Provoking Policy

Today is a day when I want to give thanks for some human rights I deserve and some things I am lucky to have as a woman. I am grateful that my parents were happy I was born a girl. I am happy that my parents valued my education, and for all the education I have achieved and that I can use my education to take any job I choose. For tampons and feminine sanitation, I feel lucky. For contraception and the right to abortion, I thank the women who came before me. For being free to marry who they choose when they choose, I am happy for my sisters who thinks this the right choice for them. I wish my 17 year old daughter would appreciate her good fortune at having the right to drive. I am thankful for a job that allows me to buy as much or as little clothes that I can wear as I please. I am grateful for laws that protect me from rape and violence (the effectiveness of such are left for another day) It is liberating to be able to have sex outside of marriage. I am happy to not need a...

To be clear, I honor the good intentions of people who take trips around the southern (and sometimes Eastern) part of our world trying to alleviate the pain and suffering that can be found there. However, good intentions is not enough and sometimes it gets in the way of doing good and being useful. As someone who made 5 trips to Belize with (mostly) white girls in tow to spend 2 weeks (for college credit) doing sustainable service in collaboration with local non-profits, I have spent a lot of time questioning my intentions and challenging the intentions of my students. I still find it hard to reconcile some of the racial, economic and geopolitical implications of the work that I did there, and also on another project on which I worked in Uganda. So for those considering taking a trip abroad to do service, perhaps you may find these two pieces relevant. Perhaps you may question the implications of your good intentions. Perhaps you may find ways to make your trip more useful or perha...

The word 'partnership' is trending in global health and has been for quite some time. Foundations, NGO's, and universities in the global north and south  'partner' with local communities in Asia and Africa to implement research or programs that will move forward knowledge about what works and what doesn't. But what does 'partnership' mean in the context of huge power imbalances that come with differences in human, knowledge, institutional and fiscal resources? How do hierarchal institutions that assign power based on title, rank, alma mater, publications, departments etc share power with people who, if they had any, would preferably not be 'partnering' with people they do not know, who do not know them and who view them as in need of assistance? With good intentions, professors, doctors, nurses, social workers and various sundry 'helping' professions write proposals that say they will listen to the local folks and link with the existi...