Ideas to Action:
Independent research for global prosperity
Could absenteeism be caused by the poor learning taking place in classrooms? After all, with years of schooling without gains in basic foundational skills in reading and math, it is hardly surprising when children struggle to perform. But what would happen if children were taught by their actual learning levels rather than their grade?
Many in the development world call themselves change agents—campaigners, organizers, development workers, even researchers here at CGD. But how does change actually happen? My guest this week on the CGD Podcast is Oxfam senior strategic advisor Duncan Green, who’s about to release a book on that very question.
“Cat” bonds are effectively a cheaper source of large-scale insurance coverage against clearly measured risks like earthquakes, storms, or even disease outbreaks. Generally, though, coverage hasn’t trickled down to the poorer and most at-risk countries—precisely those which are most vulnerable when aid fails to arrive or arrives piecemeal. Scaling up this market for lower-income countries would provide better shielding against many risks that undermine development overseas.
Effective identification is increasingly seen as a crucial step towards the achievement of several other development goals. In fact, developing countries have been implementing new ID programs at a breakneck speed. To provide a relatively comprehensive picture of these rapidly changing trends, fast-evolving systems, and mushrooming applications is no easy feat, but we have tried to assemble a rough overview of those ID- and development-related topics that struck us as most relevant in the form of a Preliminary Discussion Paper.
Satellite data suggests poverty is falling faster than we thought, but it’s probably not reliable enough to trust for targeting social programs – at least not yet.
Biometric voter registration and verification technology is rapidly becoming a staple of elections in the developing world, but where and how will this technology be most efficiently deployed?
From 2004-2013, Brazil reduced climate emissions by more than any other country on earth, thanks to its success cutting Amazon deforestation by 80 percent. Now, a new study in Ecological Economics finds that actions to protect the Amazon were affordable too, costing Brazilian governments at the federal, state, and local levels just $2.1 billion over nine years—one-third the estimated $6.2 billion price tag of the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro.
There is a lot of chatter about the reasons for Britain’s relative success in the Olympic games. This transformation in Britain’s sporting performance has generated a raft of tortured analogies with various non-sporting challenges, such as industrial and education policies (on which Britain’s performance is rather less stellar). So I’m leaping on the bandwagon with two lessons for international development.
Cindy Huang asks for ways to apply international development expertise to social, political, and economic dilemmas in the United States.
Historically the World Bank’s President was nominated by the USA and that person was then approved by the World Bank’s Board (and in a reciprocal agreement Europe nominated the head of the IMF). Now, discussions have begun “over how and whether to reappoint” Jim Yong Kim, when his first term ends next June. I agree with the World Bank Staff Association that we need to be able to have confidence in this process.
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