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MalawiSoc
Timbuktu Chronicles
Global Voices interviews Clement Nthambazale Nyirenda the founder of social bookmarking site MalawiSoc:More hereHow did the idea for creating MalawiSoc come about?
Generally speaking, social bookmarking is a method that enables Internet users to organize, store, manage and search for bookmarks of resources online. It also enables Internet users across the web to collaborate with one another by sharing their bookmarks. Because of my blogging activities, I have been a social bookmarking sites, such Digg, Redit and StumbleUpon, for the past few years. My experience with these sites inspired me to create a similar site specifically devoted to blogs and news about Malawi
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Warren Buffett on Philanthropy
Tactical Philanthropy
I believe that one day Warren Buffett will be looked on as the most pivotal person in the philanthropy of the early 21st century. Like Andrew Carnegie in the late 19th century, Buffett will be remembered not just for his own philanthropy, but for his outsized impact on the philanthropy of others.
Below is the letter that Buffett wrote for the Giving Pledge. Much like Andrew Carnegie's Gospel of Wealth, this document will likely be looked back on by future historians as the fundamental declaration of Buffett's beliefs about the importance of philanthropy.
By Warren Buffett
In 2006, I made a commitment to gradually give all of my Berkshire Hathaway stock to philanthropic foundations. I couldn't be happier with that decision.
Now, Bill and Melinda Gates and I are asking hundreds of rich Americans to pledge at least 50% of their wealth to charity. So I think it is fitting that I reiterate my intentions and explain the thinking that lies behind them.
First, my pledge: More than 99% of my wealth will go to philanthropy during my lifetime or at death. Measured by dollars, this commitment is large. In a comparative sense, though, many individuals give more to others every day.
Millions of people who regularly contribute to churches, schools, and other organizations thereby relinquish the use of funds that would otherwise benefit their own families. The dollars these people drop into a collection plate or give to United Way mean forgone movies, dinners out, or other personal pleasures. In contrast, my family and I will give up nothing we need or want by fulfilling this 99% pledge.
Moreover, this pledge does not leave me contributing the most precious asset, which is time. Many people, including — I'm proud to say — my three children, give extensively of their own time and talents to help others. Gifts of this kind often prove far more valuable than money. A struggling child, befriended and nurtured by a caring mentor, receives a gift whose value far exceeds what can be bestowed by a check. My sister, Doris, extends significant person-to-person help daily. I've done little of this.
What I can do, however, is to take a pile of Berkshire Hathaway stock certificates — "claim checks" that when converted to cash can command far-ranging resources — and commit them to benefit others who, through the luck of the draw, have received the short straws in life. To date about 20% of my shares have been distributed (including shares given by my late wife, Susan Buffett). I will continue to annually distribute about 4% of the shares I retain. At the latest, the proceeds from all of my Berkshire shares will be expended for philanthropic purposes by 10 years after my estate is settled. Nothing will go to endowments; I want the money spent on current needs.
This pledge will leave my lifestyle untouched and that of my children as well. They have already received significant sums for their personal use and will receive more in the future. They live comfortable and productive lives. And I will continue to live in a manner that gives me everything that I could possibly want in life.
Some material things make my life more enjoyable; many, however, would not. I like having an expensive private plane, but owning a half-dozen homes would be a burden. Too often, a vast collection of possessions ends up possessing its owner. The asset I most value, aside from health, is interesting, diverse, and long-standing friends.
My wealth has come from a combination of living in America, some lucky genes, and compound interest. Both my children and I won what I call the ovarian lottery. (For starters, the odds against my 1930 birth taking place in the U.S. were at least 30 to 1. My being male and white also removed huge obstacles that a majority of Americans then faced.) My luck was accentuated by my living in a market system that sometimes produces distorted results, though overall it serves our country well. I've worked in an economy that rewards someone who saves the lives of others on a battlefield with a medal, rewards a great teacher with thank-you notes from parents, but rewards those who can detect the mispricing of securities with sums reaching into the billions. In short, fate's distribution of long straws is wildly capricious.
The reaction of my family and me to our extraordinary good fortune is not guilt, but rather gratitude. Were we to use more than 1% of my claim checks on ourselves, neither our happiness nor our well-being would be enhanced. In contrast, that remaining 99% can have a huge effect on the health and welfare of others. That reality sets an obvious course for me and my family: Keep all we can conceivably need and distribute the rest to society, for its needs. My pledge starts us down that course.
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Fall 2010 Performance Report
One Acre Fund Blog
We've just released our latest performance report, for the six months ending October 2010. It discusses the following accomplishments:
Grew program size from 23,000 farm families to 30,000 farm families, serving more than 120,000 children.
