Digital Archive....

The Oxford Millennium Villages Debate Africa Can... - End Poverty In March at Oxford, I had the opportunity to debate John McArthur on the Millennium Villages Project (MVP) evaluation, which is the subject of a paper I co-authored with Michael Clemens of the Center for Global Development. The just-published newsletter (pdf)  of Oxford's Center for the Study of African Economies has a nice summary of the debate, and video from the event is here . read more Sent with Reeder  

Can ICT increase the impact of agriculture development? One Acre Fund Blog At One Acre Fund, we are always thinking about how we can improve the services that we offer to our clients. One potential method for doing so is using technology to enhance our core service model–farm inputs, credit, training, and market facilitation. Before we trial any new innovation, we look at existing models and best practices. Some existing models for technology use in agriculture were highlighted in a recent seminar hosted by USAID on information and communications technology and its role in agriculture development . The speaker, Judith Payne, is the ICT advisor for USAID's Economic Growth and Africa bureaus. She discussed projects that address several parts of One Acre Fund's service model, including delivery of financial services, agriculture extension, and market access. One of the most interesting extension projects Payne discussed was Digital Green in India. This n...

The Value of Charting Impact Tactical Philanthropy On Friday, Bob Ottenhoff wrote about the new Charting Impact initiative that gets nonprofits to answer five questions as part of a public report that is intended to encourage donations and grants to flow towards effective nonprofits. But can five questions answered with a couple of pages of text really help donors understand which organizations are effective? I think they can. Last year, I created my own list of "five questions every nonprofit should be able to answer" with the same intentions of Charting Impact; to help funders understand which organizations are effective. In developing my questions and speaking about them with nonprofits and donors, I've come to the conclusion that with these types of questions, it is how the nonprofit answers them, not the specifics of the answers that matter. The fact is, there is no short, simple answer that can prove effectiveness. This is true in the...