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IRIN's Top Picks: Lessons for aid workers, Instagram migrants, and quitting when ahead

Photo shared in 'Instagram migrant' hoax of arriving safely in Spain @abdoudiouf1993/Tomas Pena
Photo shared in 'Instagram migrant' hoax of arriving safely in Spain
Welcome to IRIN's reading list. Every week our global network of specialist correspondents share their top picks of recent must-read research, podcasts, reports, blogs and in-depth articles to help you keep on top of global crises. We also highlight key upcoming conferences, book releases and policy debates. 

Four to read:

16 lessons learnt from aid work

Veteran aid worker Douglas La Rose outlines the crucial lessons he has learnt while working in the humanitarian sector. His blogpost include some obvious takeaways, such as knowing the difference between emergency response, recovery, and development, listening to local people, and accepting jobs that only match skill sets. But he also offers more nuanced advice for aid workers, asserting the need to “understand the difference between empathy and sympathy” and to “emphasize empathy”. Most importantly, he argues: “You are more accountable to the households you are working with than to your organization, to your career, or even to their government.”

Tackling maritime migration in Asia

The International Organization for Migration (IOM)’s most recent Issue in Brief brings the Asia-Pacific migration crisis back into central focus. As stateless Muslims from both Myanmar and Bangladesh continue to cross the Bay of Bengal in search of a better life, Kathleen Newland, co-founder of the Migration Policy Institute, attempts to provide an overview of their migration patterns. The brief also looks at how “policy responses have assigned priority to the protection of migrants and refugees” and concludes with a warning about “what recent history has to teach us about responses to maritime migration crises.”

Fake it till you make it (to Europe)

The journey of the ‘Instagram migrant’, supposedly documenting his voyage from Senegal to Spain online, was revealed by Storyful to be an elaborate hoax. The selfies shared by Abdou Diouf’s account (@abdoudiouf1993) attracted almost 10,000 followers in just one week, but were actually those of a persona created by Spanish filmmaker Tomás Peña for a photography exhibition. The company defended the project, saying: “It was a way of denouncing Western frivolity.” Storyful’s investigation concludes with a warning to the media: “When we are all searching and scanning for that one person who presents a narrative perfectly… there is a readiness to believe that a story is true.”

An end to an INGO

Any international development project should, in theory, aim to make itself eventually obsolete. When local NGOs are strong enough to run the projects themselves, the internationals should step back. But that hardly ever happens. In this blog post, John Bines from EveryChild explains why they are making the brave decision to close and hand over to local NGOs: as he puts it, “the end of development and the beginning of collaboration.”

Two to listen to:

Doing good is no place for emotion

“How do we do the best good?” That’s the question being explored in the Center for Global Development’s latest podcast, which presents the opinions of Will MacAskill, co-founder of the Effective Altruism movement. He makes the case for people to be far more reflective when “doing good”, and offers a meticulously thought out process for determining which causes should be worthy of our time and effort. But does this take the personal connection out of altruism itself?

Protecting the protectors

Aid workers are always under attack – yet many do not benefit from protection under international law despite operating in complex and unstable environments. This timely podcast from the Advanced Training Program on Humanitarian Action (ATHA) discusses how to tackle the growing number of security challenges facing aid professionals around the globe. Expert commentators give their take on how agencies could do more to protect humanitarians - and why the need to address the issue of targeted violence against them has never been more necessary.

Coming up:

Tales from the humanitarian frontline

What makes an aid worker tick? Marking World Humanitarian Day, this panel event will explore the motivations and perspectives of distinguished aid practitioners as they reflect on their careers and reveal why and how they got involved in the humanitarian sector. Speakers include Sara Pantuliano, head of the Humanitarian Policy Group at the Overseas Development Institute (ODI), a humanitarian policy group; Charlie Gammell, a former Pashto/Dari interpreter with the ICRC; and El Khidir Daloum MBE, an international development worker. The event will be chaired by BBC World Service’s Africa Editor, Mary Harper.

From IRIN:

New series: Forgotten Conflicts

Right now, there are more than 40 conflicts unfolding around the globe. While the news is dominated by wars in places like Syria, Iraq and Ukraine, the others are just as devastating – but receive far less media attention. In our new series Forgotten Conflicts, IRIN examines the root causes, human cost and potential for peace in conflicts underway in Casamance, South Kordofan and southern Thailand. Then, we turn to you - send us your reporting suggestions, and we’ll do our best to keep other overlooked conflicts on the world’s radar.

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