http://www.owen.org/blog Thoughts from Owen in Africa Sat, 11 Oct 2008 02:10:25 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en I've never liked the name of the FT's lifestyle section, "How To Spend It".  But with financial markets as they are now, it seems particularly ludicrous.  How to spend what, exactly? Sitting in the airport lounge in Washington DC today, I was a bit surprised to find a "bonus issue" of ... http://www.owen.org/blog/93 Alanna Shaikh complains about the use and abuse of "sustainability" in development:I also hate this word because it so many things to so many different people.I am also uncomfortable about the notion of sustainability, but for slightly different reasons.There seems to be a consensus that development assistance is only politically ... http://www.owen.org/blog/91 The UK Department for International Development has started a group blog.  This is great news for those of us who believe that it has a good story to tell.DfID has a very good reputation abroad, but hardly anybody in the UK knows anything about it, or appreciates how much DfID ... http://www.owen.org/blog/90 I know a few people who would benefit from reading: David Pogue's Tech Tips for the Basic Computer User.As usual, don't neglect the comments which include some other top tips.Sadly, most of the people who would benefit from these tips don't read blogs, so they won't be reading this. http://www.owen.org/blog/89 The Ibrahim Index of African Governance was published today.  It ranks African governments in five dimensions (safety and security, rule of law & transparency, participation & human rights, sustainable economic opportunity, and human development) and then puts these together to arrive at an overall ranking.Mauritius comes top again this year; ... http://www.owen.org/blog/88 The BBC sub-editor picked an angle, with the headline Prudence pays off in Ethiopia and the teaser: With the financial turmoil affecting many of the world's economies, Elizabeth Blunt in Addis Ababa considers how Ethiopia and other parts of Africa may escape the worst of the credit crisis. But that headline does ... http://www.owen.org/blog/87 There has been a lot of discussion about the debate between the candidates for Vice President, Joe Biden and Sarah Palin, focusing on the lack of a train smash. But there was one important policy adjustment which has had very little attention. Joe Biden gave this answer:IFILL: ... ... http://www.owen.org/blog/86 Growth Commission BlogWe are launching the Commission on Growth and Development BLOG (The Growth Blog) today, while unprecedented changes in the financial markets are underway. These changes have the potential to reconfigure financial systems and manner not seen since the 1930s.I found the Growth Commission Report strangely disappointing.  Let's hope ... http://www.owen.org/blog/85 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 ... http://www.owen.org/blog/82 I know this is all very immature, but I thought this was a funny idea (via):when you make a donation to Planned Parenthood in her name, they'll send her a card telling her that the donation has been made in her honor. Here's the link to the Planned Parenthood website:https://secure.ga0.org/02/pp10000_inhonorYou'll ... http://www.owen.org/blog/81 We ran ten miles this morning at the top of Entoto with a great group of runners.  The Entoto national park is a beautiful place to run, with views across Addis Ababa. As the elevation chart below shows (full size), it is at over 10,000 feet, so you feel the lack ... http://www.owen.org/blog/80 Dan Kimmerling on Techcrunch says that Facebook is the new Outlook for the younger generationfor young people, who really only care about functionality, Facebook succeeds because it is the killer web application for communications and personal information management. Facebook Mail is not without its problems, but the combination of Facebook ... http://www.owen.org/blog/79 The PSD Blog, citing Chris Blattman, wonders if randomized evaluation is too expensive:In some circumstances, simple monitoring and evaluation without randomization might be enough, even if it leaves us with less certainty about the outcomes. Perhaps it's time to develop more formal cost-benefit guidelines for randomized evaluations? Our problem is ... http://www.owen.org/blog/78 Yesterday was New Year's Day here in Ethiopia - it was the first day of 2001 on the Ethiopian Calendar. Grethe and I celebrated by going for a run in the hills overlooking the city. http://www.owen.org/blog/76 I've written about last week's Accra meeting on the aidinfo blog and discussed it with Simon Maxwell in this week's Development Drums. http://www.owen.org/blog/75 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 ... http://www.owen.org/blog/74 The Guardian reports that the UK is pushing for greater transparency of aid in an initiative to be launched tomorrow:The UK wants donor countries to provide full and detailed information of all the financial assistance provided to each country; details of individual projects and their aims; and reliable information on ... http://www.owen.org/blog/73 I've posted about the High Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness on our aidinfo blog. http://www.owen.org/blog/72 About 12-13 million Ethiopians need food relief or emergency assistance as a result of the failure of the short rains in southern Ethiopia, according to AFP:The lack of rain in the main February to April wet season has left at least 75,000 Ethiopian children under age five at risk from ... http://www.owen.org/blog/71 I know that it isn't nice to laugh at the misfortune of others, but you'd have to have a heart of stone not to laugh at this. First the religious right were asked to pray for rain during the Denver Democratic National Convention: Stuart Shepard of Focus on the Family, one of ... http://www.owen.org/blog/70