Posts Tagged “africa”
Ross • 8th Nov 2009 • Learning, Thinking • africa, aid, Dambisa Moyo, development, economics, international development, William Easterly
I have just finished this book, by Dambisa Moyo. It’s a very simple argument. So simple that the preface by Niall Ferguson means you can skip the majority of the book. After an hour, you’ll have the idea. As Niall points out, it’s slightly annoying that these arguments are taken more seriously when they come from Dambisa, an intelligent, attractive Ghanaian, rather than from older, whiter (but equally intelligent) critics of aid, such as Bill Easterly. But that’s not to the discredit of Ms Moyo or the arguments. Somebody needs to get the fact that aid is not the answer on the radar. Moyo does a good job as the ‘anti-Bono’.
Ross • 25th Oct 2009 • Living • africa, development, international development, kenya, kiva, loans, microfinance
Oh dear, it appears that Kiva has suffered another defaulting partner. This time, it’s Kenya’s Ebony Foundation that has stopped paying back loans – apparently using last year’s violence a a convenient reason to shirk its obligations. The organisation’s leaders are playing hide and seek. Unfortunately, this gives microfinance (and Kenya!) a bad name. I won’t be putting any more money into Kiva: this is not the first time a partner has failed to repay monies owed. This does not show Kiva’s due diligence in a good light. I would be much more understanding if it were loan recipients who were defaulting – but for a large partner to walk off with more than half a million dollars, well, as the saying goes, fool me once…
Ross • 29th Sep 2009 • Learning • africa, aid, development, international development
In what might qualify as a surrealistic moment, the Administrator of USAID asked a staffer to summarize the policy conclusions of the Vanity Fair analysis for U.S. foreign aid.
That’s from William Easterly’s working paper “Can the West save Africa?” A footnote to the passage reads:
I verified this by getting an actual copy of the memo
Ross • 15th May 2009 • Thinking • africa, development, economics, resources
From BBC News:
Developing economies could better ride the current financial crisis with more effective maintenance of their natural resources, according to a new report.
The report, from Natural Resource Charter, is here. I haven’t read it, although I am sure it would be interesting. The article references Paul Collier, who pushes a fairly simple system for straight auctions of commodities. It’s worth noting that to some extent, this already happens with commodity extraction rights - so maybe it’s a call to do that better. (The journalists could do better with the headline too: ‘Africa urged to auction commodities’?) However, if they are pushing for African countries to auction raw diamonds, coal and whatever, then they’re recommending a highly statist approach in which governments own the extraction plant and companies. That would be a step backwards. More clever public contract managers (with performance bonuses) in government would be a better solution.
Ross • 13th May 2009 • Learning, Thinking • africa, development, energy, fuel
Making cooking briquettes from banana waste is a promising idea for development. I guess it works for plantain crops too. However, I don’t see why the focus should just be on Africa. Banana-fuel could be useful across Southern and South-Eastern Asia, Latin American and some Pacific islands too. There could even be a business in this. Labour and sawdust would be easy to come by, as would sunlight for drying the briquettes. The problem, I imagine, would be collecting the banana waste. Unlike sawdust, banana skins aren’t found in one place, but scattered throughout a million waste bins. The options for collecting this input look poor:
- Hiring scavengers may be one, basic, reclaimation option, but I think the cost may rule that out.
- You could offer an incentive for customers to return their banana skins, and pay by weight. In many ways, this is like outsourcing the scavenger option, and doesn’t remove the inefficiency.
- Grow your own bananas. Then you need some way to make money from the fruit. Drying and chipping may be the best option, or grinding into banana flour.
Option 3 makes me think that banana-chipping outfits probably already exist in some places. So perhaps there is a stock of banana skin waste…. a quick online search turns up Narosa Farms.
