Development Blogs.com


Department of creative solutions via PSD Blog - World Bank Group September 12th, 2008 at 16:17

image Having trouble flipping that property you bought before the subprime crisis hit? Perhaps you just need a more creative approach. You could try raffling it off, like this apparently unsellable 'eco-house' in the UK (Hat tip: Adam Smith Institute). Or if you're in the market to buy, you might consider paying for a £25 ticket for a chance to win the house. It's  "illuminated with a Rako wireless mood lighting system." Lovely....
In Creative approaches, Environment

Investing in social capital markets via PSD Blog - World Bank Group September 8th, 2008 at 22:05

image Bill Gates seems to have expressed the sentiment the best in his speech at Davos when he discussed the need for something he called creative capitalism. He argued for "an approach where governments, businesses, and nonprofits work together to stretch the reach of market forces so that more people can make a profit, or gain recognition, doing work that eases the world’s inequities." And this sentiment came from one of the most successful capitalists of all time. So it's no wonder that many have taken an interest in this topic, whatever name one might apply to it. From October 13 to 15, representatives from organizations as varied as Citigroup, Kiva, and the Skoll Foundation will be gathering in San Francisco at the Social Capital Markets conference. With the term social...
In Events, Corporate responsibility, Creative approaches

Evaluating creative capitalism via PSD Blog - World Bank Group July 25th, 2008 at 17:22

image The discussion over at Creative Capitalism continues, and the most recent offering is from Esther Duflo. (Duflo is well known because of her work promoting the use of randomized evaluations in development economics.) In part, she responds in her post to criticisms from Bill Easterly directed at the notion of creative capitalism. Easterly argues strongly for the primacy of what he calls "traditional capitalism" in raising the poor out of poverty. Duflo, on the other hand, argues in support of creative capitalism:There is, however, a fundamental difference between producing goods or services to sell on the market, and producing them to improve the lives of the poor. This difference creates a fundamental difficulty for creative capitalism. In their day jobs, capitalists make money...
In Aid Effectiveness, Corporate responsibility, Creative approaches

The many uses of Second Life via PSD Blog - World Bank Group July 23rd, 2008 at 17:56

image Last year the World Bank's Doing Business team released its annual report in Second Life. For those of you without the appropriate level of nerd credentials, Second Life is an online virtual community that allows users to create avatars and interact in constructed virtual worlds. Doing Business took advantage of this platform to reach some 700 "residents" of Second Life and another 1,000 audio listeners. (The DB team's Dahlia Khalifa sums up the event nicely in a post on the Doing Business Blog. Also see below for a video of the event.) As it turns out, the Second Life event continues to generate interest, and DFID's quarterly journal Developments dedicated a story to the role of online communities in promoting development. According to one non-profit cited in Developments:...Second Life...
In Business environment, Events, Creative approaches, Environment

Development 2.0 in healthcare via PSD Blog - World Bank Group July 10th, 2008 at 19:29

image If you haven't seen it yet, you should really check out HealthMap, a website created to aggregate health-related news and produce heat maps of potential disease outbreaks. HealthMap's creators - researchers associated with Children's Hospital Boston and Harvard Medical School - just released an open access article describing the motivation behind HealthMap and the promise it holds: The goal of HealthMap is to deliver real-time intelligence on a broad range of emerging infectious diseases for a diverse audience, from public health officials to international travelers...Ultimately, the use of news media and other nontraditional sources of surveillance data can facilitate early outbreak detection, increase public awareness of disesase outbreaks prior to their formal recognition, and provide...
In Healthcare, Telecommunications, Creative approaches

G8 via Skype via PSD Blog - World Bank Group July 9th, 2008 at 17:40

image Given the amount of resources expended on the G8 - think of the jet fuel, huge dinners, and 20,000 police officers mobilized for security - many bloggers have happily pointed to the irony of world leaders discussing the food crisis and global warming. But one blogger in Japan going by the name of fookpaktsuen offered a novel proposal: run the G8 meetings via Skype (Hat tip: Global Voices Online). Here's what he had to say (translation courtesy of Global Voices Online):Over 20,000 police officers were mobilized from Shikoku and Kyushu…and global warming is the main agenda, while the fact is that holding this summit is itself “earth-unfriendly”...If terrorist attacks are considered a threat, then instead of all state leaders getting together, it's better to have the meeting over...
In Energy, Events, Creative approaches, Environment

