshockable – 4 awesome video campaigns

Engaging the fatigued and unshockable – 4 awesome video campaigns

 

Engaging people online to interact with campaigns is an ongoing challenge. There is so much noise that it is no longer easy to draw people in just based on a good cause or a worthwhile project. People have become desensitised through the use of increasingly shocking visuals e.g. starving children or dead polar bears. The shock factor is becoming less and less ‘shocking’ and people are losing their motivation and interest in world issues. Read More…

China’s moth-eaten social safety net: Who will catch the poorest of the poor? Not corporations.

China is, without a doubt, on a fast track to ‘development’ with an astonishing US$3.2 trillion in foreign reserves. But inequality, particularly rural and urban, is extreme with an estimated 150 million people living below the United Nations poverty line of less than $US1 a day. China’s growing wealth has resulted in multiple international aid agencies (including Australia’s Agency for International Development) pulling out of China. So who is going to pick up the slack and help support 150 million people living in extreme poverty? Read More…

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