Blog | Page 54 of 54 | Grassroots International

Welcome

By: Jake Miller | January 9, 2004

Welcome to Grassroots Journal, the weblog of Grassroots International. As an independent human rights, social justice and alternative development organization, GRI interacts with the world in a number of different ways. This weblog is an attempt to share some of the things we learn from the people we meet and work with, and to open new paths of communication about the kind of work that we do.

To launch this project, we are proud to present a series of reports on the World Social Forum from Nisrin Elamin, GRI's advocacy coordinator.

The WSF, a gathering of civil society movements and groups who are committed to building a society based on human rights and social justice, takes place this year from January 16-21, 2004 in Mumbai, India. Many of the most exciting activists from around the world will be attending, giving speeches, participating in debates, and sharing the stories of their successes and struggles with one another, all in the interest of building a better world for us all. Nisrin will be attending this year's WSF and sharing her thoughts and experiences with us, here in this weblog.

In the future, we will use this space to document other journeys on the road to making the world a better place. We hope you will join us, and we hope you enjoy the trip.

Feeding Dependency, Starving Democracy

In 1997, Grassroots International released a research study entitled "Feeding Dependency, Starving Democracy: USAID Policies in Haiti." Offering an in-depth examination of USAID development policies in Haiti, the study concluded that, as the title suggests, official aid actually damaged the very aspects of Haitian society it was allegedly trying to fix – namely it created a lack of democracy and too much dependency.