Saturday Morning Reading #51

Hello from Namibia. After a long hiatus, here’s your Saturday Morning Reading!

“What will progress in the fight against inequality look like? It will look like people power.”

2. Dilemmas over the data movement | Duncan Green – From Poverty to Power

This post resonated with my experience in Zanzibar where often data is collected only to be put in a report mainly for donors (that few will read) rather than as a source of learning:
“Access to data and information alone doesn’t automatically lead to any changes in policy or behaviour. […] What emerged from this is a picture of an enormous, multi-billion dollar data machine that has so far been largely supply driven by data providers and lobbyists. […] International players often pre-suppose what is needed and offer solutions or systems that meet certain reporting requirements – but may not get used for much else.”

3. XKCD Marks the Spot | Bill Gates

The Gates Foundation commission a special XKCD in honour of World Polio Day that makes fun of the obsession over innovation.
“Let’s develop a mobile app that checks users for polio then uses a 3D printer to…”

4. Nine things we learned about the global goals | Global Development Professionals Network

Some choice quotations from NGO leaders about hypocrisy, ending the divide between development and humanitarianism, having civil society and business at the table and more.
Amnesty’s Salil Shetty: “You cannot claim to support sustainable development when you are reluctant to reduce the consumption of the rich or transfer technology. You cannot preach about human rights while practising mass surveillance. You cannot lecture about peace while being the world’s largest manufacturers of arms.”

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