· December, 2009

Stories about Development from December, 2009

Bangladesh: Knighthood For Fazle Hasan Abed

  31 December 2009

Unheard Voice informs that Fazle Hasan Abed, the founder and chairperson of the largest NGO of the world, BRAC, has been awarded with knighthood for his endeavors towards eradicating poverty and empowering the poor in Bangladesh and many countries of the world.

Armenia: Culture vulture

  31 December 2009

Ianyan interviews Anush Babajanyan, an Armenian photographer who particularly focuses on issues such as gender in Armenia and the homeless in the country's second largest city, Gyumri.

St. Lucia: A Year for the Books

  28 December 2009

St. Lucia's Caribbean Book Blog reflects on 2009 as “a year that surely has to go down as one of the most disruptive and transformational periods in the world publishing industry.”

Azerbaijan: Education, free thought and development

  19 December 2009

Following a previous post from Flying Carpets and Broken Pipelines on European concerns with the situation of freedom of expression in Azerbaijan, and especially following the imprisonment of video blogging youth activists Adnan Hajizade and Emin Milli, the blog comments on remarks made by the country's Minister of Education. The...

Zambia: The case for Social Enterprise

  17 December 2009

Campbell makes the case for social enterprise in Zambia: “I have really been thinking of how Zambians can change Zambia. Social entrepreneurship is something that is foreign to our nation and has not been given the attention it deserves. For profit enterprises are the most common.”

ICT4D: Past mistakes, future wisdom

  14 December 2009

What makes an ICT4D project fizzle out? What are the common mistakes that donors, planners and implementers make when trying to run an ICT4D project? Practitioners discuss in a public Twitter chat.

Bangladesh: The slow pace of development

  14 December 2009

Why is the pace of development so slow in Bangladesh? Is it partly because a generation of intellectuals was wiped off in the Liberation War of 1971 – leaving the nation with the daunting task of having to ‘grow up’ all over again? ? Sara at Bringin’ you to Bangladesh...

China: Pessimism, skepticism and concern over Copenhagen

  12 December 2009

A number of Chinese media and environmental groups have sent people to Copenhagen to cover the climate talks as well as protest; bloggers back home, meanwhile, don't seem too hopeful that leaders there will commit to meaningful action toward reducing carbon emissions.

Constitution building for a new Nepal

  12 December 2009

Blogger Raktim Nepali hopes that a participatory dialogue will help build a better and more inclusive constitution, thereby fulfilling the  promise of a better future for Nepal.

For that acre of green grass

  12 December 2009

There is no short-cut to a greener planet, writes Masud Karim at Muktangan. He reflects on Bangladesh's need for balancing industrialization with environment protection to preserve that acre of green grass amidst the concretization of its cities.

COP15 and the dreams of a Nation

  11 December 2009

Bangladeshi blogger Fakir Elias writes a moving poem about the indigenous needs of a Nation and how it is perhaps getting overshadowed in the COP15 buzz

Kazakhstan: Big city lights, gerontocracy and Photoshop

  9 December 2009

Kazakhstan’s bloggers continue to monitor the state’s traditionally non-transparent politics and comment on the news. Among their concerns is the government’s announcement that due to the economic crisis, wage increases for state employees, pensioners and students on stipend, scheduled for the beginning of 2010, would have to be postponed for...

China: Forced Demolition

  8 December 2009

Two recent cases of forced demolitions have raised attention to the protection of citizens’ rights and fair conflict resolution. Chinese netizens provide plenty of comments and reactions.

Madagascar's forests decimated for $460,000 a day

  7 December 2009

As the world's nations gather in Copenhagen for the UN Convention on Climate Change, Madagascar, having already lost 90% of its original forest, faces continued threats from black market logging, threatening to destroy what is left of one of the world's most diverse ecosystems.