Big Bag of Development

Quote of the day from before my birth:

In 1976, U.S. relations with Nigeria reached an all-time low in the face of a particularly clumsy American handling of the Angolan-Cuba-South African issue. Henry Kissinger, whose indifference to Africa bordered on cynicism, decided at last to meet Joseph Garba, the Nigerian foreign minister, at the United Nations. In a gambit of condescending pleasantness, Kissinger asked Garba what he thought America was doing wrong in Africa. To which Garba replied stonily: “Everything!” Kissinger’s next comment was both precious and, I regret to admit, true. He said: “Statistically that is impossible. Even if it is unintentional, we must be doing something right.”

An interactive map showing where the US is providing aid through its four largest programs.

CGD reviews how the policies it recommended to help Haiti have faired over the last year. The largets victories were in trade and debt relief, with migration and training issues heavily neglected and reforestation almost tried.


"China has lent more money to other developing countries over the past two years than the World Bank"

I was introduced this week to a wonderful new blog that stocks useful data resources for development: devecondata.blogspot.com. 27 data sets relevant for agriculture so far, over 20 for education, more than a dozen for democracy, politics, trade, geography and demography, 11 relevant for Africa, and lots more.

Bill Gates confesses: development is harder than I thought at first. Okay, the actual quote was that "We were naïve when we began."

Blattman credits big pushes with success in at least one area: disease eradication and reduction. He critiques an article claiming that malaria eradication is hopeless.