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Category: Miscellaneous

Published December 13, 2011

The #SWEDOW Sideshow Slideshow

Courtesy of Foreign Policy, a slideshow showing the various things (too many people think) developing countries need:

Most of us don’t have billions of dollars to give away like Warren Buffett and Bill Gates. But the charitable impulse is still strong: combined, Americans gave away almost $300 billion in 2010. Sometimes, though, good intentions have questionable results. In the rush to help after a crisis, public and private donors from around the world sometimes give without quite realizing what the needs on the ground are. Do Haitians really need your used yoga mat? Do the Balkans lack for clowns?

Pop-Tarts, yoga mats, and teddy bears, oh my!

Published December 8, 2011

“Vous êtes pas tannés de mourir, bande de caves?”*

When I started blogging at the end of 2010, I swore never to discuss Québec politics in this space, first and foremost because my expertise lies in development policy, but also because my opinions about Québec politics, society, and culture are not shared by many.

I thus thought I would spare myself being called a sellout — not only do I live and work in the US, I also write in English, two things that are often viewed with suspicion in Québec — and keep my political opinions to myself.

Earlier this week, however, Jérôme Lussier wrote a column titled “Doléances pour un Québec dépassé” (“Complaints for an outdated Québec”) in Voir, a Montreal-based independent weekly, and every single thing he wrote deserves to be said, repeated, and broadcast far and wide. Lussier’s column is a deeply humanistic cri du coeur.

Because it’s the holidays, I am in a giving mood. So here is my bit of agitprop for the year: my translation of Lussier’s column. Bear in mind that the following is the intellectual property of Lussier.

Continue reading“Vous êtes pas tannés de mourir, bande de caves?”*
Published December 1, 2011

More on Admitting Failure and Corporate Social Responsibility

Back in October, I wrote a long post about the seeming trend toward admitting failure (and learning from failure) among nonprofits. In that post, I made the point that admitting failure was the not-for-profit world equivalent of corporate social responsibility in the for-profit world.

The post generated quite a bit of buzz, and Valerie Bauman, a Seattle-based reporter, got in touch with me to discuss the idea of nonprofits admitting failure — and its relationship with corporate social responsibility.

Here is an excerpt from the article Valerie wrote at the time for the Puget Sound Business Journal:

Marc Bellemare, a development economist who teaches public policy and economics at Duke University, views admitting failure as a public relations move to enhance credibility and reputation, similar to touting corporate social responsibility efforts in the for-profit world.

“When I started hearing about admitting failure, it is very nice, but there’s nothing that prevents you from learning from your own failures without having to admit them,” Bellemare said. “For me, it really is a marketing tool more than anything.”

However, he said the move toward disclosure could eventually have a positive effect overall, when it reaches a tipping point and every nonprofit has to be more forthcoming about failure.

“We may soon be moving toward a new equilibrium where everyone has to admit failure, and say ‘where did we go wrong?'” Bellemare said. “Everyone has to look contrite in a way — or else they start looking suspicious.”

Still, disclosing the failure of a project or cost overruns is less scary for nonprofits than disclosing financial mismanagement or fraud, Bellemare said.

“That’s a whole different ball game,” he said. “I think it’s much more likely to scare away donors than failure of projects.”