Seen & Heard is a collection of recent headlines in the news about our world, our work, and the spaces and places in between. In each post we also share a list of job openings at Acumen Fund and in our sector. Seen & Heard appears twice a month on the blog. For those of you who like keeping a pulse on the latest news as it’s happening, please consider following us on Twitter !
Headlines
The flood in Pakistan continues to be at the forefront of all our minds. Here are a few must-read articles sent around by the team:
Jacqueline’s important letter to the New York Times about the need to focus on immediate relief now and politics later.
Dispatches from Pakistan: Jacqueline tells stories from the ground in Pakistan where she’s currently traveling to bear witness...
The right-wing cure for human misery: More pain - How the World Works - Salon.com
Andrew Leonard joins the head-shaking at Robert Barro's latest helpful suggestion.
(tags: free-marketeers macroeconomics)
Measuring the output responses to fiscal policy | vox - Research-based policy analysis and commentary from leading economists
Makes sense:
"This column considers the influence of expectations, of variation in recessions and expansions, and of different components of government spending. It finds that the size of the multiplier varies considerably over the business cycle: between 0 and 0.5 in expansions and between 1 and 1.5 in recessions."
(tags: macroeconomics)
ScienceDirect - Journal of Urban Economics : The Holdout Problem and Urban Sprawl:...
There are three interesting conferences coming up in the design world this month (see below for details). If you are planning to go to any of these events (or even some others we haven't yet heard of), please consider submitting a "Reader Report." We'd love to get your 'inside scoop' and learn more about all of the cool, innovative projects and ideas likely to be presented at these conferences. Please email me at amanda@worldchanging.com if you'd like to contribute a report!
ASLA Annual Meeting: Friday–Monday, September 10–13 in Washington, D.C.
More than 6,000 landscape architecture professionals from across the U.S. and around the world will gather in Washington, D.C., September 10–13, to earn up to 21 professional development hours, to enjoy the fellowship of our...
Melting and thinning ice in the Arctic has proceeded so rapidly that new sea routes are opening up, infrastructure is being imagined, and countries like Canada are working to assert their sovereignty in the north...
Last year, Beluga Shipping became the first shipping company to transport goods through the 'Northeast Passage'; two ships, escorted by a pair of Russian icebreakers, traveled from South Korea to Siberia via the newly broken up NE passage. Now, the sea is ice-free enough in the summer that it is projected to become a regular shipping route as early as next year. As a mark of this change, the Northeast Passage has even been renamed the "Northern Sea Route." Charlie Jane Anders has the story at io9: "2010 Will Be Remembered as the Year the Arctic Ocean Became a Trade...
GUJRAT, Pakistan, 2 September 2010 – In a show of support for the victims of flooding in Pakistan, UNICEF and World Food Programme (WFP) Executive Directors Anthony Lake and Josette Sheeran visited the agencies' humanitarian operations in the Muzzafargarh district of Punjab, one of the worst-affected provinces of the country....
ANTANANARIVO, Madagascar, 2 September 2010 – A film set in Madagascar's arid south is helping young people develop life skills by sparking a debate on what it means to succeed in life....
Prof. Bob Watson comments on embedded emissions....
Industrial farming causing food prices to...
This series of notes summarizes findings of a project entitled “What development interventions work?” undertaken by researchers of the Chronic Poverty Research Centre, the International Food Policy Research Institute, and Data Analysis and Technical Assistance Ltd.
Exploring the long-term impact of development interventions within life-history narratives in rural Bangladesh
Related Datasets:
Chronic Poverty and Long Term Impact Study in Bangladesh
PDF file:
ifpricprcnote_davis.pdf(268.2KB)...
