Here’s your Saturday morning reading:
1) POSITIVE: Inspiring stories from South Sudan. E.g. ” A Juba suburb has organised community patrols comprising of Nuer and Dinka men tasked with protecting all members of their community.”
2) NEGATIVE: Goodbye to an ominous year
“Though certainly depressing, the observation that 2013 was a bad year is fairly unimportant. More worrisome is the prospect that 2013 signals a dangerous trend, even while experts tell us there has never been so much peace in the world.”
3) GEEKY: The development hype cycle…
“First, I want to amend the hype cycle framework to make it work better for development ideas. Second, I want to plot out where various popular ideas currently sit.”
4) FOOD:
Part 1: I expect this will be controversial…
From the Economist: “Intensive livestock farming is more efficient and environmentally friendlier. It is essential to combat the destructive trend of traditional pastoralism.”
Part 2: New report on obesity in developing countries from the ODI.
The upshot? “Governments need to explore the scope for combining small changes and incentives to improve diets.”
5) PREDICTIONS: Outgoing IDS Director Lawrence Haddad makes six predictions for 2014
Including: Get ready for more crap along the lines of “Cut the Green Crap”