- Had our eighth harvest, increasing take-home farm income by 100% per acre, with 99% of farmers repaying program fees.
- Covered 60% of our field costs through farmer repayments, which will continue to improve over time
The report shares the story of one of our top field leaders, Patyster, and briefly concludes with our vision for the future, which we are truly excited about. Our momentum continues to build at a terrific pace, and we are on track to create life change for 120,000 families in the next 36 months.
You can also check out our previous performance reports here.
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New evidence on group vs. individual liability
Financial Access Initiative Blog
Many believe that group liability in microcredit improves repayment rates through peer screening, monitoring, and enforcement. But when Dean Karlan and Xavier Giné set out to test this hypothesis, they found no increase in default with individual liability. A new World Bank study provides evidence to the contrary. Nevertheless, although seemingly contradictory, the two studies are actually complementary: together they reveal culture and prior loan experience strongly influence borrowers' monitoring and repayment behavior and are thus key considerations when designing an optimal contract structure. To read more please access Karlan's study here and the World Bank study here.
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Learning About Schools in Development
Charles Kenny
Learning About Schools in Development is a CGD Working Paper. It is a longer version of this, which itself was a revised version of this. There has been considerable progress in school construction and enrollment worldwide. Paying kids to go to school can help overcome remaining demand-side barriers to enrollment. Nonetheless, the quality of education appears very poor across the developing world, limiting development impact. Thus we should measure and promote learning not schooling. Conditional cash transfers to students on the basis of attendance and scores, school choice, decentralization combined with published test results, and teacher pay based on attendance and performance may help. But learning outcomes are primarily affected by the broader environment in which students live, suggesting a learning agenda that stretches far beyond education ministries.
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Who was to blame?
Baobab
THE International Criminal Court (ICC) today named the six Kenyans it wants summoned to The Hague to answer for the violence which killed 1,200 Kenyans, displaced 300,000, and brought the country to the brink of collapse after an election at the end of 2007. For those following the process carefully there was just one real surprise: the decision to name President Mwai Kibaki's secretary to the cabinet, Francis Muthaura. By choosing to go after Kenya's top civil servant, the ICC's chief prosecutor, Luis Moreno Ocampo, has signalled that he would like to see the whole election process scrutinised.
Many observers, including Baobab, believe some of the responsibility for the blood-letting resides within those within Mr Kibaki's circle who sought to obscure and manipulate the vote tally. An examination of how the result was announced and how Mr Kibaki was speedily and shabbily sworn into office gives rise to the suspicion that the election may have been stolen from the prime minister, Raila Odinga. The naming of Mr Muthaura will make it hard for Mr Kibaki to remain removed from the process. His instinct will now be to delay, obfuscate, and block The Hague at every step in an attempt to protect his man.
Pointing the finger at the finance minister, Uhuru Kenyatta, strikes another blow to dynastic politics. Mr Kenyatta is a son of Jomo Kenyatta, Kenya's founding father, and a Kikuyu like Mr Kibaki. To strengthen his hand, Mr Kenyatta might now seek a political alliance with the minister of higher education, William Ruto, a Kalenjin. Mr Ruto, who has for the moment been suspended from his post on suspicion of corruption, will have to answer for an explosion of violence in the Rift Valley, which saw young Kalenjin men hack and burn alive their Kikuyu neighbours.
A so-called coalition of the accused would seemingly go against the wishes of the people: a survey released today shows that 73% of Kenyans have confidence in the ICC. The three others on the list include the then police chief, Hussein Ali, the minister for industrialisation, Henry Kosgey, and a Kalenjin businessman, Joshua Arap Sang. The list also leaves open the question of who, if anyone, should answer for the ethnic cleansing of Kikuyu from Mr Odinga's political strongholds in western Kenya.
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Monday, December 13, 2010
Is it OK to do randomized experiments on people? NYC edition
Aid Watch
It has long been the standard practice in medical testing: Give drug treatment to one group while another, the control group, goes without.
Now, New York City is applying the same methodology to assess one of its programs to prevent homelessness. Half of the test subjects — people who are behind on rent and in danger of being evicted — are being denied assistance from the program for two years, with researchers tracking them to see if they end up homeless.
The city's Department of Homeless Services said the study was necessary to determine whether the $23 million program, called Homebase, helped the people for whom it was intended. Homebase, begun in 2004, offers job training, counseling services and emergency money to help people stay in their homes.
From Wednesday's New York Times.
It's interesting to watch the debate over the ethics of randomized control trials arrive at our own shores, and to see New Yorkers up in arms over homeless people being treated "lab rats" or "guinea pigs."
