Aid on the Edge of Chaos is a blog started in October 2009 which aims to provide the latest, up-to-date information on initiatives, meetings and reports related to complexity sciences and international aid.
It is hoped that the blog will provide a means for connecting up the emerging community of practitioners interested in alternatives to linear, mechanistic approaches to development.
From time to time, ideas and reflections will be shared on the blog with the aim of generating productive online conversation and discussion. Contributions are welcome from those with experience and insights on how aid agencies might better take account of the ideas of complexity science in aid policy and practice. Think pieces should be no longer than 1500 words long (maximum), and be written in a clear and accessible style for a general audience.
If you have any questions about this blog, or any suggestions and ideas about how it might be improved, please post them in the Comments below.
The blog is written, administered and edited by Ben Ramalingam, lead author of a 2008 Overseas Development Institute working paper ‘Exploring the Science of Complexity: Ideas and Implications for International Development and Humanitarian Efforts’. More publications of relevance to aid and complexity can be found on the Publications page of this Blog. Ben is currently working on a book on complexity sciences and international aid, which will be published by Oxford University Press, and from which this blog gets its name.
Contact Ben via email: b.ramalingam(at)odi.org.uk
Hi Ben:
I am pleased to see this blog. I’ll spread the voice as much as I can.
Hugs,
Lucho
Practical Action
Dear Ben,
Thank you for starting this blog! I have posted a link from my blogsite to yours.
Gave you ever read “the origin of wealth” by Eric Beinhocker? It is a must read!
Best wishes,
Shawn Cunningham
Your blog is excellent. I m gonna bookmark, gracias. Keep working on blog.
Pleased to find your blog and look forward to reading through it.
Dear Ben Ramalingam,
As part of our effort to gather information and resources, the Governance Assessment Portal is watching
the Aid on the Edge of Chaos blog and newsfeed for news items relevant to country led democratic
governance assessments. When we find such an item, we will post a link to it, accompanied by a brief
description, the posting date and a reference to Aid on the Edge of Chaos. We hope that this will
provide a valuable resource to actors working with governance assessment at the country level, as well
as drive traffic to your site and the important work to be found there.
Aid on the Edge of Chaos is one of nearly 200 news sources currently being scanned as part of our effort
to provide a one-stop-shop for democratic governance assessments as a mechanism for strengthening
accountability and participation at the country level. The GAP news scan will be officially launched in
coming weeks, but is currently up and running, so please do not hesitate to browse articles or sign up for
an rss feed at http://gaportal.org/support/news-and-media.
If you would like additional information, to suggest additional news sources, or to set up a link to the
GAP on the Aid on the Edge of Chaos site, please do not hesitate to get in touch at
governance.assessments@undp.org.
Best Regards,
Christopher Wilson
Information Consultant
Governance Assessment Portal (http://gaportal.org/)
UNDP Oslo Governance Centre
United Nations Development Programme
Visit: Inkognitogata 37, 0256 Oslo, Norway
Mail: Postboks 2847, Solli, 0204 Oslo, Norway
christopher.wilson@undp.dk
Tel: +47 2347 1618 / Cell: +47 9062 9020
Skype: cosgrovedent
The Governance Assessment Portal is a virtual resource centre for indicators, assessment frameworks
and country studies. Here you can find data, articles, tools, statistics and case studies on measuring
democratic governance. Get in contact with international experts and initiatives. Learn how to develop
an index to monitor performance of public administration, sectors and services, where to find surveys
for evaluating corruption, how to conduct a baseline for democracy, when to advocate for evidence
based policy reform on local governance and decentralization in your country, and more
How-matters.org explores the skills and knowledge needed by all international “do-gooders” to truly raise the level of human dignity within international assistance and to put real resources behind local means of overcoming obstacles. Understanding and feeling comfortable with the inherent complexity in our field is a big part of this. I have posted a link from my blogsite to yours and would appreciate if you’d take the time to look over mine.
Simply put, my perspective is…aid effectiveness is not about what we do, but HOW we do it.
Thank you for blogging on this topic. I’m a member of a learning community called OpenAgile that is trying to extend Agile practices to new fields of endeavour. Agile has its roots in complexity science, but, because of the popularity of methodologies like Scrum and Extreme Programming (XP), has traditionally been locked into working on software development. We believe it can go much further. If you want to see what we’ve been doing, please check out http://www.openagile.com
Personally, I’m quite interested in the application of OpenAgile, and in complexity sciences in general, to work in the field of social entrepreneurship. I look forward to reading your blog.
Sincerely,
David
We would be glad to share articles, news, research, network and potential new projects around complexity management.
If we are an early stage organization, we already have explored some aspect of complexity into different domains such as :
- Project Management
- Treatment of biomass
- Rock blasting
- Traffic system ( air, human )
- etc …
Rgds,
David
Ben,
Excited to stumble across your blog through a series of posts on aid & complexity.
I’m actually working on a project that focuses on systems thinking, complex problems, and collaborative problem solving.
I’d love to use up 30 minutes of your time on Skype if that’s possible (sorry for posting here, I didn’t see a contact button).
More information on the project:
http://whatconsumesme.com/the-bucket-brigade-a-collaborative-publishing-project/
Thank you, in advance, for your time and attention.
Ben,
I find your blog quite refreshing. Although I still have to go through all of your posts, I feel like creating a dialogue and a space for sharing is one step for the aid agencies to help: (a) manage and be transparent about the different kinds of risk failures inherent to development projects and (b) become problem solvers instead of problem tamers.
I am part of an initiative based out of Amsterdam that is trying to create that dialogue and get development organisations to share with each other, but also celebrate the projects with different outcomes than originally planned for. We are calling it The Brilliant Failures, see: http://www.brilliantfailures.com/awardDC
Thanks,
Andrew.
Hi Ben,
I am writing from DevEd, an NGO focusing on relevant education about a blog that our NGO DevEd runs on education and overseas development.
You can view the blog here: http://deved.org/blog/category/blog
We have featured articles from well known TED talkers such as Alison
Carr Chellman, Arvid Gupta and Sir Ken Robinson and humanitarian
workers such as Mukesh Kapila CBE. We will be posting a blog this
Monday from Moushira Khattab. I wanted to ask whether you would be
interested in writing a short article on education for our blog?
Or if it would be possible to include us on your blog roll?
We have made a video on our NGO that you can view here:
https://vimeo.com/33353722
Thanks and best wishes, Emanuel
Hi ben,
thanks for your blog. As a volunteer in tonga, struggling with the concept of ‘development’ your blog brings a refreshing and inspiring look at what AID really is