 A Nugget is
a shortish piece of writing, a thinkpiece, a story, a poem...
emailed 3 or 4 times a year to our subscribers... an unpolished piece,
on any topic from development practice, to stimulate thinking and
conversation.
Subscribing to Nuggets
If you wish to subscribe to our emailed Nuggets
(which are produced every 3 months or so),
and receive, with this, the "What's New?" on our website
links, please send an email to
doug@cdra.org.za with the
word subscribe in the subject line.
If you wish to unsubscribe do the same with
unsubscribe in the subject line.
The Nuggets
June 2008
Facilitating the becoming of healthy community
By Nomvula Dlamini of the Community
Development Resource Association, June 2008
A
new Nugget that explores different concepts of "community" and what
this means for working in community
Download word file
October 2007
Evaluation a developmental approach
by Sue Soal, Sandra Hill and Doug Reeler of CDRA, May 2007
"Slow down and enjoy
life. It is not only the scenery you miss by going too fast
you also miss the sense of where you are going and why." (E.
Cantor)
A
short piece on some fundamental considerations in developmental
evaluation
Download .pdf file
February 2007
The
spaces between us a farewell to Olive OD & T
By Sue Soal of the CDRA
Olive OD
& T, a South African NGO providing organisation development and
training services to the development sector, closed at the end of
August 2006. CDRA was asked to speak at the closing function - this
Nugget is what Sue had to say on our behalf. In an age of
outsourcing and tendering by service providers it was an opportunity
to reflect on the state of 'organisation' in development.
Download
Word file
September 2006
Drinking from the Poisoned Chalice
- How the demands of the 'development industry' undermine the
resourcefulness and identity of Community-Based Organisations
By Schirin Yachkaschi of Community
Connections
"...This
means in practice that CBOs will have to go through a lot of
restructuring and redefinition, which might actually change the nature
of their organisation in order to fit with what is required. They will
try to formalise and function in a more professional way, and gain
capacity to manage finances according to rules established for others.
Essentially CBOs are being channelled into becoming closer in nature
to what we normally describe as an NGO...In doing the work asked of us
we might override the actual capacities and strengths inherent in the
CBO with no guarantee that funders will decide to give their support."
Download Word file
Download Open Doc File
April 2006
Real Learning Requires Attitude
by
James Taylor of the CDRA
"We
need to engage in forms of learning that are driven from within our
own organisations and based on our own thinking and questions. We
must use our relationships to learn from and share our learning in
ways that challenge others to learn rather than impose our answers
on them..."
Download Word file
November 2005
The Arrogance of Giving
By Rubert Van Blerk of the CDRA.
A challenging reflection on the practice of "giving", so
characteristic of our sector.
June 2005
Action Learning - a developmental
approach to change
The
ins and outs of this central approach of a developmental practice.
Taken from the
Associates Toolbox,
adapted from
Action Learning for
Development: use your experience to improve your effectiveness
by
James Taylor, Dirk Marais, Allan
Kaplan, Juta and Co. Ltd., 1997 (out of print but available as a
photocopy from CDRA - go to the
Bookshop)
January 2005
"Who asked you anyway?" Some
feedback on Feedback
By Sue Soal of CDRA
Solicited or unsolicited, opinion or observation, giving feedback
is not an obvious art - Sue explores why with some ideas on how to
give feedback developmentally.
September 2004
Jazzing up the ancient art of conversation
By Desiree
Paulsen of the CDRA
Word version
March 2004
Story-telling - getting to the heart of things
Exploring story-telling as part of practice.
Word version
by Doug Reeler of the CDRA
October 2003
Listening
at three levels
A favourite handout on listening with a
listening exercise.
Word
version
March 2003
If
you meet the White Rabbit on the road, steal his watch!
...or what began as an attempt to write a donor report became a stream of consciousness on
time, development-land, activism
and practice.
by Doug Reeler of the CDRA
Word version
October 2002
The Poverty of "Partnerships"
The in-thing but how
do we conceptualise the notion?
by James Taylor of the CDRA
May 2002
Freedom
and Constraint Introducing the concept of archetype
A
chapter from his book
Development Practitioners
and Social Process - Artists of the Invisible.
by Allan Kaplan of the CDRA)
January
2002
Questionable
experiences in Cambodia
"Questions
can be like coins tinkling in our pockets."
by Enda Moclair
and
Working with questions
"Learning
and change happen around a question"
by Paulien Fopma
October 2001
Making
the learning organisation literal CDRAs homeweek
The
why's and wherefore's of our monthly homeweek for reflection and
learning, its role, what it consists of and
how it works.
by Sue Soal of the CDRA
July 2001
Mindfulness
and Sacred Space in our lives
Thoughts about connecting with your own inner and outer self in
order to build own capacity and strength.
by Dirk Marais of Vision Quest Africa
April 2001
Establishing
Developmental Relationships
"Relationship
is at the heart of development itself. The developmental
intervention takes place through relationship."
by James Taylor of the CDRA
January 2001
Is
participation one of those concepts used for manipulative purposes?
by Nomvula Dlamini of the CDRA
October 2000
"A
Good Death" - In Search of Developmental Endings
by Doug Reeler of CDRA |
