Development
Data Protection in Humanitarian Contexts
I was scanning Twitter this morning and came across this IRIN article on how aid agencies will have to rethink their data protection and privacy standards as the European Union's General Data Protection Regulation comes into effect. It raised a number of interesting personal data issues across the full spectrum of the humanitarian and NGO … Continue reading Data Protection in Humanitarian Contexts
New DIE-GDI Discussion Paper: State Fragility and Forced Displacement
To wrap up the year we published a Discussion Paper on state fragility and forced displacement - this will be revised further in January for publication in a peer-reviewed journal, so comments and critiques are welcome!
Peacekeeping’s Digital Economy: New article in International Peacekeeping
My colleague Nicholas Bodanac and I have been working on this for about a year now, and we finally have a published version of our paper where we argue that a digital turn in peacekeeping can have positive economic effects in post-conflict settings. It's currently online at International Peacekeeping - anyone who wants the full … Continue reading Peacekeeping’s Digital Economy: New article in International Peacekeeping
Some Observations on Development and Migration
This week I was the featured writer for the Deutsches Institut für Entwicklungspolitik/German Development Institute's Current Column. I shared my thoughts and observations on how development and technical cooperation can support livelihoods in countries where people may otherwise migrate, often taking on extraordinary risks, to seek work and economic opportunities. Es gibt eine Deutsche Version … Continue reading Some Observations on Development and Migration
Joining the Deutsches Institut für Entwicklungspolitik!
I'm excited to announce that I'll be joining the Deutsches Institut für Entwicklungspolitik (German Institute for Development Policy) in Bonn, Germany! I'll be working in their Governance, Statehood, and Security group, doing research and providing policy advice on forced displacement in fragile and conflict affected countries. I'm excited to have the opportunity to put my skills … Continue reading Joining the Deutsches Institut für Entwicklungspolitik!
Working with INGOs as an Academic: The Pros and Cons
While scanning Twitter this morning I came across a post from Duncan Greene that caught my eye: Why is it so hard for academics and NGOs to work together? Today's @fp2p https://t.co/aQDkJvcOcR pic.twitter.com/BbvpB5Hbdu — Duncan Green (@fp2p) September 29, 2016 The blogpost he was linking to raises some excellent questions about the benefits of closer relations … Continue reading Working with INGOs as an Academic: The Pros and Cons
The Challenge of Conflict Data
The last two posts I wrote focused on the social and political structures that drive data collection and availability. In these posts I was primarily talking about statistics in wealthy countries, as well as developing countries that aren't affected by conflict or violence. When it comes to countries that are beset by widespread conflict and violence, … Continue reading The Challenge of Conflict Data
National Interests, Overwork, and Statistics
I ended up jumping into a Twitter conversation started by international development journalist Tom Murphy about how Rwanda changed the methodology for its Integrated Household Living Conditions survey (EICV), and thus demonstrated that their poverty rate had decreased. The problem is that the new methodology essentially redefines 'poverty' to get the numbers to look good; using the previous EICV methodology, … Continue reading National Interests, Overwork, and Statistics
Upcoming events!
Unfortunately the last few months have been fairly low output in terms of blog posts. This can be credited to resettling after returning from Samoa, getting back to work with the tech community in D.C, and of course getting a dissertation written. I have had the chance to get myself on a few panels this … Continue reading Upcoming events!
Charles P. Martin-Shields 