It is a matter of debate whether governments should play an active role in stimulating industrial upgrading. But it strikes me as highly unlikely that an activist role for government has much benefit for products low on the value chain. A new policy note from ODI on four product markets in five developing countries seems to bear this out.
Responding to a post last week on possible metrics for defining SMEs, blog reader Nadezhda expressed some concerns in the comments section.
Editor's Note: Khrystyna Kushnir is a consultant on micro, small and medium-sized enterprises with the Enterprise Analysis Unit of the World Bank Group.
No summer lull for the Development 2.0 world, it would seem, judging from recent activity: from Richard Heeks’ paper on Development 2.0: Transformative ICT-Enabled Development Models and Impacts to a comprehensive checklist comparing “old school development” with Development 2.0 aid; from Idealware’s
Low-carbon FDI in areas such as renewables, recycling and low-carbon technology manufacturing is already large (some $90 billion in 2009), but its potential is huge. This is one of the conclusions of UNCTAD’s 2010 World Investment Report, released last month. The report is the most recent in an annual series exploring the latest trends and prospects for FDI flows and recent policy changes, and also offers a deeper analysis of a topically relevant issue of the day.
Jim Manzi, a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute, recently wrote an article that contains perhaps the most incisive critique of randomized control trials (RCTs) I've seen so far. RCTs already have a long history in the social sciences within the U.S.
There is an ongoing conversation in the development community, certainly amongst donors, about the need to make sure that aid is well spent and reaches the people it is intended to help. Most recently the UK shared its vision for international development, highlighting Value for Money and the use of results-based approaches.
Apparently, Freedom from Hunger, the non-profit behind the End4Hunger campaign, didn't get the memo about making over-the-top claims on behalf of microcredit (let alone any type of aid). The ad below appeared in my Gmail account just a few hours ago.
A new note in the Viewpoint series provides a handy summary of much of the recent research on the impact of business entry reforms. Unsurprisingly, cutting the costs and number of procedures to start a business results in more firms entering the formal market. To give one example, the creation of a one-stop shop in Mexico resulted in a 5% increase in new firms.
The WSJ reports that UK's Prime Minister David Cameron is pushing for India to lower its barriers to investment:
Humanitarian aid is not a standard topic for the PSD Blog, but I ran across a post recently on the disaster in Haiti that cuts across a lot of themes. Over at iRevolution, Patrick Philip Meier discusses the tension between those who helped crowdsource information related to the disaster -- what he calls the crowd-sorcerers -- and the formal humanitarian aid organizations -- playfully called "muggles".
Before facing the temptation of the song of the Sirens, Ulysses famously had his crew tie him to the mast of his boat.
Commenting on a post I wrote last month on randomized control trials (RCTs), Scott Guggenheim, a Lead Social Development Specialist at the World Bank, points out the practical value of this approach:
The Indian Express is reporting that India's Ministry of Human Resource Development is set to launch a $35 laptop:
Looking as stylish as a large i-phone, this $35 “low-cost computing-cum-access device” is a 5/7/9 inch touchscreen gadget packed with internet browsers, PDF reader, video conferencing facilities, open office, sci-lab, media player, remote device management capability, multimedia input-output interface option, and multiple content viewer.
Ziv on the India Development Blog makes the case:
