Utopia is a beautiful place, where harmony prevails and socio-economic injustices are no more. But trying to implement it can be a precarious experiment more likely to end in disillusionment than paradise. The people of Venezuela are about to find out which one it’s going to be for them, as President Hugo Chávez proceeds with the implementation of his controversial land reform.
As the New York Times describes it, the reform consists of “building utopian farming villages for squatters, lavishing money on new cooperatives and sending army commando units to supervise seized estates,” also known as “paving stones on the road to socialism.”
Let us briefly examine the rationale and assumptions behind these policies.
The cause
Prior to the current land reform, which started in 2002,...
CIPE’s 2007 International Youth Essay Competition is quickly drawing to a close – but it’s not over yet. We’ve been receiving essays from around the world and we’re looking forward to reading what their authors have to say.
There’s still a week left before the deadline – May 31, 2007 – and we hope to hear from more young people. If you’re between the ages of 18 and 30 and have ideas about ways that young people can promote reform in their countries, write them down! CIPE is going to publish the best 3 essays in each category, (1) citizenship in a democratic society, (2) educational reform and employment opportunities, and (3) entrepreneurship and leadership, so this is an opportunity to share your thoughts with the world.
For more information, please visit...
Most people have heard horror stories about hapless investors being taken in by fraudulent construction companies. Investors provide funds that are spirited off by the would-be builder, and the land on which the building should have been built remains an empty lot. These corrupt practices hinder investment and development in many countries, especially in countries where property rights are not protected and there is no recourse when a contract is broken.
This is where the real estate appraiser comes in. Honest and competent real estate appraisers play a vital role in making real estate transactions fair and transparent in both developed and developing countries. In his interview with CIPE, Bill Endsley of the Appraisal Institute discusses many of the issues – like corruption –...
Last November, Dr. Charles Oman, who heads the OECD Development Centre, spoke at a CIPE roundtable on Uses and Abuses of Governance Indicators. The roundtable was based on a book of the same name by Christiane Arndt and Dr. Oman. [The book is available from the OECD]. At the roundtable, Dr. Oman led a very interesting discussion on the strengths and weaknesses of some of the most widely used indicators and how to apply them effectively. You can watch a streaming video of the presentation and question and answer period here.
Now, as so many development agencies tie funds to meeting specific goals, these indicators are more important than ever. The MCC’s Millenium Challenge Account is the first example that comes to mind. Yet, as Dr. Oman and Ms. Amanpour point out in their recently...
The problems faced by Somalia right now are too numerous to count. As Alex notes in his blog below, although some sectors of the economy are doing well, it doesn’t mean that Somalia is headed towards economic prosperity.
It will be interesting to see how Somalia’s enterprises will fare if a stable government is established – or if it will be possible to establish a stable government given the current attitudes of some of the country’s “entrepreneurs.” There was an interesting article in the International Herald Tribune a few weeks ago, which describes how some of them feel about the prospect of a government (“Profiteers, too, Fight Government in Somalia”). These entrepreneurs are prospering in the current anarchy and think that a stable government would hurt their...
The development experience of the past several decades has shed the laissez-faire myth - the fact of the matter is that business needs governments to set the rules and enforce those rules fairly and consistently. Without a system of rules and enforcement, we can talk about individual business transactions, but not a functioning market economy.
The theory is essentially being put to the test in Somalia, a country getting by without a functional goverment for more than a decade. Without a central government, some sectors of the economy are doing quite well there. For example,
…despite the chaos, and the lack of any central government, Somalia has one of the most efficient telephone systems in its region. It takes just three days for a landline to be installed, compared with...
CIPE knows that young people can be a powerful force for change! As future reformers, they have innovative ideas on how to solve the political, economic, and social problems facing their countries. However, they often lack the voice to bring these ideas to policymakers. Simply, young people are often regarded as recipients of reforms, not active participants in the reform process.
To give young people the opportunity to share their ideas, CIPE has launched its 2007 International Essay Competition. We want to know what they think about the situation in their countries and the innovative solutions that they propose. We are especially interested to hear what citizens of non-OECD countries have to say, and how their own experiences have helped them develop concrete solutions to the...
Many of the reform reversals observed these days are driven by negative perception of markets - namely that market economies breed inequality and that social systems are better in leveling things out. Nowhere this is more evident than in Latin America, where income gaps between the rich and the poor have been a hot discussion topic for quite some time now.
