Category Archives: humanitarian

Thinking fast and slow about disaster preparedness

Posted on July 2, 2012 by Sam Gardner

Book: Thinking, Fast and Slow Author: Daniel Kahneman Getting back to my notes from “Thinking Fast and slow” by Daniel Kahneman, I am still amazed by the diversity of new insights the book provides on how (most) humans think . … Continue reading →

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Planning for collapse: making development interventions too big to fail and vulnerable to systemic risk.

Posted on December 2, 2011 by Sam Gardner

The financial collapse in 2008 following the collapse of Lehman Brothers was enthusiastically prepared by the political and economical decision makers. In the 70s and 80s, in the name of more efficiency and free marked, regulations were more and more … Continue reading →

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Humanitarian needs and the way we fund the Horn of Africa

Posted on August 27, 2011 by Sam Gardner

Some important annual milestones for needs based humanitarian donor budgeting just passed: the publication of the 2011 Global Humanitarian Assistance Report and the Mid Year review of the OCHA Consolidated Appeals. The GHA report analyses the available data on humanitarian … Continue reading →

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The Sphere Project: Minimum Standards in Humanitarian Response and the Poverty Line.

Posted on August 1, 2011 by Sam Gardner

The Sphere standards and humanitarian efficiency. The latest edition of the Sphere Handbook was presented on the 23rd of June, and the more I read it and think about it, the more relevant I find this standard. “The Sphere Handbook … Continue reading →

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Is rent-seeking effective development practice?

Posted on May 16, 2011 by Sam Gardner

I must admit, I only now read “The undercover Economist”. It made me look with new eyes to the set-up of my environment: development and humanitarian assistance. It made me also look again at some behaviour of development actors in … Continue reading →

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The Fragmentation of Humanitarian Aid: Market failure leads to planning and broken networks.

Posted on February 11, 2011 by Sam Gardner

Is Fragmentation a solution or a problem? One of the main reasons the donor community pushes for reform in the humanitarian aid sector is the fragmentation of the services. As an antidote for fragmentation, coordination is proposed. The conventional narrative … Continue reading →

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Brooks’ law in aid plans : is more always merrier? gain goes down the drain.

Posted on August 29, 2010 by Sam Gardner

Definition Brooks’ law on software development says : “adding manpower to a late software project makes it later”. Brooks adds to his law that “Nine women can not make a baby in one month”. Is there a similar law for … Continue reading →

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