Broken promises and new approaches to foreign aid via PSD Blog - World Bank Group June 30th, 2008 at 21:54

image The Financial Times on its front page today speculates (subscription required) that the G8 may be backtracking on its commitments to Africa:Leaders of the Group of Eight rich nations are set to backtrack on their landmark pledge at the Gleneagles summit in 2005 to increase development aid to Africa to $25bn a year...In a further retreat, the G8 is set to abandon its Gleneagles promise to provide universal access to Aids treament and prevention by 2010.For some critics of the aid establishment, this will not provoke too many tears. I wait to see how many minutes pass before William Easterly intones on this latest broken promise. It probably won't be anything too nice if it bears any relation to what Easterly had to say in this biting critique of foreign aid from 2007:$568 billion in...
In Africa, Foreign direct investment, Aid Effectiveness, Creative approaches

Patience needed at the base of the pyramid via PSD Blog - World Bank Group June 23rd, 2008 at 15:27

image Discussion of business models targeting the poor as producers and consumers often centers on the same limited number of examples. Why are more initiatives not going to scale or getting noticed? In part, we may simply have unreasonable expectations. Market innovations from the Post It Note to bagless vacuum cleaners took years to come to market and win over consumers.  If the normal R&D time frame is 7-10 years, why should we expect base of the pyramid models to deliver results in 6-12 months? Analysis, such as that of the BoP Protocol from the team at Cornell University, suggests adapting existing models is not enough. Total innovation is best to build new markets with the poor. That takes time. This R&D issue was raised repeatedly by faculty and...
In Corporate responsibility, Creative approaches

Xbox for the developing world - part II via PSD Blog - World Bank Group June 18th, 2008 at 19:53

image I decided to follow up on an earlier posting that cast some doubts on the value of the XO laptop for students in developing countries. Two commentors pointed out that even if the XO laptop does not produce direct improvements in classroom learning, there still may be other kinds of benefits. Serena had this to say:I personally believe that games–& interactive media–foster the 'soft' competency skills that contribute to learning development. The likes of Internet Relay Chat helped a generation of kids develop fast typing and response skills. Games that provide mental stimulation and can be scalable (to increase the level of challenge) similarly contribute to learning skills development.I don't dispute this argument, but I also don't think it necessarily means that governments...
In Latin America, Youth, Education, Creative approaches

A solution to urban homelessness? via PSD Blog - World Bank Group June 17th, 2008 at 15:27

image A little food for thought this morning. Dickson Despommier, a professor at Columbia University, made a semi-novel proposal last Thursday on an appearance on the Colbert Report: vertical farming. The idea is that farming on a large scale could be done in cities indoors to reduce the need to transport food long distances. While the idea has been suggested before???see this PSD post on the topic from April 2008???Dr. Despommier took it a step further when he suggested vertical farming could help reduce or eliminate urban homelessness. While I'm not exactly convinced of the economics of the proposal, I wonder what implications it would have for the Harris-Todaro model of urban unemployment? Follow the link for Dr. Despommier's interview with Colbert....
In Agriculture, Food and Nutrition, Creative approaches, Environment

Teach a Man to Fish via PSD Blog - World Bank Group June 10th, 2008 at 20:55

image You probably have not yet heard of Fundaci??n Paraguaya, but I have a hunch you'll be hearing a lot about them in the next few years. They are an impressive organization focused on alleviating poverty through the promotion of entrepreneurship. Fundaci??n Paraguaya combines an impressive number of functions under one roof. It consists of a self-sufficient agricultural high school that is combined with a microfinance facility. Students at the school are taught basic business skills, and they apply these skills by working on farms, which in turn provide the income that funds the school. And the students don???t simply work on the farm for the sake of their labor???they have to make decisions about how best to make a profit from their labor, e.g. how many eggs must these chickens produce...
In Access to finance, Agriculture, Food and Nutrition, Latin America, Youth, Education, Creative approaches

