In Pursuit of Development

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Centre for Global Sustainability, University of Oslo

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Using Evidence to Drive Policy and Achieve Lasting Development Impact — Rachel Glennerster May 24, 2023

Show notes

There is considerable and growing attention and interest on understanding what works, where, how, and why in development. This also means there are numerous debates on how best we ought to generate evidence and measure development success and impact. One way of measuring development impact is through randomized control trials (RCTs), which have been very useful for establishing causal relationships and providing robust and reliable evidence for evaluating the effectiveness and safety of development programs.

While some regard RCTs as the gold standard, others are more critical of using it to measure what works. Critics argue that it is not just about 'what works,' but 'why things work' which should be prioritized when designing effective policies and interventions that can be scaled up.

Another related aspect in this context is the generalizability puzzle, i.e., whether the results of a specific program can be generalized to other contexts. For example, there are questions about whether a study can inform policy only in the location in which it was undertaken. Should policymakers mainly rely on whatever evidence is available locally, even if it is not of very good quality? There is also the question of whether a new local randomized evaluation should be undertaken before an attempt to scale up and the number of times such evaluations should be repeated before scaling up.

Rachel Glennerster is an Associate Professor of Economics at the University of Chicago. She uses randomized trials to study democracy and accountability, health, education, microfinance, and women’s empowerment mainly in West Africa and South Asia. Rachel spent 13 years as the executive director of the Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL) at MIT, a key leader in popularizing RCTs in development economics. Thereafter she served as chief economist of the United Kingdom’s Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO). Twitter: @rglenner

Key highlights:

Introduction - 00:44
Asking the right questions and answering them correctly - 03:45
The added-value of RCTs and critique - 08:00
The generalizability puzzle - 17:37
Education and learning - 23:20
Microfinance in India - 26:13
Improving public services through participation - 34:30
Impact of the media in Burkina Faso - 38:38
Translating evidence into policy - 46:00

Host:

Professor Dan Banik (Twitter: @danbanik @GlobalDevPod)

https://globaldevpod.substack.com/
https://in-pursuit-of-development.simplecast.com/

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Unpacking the complexities of corruption — Daniel Agbiboa May 17, 2023

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The conventional wisdom is that corruption is a complex and multifaceted phenomenon that has a significant impact on societies and individuals around the world. And most people would agree that corruption is bad. It can undermine the rule of law, erode public trust, and distort economic development. But there are those who argue that to truly address corruption, we must rethink our understanding of what it is and how it operates. This may include adopting a dialectical approach that pays attention to the practical and social life of corruption, and the strategies of the various actors involved. What is crucial in this context is how we can best unpack the complicated web of social norms, value acceptances, power relations, negotiations, and social networks that animates local discourse and practices of corruption.

Daniel Agbiboa is an assistant professor of African and African American Studies at Harvard University. In his recent book – They Eat Our Sweat: Transport Labor, Corruption, and Everyday Survival in Urban Nigeria – he explores how transport workers encounter and respond to the situation defined by extortion and violence in which they ply their trade. Twitter: @DanielAgbiboa

Key highlights:

Introduction - 00:52
What the literature on corruption overlooks - 03:52
The language of corruption in African countries - 08:03
Why efforts to curb corruption often fail - 20:23
The road transport sector in Nigeria- 28:54
Rethinking anti-corruption policy - 46:20

Host:

Professor Dan Banik (Twitter: @danbanik @GlobalDevPod)

https://globaldevpod.substack.com/
https://in-pursuit-of-development.simplecast.com/

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How industrialization reshapes modern ethnic identities — Elliott Green May 10, 2023

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One of the most important factors explaining ethnic change in the modern world is industrialization, which has resulted in significant changes in the way we live and work, including changes in migration patterns and social structures. As people move from rural areas to urban centers, they may find themselves interacting with others from very different cultural backgrounds and must therefore adapt to new social norms and customs.

