Feb
One of my intentions this year is to pay much greater attention to “connection”. Part of that is taking part in conversations happening both in my areas of expertise, and in the broader world of international development, civil society.
What better way to both connect *and* procrastinate than to generate a “listicle” of my 10 favourite blogs?
These are not necessarily the only or the best blogs I follow, but they provide just the right balance for me of breadth, depth, interest and technical know how.
A classic: insightful, varied, conversational and occasionally funny. Written by Duncan Green (strategic advisor for Oxfam GB)
A blogging community with guest bloggers and cross postings. A rich source of ideas and resources
Ben Ramalingam’s blog which accompanies his book. A critical perspective on NGOs and international development in general.
Institute of Development Studies, University of Sussex blog
Combines existing blogs on Impact and Learning, Knowledge Mobilisation and Impact, Participation and others into one gobal IDS blog.
Frameworker Bruce Britton’s blog on learning in NGOs
And blogs relating to my particular or current interests….
African Universities Research Approaches blog
I am currently consulting on this project, and use this blog to get a bird’s eye view of the whole programme
Chris Lysy’s glorious and astute cartoon blog on evaluation and visual data
Monitoring and Evaluation News
A rich resource edited by Rick Davies focusing on developments in monitoring and evaluation methods relevant to development programmes with social development objectives
Not quite a blog, and a work in progress, but a growing repository of expertise and tools on facilitating virtual groups and communities. Maintained by Nancy White who also blogs here.
The team at Barefoot are starting to convene the informal community which exists around Barefoot guides, starting with their blog.
And a ‘spare’: for pleasure and general ‘saw sharpening’….
Written and curated by Maria Popova, this blog regularly receives accolades in the blogosphere. According to Maria, it involves over 450 hours of work each month, and it shows.
As she describes it, Brain Pickings is “your LEGO treasure chest, full of pieces across art, design, science, technology, philosophy, history, politics, psychology, sociology, ecology, anthropology, you-name-itology”
Perfect with Sunday morning coffee! Oh, and apparently she writes standing on a wobble board. I wonder if there’s might be a causal effect between standing on a wobble board and producing a wonderful blog? I may need to do some shopping…..
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