I understand why these experiments make the public uncomfortable, but to me the important fact is that the organization profiled in this article does not have enough funds to give support to everyone who applies, and also faces future funding cuts (according to the reporter). If this experiment is just a different, more deliberate way of deciding who gets support and who doesn't, AND if we can learn something useful about the effectiveness of different methods for keeping people off the streets, then I don't see it as unethical.
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LOMBORG: No, You Can’t
Project Syndicate - A World of Ideas - the highest quality opinion ...
For years now, climate activists from Al Gore to Leonardo DiCaprio have argued that individual actions like driving more economical cars and using more efficient light bulbs are a crucial element in the effort to address global warming. That is entirely wrong, as new research shows. Sent with Reeder
Microsavings 101: How do people save when they earn so little?
Financial Access Initiative Blog
If you're interested in microfinance, but don't necessarily want to learn about graphs, econometric equations and statistical techniques then you have come to the right place. Kiva and FAI are partnering to bring you "101" blog posts that explain the core principles of microfinance.
This week's blog is a basic introduction to the subject of microsavings. Check out our past 101 blogs on microfinance and microcredit.
When we think about poor people and the role that microfinance plays in their lives we tend to think of microcredit, or small loans. But there's another financial service that is as equally important to the poor: savings. You might be surprised those who earn so little are able to save, but they can, and they do.
What are microsavings?
Microsavings is a subset of microfinance, and refers to ways "unbanked" individuals (those traditionally excluded from formal financial services) can accumulate useful sums of money. It might be difficult to believe that people who live on small incomes have anything left over to put away. But it turns out that even households with meager sources of income highly value having a safe place to save and accumulate money – and will go to great lengths to do so. But saving isn't always easy. Because the sums accumulated are small, it takes time for a useful sum of money to be built. As a result, other pressing needs may take precedence over savings, making it difficult to accumulate a usefully large sum.
Why do people want to save?
Poor households want to save for some of the same basic reasons that we do: for retirement, sending their kids to school, making large future purchases and to hedge against any type of future uncertainty, like an illness or bad harvest season. Through talking to poor households, researchers discovered that they often used savings for big life events (like funerals and weddings), emergencies (like an illness), opportunities to buy assets that store value for old age (like land and gold), to pay off debt, and to invest in small businesses.
So how do they save?
Some households may have access to a savings account with a microfinance institution (MFI) or a bank. But many don't have access to formal financial services. Instead, they may use informal ways of saving such as giving money to a neighbor to hold for them, hiding cash in a "safe" place in their home or joining a savings clubs in which members pool together small sums of money to help accumulate a larger sum. In other instances, deposit collectors gather cash from women in a neighborhood, hold it for them and return it at the end of the month after charging a fee for the service.
Obstacles to saving
Informal savings mechanisms can be risky and unreliable. What if the neighbor holding your money steals it? What if your husband discovers the money under the mattress and takes his buddies out for night on the town with it? Informal ways of saving can also be expensive, as in the case of the deposit collector who actually charges you a fee to save. They also don't guard against temptation in the same way that having your money in the bank does. For example, if you have the urge to buy a new sari or a cup of tea, you're probably more likely to raid your savings from under the mattress than if it's safely in the bank
Better ways to save
MFIs and other financial institutions can help households save by understanding what kind of savings products are needed: reliable, convenient and flexible.
For more information on the importance of microsavings and how they occur on the ground you can watch this video series in which Stuart Rutherford, co-author of Portfolios of the Poor and founder of SafeSave in Bangladesh, discusses important factors in the design of savings (and other financial) products for the poor.
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Is it time to call it quits on the Euro?
Dani Rodrik's weblog
It pained me to write this as I have never been a Euroskeptic, but I fear the answer for Greece, Ireland, Spain, and Portugal may well be yes. These countries need both debt restructuring and a boost in competitiveness, and it is very difficult to see how they will get those while remaining in the Eurozone. The most likely alternative is economic decline and political turmoil.
Through long and painful experience, Europe's leaders first learned that financial integration requires eliminating volatility among national currencies. Next they learned that eradicating currency risk requires doing away with national currencies altogether. Now they are learning – but resisting – the lesson that you cannot achieve monetary union, among democracies, without political union.
In other words, Europe is learning that political trilemma of the world economy applies there too. As Kevin O'Rourke tells me, "the trilemma is operating big-time in Europe right now, the obvious technical move is to federalise everything, but worries about democratic deficits etc are going to make that impossible, which leaves us with a big, big problem."
It is a very sad story for one of this century's boldest economic experiments.
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