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Archive for the ‘Development Drums’ Category

In the latest Development Drums podcast, Roger Thurow and Scott Kilman talk about their book Enough: Why The World’s Poorest Starve In An Age of Plenty.

I found it interesting that these two Wall Street Journal journalists lay the blame so comprehensively at the policies and behaviour of industrialised-country governments.

You can listen to Development Drums on your computer at the website (http://developmentdrums.org) or download it (from here) to your MP3 player.  You can subscribe to Development Drums on iTunes free of charge (search for “Development Drums” in the iTunes store).   You can also join the Development Drums facebook group to put your questions to future guests.

The next guest on Development Drums will be Peter Gill, who will be talking about his new book Famine and Foreigners, a return to Ethiopia 25 years after the 1980s famine documented in his book A Year in The Death of Africa.

Rachel Glennerster - Poverty Action Lab

You may have heard talk about randomized evaluation as a way to understand the impact of development programmes.

In the first of a new series of the Development Drums podcast, Rachel Glennerster, the Executive Director of the Poverty Action Lab at MIT, explains what we can learn from randomization.  She explains why randomization is an important tool in rigorous evaluation, and why it should be an important part of our evaluation toolkit. She also addresses the main objections to randomisation.

You can listen to Development Drums on your computer at the website (http://developmentdrums.org) or download it (from here) to your MP3 player to listen to in the gym or on the train.  You can subscribe to Development Drums on iTunes, free of charge (search for “Development Drums” in the iTunes store).   You can also join the Development Drums facebook group to put your questions to future guests.

In the next edition of Development Drums I shall be talking to Roger Thurow and Scott Kilman about their book, Enough: Why The World’s Poor Starve In An Age of Plenty.

Daniel Kaufmann and Mushtaq Khan talk about corruption in the latest edition of Development Drums.

Though they come from quite different points of view, there is quite a lot of convergence between them. They agree that there is much more corruption in poor countries than in rich countries; that nobody should put too much faith in econometrics to decide whether corruption is a reason that poor countries remain poor; and that you do not fight corruption by fighting corruption.  But whereas Daniel Kaufmann believes that you have to tackle corruption to create the conditions for markets to work and to to create economic growth and prosperity, Mushtaq Khan believes that you should focus on policies to promote growth and that a certain amount of corruption is an inevitable (albeit undesirable) corolloray of the transition to a capitalist economy. I hope you find the discussion between them as interesting as I did.

What strikes me about all this is that this is a topic on which there is a serious gap between mainstream public opinion and the opinion of many (but by no means all) development “experts”.  Most people believe that corruption is a one of the most important reasons why poor countries remain poor; and yet a lot of people working in development seem to be willing to tolerate some corruption as an inevitable fact of life in poor countries.   My view is that this is a topic on which we need to see much more convergence of thinking, based on sound evidence and analysis, and that this is an important step if the development business is to regain and retain the trust of the people paying for development assistance.

Where do I come down?  I guess somewhere in between. Corruption is clearly a very serious problem which robs the poor most of all, and deprives millions of people of access to service and of the opportunity to earn a living.  In some countries, it is a major obstacle to economic growth (I think Nigeria is such a country). But there are many different causes of poverty, and there are some poor countries that have very little corruption (Ethiopia, where I live, is such a country).  And there are striking examples across history of countries that have experienced rapid industrialisation despite having quite high levels of corruption at the time (including Indonesia, Thailand, Korea, Japan) – in many cases, corruption is something that is tackled after the establishment of an industrialised capitalist economy with a strong middle class, not before.

I do think that many people working in development are too complacent about corruption.  The poor, like all of us, have dreams of a better life, and they are not helped by a poverty of aspiration on our part.

There are some countries – such as Nigeria – in which corruption is clearly a major obstacle to investment and growth.  There are other countries – such as Ethiopia – in which there is very little corruption which are nonetheless very poor, so it cannot be the case that eliminating corruption is the main driver of development.  And a lot of industrialized countries had long periods of rapid economic growth despite widespread corruption – which in many cases they sorted out after they became rich, not as a pre-requisite to growth.

Alison Evans, the new Director of ODI, stepped in to my seat to present the latest edition of the Development Drums podcast.  She interviewed me and Roger Riddell about my paper, Beyond Planning.  Thanks to all the folks at ODI for collaborating with me on this.

The next two episodes in the pipeline are Mushtaq Khan and Daniel Kaufmann talking about corruption; and Rachel Glennerster talking about evaluation of what works in aid.

Good news: the Center for Global Development has started a new podcast series, the Global Prosperity Wonkcast.

In this first episode, host Lawrence Macdonald talks to Todd Moss about his new paper, Saving Ghana from Its Oil: The Case for Direct Cash Distribution.  Todd proposes ways for the citizens to have more oversight of Ghana’s oil revenue, and to contain oil-induced patronage, by distributing the benefits of oil directly to the citizens.