Celebrating World Environment Day via PSD Blog - World Bank Group June 6th, 2008 at 15:32

June 5, official World Environment Day, has come and gone, and you???re probably wondering how you can make good on those green resolutions you made. If you shop online, there is a webtool out there made just for you. It???s called Scryve, and it provides ratings on companies based on their social and environmental policies. The best part of Scryve is that it can be installed as a browser extension for Internet Explorer and Firefox. Your browser then produces company ratings for products that you shop for online. If you don???t like the company???s rating, you can click on it for an explanation and alternative vendors. And how did Scryve put together all this information? According to the organization???s website:Our company profiles come from a number of places. Our seed data, our...
In Corporate responsibility, Creative approaches

Development 2.0, in graphics via PSD Blog - World Bank Group June 5th, 2008 at 14:41

An interesting visualisation of the shift from development 1.0 ("high peaks of bureaucracy, with the sight blurred by the disconnection between grassroots and policy making") to the development 2.0 world ("sustainable, collaborative, entrepreneurial and not aid dependent"), for the benefit of budding social......
In Something different, Blogging, Aid Effectiveness, Creative approaches

Cognitive surplus - the untapped potential of Development 2.0 via PSD Blog - World Bank Group June 3rd, 2008 at 20:46

New business models, crowdsourcing data, falling IT costs - all represent different facets of the potential for web 2.0 applications to the development sector. In a recent seminar at the Bank, Dion Hinchcliffe pointed me to a new item to be added to the list, borrowed from Clay Shirky: namely, "cognitive surplus". Wikipedia is one example of the surplus in action:So if you take Wikipedia as a kind of unit, all of Wikipedia, the whole project--every page, every edit, every talk page, every line of code, in every language that Wikipedia exists in--that represents something like the cumulation of 100 million hours of human thought. I worked this out with Martin Wattenberg at IBM; it's a back-of-the-envelope calculation, but it's the right order of magnitude, about 100 million hours of...
In Web sites, Eastern Europe and Central Asia, Blogging, Creative approaches

Sweeter than sugar? via PSD Blog - World Bank Group April 24th, 2008 at 16:40

image Nicholas Negroponte???s longtime MIT colleague Walter Bender has recently left the One Laptop per Child program. Bender was responsible for software and content for "XO" laptops including its innovative Sugar operating system. This all happened amidst OLPC???s move to change its open-source approach as it welcomes Microsoft???s Windows operating system. Bender will now try to further the development of the XOs' Sugar, and get it to run on Linux computers other than XOs. Bender's departure is the second big executive loss to be added to OLPC's setbacks and reportedly Negroponte wants OLPC to operate more efficiently. An executive-search firm has been trying to hire a chief executive for the group for more than a year ??? anyone needs a job?...
In Youth, Education, Creative approaches

Sustainable banking awards: who’s winning what? via PSD Blog - World Bank Group April 21st, 2008 at 19:53

The Financial Times and IFC announced shortlists of potential winners for the 2008 Sustainable Banking Awards. The awards recognize financial institutions that have led the way in integating their policies with social, environmental, and corporate governance objectives. Below is a sample the categories and the shortlisted candidates, the full list is available here. Sustainable Bank of the Year Banco Real, Brazil Citi, US HSBC, UK Rabobank, Netherlands Standard Chartered, UK Sustainable Deal of the Year BlueOrchard Finance, Switzerland/Morgan Stanley, US (microfinance loans) Calyon, France (solar thermal power plants) Citi, US (financing for rural housing) Glitnir Bank, Iceland (geothermal power generation) Merrill Lynch, US (carbon finance to reduce...
In Middle East and North Africa, Corporate governance, Access to finance, Latin America, Africa, Creative approaches, Environment

Futarchy: buzzword or viable option? via PSD Blog - World Bank Group April 18th, 2008 at 16:24

