Recently I was asked to serve on a panel after a screening of the documentary Poverty Inc. In the course of the discussion I brought on the story about the Haitian woman who was employed by a nonprofit run by Americans and was able to save $2,000 over the course of 6 months to buy […]
Costco is glorious. I remember as a kid sitting in the cart and getting piled in massive boxes as my mom stocked up for the pleasure of having us kids running around all summer free from the prison that is school. Otter pops and bagel bites for days. Costco is often dubbed the “$200 dollar store” because […]
The fastest economy is the world is of course Ethiopia. Wait what? Africa boasts a few of the fastest growing economies with Congo, Ivory Coast, and Mozambique in the top 10 with Tanzania and Rwanda at 11 and 12 respectively. That is great news for Africa but how great is it? A very poor country […]
Interesting papers about Africa coming out of the Annual Bank Conference on Africa that challenge many of the things we think we know about the continent. The summaries are not mine but hopefully I can offer my own commentary when time permits. Burgess et al (2015) show how road expenditures in Kenya were dramatically higher […]
Hunger is different from malnutrition. Hunger means you don’t have enough food eat. Being malnourished means that you don’t have enough of the right food to eat. This is a huge distinction that gets lost in development. One could argue that malnourishment can fall under the umbrella of hunger but the problem with that is that […]
In development is it all to often that you find individuals who throw up their hands and think that all of their efforts and everyone else’s efforts are helpless. In my own experience this is almost always the result of a lack of understanding amongst individuals. Cultural differences are often the root issue but aid workers […]
Currently I am reading about the growth in light manufacturing in China as there is so much to learn from China and it left me with two thoughts that are intriguing as we enter (too early I agree) the Presidential race season: The left is very much against the notion that the wealthy are job […]
In almost one week exactly I will be getting on a plane back the US. This time without a return ticket to Uganda. Last October I took a job with 31 Bits but will be stepping away from after Friday. Often in our careers we need to step away in order to keep moving forward […]
Let’s cut to the chase. The phrase “Give a man a fish he eats for a day. Teach a man to fish he eats for a lifetime” is simple and seems like a revelation but is incredibly problematic. First off, it assumes the poor don’t know how to fish. In other words, the poor have […]
British Economist Angus Maddison put together in 2007 the first comprehensive analysis of global incomes dating as far back as is possible, known as the Maddison Project). For the US and most of Western Europe the data is sporadic before 1800 but has yearly data after 1800. For the rest of the world the data starts […]
Beyond Intentions 