So many interesting things

I've discovered the unlimited possibilities of Twitter in finding new organizations and blogs that I find interesting.

Some of you might know how critical I am of many forms of development aid and how I feel it is often misguided (or not designed with the local context in mind) but there are definitely organizations that are doing good work. Lately one of my favorite example of what is wrong with development has been the idea of shipping American or Chinese products like mosquito nets (or food aid) to Africa instead of buying them there and therefore undermining the local economy. This is why I was so excited to see that Arusha, Tanzania actually has an WHO approved factory producing insecticide treated mosquito nets. I don't know how many of the nets given out by Malaria No More (their blog gave me this info) are actually coming from this company but it is encouraging to see that production facilities exist. Also the new managing director of the Malaria Policy Center (part of Malaria No More) Mark Green is the former US ambassador to Tanzania.

Interesting Blog entry about a similar problem "Why do we so often give aid in ways that do not support the local economy." How many of us volunteers came to Tanzania with supplies for just about everything? How many stores in Moshi sold school and office supplies that were perfectly usable by local school? I don't agree entirely with her point about money being spend on volunteers' airline tickets could be used to hire local staff since there is definitely value in the volunteer experience (mostly for the volunteers themselves). Many volunteers develop lifelong relationships with the local organizations and ultimately raise more money for them when they return home with better understanding of the situations in the country.

I also saw an Africa Voices program on CNN.com about President Kikwete.
CNN Report on Tanzanian President Kikwete

I don't know who has read the books White Man's Burden (Bill Easterly), The End of Poverty (Jeffrey Sachs) and Dead Aid (Dambisa Moyo) but the debate that has been going on between the three authors on Huffington Post in the last few weeks has been pretty heated. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/tag/dambisa-moyo
All three books are worth reading in my opinion. Make up your own mind on where you stand!