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

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 [1]; and two of the Bank’s blogs (Development Impact and Africa Can End Poverty [2]) have featured in Palgrave’s top-50 Economics blogs [3]. 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 [4] 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? [5]	20,634
2	East Asia & Pacific on the rise	State-owned enterprises in China: How big are they? [6]	10,963
3	Transport for Development	Rise of the Chinese Ghost Town [7]	10,912
4	EduTech	10 Global Trends in ICT and Education [8]	10,165
5	Nasikiliza	Think equal, act equal! [9]	8,429
6	Africa Can End Poverty	Poverty in Africa and elsewhere [10]	7,192
7	Development Impact	Working Papers are NOT Working [11]	7,026
8	Development Impact	Are we really assessing development impact? [12]	6,024
9	Development in a Changing Climate	Deforestation: Disastrous consequences for the climate and for food security [13]	5,767
10	Development Impact	The Impact of Economic Blogs - Part I: Dissemination [14]	5,764
11	Africa Can End Poverty	African Successes - Listing the success stories [15]	5,593
12	EduTech	What do we know about using mobile phones in education? [16]	4,994
13	East Asia & Pacific on the rise	Ulaanbaatar's air pollution crisis: Summertime complacency won't solve the wintertime problem [17]	4,937
14	Development Impact	Teachers don't matter says Nobel Laureate: A new study in Science, and why economists would never [18]	4,852
15	Africa Can End Poverty	The Impact of the Financial Crisis on South Africa [19]	4,710
16	People, Spaces, Deliberation	Paying Zero for Public Services [20]	4,483
17	Information and Communications	Cloud computing for government - The future is cloudy and that is good news [21]	4,411
18	All About Finance	The Most Effective Development Intervention We Have Evidence For? [22]	4,183
19	Let's Talk Development	Gender Equality and the 2012 World Development Report [23]	4,159
20	Development Impact	The Impact of Blogs Part II: Blogging enhances the blogger's reputation. But, does it influence po [24]	3,749
21	Africa Can End Poverty	I was there when the Republic of South Sudan was born! [25]	3,593
22	Growth and Crisis	Brazil Announces Phase Two of the Growth Acceleration Program [26]	3,584
23	Governance for Development	International Anti-Corruption Day [27]	3,515
24	East Asia & Pacific on the rise	What is new in Malaysia's New Economic Model? [28]	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? [29]	3,340
26	Africa Can End Poverty	Africa and the Millennium Development Goals [30]	3,191
27	Africa Can End Poverty	Infant mortality rates in Africa will increase by 30,000-50,000 - Girls will fare worse [31]	3,059
28	East Asia & Pacific on the rise	Is there a middle class in Asia? Depends on how you define it [32]	3,048
29	End Poverty in South Asia	Remittances in Bangladesh: Determinants and 2010 Outlook [33]	3,015
30	EduTech	Worst practice in ICT use in education [34]	2,922
31	East Asia & Pacific on the rise	State-owned enterprises in China: How profitable are they? [35]	2,822
32	People, Spaces, Deliberation	Weekly Wire: the Global Forum [36]	2,775
33	Africa Can End Poverty	African countries are among the fastest growing economies in the world [37]	2,749
34	Development Impact	What are the under-researched topics in development according to young faculty? [38]	2,743
35	East Asia & Pacific on the rise	Remittances and the Philippines' economy: the elephant in the room [39]	2,735
36	End Poverty in South Asia	World Bank Provides Four Loans Worth Over $4.3 Billion to India [40]	2,666
37	EduTech	Mobile learning in developing countries in 2011: What's new, what's next? [41]	2,627
38	Inside the Web	Tuning in to Facebook's global frequency [42]	2,604
39	Development Impact	Jeff Sachs, the Millennium Villages Project, and Misconceptions about Impact Evaluation [43]	2,563
40	Nasikiliza	A small country bringing about big change [44]	2,561
41	Africa Can End Poverty	Will the South African economy get a kick from the World Cup? [45]	2,523
42	People Move	Outlook for remittance flows to developing countries: Recovery after the global financial crisis but [46]	2,489
43	East Asia & Pacific on the rise	Whither Malaysia's brain drain? [47]	2,406
44	East Asia & Pacific on the rise	Thailand's economy in 2010: Growth in balance [48]	2,395
45	Africa Can End Poverty	Corruption in Kenya [49]	2,369
46	Prospects for Development	A New Multipolar World Economy [50]	2,367
47	Africa Can End Poverty	African Successes [51]	2,355
48	East Asia & Pacific on the rise	China's food prices - why have they trended up and what lies ahead? [52]	2,333
49	People, Spaces, Deliberation	Natural Disasters: What Role for Information and Communication? [53]	2,274
50	End Poverty in South Asia	Pakistan Education Reform Programs: Ambitions and Innovations [54]	2,245
51	Let's Talk Development	Who's listening to the knowledge bank? [55]	2,243
52	EduTech	What happens when all textbooks are (only) digital? Ask the Koreans! [56]	2,238
53	EduTech	EVOKE -- a crash course in changing the world [57]	2,220
54	Africa Can End Poverty	Millennium Villages Project continues to systematically overstate its effects [58]	2,209
55	Africa Can End Poverty	Are African women having too many babies? [59]	2,193
56	People, Spaces, Deliberation	The Arab Spring: Welcome to the Explanation Olympics [60]	2,186
57	Development Impact	The Impact of Economics Blogs -- Part III: New Survey Evidence and Experimental Results [61]	2,123
58	Development in a Changing Climate	Facing the Climate Challenge of the 21st Century [62]	2,119
59	Let's Talk Development	What Does Adam Smith's Linen Shirt Have to do with Global Poverty? [63]	2,112
60	Africa Can End Poverty	South Sudan launches its first GDP estimate [64]	2,109
61	Development Impact	Development impact calls for knowledgeable development practitioners [65]	2,104
62	East Asia & Pacific on the rise	What Coke teaches us about disasters (and development) [66]	2,103
63	EduTech	Surveying the use of mobile phones in education worldwide [67]	2,082
64	Latin America	First two years of life are key to good jobs [68]	2,075
65	All About Finance	The AAF Virtual Debates: Can state-owned banks play an important role in promoting financial stabili [69]	2,070
66	Africa Can End Poverty	Is male promiscuity the main route of HIV/AIDS transmission in Africa? [70]	2,069
67	Growth and Crisis	Jobs, or more precisely, the lack of jobs is now a Global Issue [71]	2,044
67	Development Impact	Banerjee and Duflo's Poor Economics: Micro-steps towards a quiet revolution? [72]	2,044
69	Africa Can End Poverty	A Rice-based Green Revolution in Africa? [73]	2,036
70	Nasikiliza	Fleeing Famine - The View from Inside a Refugee Camp [74]	2,020
71	Africa Can End Poverty	Development 3.0 [75]	1,987
72	Let's Talk Development	Let's Move Beyond Open Data to Open Development [76]	1,983
73	Education for Global Development	Education is Fundamental to Development and Growth [77]	1,977
74	People, Spaces, Deliberation	It's the People, Stupid. [78]	1,951
75	Africa Can End Poverty	Aid and Corruption [79]	1,948
76	EduTech	SMS education in Pakistan [80]	1,945
77	People Move	Remittance flows to developing countries are estimated to exceed $300 billion in 2008 [81]	1,927
78	Africa Can End Poverty	A debate on multidimensional poverty indices [82]	1,917
79	Africa Can End Poverty	The Multidimensional Poverty Index Debate: rounds 2, 3, 4 … [83]	1,913
80	Growth and Crisis	ADePT: a Great Software for Data & Analytical Reports [84]	1,899
81	Africa Can End Poverty	Is African poverty falling? [85]	1,879
81	Growth and Crisis	Credit Ratings Matter for Those Who Need Them Most [86]	1,879
83	Africa Can End Poverty	Africa's statistical tragedy [87]	1,876
84	Development in a Changing Climate	Agriculture, forests, climate change: Intersecting ambitions [88]	1,864
85	East Asia & Pacific on the rise	The middle-income trap, again? [89]	1,862
86	Development in a Changing Climate	A world of action in Cancun: Don't listen to your grandma [90]	1,841
87	Governance for Development	The World Bank and Public Sector Management: Where do you come out? [91]	1,834
88	Let's Talk Development	The education of a gender skeptic: what I learnt from the WDR 2012 [92]	1,825
89	Development Impact	Fighting Malaria with Microfinance? [93]	1,806
90	Africa Can End Poverty	Kenya's telecom revolution and the impact of mobile money [94]	1,805
91	Nasikiliza	Eid in a dry season [95]	1,802
92	Let's Talk Development	The Microfinance Mystery [96]	1,794
93	All About Finance	Worrying Too Much about Brain Drain? [97]	1,771
94	Private Sector Development Blog	Bringing mobile money to the world [98]	1,767
95	Conflict and Development	Accidental agents of change [99]	1,761
96	Meetings Center	Making agriculture work for jobs [100]	1,757
97	Africa Can End Poverty	China's Miracle Demystified [101]	1,753
98	Governance for Development	Do informed citizens hold governments accountable? It depends... [102]	1,747
99	Africa Can End Poverty	Why has the Kenyan Shilling declined so sharply? [103]	1,741
100	People, Spaces, Deliberation	The Role of Social Norms in Achieving Behaviour Change [104]	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.

Tags:
Developement [105]
Development [106]