Can pay-for-performance save US Aid? Why Tina Rosenberg didn’t convince me
Tina Rosenberg trumpeted Cash on Delivery (CoD) in 1500 words in the New York Times recently, and I’m really confused about why. Here’s the…
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A poetic pause for “The Brown Man’s Burden”
TexasinAfrica recently pointed me to a poem I hadn’t seen before, and I basically think it should be required reading for anyone in aid,…
Read MoreAfrican poverty is falling. (Seriously.) Maybe it’s the tourism? (Doubt it.)
The ridiculously digitally prolific Tyler Cowen at Marginal Revolution points to a new paper from an MIT-Columbia team of authors who’ve found that across…
Read MoreDoes charity work like carbon offsets?
First, let me just say that it sounds like carbon offsets are a guilt salve more than anything else. If you saw the piece…
Read MoreAn antidote for cynicism
As some of you may vouch for, I’m often working out my personal duality, bouncing back and forth between hands-in-the-air cynicism and body-clenched optimism…
Read MoreSo you wanna help Africa? Here's how. (Hint: It only takes $10. But you gotta be fast.)
Some of you might remember my series on grassroots reconciliation in Sierra Leone. Fambul Tok is a local program in every sense–started by a…
Read MoreVox Populi. Maybe, sort of.
For all the information swirling around about Congo these days, this map is interesting. It’s from Ushahidi, which means “testimony” in Swahili, a site…
Read MoreYes, they can
It’s the political season here, and so I have to admire the chutzpah of Paul Collier, who had an op-ed in today’s NYT. Let’s…
Read MoreWomen in Rwanda are all the rage
I seem to always miss the proper news. In the parliamentary elections held earlier this week–only the second election in the country since the…
Read MoreIt is your moral responsiblity to begin growing rice
Food prices are high, blah blah, we all know. Not that that’s not important. But this seems more important: Donors–who presumably (she says with…
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