This is an archive of the Dadamac.net website, as it was in 2015, it is no longer being updated.

Pamela's Blog

It's not just me! - Hear Binyavanga Wainaina on "development"

Submitted by Pamela on 23 March 2014 - 3:58pm
Isn't it wonderful when someone puts into words something that you know but can't explain. That's exactly my feeling from watching Eliza Anyangwe of the Guardian interviewing Kenyan writer Binyavanga Wainaina. They discuss aid, power and the politics of development in Africa ( video link ) In her introduction Eliza refers to the feeling that many people have about being "displeased with how Africa is portrayed." I know what she means - though I feel that "displeased" is a somewhat mild word to choose. I have felt bewildered, confused, powerless and angry about the disconnect between things as they seem...

Kris Dev and Community Centric Sustainable Development Model

Submitted by Pamela on 18 March 2014 - 10:58pm
It was a pleasant surpise to read a Dadamac contact form message today that had substance (after a run of spammy adverts). It was from Kris Dev. I connect that name with the name of Peter Burgess and with various posts they have written over the years about transparency, accounting and development. I have copied and pasted the message below, just as it arrived in my inbox, please forgive me if the result therefore includes some odd formatting. Your Message: True Democracy and devolution is a failure the worldover. Authority and autocracy in various names and forms is ruling the...

OLPC, ANT, and breakthroughs for Dadamac and me

Submitted by Pamela on 10 March 2014 - 9:13pm
The most important breakthrough last week was the "Aha!" moment that happened when I was reading "A travelogue of 100 laptops" . It gave me an insight into why I can't easily answer the question "What to you do?" (See A PhD Thesis About OLPC Asks: What are we doing? What are we bringing? and the comment at 10.54am on March 9th.) I now have a theoretical framework to justify how I go about things. Honestly, it's not simply a personality disorder when I confuse and annoy people by jumping between anecdotes and the big picture. It isn't that I...

Six months of GN21 and Africa group

Submitted by Pamela on 3 March 2014 - 2:01pm
On March 17th we'll be holding our sixth, monthly meeting of the GlobalNet21 and Africa group so it makes sense to review progress so far and share possible future directions. Background For background on how this group came into being see GlobalNet21 and Africa. We're greatly helped by a good relationship with Impact Hub Westminster - see Impact HubW and International Development (Africa) - and will be able to hold more meetings there during 2014. Meetings Our meetings have alternated between small "special interest" meetings, and larger meetings with a more general appeal. The larger ones: November 2013 - Challenges...

Impact HubW and International Development (Africa)

Submitted by Pamela on 1 March 2014 - 9:49pm
The latest channel for UK-Africa communication that I've set up is the International Development (Africa) group at Impact Hub Westminster in London (a group limited to HubW members). Reasons for setting up this group: I became an unintentional UK-Africa social innovator in 2000, through my friend the late Peter Adetunji Oyawale and his untimely death. Following that tragic introduction, I got deeply involved and came to feel at home in two locations in Nigeria (Ago-Are in Oyo State, and Bayan Loco, Kafanchan, in Kaduna State). I've worked closely with John Dada, often under the name "Dadamac". I've also developed friendships...

Planning or doing - which comes first?

Submitted by Pamela on 25 February 2014 - 11:48am
Collaboration seems fine in theory. It's comparatively easy to agree about "what we all want to do". The practicalities of collaboration ("how we're going to do it") are more problematic, especially if the people involved have different ideas of "how things are usually done". Our own cultural norms seem perfectly normal to us, so normal that we don't even notice or question them. When we collaborate across cultures we find other people start doing things differently, and it can seem they are "being difficult". One of the cultural clashes that intrigues me is where one cultural norm is to work...

Collaboration challenges - and lessons from Yehudi Menuhin and Stephane Grappelli

Submitted by Pamela on 24 February 2014 - 10:50pm
This was first posted in Posterous on 13/02/2011. It's reposted here for easy reference because Posterous has been discontinued. As a personal preparation for the CotW skype meeting this evening (7 pm my time) I have been thinking about CotW and its proposed "dating site", which is to help organistions and people in CotW to meet up with each other. Coalition of the Willing http://www.dadamac.net/network/coalition-willing These are some of my thoughts - not necessarily well structured and neatly connected to each other - just so I've got them better prepared than if they are only in my head. Thinking it...

"The Unbearable Lightness of ICT4Development" and Dadamac Foundation

Submitted by Pamela on 14 February 2014 - 11:54pm
This year I'm scaling up the work of Dadamac by extending the reach of Dadamac Foundation. This post from Smart Monkey TV newsletter touches on some of the reasons why Dadamac needs to be more visible and influential in the ICT4D arena. I won't explain the connection here. I just offer the link to the full post, and some highlighted extracts. (Hint - Dadamac is about on-the-ground realities, needs-led integrated community development, relevant use of ICTs, and effective use of resources.) The Smart Monkey post The Unbearable Lightness of ICT4Development – Picking the flies out of success and failure in...

Fantsuam Promotes Production of Aflatoxin-free Grains

Submitted by Pamela on 10 February 2014 - 6:29pm
Latest news from the Dadamac communications officer at Fantsuam FANTSUAM PROMOTES PRODUCTION OF AFLATOXIN-FREE GRAINS Fantsuam Foundation was a beneficiary of the Global Environmental Fund Small Grants Project (GEF-SGP) in 2011. One of the objectives of the project was the training of farmers in sustainable farming techniques and. Due to women’s critical roles in household food security and hygiene, the women farmers were trained on the prevention of aflatoxin contamination of grains. Women’s buy-in into the proper processing of grains for consumption and sales will ensure welfare of the entire family and the entire nation. NIGERIA The aflatoxin problem is...

Online collaboration - the blessings of low bandwidth.

Submitted by Pamela on 25 January 2014 - 12:25am
Anyone who has suffered the frustrations of online conferences has every reason to prefer face-to-face. (The video link below the advertisement at A Conference Call in Real Life - is an excellent send-up of the frustrations of high bandwidth conference calls). It's so much easier with the low-bandwidth constraints we have in Dadamac UK-Africa meetings ( UK-Nigeria weekly meetings and First Thursdays ). We don't have enough bandwidth for audio or video, but we can type. Benefits A typed meeting has several benefits. There is no need to decide who should be "speaking". As long as people are addressing the...

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