There's been a lot of buzz about prediction markets recently: A McKinsey & Co. report from a roundtable on prediction markets quotes James Surowiecki: "I wouldn???t be surprised to see prediction markets used in many more companies than today, not least as a tool to forecast sales. Consumer-facing companies should be particularly interested." Knowledge Management guru Tom Davenport and Dave Snowden jumped into the fray to cool easy enthusiasm. An article in the New York Times introduces the concept of futarchy."[A] form of government enhanced by prediction markets. Voters would decide broad goals of national welfare, but betting in speculative markets would determine the policy steps to achieve those goals," says Robin D. Hanson, an economist at George Mason University and a fan of...
In Creative approaches

Locally-grown food in the middle of New York City via PSD Blog - World Bank Group April 18th, 2008 at 00:21

New York Magazine asked four architects to design whatever they would like for a full city block of space with no clients to worry about. One design offered was a vertical farm, complete with water tanks and each floor would be used for the cultivation of a different crop. Amale Andraos, of Work AC, the firm responsible for the intriguing idea, said in the article that they ???are interested in urban farming and the notion of trying to make our cities more sustainable by cutting the miles [food travels].??? Ok, maybe that???s taking sustainable design to an extreme; does anyone have more eco-friendly (and preferably profitable) ideas?...
In Agriculture, Food and Nutrition_, Energy, Creative approaches, Environment

Online microfinance: Kiva vs. MicroPlace via PSD Blog - World Bank Group April 11th, 2008 at 20:32

The Microfinance Gateway has just released a good and quick comparison between two major players in microfinance: Kiva and MicroPlace. The Microfinance Gateway piece is a good synopsis of the work these two organizations are doing; it talks about the differences between the two as well as their roots and how to invest in microfinance projects through them. ...
In Access to finance, Creative approaches

Negroponte’s competitor: One laptop per rich child via PSD Blog - World Bank Group March 19th, 2008 at 22:33

image Classmate PC – Intel's low-cost educational laptop – which was initially designed for developing countries is now going to be distributed in Europe and in the United States. Here's a cost comparison of the low-cost and educational laptops out there: Eee PC from Taiwan's Asustek Computer: $399 XO from One Laptop Per Child Foundation: $188 Classmate PC from Intel: $350 Making a profit from a do-good idea: priceless (or is it?)....
In Something different, Creative approaches

From growing cassava to funding a university via PSD Blog - World Bank Group March 10th, 2008 at 20:22

image Beatrice Ayuru introduces herself as a teacher and businesswoman. She is from northern Uganda, a war-ravaged area with much poverty and few schools. A few years ago, with no business training and no money, Beatrice decided that she would build her own school. "No girl should endure what I had to go through myself," says Beatrice. "Education is the best way to help reduce poverty in my region […] and giving girl children education empowers them. In my village, women are over-dependent on men." Beatrice started with a small garden of cassava. That earned her a little money which she used to buy wheelbarrows that she subsequently rented out. With that income, she managed to open a canteen. Soon, she had enough savings to start a school. Getting the land was a struggle. Traditionally, land...
In Gender, Access to finance, Education, Africa, Creative approaches

Can the private sector teach development? via PSD Blog - World Bank Group March 6th, 2008 at 22:02

image Professor William Duggan argues in his book, Strategic Intuition: The Creative Spark in Human Achievement, that disciplines such as psychology, military history, and business strategy may collectively teach strategies that could be used by development agencies in order to ensure success. He discusses this idea in depth on his blog. Bill Easterly will join Duggan at the Center for Global Development on March 12, for a discussion on how lessons from the private sector may enhance development success....
In Books, Aid Effectiveness, Events, Creative approaches

Innovative thinkers wanted via PSD Blog - World Bank Group March 4th, 2008 at 15:05

image The 2008 Global Development Marketplace competition's theme is "Sustainable Agriculture for Development." This competition is an avenue for creative thinkers to turn their ideas for sustainable agriculture in developing countries into reality. The grand prize: $200,0000 in grant funding. Applications are open until March 21, 2008.   ...
In Events, Creative approaches