Anthony de Jasay takes a closer look at inequality within a context of market systems, criticizing attempts to even things out through government regulation. These efforts often include things such as equating endowments and even factors like knowledge and networking. Yet, as he observes, there is one factor that simply cannot be controlled:
even if in some Utopia all individual endowments could, by clever legal, fiscal,...
Today, we met with the head of the Center for Transparency and Accountability in Liberia. In talking about elections, corruption, and funding of political parties in the country one interesting example came up that captures well the issues that arise in ethical business practices.
During the country’s last elections, you could see company vehicles driving around with bumper stickers and other types of advertisements supporting different candidates. The problem, of course, was that companies themselves were not taking a position one way or another - these were simply the employees that had access to these vehicles expressing their own views and opinions. In the eyes of the unsuspecting public, however, it could be easily viewed as if companies were advocating for candidates of...
CIPE’s recently published Economic Reform Feature Service article, “Trading in Power: The Politics of ‘Free’ Markets in Afghanistan”, addresses a pressing problem affecting Afghanistan’s political and economic development. According to the authors, Sarah Lister and Adam Pain of the Afghanistan Research and Evaluation Unit, Afghanistan is experiencing economic growth, but that growth does not benefit all citizens. Instead, it benefits only the wealthy and connected, leaving the majority of citizens disenfranchised. State institutions are currently unable to regulate the economy and ensure that all people have the opportunity to participate.
An economy that is not governed by effective institutions will not lead to the development of a prosperous country. And while...
Free and functional media are indispensable to holding governments accountable and supplying the information that makes markets work. Last week, CIPE staff had an informal discussion on the subject of how best to train journalists in reporting on business and economic issues. We were privileged to have Tim Carrington, an expert on the subject at the World Bank, share his insights with us.
At CIPE, we are acutely aware that a functioning private sector depends on a functional media and good governance. Well, we must consider that the media, too, are dependent on their environment and their relationships with other parts of society. Journalists cannot isolate themselves from a corrupt economy, a polarized society, or a repressive government. Consequently, in designing programs for...
On February 4, CIPE partner the Bangladesh Women Chamber of Commerce and Industry (BWCCI) hosted a roundtable in Dhaka on ‘Financing for Women Entrepreneurs’. As a result of its advocacy work over the past year, BWCCI succeeded in bringing the governor of Bangladesh Bank to the roundtable as chief guest. More than 175 members of the media, banking sector, and women’s business community attended the event. Debate was the order of the day. Many women entrepreneurs told stories describing the unfair treatment of women in the business community. One women entrepreneur who has very sound business was refused a loan, as her husband has defaulted in the past. Some women told of not earning preshipment credit on exports and imports as required by law, whereas spouses and male...
Today’s New York Times (registration required) highlights the painful and escalating downslide of Zimbabwe. It’s sad, really, because it was predictable and because improving the situation now will not be easy or pain-free to accomplish.
The populist and patronage approach that Mugabe has taken for the last 27 years has taken a toll, and public institutions are now crumbling. Teachers, doctors, nurses, and other public employees (many now below the poverty line) are striking, leaving essential services in limbo. The electrical grid has deteriorated such that some cities only have power 4 days a week — if they can pay. Those cities that can’t pay have none at all. Hyperinflation is rampant, reaching 1281% p.a. last month.
The government response to...
The latest edition of The Economist has a lot of great articles, but one with the very odd title of Suck it and See (subscription required) caught my eye when I opened my print edition because it demonstrated the essense of what it means to be an entrepreneur. James Dyson was an art student with an idea and a penchant for taking apart vacuum cleaners. He believed he could make vacuum cleaners work more effectively, so he built thousands of prototypes to perfect his design. Then he sought manufacturers who would make it under license. He was turned down over and over, both in his home country of Britain as well as in other countries, until the Japanese recognized the potential. His Dyson “G-force” cleaner was a hit, and eventually he established manufacturing operations in...
An article in this week’s Economist, “Heading for the Exit,” discusses the extreme increase in the number of Moldovans applying for Romanian citizenship. The article notes that in a country with a total population of 3.2 million, an estimated 800,000 – a full quarter of the population – have requested a Romanian passport.