The podcast lasts about 20 minutes, and you cou listen directly on line or subscribe on iTunes.

As you would expect from CGD, this first episode sugests that the wonkcasts will be essential listening.  CGD has a knack of addressing important developing issues in interesting and innovative ways, and basing its ideas on thorough research and evidence.

And if CGD’s wonkcast doesn’t satisfy your entire appetite for podcasts on development, there is always Development Drums.

Ryan Briggs has a good round up of development-related podcasts

Fall classes have started again so my time on the DC metro has increased greatly. The commuting has meant that I’ve been blowing through podcasts at an alarming rate, and I’ve come across a few that are worth sharing. These links are to the webpages of the podcasts, but all of them can be found in iTunes as well.

I’m inordinately  proud of the latest two episodes of my development podcast, Development Drums.

In Episode 17,  Todd Moss (Center for Global Development) and Chris Blattman (Yale, and blogger) join me to talk about President Obama President Obama’s speech in Ghana about US policy towards Africa.

In Episode 16, FT World Trade Editor Alan Beattie talks about his new book, False Economy.  We are joined by Professor Robert Wade.  This podcast considers why some countries have grown faster than others, and considers the role of industrial and trade policies.

You can get Development Drums free from iTunes (search for “Development Drums” in the iTunes store), or you can download episodes from the website (http://developmentdrums.org).

I would welcome your feedback via the Development Drums website, or in the Facebook Group for Development Drums. (I’ve switched off comments here).

Many thanks to my father, Brian Barder, who organises the sound recording in London.

Peter Singer has been described by the New Yorker magazine as the world’s most famous living philosopher. In his new book, The Life You Can Save, he argues that people in rich countries have a moral duty to give money to help people in extreme poverty in developing countries.

His argument is compelling.  As summarised on the accompanying website, it is this:

If we could easily save the life of a child, we would. For example, if we saw a child in danger of drowning in a shallow pond, and all we had to do to save the child was wade into the pond, and pull him out, we would do so. The fact that we would get wet, or ruin a good pair of shoes, doesn’t really count when it comes to saving a child’s life.

UNICEF, the United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund, estimates that about 27,000 children die every day from preventable, poverty-related causes. Yet at the same time almost a billion people live very comfortable lives, with money to spare for many things that are not at all necessary.  (You are not sure if you are in that category? When did you last spend money on something to drink, when drinkable water was available for nothing? If the answer is “within the past week” then you are spending money on luxuries while children die from malnutrition or diseases that we know how to prevent or cure.)

I find this argument compelling, though it leads to the unsettling conclusion that almost all of us should be doing more than we are already to give up part of our income to help people in developing countries.  (Basically: if you are buying mineral water in a country where it is safe to drink water out of the tap, you should give that money to a charity that will use it to reduce poverty instead.)

I spoke to Peter Singer about his book on Development Drums.  His message is important, and I hope you’ll listen.

In the latest episode of Development Drums, Matthew Bishop and Mike Green talk about their book, Philanthrocapitalism: How the Rich Can Save the World and Why We Should Let Them.

Development Drums 14 is here. You can also download Development Drums free using iTunes: search for ‘Development Drums’ in iTunes or click this link.

I would welcome your feedback via the Development Drums website, or in the Facebook Group for Development Drums.

In the latest edition of Development Drums, Andrew Mitchell MP talks about the policy of the British Conservative party on international development.  If the Conservatives win the next General Election, Mr Mitchell is set to become the Cabinet Minister responsible for international development.

You can subscribe to Development Drums (free) in iTunes – or you can downoad it here:
http://developmentdrums.org

I went to London for the DFID conference on 9 and 10 March on “Securing Our Common Future”.

The latest Development Drums – a podcast about development issues – includes an interview with DFID Permanent Secretary Minouche Shafik and a discussion about the Conference with Nancy Birdsall and Simon Maxwell.

Paul Collier, one of today’s most influential development thinkers, talks about his new book, Wars, Guns and Votes on the new edition of Development Drums.  He also talks about his previous bestselling book, The Bottom Billion.

The latest edition of Development Drums is now online.  I fear it may not be of universal interest.   The Chair of the  Development Assistance Committee (DAC) of the OECD, and the Director of the Development Cooperation Directorate of the OECD, talk about whether donors are living up to their promises, and the next steps on aid effectiveness.

I was planning to record another episode today, but the internet connection here in Addis wasn’t good enough.  I’ll try again soon – and please let me know if there is someone in particular you want me to have on.

If you have an iPod and iTunes, the easiest way to listen to Development Drums is to go to iTunes on your computer, go to the Apple store, go to podcasts and search for Development Drums. (It is free, of course). Then if you subscribe, iTunes will in future download new episodes as they are released.

A new book The Trouble with Aid: Why Less Could Mean More for Africaby Jonathan Glennie (the Christian Aid representative in Colombia) says that aid can do more harm than good.