Teaching a new dog an old trick? via PSD Blog - World Bank Group February 25th, 2008 at 23:01

image Will online social investment markets replicate the flaws of traditional development models, or will they improve their effectiveness? That's the question raised in a new report that provides some empirical evidence to the so far rather anecdotal argument that we are shifting towards a Development 2.0 paradigm. In theory, start-ups like MyC4 or GiveIndia begin from a clean slate and therefore need not fall in the same traps that hampered the effectiveness of traditional development players. However, the analysis of 24 online social markets leads the authors to conclude that, whilst they are "relentless innovators" that succeed in attracting a new donor base, their transformative power is hindered by an all too familiar problem to "old" development players – the lack of reliable...
In Aid Effectiveness, Creative approaches

Starting a business: help from Harvard Business School via PSD Blog - World Bank Group February 25th, 2008 at 18:24

image Harvard University's Working Knowledge compiled resources for those thinking about starting up their own business. Topics include legal issues associated with new enterprises, managing resources, product development, and keeping owner control. As a bonus here's other useful information for entrepreneurs on the ease of doing business across 178 economies....
In Web sites, Business environment, Creative approaches

Putting a price on carbon: time to get hands-on via PSD Blog - World Bank Group February 21st, 2008 at 16:37

image The recent spate of announcements by financial institutions looking forward to a world with a price on carbon - and their decisions to set a price for carbon in their own calculations on project viability or to adhere to generic principles on carbon which may influence the future shape of their portfolios - are the latest evidence of a world preparing itself for some kind of public policy context to emerge from international negotiations. But perhaps of equal significance is evidence that the risks and opportunities from managing exposure to carbon are seen as real and present, not potential and distant. To dig down into performance and beyond rhetoric a number of challenges face financial institutions. A carbon price helps one understand risk in a future where carbon carries a...
In Energy, Corporate responsibility, Creative approaches, Environment

Internet for all via PSD Blog - World Bank Group February 20th, 2008 at 23:16

image It is estimated that 1.1 billion people have Internet access world-wide. That still leaves out a large number of potential Internet users, or potential costumers, depending on how one looks at it. That's probably why some entrepreneurs have been tackling the issue of how to close this divide. One interesting approach was taken by Meraki, a Silicon Valley technology company. It developed cheap and simple network devices that allow ordinary Internet users to set up networks and share costs so that more people can connect. The company, which was named a "Technology Pioneer" at the recent World Economic Forum, has helped extending wireless Internet in about 70 countries. Have you heard of other creative approaches to this issue?...
In Creative approaches

Too much or too little - the paradox of information for development via PSD Blog - World Bank Group February 20th, 2008 at 16:16

image The paradox of the human rights community is that it is an information-processing industry that has limited access to information technology, according to Jim Fruchterman, founder of Benetech – an organization that creates technology used by human rights professionals and in other social areas. Benetech's own website goes on to observe that "human rights groups throughout the world gather massive amounts of violation data. Much of it never reaches its full potential or intended audience." Isn't the same paradox common to other areas of the development sector, including policy making and private sector development? After having successfully launched Martus, a tool to improve the documentation and reporting of human right abuses, Fruchterman is planning to take on the...
In Creative approaches

Gemloc Program selects PIMCO and Markit via PSD Blog - World Bank Group February 19th, 2008 at 21:41

image In a new development, the World Bank Group chose PIMCO and Markit for Gemloc Program to increase investment in emerging markets. The World Bank Group launched the Gemloc Program last October to help emerging market countries attract more investment and develop their local currency bond markets....
In International finance, Access to finance, Creative approaches

Sustainable tourism competition open via PSD Blog - World Bank Group February 13th, 2008 at 15:13

image Proponents of "geotourism" believe that it benefits local residents in many ways, including economically, since travel businesses strive to use local workforce, products, and services. A new National Geographic competition aims to raise awareness to ways geotourism may be beneficial to the local communities. Winners will be innovators in geotourism and applications are now open through April 9. If you are part of a committed organization or governemnt you can also sign the "Geotourism Charter" (p.s.:totally non-binding and unenforceable)....
In Something different, Creative approaches, Environment
« Older Entries