Sometimes I don’t feel like being clever or coy with the headline. Sometimes I just want to make the point up front. This is one of those times. Allow me to underline it: Ranking lists are great publicity for both the rankers and the ranked — but they usually involve bad analysis and mislead the … Continue reading
There are a lot of positive things to say about CGD’s innovative Cash on Delivery (COD) aid concept. Go here if you need the basic background. Despite all the great work that Nancy Birdsall and her crew have done to describe how COD aid would work in practice, something about it is deeply discomforting to … Continue reading
Violent conflict is bad for most businesses. Unless your business is actually related to conflict — say, arms sales or some form of security contracting — it’s generally pretty hard for commerce to thrive in the midst of violence. But what about the impacts in the other direction? How does business impact conflict? One of the … Continue reading
Over at the Peace Dividend Trust blog, Scott Gilmore posted this morning under the title: “We hate our name, discuss.” Here’s the summary version: We chose the name in 2004. At that time PDT was merely a collection of vaguely formed ideas without a clear mandate, set of activities or direction. … Once the name was … Continue reading
A month ago, the Coalition of International Development Companies (CIDC) sent an email to my Find What Works email address.* I can only assume they want me to blog about it. The email itself was pretty straightforward: 50 companies (including the big names like DAI, Chemonics, MSI, etc.) had formed a new coalition to advocate … Continue reading
In 1962, Thomas Kuhn introduced a remarkable idea with a book called The Structure of Scientific Revolutions. He argued against the simple narrative that scientific progresses occurs through the gradual accumulation of knowledge about the natural world. In place of this narrative, Kuhn put forward the concept of paradigms: past scientific achievements that provide the … Continue reading
Recent Comments