Dean Karlan gets real in his latest blog post up at Freakonomics - people always benefit from giving - does it matter as long as the giving is for good causes?
It's almost as if someone at Oxford thought "what is the best possible birthday present we could get for Lee? I know! Let's broadcast a debate about randomized controlled trials and structural models on the internet! Yeah! On his birthday!"* Or something.
All 4 plenary sessions from 20th-22nd will be going up live here featuring lots of very smart development folks including Paul Collier, Gabriel Demombynes, Michael Kremer, and David McKenzie.
February 24th brought together NGOs in Ghana for a training in impact evaluation methodology. Staff from IPA prepared a workshop at the request of partners involved in an evaluation of Aflatoun - a social and financial curriculum intended to produce growth in financial knowledge, savings, and self-esteem among children ages 6 to 14. The program is being assessed in 45 schools in Ghana this year, and implementing partners SNV asked for an introduction to the theory behind the randomized controlled trial in which they are taking part.
Today is International Women’s Day, a day when everybody, in developed and developing countries alike, can honor and recognize women around the world. In Russia women receive bundles of flowers; in India, sweets are the gift of choice. We would like to offer a few stories about the women closest to home: those who work in the front lines of IPA offices around the world.
From Mongolia to Malawi, here are a few women that inspire us. We hope they inspire you, too. Read on and you’ll see why we have lots of reasons to celebrate.
IPA is evaluating pilots of the CGAP-Ford Ultra-Poor Graduation program in 7 different countries. The idea is to provide a comprehensive package of support to the very poorest, with the hope that at the end of the program they will have moved out of extreme poverty and be able to generate enough income to support themselves.
Never cut without an evaluation process. Before legislators and governors chop a section of the budget, they should make a list of all the relevant programs. They should grade each option and then start paying for them from the top down.
The Economist magazine has a special report on feeding the world in their latest issue. One of the major challenges is ensuring that people get the right nutrients, even if they are getting enough calories. Abhijit Banerjee quotes George Orwell writing in 1937 on the British working class to highlight the importance of cultural norms as an obstacle to good nutrition:
