A New Year’s Guide to the top World Bank blog posts of 2011

|

This page in:

2011 was a highly successful year for World Bank blogs; four posts chalked up more than 10,000 views over the year; the year saw the launch of the highly successful Development Impact blog; and two of the Bank’s blogs (Development Impact and Africa Can End Poverty) have featured in Palgrave’s top-50 Economics blogs. The table below lists the top-100 World Bank blog posts of 2011 based on page views over the period November 1, 2010 – November 19, 2011. For those interested, click here to see how the Bank’s 26 English-language blogs compare to one another in terms of the number of posts they have in the top-50, top-100, and top-200. (Keep in mind, however, that Development Impact was running for only part of this period.)

Top-100 World Bank blog posts 2011* 
 

Rank Blog Post Views
1 Africa Can End Poverty Can rapid population growth be good for economic development? 20,634
2 East Asia & Pacific on the rise State-owned enterprises in China: How big are they? 10,963
3 Transport for Development Rise of the Chinese Ghost Town 10,912
4 EduTech 10 Global Trends in ICT and Education 10,165
5 Nasikiliza Think equal, act equal! 8,429
6 Africa Can End Poverty Poverty in Africa and elsewhere 7,192
7 Development Impact Working Papers are NOT Working 7,026
8 Development Impact Are we really assessing development impact? 6,024
9 Development in a Changing Climate Deforestation: Disastrous consequences for the climate and for food security 5,767
10 Development Impact The Impact of Economic Blogs - Part I: Dissemination 5,764
11 Africa Can End Poverty African Successes - Listing the success stories 5,593
12 EduTech What do we know about using mobile phones in education? 4,994
13 East Asia & Pacific on the rise Ulaanbaatar's air pollution crisis: Summertime complacency won't solve the wintertime problem 4,937
14 Development Impact Teachers don't matter says Nobel Laureate: A new study in Science, and why economists would never 4,852
15 Africa Can End Poverty The Impact of the Financial Crisis on South Africa 4,710
16 People, Spaces, Deliberation Paying Zero for Public Services 4,483
17 Information and Communications  Cloud computing for government - The future is cloudy and that is good news 4,411
18 All About Finance The Most Effective Development Intervention We Have Evidence For? 4,183
19 Let's Talk Development Gender Equality and the 2012 World Development Report 4,159
20 Development Impact The Impact of Blogs Part II: Blogging enhances the blogger's reputation. But, does it influence po 3,749
21 Africa Can End Poverty I was there when the Republic of South Sudan was born! 3,593
22 Growth and Crisis Brazil Announces Phase Two of the Growth Acceleration Program 3,584
23 Governance for Development International Anti-Corruption Day 3,515
24 East Asia & Pacific on the rise What is new in Malaysia's New Economic Model? 3,444
25 East Asia & Pacific on the rise Cambodia's economy in 2010: After unusual year, is recovery on its way for workers and entrepreneurs? 3,340
26 Africa Can End Poverty Africa and the Millennium Development Goals 3,191
27 Africa Can End Poverty Infant mortality rates in Africa will increase by 30,000-50,000 - Girls will fare worse 3,059
28 East Asia & Pacific on the rise Is there a middle class in Asia? Depends on how you define it 3,048
29 End Poverty in South Asia Remittances in Bangladesh: Determinants and 2010 Outlook 3,015
30 EduTech Worst practice in ICT use in education 2,922
31 East Asia & Pacific on the rise State-owned enterprises in China: How profitable are they? 2,822
32 People, Spaces, Deliberation Weekly Wire: the Global Forum 2,775
33 Africa Can End Poverty African countries are among the fastest growing economies in the world 2,749
34 Development Impact What are the under-researched topics in development according to young faculty? 2,743
35 East Asia & Pacific on the rise Remittances and the Philippines' economy: the elephant in the room 2,735
36 End Poverty in South Asia World Bank Provides Four Loans Worth Over $4.3 Billion to India 2,666
37 EduTech Mobile learning in developing countries in 2011: What's new, what's next? 2,627
38 Inside the Web Tuning in to Facebook's global frequency 2,604
39 Development Impact Jeff Sachs, the Millennium Villages Project, and Misconceptions about Impact Evaluation 2,563
40 Nasikiliza A small country bringing about big change 2,561
41 Africa Can End Poverty Will the South African economy get a kick from the World Cup? 2,523
42 People Move Outlook for remittance flows to developing countries: Recovery after the global financial crisis but 2,489
43 East Asia & Pacific on the rise Whither Malaysia's brain drain? 2,406
44 East Asia & Pacific on the rise Thailand's economy in 2010: Growth in balance 2,395
45 Africa Can End Poverty Corruption in Kenya 2,369
46 Prospects for Development A New Multipolar World Economy 2,367
47 Africa Can End Poverty African Successes 2,355
48 East Asia & Pacific on the rise China's food prices - why have they trended up and what lies ahead? 2,333
49 People, Spaces, Deliberation Natural Disasters: What Role for Information and Communication? 2,274
50 End Poverty in South Asia Pakistan Education Reform Programs: Ambitions and Innovations 2,245
51 Let's Talk Development Who's listening to the knowledge bank? 2,243
52 EduTech What happens when all textbooks are (only) digital? Ask the Koreans! 2,238
53 EduTech EVOKE -- a crash course in changing the world 2,220
54 Africa Can End Poverty Millennium Villages Project continues to systematically overstate its effects 2,209
55 Africa Can End Poverty Are African women having too many babies? 2,193
56 People, Spaces, Deliberation The Arab Spring: Welcome to the Explanation Olympics 2,186
57 Development Impact The Impact of Economics Blogs -- Part III: New Survey Evidence and Experimental Results 2,123
58 Development in a Changing Climate Facing the Climate Challenge of the 21st Century 2,119
59 Let's Talk Development What Does Adam Smith's Linen Shirt Have to do with Global Poverty? 2,112
60 Africa Can End Poverty South Sudan launches its first GDP estimate 2,109
61 Development Impact Development impact calls for knowledgeable development practitioners 2,104
62 East Asia & Pacific on the rise What Coke teaches us about disasters (and development) 2,103
63 EduTech Surveying the use of mobile phones in education worldwide 2,082
64 Latin America First two years of life are key to good jobs 2,075
65 All About Finance The AAF Virtual Debates: Can state-owned banks play an important role in promoting financial stabili 2,070
66 Africa Can End Poverty Is male promiscuity the main route of HIV/AIDS transmission in Africa? 2,069
67 Growth and Crisis Jobs, or more precisely, the lack of jobs is now a Global Issue 2,044
67 Development Impact Banerjee and Duflo's Poor Economics: Micro-steps towards a quiet revolution? 2,044
69 Africa Can End Poverty A Rice-based Green Revolution in Africa? 2,036
70 Nasikiliza Fleeing Famine - The View from Inside a Refugee Camp 2,020
71 Africa Can End Poverty Development 3.0 1,987
72 Let's Talk Development Let's Move Beyond Open Data to Open Development 1,983
73 Education for Global Development Education is Fundamental to Development and Growth 1,977
74 People, Spaces, Deliberation It's the People, Stupid. 1,951
75 Africa Can End Poverty Aid and Corruption 1,948
76 EduTech SMS education in Pakistan 1,945
77 People Move Remittance flows to developing countries are estimated to exceed $300 billion in 2008 1,927
78 Africa Can End Poverty A debate on multidimensional poverty indices 1,917
79 Africa Can End Poverty The Multidimensional Poverty Index Debate: rounds 2, 3, 4 … 1,913
80 Growth and Crisis ADePT: a Great Software for Data & Analytical Reports 1,899
81 Africa Can End Poverty Is African poverty falling? 1,879
81 Growth and Crisis Credit Ratings Matter for Those Who Need Them Most 1,879
83 Africa Can End Poverty Africa's statistical tragedy 1,876
84 Development in a Changing Climate Agriculture, forests, climate change: Intersecting ambitions 1,864
85 East Asia & Pacific on the rise The middle-income trap, again? 1,862
86 Development in a Changing Climate A world of action in Cancun: Don't listen to your grandma 1,841
87 Governance for Development The World Bank and Public Sector Management: Where do you come out? 1,834
88 Let's Talk Development The education of a gender skeptic:  what I learnt from the WDR 2012 1,825
89 Development Impact Fighting Malaria with Microfinance? 1,806
90 Africa Can End Poverty Kenya's telecom revolution and the impact of mobile money 1,805
91 Nasikiliza Eid in a dry season 1,802
92 Let's Talk Development The Microfinance Mystery 1,794
93 All About Finance Worrying Too Much about Brain Drain? 1,771
94 Private Sector Development Blog Bringing mobile money to the world 1,767
95 Conflict and Development Accidental agents of change 1,761
96 Meetings Center Making agriculture work for jobs 1,757
97 Africa Can End Poverty China's Miracle Demystified 1,753
98 Governance for Development Do informed citizens hold governments accountable? It depends... 1,747
99 Africa Can End Poverty Why has the Kenyan Shilling declined so sharply? 1,741
100 People, Spaces, Deliberation The Role of Social Norms in Achieving Behaviour Change 1,735

* The period covered is actually November 1, 2010 – November 19, 2011. Data on views were obtained from Omniture, which apparently gives more precise – and typically lower – page view figures than the Bank’s blog platform. My thanks to Swati Mishra and Martin Ravallion for helpful advice and comments.

Authors

Adam Wagstaff

Research Manager, Development Research Group, World Bank