Elliott Green is Professor of Development Studies in the Department of International Development at the London School of Economics. In his recent book — Industrialization and Assimilation: Understanding Ethnic Change in the Modern World — he provides a new framework to understand the origins of modern ethnic identities. Elliott explains how and why ethnicity changes across time, showing that, by altering the basis of economic production from land to labour, industrialization makes societies more ethnically homogenous. By lowering the relative value of rural land, industrialization results in people identifying less with narrow rural identities in favour of broader identities that can help them navigate the formal urban economy. Twitter: @ElliottDGreen

Key highlights:

Introduction - 00:53
Ethnicity and race - 03:20
Negotiating identity - 12:36
Assimilation and the state - 18:10
Turkey, United States and New Zealand - 27:00
Somalia, Uganda and Botswana - 32:30
Ethiopia - 40:45
South Africa - 44:50

Host:

Professor Dan Banik (Twitter: @danbanik @GlobalDevPod)

https://globaldevpod.substack.com/
https://in-pursuit-of-development.simplecast.com/

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How China's digital entrepreneurs are redefining innovation and reshaping the global economy — Lin Zhang May 03, 2023

Show notes

Internet-based entrepreneurship has flourished in China for the past decade and a half. This includes start-ups in big cities, rural areas experiencing an e-commerce boom, and middle-class women reselling luxury goods. My guest argues that for many of these individuals involved in digital entrepreneurship, reinventing oneself as an entrepreneur has been an appealing way to adapt to a changing economy and society. Indeed, this everyday labor of entrepreneurial reinvention is remaking China amid changing geopolitical currents.

In her new book, The Labor of Reinvention: Entrepreneurship in the New Chinese Digital Economy, Lin Zhang explores the surge in digital entrepreneurialism against the backdrop of global financial crises, the U.S.-China trade war, and the more recent pandemic. She argues that the rise of internet-based industries and practices has simultaneously empowered and exploited digital entrepreneurs and laborers. Despite embracing high-tech innovation, state-led entrepreneurialization does not represent a radical break with the past. Rather such entrepreneurship has also reinforced traditional Chinese ideas about state power, labor, gender, and identity.

Lin Zhang is an assistant professor of communication and media studies at the University of New Hampshire. Twitter:@LinZhang9

Key highlights:

Introduction - 00:52
Entrepreneurialism and entrepreneurship - 04:04
Surge in entrepreneurialism in China following the 2008 financial crisis - 09:36
Opportunities and challenges facing migrants - 18:10
Elite, urban-based entrepreneurs vs. non-elite entrepreneurs - 34:04
China’s reinvention and innovation efforts vis-a-vis the United States - 48:15

Host:

Professor Dan Banik, University of Oslo, Twitter: @danbanik @GlobalDevPod

https://globaldevpod.substack.com/
https://in-pursuit-of-development.simplecast.com/

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Centre for Global Sustainability, University of Oslo

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Making every dollar count — Ryan Briggs Apr 26, 2023

Show notes

Effective altruism has been in the news of late. Sam Bankman-Fried, the CEO of the FTX cryptocurrency exchange, which collapsed in 2022, was for many years a leading voice for and financial sponsor of the effective altruist movement. He and others have argued for ‘longtermism’: the idea that positively influencing the distant future is a key moral priority of our time. As effective altruism and longtermism have become increasingly influential, these ideas have also been subject to greater scrutiny.

Ryan Briggs is an associate professor in the Guelph Institute of Development Studies and Department of Political Science at the University of Guelph. He has worked extensively on foreign aid, African politics, and effective altruism. Twitter: @ryancbriggs

Resources:

Key highlights:

Introduction - 00:43
The current status of the effective altruism movement - 03:08
Strengthening effective altruism with a capability approach - 15:07
The political effects of foreign aid - 21:37
Targeting the poorest in World Bank projects - 39:43
How effective altruism can shape aid policies - 48:32

Host:

Professor Dan Banik, University of Oslo, Twitter: @danbanik @GlobalDevPod

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Centre for Global Sustainability, University of Oslo

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Patching development – Rajesh Veeraraghavan Apr 19, 2023

Show notes

Many well-designed development programs do not deliver social benefits effectively, especially to marginalized citizens. While political will and good policy design are vital for a program’s success, they often run into resistance from local power systems. How states react to the local exercise of power that often comes into play at the “last mile” of project implementation appears to be particularly important. Indeed, the extent to which development programs avoid being captured by state or local power systems is key and something that concerns both scholars and practitioners.