In
Asia,
Bangladesh,
South Asia,
English,
Poverty, Health, and Nutrition,
PHND,
IFPRI-2,
Pathways from Poverty,
GRP-26,
Project Notes
We need a better understanding of the 'environmentalist's paradox' - Why is human well-being improving globally when our environmental woes appear to be worsening all the time?
by Leo Hickman
We hear lots of concerned chatter these days – not least, here on this site - about peak oil, peak water, deforestation, resource depletion and the like, but a popular riposte offered by those doubting such concerns is something commonly referred to as the "Environmentalist's Paradox".
The argument goes thus: "Why, despite resource depletion and the degradation of ecosystems, is average human well-being improving globally?"
People such as Matt Ridley, author of the Rational Optimist, argue that environmentalists are needlessly downbeat about humanity's prospects. After all, we are a...
The United Nations Research Institute for Social Development UNRSID has released a flagship document on combating Poverty and Inequality. The report is a major research initiative which aims to contribute to debates on new policy approaches to poverty-reduction within the context of a post......
Canadians have been moved to respond generously to appeals for relief this year after a...
This series of notes summarizes findings of a project entitled “What development interventions work?” undertaken by researchers of the Chronic Poverty Research Centre, the International Food Policy Research Institute, and Data Analysis and Technical Assistance Ltd.
Does social capital build women’s assets?
PDF file:
ifpricprcnote_kumarquisumbing1.pdf(264.5KB)...
In
Gender,
Social Capital,
Impact evaluation,
Gender and Assets,
assets,
Asia,
Bangladesh,
South Asia,
English,
Poverty, Health, and Nutrition,
PHND,
IFPRI-2,
Pathways from Poverty,
GRP-26,
Project Notes
Alleviating old age poverty requires a different approach from other age groups. This paper examines the impact on old age poverty and the fiscal cost...
Editor's Note: A couple weeks ago we posted a piece by Alex Aylett reporting on Portugal's impressive percentage of renewable electricity supply. Below, we revisit Portugal's renewable energy success and explore how their planning policies helped them make such impressive gains in renewable energy production with a repost from Worldwatch...
by Alexander Ochs and Camille Serre
Typically, the Scandinavian countries and Germany have set the example in the European renewables field. Yet lately, a Southern country - Portugal - has attracted attention after delivering its National Renewable Energy Action Plan to the European Commission this June.
Portugal has made dramatic changes in its energy policy over the last five years under the government of Prime Minister José Sócrates. The...
When 11-year-old Ronald Gathece was placed on antiretrovirals (ARVs) after being diagnosed HIV-positive, medical staff did not monitor his reaction to the treatment. But the side effects had been so bad that the young boy had contemplated......
By Arvind Subramanian - The ever-vigilant Chris Blattman drew attention yesterday to Ethiopia’s currency devaluation. What was surprising and interesting about this move is that the devaluation was not undertaken under the usual duress of “macroeconomic adjustment.” Typically, in Africa, macroeconomic and foreign exchange crises have been the trigger for devaluation. A devaluation helps because it increases exports and...
Heather Blanchard, Noel Dickover and Andrew Turner from Crisis Commons visited the Berkman Center Tuesday to discuss the rapidly growing technology and crisis response space. Crisis Commons, Andrew tells us, came in part from the recognition that the volunteers who respond to crises aren’t necessarily amateurs. They include first responders, doctors, CEOs...and lately, they include a lot of software developers.
Recent technology “camps” – Transparency Camp, Government 2.0 Camp – sparked discussion about whether there should be a crisis response camp. Crisis Camp was born in May, 2009 with a two-day event in Washington DC which brought together a variety of civic hackers who wanted to share knowledge around crisis technology and response. The World Bank took notice and...
DAKAR, 3 September 2010 (IRIN) - After her first year in the job, the UN Special Representative on Violence against Children, Marta Santos Pais, told IRIN her major achievement has been to bring violence against children out into the...
JOHANNESBURG, 3 September 2010 (IRIN) - South Africa will resume the deportation of undocumented Zimbabweans on 1 January 2011, ending its 17-month moratorium, the Cabinet announced on 1...
