Unpacking Development

Wouldn’t it be great to live in some sci-fi future were we could make energy in the process of junk disposal? I'll let you in on a bit of a secret. We can do it now! That is the beauty of recycled energy. It comes in at a very low cost to produce and since it uses no fossil fuels it does not add greenhouse gases to the environment. And to top it off there isn’t any massive infrastructure changes that would need to be made, we just need to be a bit smarter about our rubbish clearance [...]

It’s midafternoon in Toronto and the energy in the room is buzzing. Toronto is working on 7 projects.?? Highlights so far? Open Data Hack Day Teams have members of the City working with community and open data folks and are trying to solve problem definitions in Toronto for the people of Toronto. We have a [...]

A guest post by Jessica Rust-Smith, reviewing Dead Aid, a year after it was published. “One year later, does Zambian economist Dambisa Moyo�s call for the end of aid to Africa still hold sway when the World Bank�s Chief Economist for Africa is declaring Africa�s Successes?…..Among her many criticisms of aid are its resulting distortions in African markets, its ability to prop up weak and ineffective governments, and most importantly, its perpetuation of a vicious cycle of aid dependency. She calls for an end to the crippling practice of aid to Africa.”

I know that we have been away for a while…both of us are working on other projects (Mel’s busy with Lady Atelier , CrisisCommons and her new job at AWID, and I’m busy with HealthyHousing.ca and blogging for the Because I am a Girl Campaign). �So, if you’ll forgive us for being a bit absent, [...]

Have you ever wondered what all the statistics you read mean? I’m a very visual learner, I appreciate learning from books that balance text with images, graphics, tables and other visual representations of information. A friend of mine recently pointed out this amazing graphic created by David McCandless at Information is Beautiful.net. Click on the [...]

Gaming for Good: “Online game seeks to empower Africa. Some people think of online gamers and see gaunt loners huddled in dark rooms, the sad blue glow of the computer screen on their faces as their lives pass them by. Game designer Jane McGonigal sees “superheroes” with untapped potential that can be used to fix [...]

There are some new events that have been added to the Unpacking Development Events listing and Calender! The Featured Event of the Week is the The 7th annual Toronto Human Rights Watch Film Festival which takes place from February 24 to March 6, 2010 in Toronto, Canada. http://humanrightsfilmfestival.ca/schedule/

Kate J has been hard at work for the past few months for Fife House on preparing for the launch of HealthyHousing.ca, a National HIV/Housing Portal, which is a space for people living with HIV/AIDS (PHAs), service providers and researchers to learn more about issues related to HIV/AIDS and housing. The website is the result [...]

FEATURED EVENT: FILM FESTIVAL: The 7th annual Toronto Human Rights Watch Film Festival takes place February 24 to March 6, 2010 in Toronto, Canada. All films, excluding the Opening Night Gala screen at Jackman Hall, Art Gallery of Ontario, 317 Dundas Street West, Toronto. http://humanrightsfilmfestival.ca/schedule/ Monday, February 22 LECTURE: Financial Crisis And Opportunity Forum on [...]

The conversation about “What’s Best for Haiti?” is one that everyone is weighing in on.� It seems that the post-earthquake devastation is seen as a “crisi-tunity” for a country that was already facing poverty, corruption and debt before the natural disaster.� There’s hope that maybe the influx of aid and interest can lead to improvements [...]