My guest has studied whether the opening of government records and the use of digital technology provide higher levels of government with better tools to effectively monitor local state action. Rajesh Veeraraghavan is an assistant professor in the Science Technology and International Affairs Program at Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service. In a wonderful new book, Patching Development: Information Politics and Social Change in India, Rajesh explores two crucial and interrelated questions: First, how can states best deliver social benefits to marginalized citizens? And second, what role can marginalized citizens and members of civil society play in strengthening systems of accountability? Twitter: @RajeshVeeraa

Key highlights:

Introduction - 00:52
India's ambitious social protection agenda - 05:02
Bureaucratic capacity and motivation in the implementation process - 14:08
Rights-based development programs and the Right to Information - 20:03
The "patching development" concept - 33:45
Addressing resistance in development programs - 50:54

Host:

Professor Dan Banik, University of Oslo, Twitter: @danbanik @GlobalDevPod

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Is economic growth the magic wand for ending poverty? — Charles Kenny Apr 12, 2023

Show notes

Charles Kenny is a senior fellow at the Center for Global Development in Washington DC. He was previously at the World Bank, where his assignments included coordinating work on governance and anticorruption in infrastructure and natural resources, and managing investment and technical assistance projects covering telecommunications and the Internet. Charles has written several books, two of which we discussed in this conversation: Getting Better: Why Global Development is Succeeding, and Our World, Better: Global Progress and What You Can Do About It. We also discussed a recent report, where Charles and his coauthor Zack Gehan created a set of scenarios for the shape of the global economy in 2050. While their forecast for richer countries is not very optimistic, what they found is largely positive for developing and middle-income nations. For example, the report finds that incomes per capita on the African continent could be 76% higher in 2050 than they were a few years ago, and in India incomes could jump 136%. Twitter: @charlesjkenny

Key highlights:

Introduction - 00:46
Global development viewed from Washington - 02:52
Reducing extreme poverty by 2050 - 07:15
Economic growth, poverty and “degrowth” - 15:40
What should the World Bank be doing more of? - 28:25
The global public goods agenda - 39:00
OECD DAC aid has lost its credibility - 43:30
Combating pessimism and short-term thinking – 50:18

Host:

Professor Dan Banik, University of Oslo, Twitter: @danbanik @GlobalDevPod

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Host:

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A more fragmented world — Helen Clark Apr 05, 2023

Show notes

Our guest on this very special (100th) episode is someone I greatly admire and needs very little introduction. Helen Clark has engaged widely in policy development and advocacy across the international, economic, social and cultural spheres. She was Prime Minister of New Zealand for nine years and has also served as the administrator of the United Nations Development Programme. Since 2019, she has chaired the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) and in 2020, she was appointed co-chair of the Independent Panel for Pandemic Preparedness and Response, established by the World Health Organization. In addition to serving on numerous advisory boards and commissions, Helen is a strong and highly influential voice on gender equality and women’s leadership, sustainable development, climate action, peace and justice, and global health. Twitter: @HelenClarkNZ

Resources:

Transforming or Tinkering? Inaction lays the groundwork for the next pandemic (Report of the Independent Panel for Pandemic Preparedness and Response)
It is time for ambitious, transformational change to the epidemic countermeasures ecosystem (The Lancet, 2023)
The Helen Clark Foundation

Key highlights:

Introduction - 00:45
Development as it ought to be understood - 04:10
The fragmented global development agenda - 08:10
Role and relevance of the United Nations system - 15:37
Preparing for the next pandemic - 20:28
How politicians translate research into policy - 35:35
The challenges faced by female leaders - 42:20

Host:

Professor Dan Banik, University of Oslo, Twitter: @danbanik @GlobalDevPod

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Host:

Centre for Global Sustainability, University of Oslo

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