Aid Myths Busted

A very good, and short, critique of commonly heard criticism of international development cooperation (or “overseas aid”)

Why Ireland invests in overseas aid

Anyone wondering why Ireland continues to spend money on overseas aid, take your pick from these quotes from the last week: Speeches by Taoiseach Enda Kenny and Tánaiste Eamon Gilmore

Ireland’s 2013 EU Presidency

In January 2013, Ireland will take over the rotating Presidency of the European Union. An event that the Government and NGOs in Ireland feel presents a great opportunity to influence the way “Europe” thinks about global Development (and its own Development)

Why NOT to use overhead ratios as a way to compare NGOs

We would like everybody to support high quality NGOs. And that is why we are promoting standards of Quality in the Development NGO world. But we keep coming up against the fact that most ordinary people think that the easiest way to judge the quality of an NGO is the amount it spends on administration and overheads. In this blog post, we list a few reasons why that is NOT a good idea.

Haiti 2 years on – A summary

An outline of some recent articles and reports on the situation in Haiti, 2 years after the devastating earthquake.

Irish NGOs and Social Networking: “Think Relationships, not Campaigns”

Irish NGOs do not use social media as much as they could. A study of Dóchas members’ use of Facebook suggests that NGOs may gain by developing a more explicit social media strategy.

Busan needs leadership on civil society space

Based on its strong Civil Society Policy, Irish Aid is well placed to play a leading role at the Busan Summit on Development Effectiveness.

Development Results: “Irish Aid values hard won change and not just ‘quick wins’.”

Irish Aid recently set out its thinking about “Development Results”. And it is encouraging stuff, from which other Government donors could learn.

NGO overhead costs

We encourage anyone to ask critical questions of NGOs. Just make sure your questions focus on the quality of the work of the organisation – The ever-popular measure of the level of overheads is about the worst place to start. This article attempts to show why.

NGO mergers – Make sense, don’t they?

Should NGOs merge to save money and increase impact?