Across Pakistan, uncommon heroes are arising in response to the worst natural devastation in the country’s history. One of them is Ali Siddiqui, head of the JS group, a financial services conglomerate employing 23,000 with stakes in companies in transportation, agriculture, energy and the like. Though only 33 years old, Ali is a man of vision, courage and great spirit. While too many complain that government isn’t providing services, he and his family and employees have just gotten on with the business of bringing their skills and resources to do what they can against the odds — which is ultimately what it takes to bring about change.
Ali has mobilized the family’s companies owned by the JS Group to set up and run five camps serving more than 10,000...
Looking back one, two and five years ago today on Worldchanging:
2009
Solar Panels To Boost Property Prices
Joe Romm argues that "as peak oil kicks in and the reality of human-caused climate change becomes painfully clear, energy efficiency, geothermal heat pumps, solar panels and the like will increasingly be seen as a desirable if not essential elements of a home, like an up-to-date kitchen, rather than just a cost...”
2009
If It Makes Money, It's Not a 'Cost'!
A vintage Worldchanging essay where Alan AtKisson writes that when it comes to spending money on the environment, it's not a cost -- it's an investment...
2005
XAccess
Jamais Cascio reports on the non-profit XAccess, which makes a cargo-bike add-on available at low or no cost to in the developing world...
Other...
(Cairo) - Egyptian authorities should immediately disclose the fate and whereabouts of Mohamed Saad Tork, who disappeared in July 2009 with strong indications that he was being held by the authorities, and prosecute those responsible, Human Rights Watch said today. Tork's case highlights the continuing practice of enforced disappearances by Egypt's State Security Investigations agency.
read...
(New York) - Jordan's military prosecutor at the State Security Court should immediately order the release of Hatim al-Shuli, a university student, and rescind charges against him, Human Rights Watch said today.
read...
MANZINI, 3 September 2010 (IRIN) - Swaziland has yet to act on a 2006 World Health Organization (WHO) recommendation to alleviate health worker shortages through task-shifting and according to the Ministry of Health, the failure to do so is compromising scale-up of the antiretroviral (ARV)...
New Title:Oxford Monitor of Forced Migration [info]- A web site for this new electronic periodical is now available.New Issues:International Migration Review, vol. 44, no. 3 (Fall 2010) [contents]- Mix of articles.Revue Européenne des Migrations Internationales, vol. 26, no. 1 (2010) [contents]- Theme of this issue is "Les médias des minorités ethniques: Représenter l'identité collective sur la scène publique."Third World Quarterly, vol. 31, no. 5 (2010) [contents]- Mix of articles.Trends in Organized Crime, vol. 13, nos. 2/3 (Sept. 2010) [contents]- Includes three articles on human trafficking.Tagged...
Photo: The Moscow Times
Sometimes, the dangers of corruption seem abstract. So what if some company executive paid a bribe to get a procurement contract? So what if a politician gets a kickback? So what if a person paid a traffic cop to get on the way? There are daily reminders, however, that the costs of corruption are not always abstract.
Consider the spread of fake diplomas in Russia, covered in detail in The Moscow Times op-ed. Seventy engineers working at a factory building famous SU fighter jets and a new executive jet bought their university engineering degrees. The best teacher in Russia in 2007 bought her diploma.
The estimate is that in Russia between 30 – 50% of post-graduate degrees are purchased!
So next time someone gets on a plane in Russia, they should wonder...
DURBAN, 3 September 2010 (IRIN) - Striking public health workers in South Africa have virtually shut down King George V Hospital, a referral facility in the port city of Durban, KwaZulu-Natal Province, which specializes in caring for and isolating patients with multidrug-resistant (MDR) and extremely drug-resistant...
Awareness of the complex and dynamic links between gender relations and climate change is growing fast in gender and development (GAD) circles and among...
Cocoa is one of Cameroon's most important agricultural commodities and exported cash crops, and women are particularly active in the sector. In...