Our weekly round-up of must-read stories you might have missed. In focus this week: Eastern Congo, CIVICUS Secretary General, Dhananjayan Sriskandarajah, Talent From the For-Profit World and the Pistorius case.
Six Questions With WFP Nutritionist In Eastern Congo – February 7, 2013
Crispin Mpigirwa is a WFP nutritionist, who works in the troubled east of the Democratic Republic of Congo, where entire communities often have to abandon their homes to escape fighting. A Congolese national, with 15 years of experience in humanitarian work, Crispin is a key figure in WFP’s efforts to combat malnutrition in the camps for displaced people around Goma. Crispin agreed to answer 6 questions about his work as a nutritionist in Eastern Congo and about the effects of displacement on the families he meets every day…
New CIVICUS Secretary General Dhananjayan (Danny) Sriskandarajah who officially began his mandate as head of the global alliance this week speaks to the CIVICUS Policy Unit about the role of civil society in redressing the challenges affecting citizens around the world. What are your preliminary reflections about the role of CIVICUS in particular and global civil society in general in responding to the convergence of crises affecting the world today? I am very excited about the chance to work at an organisation like CIVICUS. I have long-admired the work that CIVICUS does to protect civil society space and promote citizen participation. I also feel positive about the role of civil society in addressing some of the great challenges facing the world today…
How to Woo Talent From the For-Profit World – February 15, 2013
Social enterprises and nonprofits increasingly recognize the need to adopt management disciplines used successfully in the for-profit world. And a great potential source of talent with the right skills are professionals who change career lanes — people with experience and training in accounting, finance, human resources and strategy who leave corporate jobs to follow their passion to have a social impact. The Social Business Trust, The Gates Foundation, Endeavor, Technoserve, Absolute Return for Kids, and others already draw heavily on talent from for-profit firms as a source of these skills. But what many social enterprises often fail to recognize is that private-sector recruits often come to them looking to build new skills, not just provide the ones they already have…
Pistorius case and the plague of violence against women – February 17, 2013
On the same day that thousands of women stood up to participate in One Billion Rising, billed as the largest mass action to stop violence against women and girls, the sad news came from South Africa that yet another woman was killed. The reason we took notice of 30-year-old Reeva Steenkamp’s death among so many others killed every day is the shocking news that the man charged with killing her, her boyfriend, is none other than Oscar Pistorius, the athlete known as “Blade Runner,” a double amputee whose Olympic feats on prosthetic carbon fiber legs made him an international superstar…
