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The UK Secretary of State for International Development has made a big speech emphasising economic growth. That's good, but it is a shame that it is all about how DFID will use its aid budget, and makes no mention of all the other things that Britain can do to improve the prospects for growth and prosperity in the developing world.
Two main objections have been raised (by the High Level Panel on Post-2015, for example) to including an income inequality target in the post-2015 framework. One is technical, namely the claim that there isn’t a good enough measure of inequality. I don’t take this very seriously. Is this one area of measurement too complex?
Government, business, and civil society leaders are exploring how they can use Development Impact Bonds to catalyze development, according to UK Secretary of State for International Development Justine Greening.
This is a joint post with Petra Krylová .
This week the World Economic Forum holds its annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland. As the great and good gather to chart the direction of the global economy, there will be much talk of development, of transparency, and of the importance of trade. In light of our new research showing that Switzerland’s recent emergence as a global commodity trading hub might hide large illicit capital flows, participants may want to raise some questions with their hosts.
Development is a risky, complex business. So it’s not surprising that development experts sometimes question why private investors would choose to invest in Development Impact Bonds (DIBs), a new model for funding and designing programs that address such seemingly unprofitable problems like disease burden or poor education outcomes.
This is a joint post with Petra Krylová .
For the last decade, we have talked a lot of talk about new development partnerships; but have we walked the walk?
There was lots of cloud and not much silver lining at the climate change meetings which we attended in Warsaw. It was microcosm of many of the problems with our mechanisms for working together to solve shared problems.
How NGOs and service delivery organisations can be empowered by better use of data to improve public service delivery.
Some thoughts-in-progress: if you are going to provide a public subsidy to the private sector, is it nearly always better to amplify the returns than to reduce their risks?
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