Published on Let's Talk Development

Friday round up: Basu op ed, Grading the Gates' annual letter, the most powerful new tool in the history of social activism, study of solar lanterns, 6 new studies by JPAL and IPA on microcredit

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The State of Global Poverty’ is the title of a Project Syndicate commentary by Kaushik Basu. As opinion leaders and heads of state convene in Davos, Basu reflects on the world’s rapidly changing economic geography and what it will take to get extreme poverty virtually to zero by 2030.

Monkey Cage carries a post by Chris Blattman that grades the recently 2015 Bill and Melinda Gates letter on poverty alleviation.

Forbes editor Randall Lane reports on plans to unveil the most powerful tool In the history of social activism.

MIT and USAID have jointly developed a new framework for assessing the effectiveness of solar lanterns. It’s all explained in their groundbreaking first report of the Comprehensive Initiative on Technology Evaluation (CITE).

Six new studies find small loans for underserved entrepreneurs have some benefits but are not a viable poverty alleviation tool, according to a Eurekalert news release. The studies by researchers linked to Innovations for Poverty Action (IPA) and The Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL), find that while microloans can increase small business ownership and investment, they generally don’t lead to increased income, investments in children's schooling, or substantial gains in women's empowerment among poor borrowers.

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