USAID

The Millennium Development Goal that really does work has been forgotten

UPDATE 12 noon: this  is a dueling oped with Sachs on ft.com, debate has moved on and even some agreement (see end of post) from a column in the on-line Financial Times today ; for ungated access and a picture of the handsome author go here.

Tue, 21 Sep 2010 05:56:27 -0700

Speaking at 12:15pm today at Stand Up NYC for MDGs

at Lincoln Center outdoors. Please come and join the other 5 people listening.

Sun, 19 Sep 2010 07:13:45 -0700

Cry the Beloved Country: Ethiopians Criticize Columbia for Hosting Meles

UPDATE Sept 19, 8:30am (see end of post)
I have been getting a lot of email from Ethiopian-Americans who are very upset that Columbia University has invited Prime Minister Meles Zenawi to speak this coming Wednesday, like this one:
Most of the professors who come across him, in most cases are neutralized or transformed as his advocates. So far, you are the only one standing clear, so the Ethiopian people need one intellectual friend like you to make their case. Please don’t be afraid and help our people and speak up.

Sat, 18 Sep 2010 06:45:22 -0700

FAO senior economist responds on “made-up world hunger numbers”

We received this comment this morning from David Dawe, senior economist at FAO, in response to Wednesday’s post
 Spot the made-up world hunger numbers. Kudos for the prompt reply and the willingness to engage in discussion.
Dear Professor Easterly,

Fri, 17 Sep 2010 14:50:16 -0700

Top 25 Rankings of All Time

Today’s topic was spurred by some rather unusual college rankings by the Wall Street Journal, in which Texas Tech has a higher rank than Harvard. This has been among the most popular articles on the Online Journal for 3 straight days now. Of course, also very popular are the US News and World Report College Rankings (which give the rather opposite results in which Harvard does slightly better relative to Texas Tech.)
We all love rankings. 
Talking about ranking methodology, not so much. 

Thu, 16 Sep 2010 21:01:22 -0700

India tells UK to turn off the aid tap already

Reported yesterday in the English language daily newspaper the Indian Express*:
The External Affairs Ministry has instructed the Finance Ministry to inform London that India will not accept further aid from next April…
“…[I]t would be better if our decision not to avail any further DFID assistance with effect from 1st April 2011 could be conveyed to the British side in an appropriate manner at the earliest,” [Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao] wrote to Finance Secretary Ashok Chawla.
Ahead of Cameron’s visit, India had considered rejecting DFID offer in view of the “negative publicity of Indian poverty promoted by DFID”.

Wed, 15 Sep 2010 21:01:16 -0700

Spot the made-up world hunger numbers

Today’s exercise, dear readers, is to spot made up numbers in major news stories.
Leading newspapers today report on FAO’s new world hunger numbers (see FT and NYT). The FAO reports that the number of hungry people fell from 1.02 billion in 2008 to 925 million in 2009. That’s very good news, unless it didn’t happen.
Inquiring minds want to know:
(1) how did the FAO come up with a number for 2009, when the World Development Indicators (WDI) of the World Bank are only reporting malnutrition numbers up through 2008?

Wed, 15 Sep 2010 08:54:49 -0700

Growing cars in Iowa

 [T]here are two technologies for producing automobiles in America. One is to manufacture them in Detroit, and the other is to grow them in Iowa.

Here’s the detailed technology by which you grow cars in Iowa:

Tue, 14 Sep 2010 05:46:39 -0700

How to respond to a bad government in someone else’s country?

 The question in the title is one of the hardest in our field.
I just wrote a Wall Street Journal book review critical of the Meles’ government in Ethiopia. I got some supportive letters from Ethiopians, but a Political Science Ph.D. student named Hamere wrote me as follows:
Hello William,
It is a pity that you produced such a hate and politics charged article against my country, Ethiopia and its leadership… What we have is simply visionary, caring, developmental and strong leadership.

Sun, 12 Sep 2010 21:01:14 -0700
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