Blog.

5 resources for International Day of the Girl Child

It is International Day of the Girl Child, and with 1.1 billion girls in the world it most certainly is an important topic. The theme this year is ‘Girls progress = goals progress: a global girls data movement’ based on the idea that ‘what gets counted gets done.’ In a

Heavy lifting: women and water

As ever, there’s good news and bad news.  The good news is that the MDG Goal to increase the population with access to safe drinking water was met in 2012.  But, the bad news is that the focus on ‘safe’ water hides a major issue.  People (here read predominantly women)

The empowering Burkini

Just imagine you’re sat relaxing in the sun during the summer. You have a swim in the beautiful waters of the French Riviera. Along come 4 male police officers who inform you that you are breaking the law, must uncover yourself, pay a fine and/or leave the beach. One image

Top 10 videos of the year (so far)

1. Still The Most Shocking Second A Day Video (child refugees)                  Following on from their most shocking second a day video in 2014, this video from Save The Children highlights the ongoing story of a typical unaccompanied refugee child journeying from Syria

How Africa Tweets – 2015

An interesting study has just been published into tweeting in Africa by Portland – an international private communications and public affairs consultancy with offices in Doha, London, Nairobi, New York, Nairobi and Washington.  It offers some interesting insights into social media trends in Africa The study analysed the top 5,000

The links between the ‘B’ and ‘F’ words

Toni Pyke reflects on breastfeeding, Feminism and social media during World Breastfeeding Week 2016 (1 – 7 August). ……………………………………………….. In what continues to be popularly referred to as the ‘developed’ ‘North’ or ‘West,’ we take it for granted that we have the freedom to exercise our democratic rights – rights

Does using paid models change the ethics of sensationalised poverty media?

‘Sensationalised poverty media’ has usually been referenced as ‘poverty porn’ in discussions on development issues, but I have purposefully decided to not use this term as I find it a sensationalised term which distracts from the debate. Furthermore, it may be unsuitable for some readers of this blog. When I

The debt crisis and how to make a ‘Third World’ economy

Vicky Donnelly reflects on working with third-level students on the issue of debt justice. Working with third-level students last year on the issue of debt justice, we considered Thomas Sankara’s powerful portrayal of the debt as a weapon, wielded by “technical assassins”, as part of a, “cleverly managed reconquest of