October 9, 2009
Weekly Tweets for 2009-10-09
- RT @chalespinosa New law Nicaragua 12%flat 4-5Yrs 3 month grace no pmt past due interest or legal fees for No Payment crowd #microfinance #
CGD Policy Blogs
October 8, 2009
The Power of Demo-Graphics
Sometimes ‘connecting the dots’ between different ideas in the development discourse can be a challenge. But as Hans Rosling has highlighted through his famous Gapminder presentations at TED, a picture is really worth a thousand blog posts when it can be used to draw connections and emphasize trends that may not otherwise become apparent.
October 7, 2009
Gates Foundation Explores Securitizing Aid
Yes that’s right. Securitizing is a bad word nowadays, but in fact it’s a great idea that I’ve written about -- as a wishful dream not a possible Gates-sponsored reality. Yet here it is in a recent Economist article: “Or the foundation might provide insurance against the non-payment of aid promised by a donor, so that a government will know that, one way or another, the money will come.”
October 7, 2009
Confronting the Evidence on Microcredit and Freedom
Chapter 7 of my book analyzes the impacts microfinance through Amartya Sen's definition of "development as freedom." It focuses on credit, the financial service whose impacts on freedom are most ambiguous. Perusing the thoughtful commentary on the blog post for the chapter draft, I was struck by how most of it deals in concepts.
October 6, 2009
More Kiva Kibitzing
- Kiva Is Not Quite What It Seems is eliciting an extraordinary set of high-quality comments.
October 5, 2009
CGD Task Force Supports IMF Financial Access Initiative
On Monday, October 5, IMF Managing Director Dominique Strauss-Kahn and Princess Maxima of the Netherlands, an international development advocate and the UN Special Advocate for Inclusive Finance for Development, launched the IMF’s new Access to Finance Project
October 2, 2009
Help Wanted: Ideas to Inform White House Presidential Study Directive on U.S. Development Policy
One month and four interagency meetings into the Presidential Study Directive (PSD-7) to review and provide strategic direction on U.S. global development policy, what do we know about what's going on?
October 2, 2009
Kiva Is Not Quite What It Seems
Kiva is the path-breaking, fast-growing person-to-person microlending site. It works this way: Kiva posts pictures and stories of people needing loans. You give your money to Kiva. Kiva sends it to a microlender. The lender makes the loan to a person you choose. He or she ordinarily repays. You get your money back with no interest. It's like eBay for microcredit. You knew that, right? Well guess what: you're wrong, and so is Kiva's diagram. Less that 5% of Kiva loans are disbursed after they are listed and funded on Kiva's site.
October 2, 2009
Wanted Now: A Pragmatic and Visionary Leader for the Improved UN Entity for Women
This is a joint post with Geeta Rao Gupta.
In all of last week’s hoopla in NYC with the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) and the Clinton Global Initiative in full swing, news about an improved, composite U.N. entity for women (still to be formally named) went under the radar. The idea for consolidating several U.N. agencies into one has been in the works for about three years, but was finally adopted just two weeks ago. The resolution merely approves the creation of the entity and states that the Secretary General should announce the final plan for the structure and mission of the agency at next year’s UNGA. Now that’s classic UN style—to take one entire year to figure out what has already been figured out! It’s time for urgent and quick next steps, which if implemented smartly (not just politically) can make all the difference.
Commentary Menu