Comments

Thanks Phil - maybe this speaks to a general challenge in organising an academic conference on development practice. Academic work is typically of the realm of ideas, and tends to involve only imperfect interactions with the messy realities of life lived in practice (which is fair enough, good theorising is hard as it is). Meanwhile, the average aid worker just has to get stuff done, as well as possible under the circumstances (which is also fair enough). Given the disjunct here, coming up with a theme for a conference to allow for productive interaction is always going to be a challenge. That said, one thing I should have made clear in my original post was that I really enjoyed the ACFID conference, in practice. Some very interesting presentations, and many good conversations. Terence

Hi Alsia, Thanks for your comment. Out of interest, how would you define an aid practitioner? My definition would be someone who works for an aid NGO, an aid contracting firm, or a government aid agency. As well as academics whose work focuses foremost on issues of improving human welfare in poorer countries. For the people in my list, I would argue (as I've done in the blog post above) that economic inequality should be of lesser importance to their day jobs than other elements of development (economic growth, reducing infant mortality to give two examples). And I would also argue that economic inequality is not as central to the issues that aid workers confront than other forms of inequality (particularly inequalities of power). Note the comment: 'to their day jobs'. In NZ (where I'm allowed to vote) I vote for a political party that strongly favours progressive taxation and is good on issues such as the minimum wage. I do this in part because I think inequality is important as a general issue particularly in OECD countries (as I noted early on in the blog). But for aid work, not so much. Although having said that I think you're right to note that aid work is diverse and that for aid workers involved in certain campaigns, such as Oxfam UK staff working on their inequality indices, or people campaigning for a Tobin tax, economic inequality might quite sensibly be central to their work. (This would also be the case for academics specialising in areas such as economic inequality in Latin America). But are these people the majority of aid workers? Should they be? I don't think so. Thanks for a thought-provoking comment. Terence

This is a common incident in developing countries; therefore, not necessarily related to conflict and/or war. In general, poor households get rid of their young daughters due to higher demand for them in the marriage market. Of course, I agree that gender and power inequality within households aggravate poor conditions of young girls.

I'm wildly unenthusiastic about your sweeping definition of aid practitioners. For many of us, it is EXACTLY our job to worry about economic growth, inequality, and the impact of both on the lives of the poor. Perhaps you really mean community workers (although I'd question this too), or humanitarian workers? But "aid practitioners" is a broad church, and I for one take economic inequality very seriously on a daily basis.

Hi. An excellent article that highlights a very important broader issue, i.e. the disconnect between global and national, macro-development issues, policy and other debates (institutional realities) that often appear irrelevant to development practitioners, partners and counterparts grounded in the realities of the everyday world (the 'actualities'). 'Development' looks very different 'from the bottom looking up', as opposed to 'from the top looking down'.

Dear Marcus Thank you so very much for the information. As a Solomon Islander, I strongly agree with you. The corruption is the key point in these situations, I myself had an experience about the land situation. I once applied for a piece of land in Honiara and what I saw was unbelievable, the workers are just after money. If you have money you will have as many lands as you need, but if you need a land and your budget is just for your land, sorry we can't get any. We have to pay a extra payment all the time, someone is going for consultation for the land, it's very corrupt. I ended up losing the land and some payment, because I am a person who just wanted to get a land! We need overseas lawmakers to help our government or our country to understand that they need to look after their people and of course the overseas partners as well. I am still hoping one day I will get a land and I will build a dream home. Thank you very much. Hilda ichioka

I am very grateful to hear of your bold decision to teach economics at UPNG. Students deserve the best but unfortunately have been deprived of the best for a while. Thank you, Michael.

Excellent job Sam, we are in dire need of such a strong and people oriented leader like you. May the good Lord continue to increase such a leader like you. God will guide you.

As the authors of the report referred to in the blog, we (Joyce Wu and Patrick Kilby) found another form of violence in the follow up study in 2014, and that is a high level of domestic violence against children. Half of respondents knew of violence against children in the community in the last month, a similar number reported high levels of violence against children in the home, and over 10 per cent of respondents reported children being violent against parents. There is a real issue in challenging the high level of violence in the broader community and attitudes to it.

I think this is an important discussion, with more insight in the responses than the blog itself. The word 'innovation' has been used so loosely and flippantly that it has lost much of its meaning and utility. It seems that donors and other organisations are more keen to demand innovation than to understand what it might look like, and what the best way to nurture it might be. Taking away all the marketing hype and attempts at 'productising' and hawking the concept of innovation, like so many things it comes down to leadership, strategy, and culture. This can be within a project team, an organisational section, branch, or division, or across an organisation as a whole. Innovation will occur naturally when people are and feel engaged in their roles and pursuits, the culture or environment encourages and embraces the free exchange of ideas, and teams are multi-disciplinary and collaborative in nature. A more detailed discussion is on the Sustineo blog page <a href="http://sustineo.com.au/news/ideas-in-brief-6-innovate-for-me-now" rel="nofollow">here</a>. Unfortunately the private sector participation in the aid program is characterised by limited and unequal access, closed markets, and unhelpful procurement processes. Forget about borrowing myths from other global corporations and concentrate on building better leadership, culture, and teams. Then the innovative ideas will emerge naturally.

...."Shop owners have been told not to engage youths to sell products on the streets..." -- John, this recent <a href="http://www.thenational.com.pg/?q=node/90588" rel="nofollow">news article</a> supports some of the things we've discussed here.

I agree Grant and in a similar vein we would like to hear Australia speaking out about the flagrant abuses of democratic rights and undermining of the Rule of Law by the current government of Nauru.