In the latest edition of the Development Drums podcast, I talk to Jonathan about his book.  He explains why he thinks that we need to take a more complete view of the positive and negative impacts of aid, and he disagrees with my view that aid can be made to work better.

On his first day in office in 2001, President George W. Bush  reinstated the so-called Mexico City Policy — known to critics as the global gag rule. It prevents the US government from giving money to organizations that provide counseling and referral for abortion, lobby to make abortion legal or more available in their country, or perform abortions except in cases of a threat to the woman’s life, rape or incest (even if those activities are funded by somebody else).

On Development Drums this week, we heard about the impact of the global gag rule on women in Africa, in an interview with Dana Hovig from Marie Stopes International. (Full disclosure: my partner works for MSI.)  My expert guests were sceptical that Barack Obama would give priority to reversing the global gag rule any time soon.

But this weekend, we have heard that Obama is preparing to reverse some key decisions that President Bush took using executive authority, including on stem cell research, oil and gas drilling and – according to the Washington Post, the New York Times and Bloomberg – the global gag rule:

President-elect Barack Obama will reverse U.S. family-planning and AIDS-prevention strategies that have long linked global funding to anti-abortion and abstinence education, a public-health adviser said. Obama “is committed to looking at all this and changing the policies so that family-planning services — both in the U.S. and the developing world — reflect what works, what helps prevent unintended pregnancy, reduce maternal and infant mortality, prevent the spread of disease,” Wood said.

These seems like a good time to raise the profile of this important issue, to make sure that reversing the global gag rule is on the list of decisions for President Obama to take in his first day in office.  The Center for Reproductive Rights has written to Barack Obama calling for the repeal of the global gag rule.  Now is the time to make as much noise as possible about this to generate political support for an early decision to reverse this policy.

For more information about the global gag rule, listen to the interview with Dana Hovig in Episode 6 of Development Drums (about 30 minutes in to the podcast).

There are two new episodes of the Development Drums podcast now online.

Episode 4 with Shanta Devarajan discusses the impact on developing countries of the financial crisis; latest developments in the food crisis; the award of the Mo Ibrahim prize for good governance in Africa.  Sheila Page discusses moves towards a Free Trade Area from Cairo to Cape Town.

And there is a special extra edition of Development Drums about currente events in the Eastern Congo.  Patrick Smith of Africa Confidential explains the background to the crisis.

You can use this link to subscribe to Development Drums:

If you use iTunes, you can search for Development Drums in the iTunes store (it’s free), or use this link:

The third edition of the development podcast, Development Drums, is now online.

This week the guests are:

• Ngaire Woods
  Professor of Political Economy at Oxford University, and Director of the Global Economic Governance Programme.
• David Roodman
  Center for Global Development in Washington DC, and architect of the Commitment to Development Index.

This week the focus is on the impact of the financial crisis on developing countries, and on proposals to reform international institutions.

The podcast is now hosted on a new server.  If you have already subscribed, you may need to remove the old subscription and then subscribe again.  You can use this link:

If you use iTunes, you can search for Development Drums in the iTunes store, or use this link:

In the meantime, I’ve made some more technical improvements.  I have moved the server, to make it easier and faster to download for our listeners in Khartoum and Kinshasa; and though the file size is smaller (15Mb) the sound quality is a little better.  I’ve also kept is a bit shorter, to just 45 minutes.

As ever, I’d welcome feedback about this podcast.  Do you find it interesting? Do you have suggestions for future topics, or guests?  Perhaps you would like to come on yourself?

The second episode of Development Drums is at http://developmentdrums.org.  You can also subscribe on iTunes here.

Professor Adrian Wood and Peter daCosta joined me to discuss whether donors should cap aid to Africa; the power-sharing agreement in Zimbabwe; the Care International paper criticising wasted aid; and the new Doing Business survey.

I would say that this episode is 50% better than the first episode.  It works better having two guests rather than one; we kept the discussion of each topic shorter; and the sound quality is a better.

I’ve got mixed feelings about the length. This episode is 50 minutes, which is too long for many people (and it results in a very long download, unless I degrade the sound quality even more).  But I like the fact that we are not constrained like a radio or TV show to limit the experts to talking in sound-bites, so we can have a real and substantive discussion.   I think I’ll try to bring the next one down to 40 minutes next time.

By the way – it is great fun recording and producing this.  This week was much quicker and easier because I’m getting used to the software.

Please let me know if you have suggestions for future topics or guests, and feedback on the podcast so we can make it better next time.

The inauguaral edition of my new development news podcast, Development Drums, is now online.

Simon Maxwell, Director of ODI, joined me for a discussion of this week’s Accra Agenda for Action, the UN MDG Gap Report, and the latest poverty statistics from the World Bank

To listen to the podcast, you can use this link:
http://feeds.feedburner.com/DevelopmentDrums

I’m aiming for a weekly roundup of development news.

This is my first effort at podcasting. I’d welcome feedback – do you like the format? How can we make it better?