The article observes that there are cultural issues associated with this surge, as well as a simplified application procedure. However, I think that the article hits the nail on the head when the author comments,
According to a recent opinion poll, a feeling of “being Romanian” motivates less than 15% of those seeking dual citizenship. Instead, the vast majority of passport seekers are merely expanding their options in the face of poor economic...
CIPE’s most recent Economic Reform Feature Service article discusses the publicly owned enterprise (POE) sector in Kosovo and the need for reform. The article is based on a longer report by CIPE partner the Riinvest Institute for Development Research, which has been trying to improve governance standards in Kosovo’s POEs. Riinvest found that there are a number of institutional obstacles POEs face when implementing corporate governance best practices, ranging from a lack of awareness about the importance of corporate governance to the lack of a clear commitment on the part of the Government to POE restructuring and privatization. The set of policy recommendations Riinvest developed, should they be adopted, would go a long way towards strengthening the economy of Kosovo and...
As of this Sunday, I’m going to be in Sudan for about a month, carrying out the second field visit for the ECB4 assessment. This means that I’ll actually be posting some actual, honest-to-goodness perspectives from the field - which is far more interesting than just commenting on other people’s blog posts, right? Right.
While we’re waiting for my flight, I thought I’d post something entirely unrelated to ICT or relief work. Courtesy of Sanjiva, I entered my travel details for last year into the Great Circle Mapper, to find out exactly how far I travelled in 2005. That’s 165140 km, people! No wonder I’m tired.
And here’s a meme right back (although it’s a pretty old one). Ever since I first went over the water, I’ve had a...
After months of uncertainty, civil unrest, and electoral catastrophes, the situation in Bangladesh took a turn for the better over the weekend. When I left work on Friday, conditions seemed quite unstable, with the resignation of the head of the caretaker government and the imposition of a state of emergency. The political opposition, headed by the Awami League, was refusing to participate in the upcoming parliamentary elections, which, according to the Constitution, had to take place within three months of the end of the previous government’s term. One of the main problems cited by the opposition was that the voter list contained 14 million fake names.
However, over the weekend, the instillation of a new interim government appeased the Awami League, which agreed to participate in...
One thing you’ll notice when you visit country offices and field sites is that everybody uses Excel for everything. Inventory? Excel. Fleet management? Excel. Health monitoring? Excel. This used to frustrate me - why the hell didn’t these people use Access, or maybe even a proper database?
Eventually I realised that they were right and I was wrong. Spreadsheets are incredibly powerful if they’re used properly - the problem is that people generally don’t use them properly, or at least effectively. Since people are already using Excel, why don’t we just get them to use it better?
An article in DM review shows exactly what could be done by Visualizing Spreadsheets. It’s probably a bit beyond most of our staff right now, but the discussions...
This morning I read an article in Foreign Policy about the YouTube effect and its “force for political and economic change” targeting teenagers. This article only confirmed to me how powerful the Internet is. The Internet has been the main tool in exchanging information for quite a few years, but now, with websites like YouTube it is taking the information exchange to the next level.
I discovered YouTube a few months ago. Mostly it was for me to keep in touch with my home country: Uzbekistan. I used it to mainly keep up with the latest movies, pop culture, and other cultural activities in Uzbekistan and in former Soviet Republics. Nostalgia and the fact that I cannot visit the place of my birth for now tortures me sometimes. However, as I started learning more about YouTube I...
Check it out. Somehow my blog database has become corrupted, and I’ve lost all the comments. Damn! Just as people were starting to comment regularly as well. Normal service will be resumed as soon as possible, as they say. Leaves on the track, that sort of thing....
Happy New Year! I’d love to say that I missed blogging during my Christmas break, but I didn’t. However I am looking forward to a year that will be packed with exciting developments in the world of humanitarian.info, etc, etc. First up: GAMES!
I’ve written about humanitarian games before, but the UN International Strategy for Disaster Reduction has just released a new game on disaster risk reduction. Stop Disasters is a fantastic game with a wealth of information on disaster management.
It’s basically SimDisaster: you have a budget, a location and an imminent disaster. Manage the budget, uncover key facts and reduce the disaster risk for that location. I managed to plant about 300 mangrove trees before realising that I was meant to build a broadcast system...
