Oh dear. I’ve just been to three Forums and one ‘interactive’ website I flagged as ‘possibly interesting’ a few months ago when they were new. And guess what – they didn’t have a single entry or ongoing discussion. Why? Because the organizations involved spent time and money in setting them up and then point blank failed to promote them.

It really is a crying shame that many organizations out there working to combat issues like poverty and climate change still haven’t realized (more…)

Chatting with a colleague today, we got to talking about the fact that more and more people are blogging nowadays. Or, to be even more precise, about the fact that more and more people are failing to blog usefully.

Blogs can be a fantastic way of keeping people informed about what you’re doing. You can also use them to make people aware of important upcoming issues. But, done badly, blogs can be damaging too. (more…)

We at SCRIPTORIA were extremely sad to hear that Stephen Nkabyo passed away unexpectedly yesterday. We worked closely with Stephen, and knew him as a true professional. His untimely loss is a blow to poverty reduction efforts in Africa, and everyone here would like to express their heartfelt condolences to his wife and children.

Jim Weale

I don’t think that we’ve actually explicitly stated this anywhere yet, but one of our main reasons for redesigning and reorganizing our website was to make it easier for you to access the many useful tools and products we produce each year. And, it seems to be working.

I’m already receiving e-mails telling me how useful books like the Field Guide to Photography are and asking me if we know of other, similarly simple and useful products. The answer is ‘yes – we write them all the time’. So, keep watching this space as you never know what’s going to turn up next.

All the best, Jim

Continuing the theme of useful tools we just thought we’d better mention on the Blog the photography guide that we recently produced for a UK Government programme. This very short pocket-sized guide gives step by step advice on how to take better photographs to showcase projects and work all over the world.

We targeted the guide at poverty reduction efforts in Africa and Asia. But as someone said to me just this morning “it’s dead easy to apply the same advice to taking photographs at a charity event in the UK”. Have a look and let us have your feedback. And, do feel free to send us any photos you take using the guide - we’ll put up a small gallery to showcase them. You can download a fast loading pdf of the guide by clicking Here (1.2 Mb).  All the best, Jim

A couple of people have written to the team to say that they missed the BBC/OECD high-level debate on aid effectiveness that Jim highlighted in a blog entry on October 9. So, we kept an eye on the BBC for you and the debate is now available online in both broadband and narrowband formats. That means that you can now sit back with a cup of hot chocolate anytime you like and catch up whenever you have time.  We give both links below. All the best, Sandy

Aid effectiveness debate (broadband)

Aid effectiveness debate (narrowband)

If you have any trouble opening these Realplayer links, then you can go straight to the BBC site and access the programmes from the bottom of the page there instead. The link is: The BBC World Debate Page

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Since we’ve worked with them quite a bit over the last few years, we were very pleased to see CABI Biosciences receiving some primetime BBC breakfast television coverage this week for their work to combat invasive species like Japanese knotweed.

In fact, the five-minute slot was so good that I even put down my cornflakes to watch (and every one knows that separating me from my food takes some doing). (more…)

One of the team here at SCRIPTORIA recently reminded me about a very useful book called Evaluating the Impact of your Website that we helped to produce last year. And since it is a useful tool for website development, I thought it would be a good idea to mention it here.

Written by a group of experts in the field, this easy-to-read guide is designed to help organizations produce easier to navigate, more useful websites that get more visitors. It’s aimed specifically at sustainable development and not-for-profits, but will be useful to anyone working to build a better site that gets more traffic. You can access it by clicking HERE. Feel free to leave a comment to let me know what you think. I hope you find it useful. All the best, Jim

Sustainable development doesn’t just mean climate change or water issues. There are a huge range of areas in which organisations are working to improve people’s lives in sustainable ways.

One of my favourites (and one we’ve done a lot of work to promote) is ICARDA’s programme to find natural natural bio-pesticides for Sunn pest. (more…)

We’re pretty excited here by the fact that we’re soon going to be re-branding and re-launching two major organisations working to reduce poverty.

Obviously we can’t tell you who they are yet. But, watch this space. The launches are scheduled for early December.

All the best, The SCRIPTORIA Team