ideas about development
A new study by the World Bank Group’s infoDev program shows that virtual online currencies and digital work now provide real income opportunities to poor and unskilled workers in developing countries. infoDev is a global technology and innovation-led development finance program of the World Bank and IFC. The new study, Knowledge Map of the Virtual Economy, finds that more than 100,000 people in countries such as China and India earn a living through online games [...] Read more »
I’m a big fan of infographics–such a powerful way to communicate–and especially liked these ones on Twitter’s stellar growth. Read more »
Simplicity is something that is rarely associated with aid, yet DFID have done an excellent job of summarising their aid review onto a single page. Many donors talk about focusing on results, this aid review identifies specific results for UK aid to deliver. And sets out how DFID will make UK aid work better. Read more »
Kevin Rudd used his first press conference as Foreign Minister to emphasise Australia’s commitment to global poverty reduction and achievement of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). The MDGs include seven development goals for poor countries to be achieved by 2015: halving extreme poverty and hunger, universal primary education, gender equality, reducing child and maternal mortality, reversing the spread of deadly diseases and environmental sustainability. This set of essential development outcomes are supported by an additional [...] Read more »
There has been a lot of attention on the aid program in recent months – much of it well intentioned, some of it ill informed. We need a better debate and it was good to join a discussion at the Crawford School on the review of Australian aid to Papua New Guinea. Professor Stephen Howes delivered a riveting talk on the findings and recommendations of the review of the Australia-PNG Aid Cooperation Treaty. Delivering aid [...] Read more »
Here’s a rapid round-up of what we’re been reading on the web and tweeting about (@mattpdmorris). Congratulations Kevin Rudd – Australia’s new foreign minister and long time supporter of MDGs. He has the big job of doubling Australian aid. Here’s a great set of MDG success stories from Asia and the Pacific that show how aid can work. And with the UN Summit taking place next week here’s the latest MDG data to see where countries stand. [...] Read more »
Getting reliable and up to date information on humanitarian emergencies and conflicts is a major challenge for development agencies. Often, global crises are met by too little, too late. News of events on the ground become lost and we are left learning lessons for the future rather than tackling the causes of the crisis. The rights of those in the centre of crisis and conflicts are often pushed aside and innocent people are killed or [...] Read more »
Thank you for helping us to reach our first milestone – more than 1000 visitors to Virtual Economics. It’s been an exciting few months – setting up the blog, meeting new people and sharing ideas. We’ve been blown away by the response and the interest from around the World – with visitors from everywhere from Vanuatu to Ethiopia, to Washington and London. We’d like to take this opportunity to thank you for visiting our blog, [...] Read more »
Tim Harford has a terrific post on the FT this week on a perennial problem for economists – knowing what is happening now. Data lags mean that it can take months to find out what has happened to the economy. Something that can be embarrassing for economists. In another post on Virtual Economics, we looked at the quarterly data on GDP, but these numbers only came out months later. (At the time, most of us [...] Read more »
The 2010 Index of Global Philanthropy and Remittances looks at the data on private giving to developing countries. Philanthropy to the developing world remained steady in 2008 and remittances continued to grow—despite the global recession and dire forecasts—providing a much needed lifeline to poor people throughout the world. And they were more resilient to the downturn than private capital flows to developing countries, which fell dramatically in 2008. Despite this, private flows still accounted for three-quarters of the [...] Read more »
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