As Ban Ki-Moon gets ready to head the U.N., suggestions on priorities and strategies are coming in from all imaginable directions. An opinion piece by Bret Stephens in today’s Wall Street Journal (subscription required) provides several recommendations to the new Secretary General. Here is a quick summary of some of them:
1. Re-read your job description - the point here is that the Secretary General should focus on being an effective manager of the organization in addition to being a diplomat.
2. Prioritize - pay more attention to and spend more resources on countries that matter, and spend less time on countries that do not matter as much
3. Preach prosperity not development - tackle root sources of poverty, such as weak market and democratic institutions (rule of law, ease of...
The Office of the UN Secretary-General’s Special Envoy for Tsunami Recovery wins the award for UN office with the most unwieldy title. Forget about UN reform, the real issue is giving all these initiatives names that actually make grammatical sense.
However the Office of the… well, they’ve published a really interesting report on the role of public information in accountability measures, called The Right to Know (pdf file). Once again, I’m several months late, since this was published in October. Sue me.
The report takes a wide-ranging look at the issues linking information and accountability, which has also been identified by the Tsunami Evaluation Coalition, the excellent IFRC World Disasters Report 2005 and my own article for the Humanitarian Practice...
This morning I awoke to find the morning paper containing yet another glossy advertising supplement entitled “Trendline Russia“. Trendline Russia is a new effort launched by the Russian government and apparently is being placed in strategic major newspapers around the world with the goal of improving Russia’s image abroad. It is part of a wider media PR campaign to reverse the negative press Russia has been garnering of late. Interestingly enough “Trendline Russia” steers away from stories trying to portray media freedoms, democracy, and rights, and portrays Russia as a progressive destination for investment.
What has brought all of this about? Real investment in Russia in economic sectors outside of energy has been declining dramatically over the last...
The New York Times reports that the losing populist candidate of the PRD party, Andrés López Obrador, declared himself the “legitimate president of Mexico” despite the fact that Felipe Calderón of the PAN party won the elections.
Appearing on a stage in the historic Constitution Plaza, with Mexican flags and an enormous eagle banner behind him, Mr. López Obrador promised to goad the government of the president-elect, Felipe Calderón, a conservative from the National Action Party of President Vicente Fox, into adopting his proposals.
About 100,000 people crowded into the square and roared with approval when a copy of the traditional green, white and red presidential banner was placed across his chest.
“We are assembled here to confront a fraudulent election,” he said, “and...
India recently passed a Right to Information law (RTI, known here in the US as Freedom of Information, FOIA). It might sound like an esoteric issue or one that is simply about the politics of open government. What it illustrates beautifully, though, is the impact these issues have on for everyday life for real people. Like those living with sewage and promises of sewers to come.
The BBC highlights changes that are taking place since RTI was passed — and the biggest beneficiaries are those who were most shut out of the system before: the poor. Now they can find out if their officials really plan to install sewers or what’s holding up their personal paperwork. And hold government accountable for delivering the services without additional hassles or bribes.
Now...
Most people following events in Kyrgyzstan believe that the new constitution that was adopted this month leads Kyrgyzstan in the direction of a parliamentary democracy, where Parliament provides greater balance between the executive and legislative branches. Changes such as parliamentary approval of the cabinet, and putting the national security services under parliamentary control will be welcome in a country where two presidents have grossly abused office to create a kleptocracy benefiting family and friends. What members of parliament may not realize is that a massive effort will be required to build parliament’s administrative capacity to govern effectively and take on the administrative responsibilities previously handled by the executive branch.
According to the Institute for...
The Federation of Pakistan Chambers of Commerce & Industry (FPCCI) is only the apex body of trade and industry in Pakistan. Being a representative body of private sector and chief spokesman of trade & industry, the organization is expected to play a significant role in voicing the collective opinion, concerns, and aspirations of the private sector in the country. It is also expected to offer helpful advice, solid assistance, and accumulated experience of the business community to the government.
However, due to a highly politicized structure of the organization, it has not been possible for FPCCI to develop a corporate culture and to bring its activities in tandem with similar organizations in developed countries. Hence organization has not only diluted its credibility,...
Can bribes be avoided? Can businesspeople resist extortion? If you have answers to these questions and want to win $10,000 in the process of answering them - consider entering a contest by the TRACE Institute. All you have to do is write a 2,500 word essay and lay out your arguments in a simple and direct manner. Details are available here. The best essays will be published by the TRACE institute in a volume on corruption, bribery, and private sector response....