Global Prosperity Wonkcast

Archive for January, 2011

USAID Modernization Efforts Amid Budget Cut Fever: Connie Veillette

January 24, 2011

Posted by Lawrence MacDonald in Rethinking US Foreign Assistance Tags: Connie Veillette, USAID

It’s been a busy time for Connie Veillette, director of the Rethinking US Foreign Assistance Initiative here at the Center for Global Development. Last week we hosted a major address by USAID Administrator Rajiv Shah describing the achievements of his first year in office and his ambitious plans for modernizing the agency. No sooner had Shah finished speaking than a group of Republican legislators proposed a budget cutting plan that would zero out USAID’s operating budget. I was eager to learn how Connie—an advocate for effective aid who spent much of her career working for Republicans on Capitol Hill—would assess these developments.

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The Data Is In, More Money = More Happiness: Justin Wolfers

January 18, 2011

Posted by Lawrence MacDonald in Aid Effectiveness, Inequality, Poverty Tags: Happiness, Inequality, Justin Wolfers

You might not think you’d need a Ph.D. to figure out that people with more money are happier than people with less. Yet that relationship is surprisingly controversial and—not so surprisingly—highly relevant for development policy. This week’s Wonkcast features a young academic whose new work on subjective wellbeing, income and economic development is upending the conventional academic wisdom on happiness. Justin Wolfers, a visiting fellow at Brookings and associate professor at the Wharton School, spoke last week at a Massachusetts Avenue Development Seminar (or MADS), a series of events that CGD hosts in cooperation with The Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies. (You can sign up for invitations to future MADS here under ‘other subscriptions’).

Turns out the conventional academic wisdom on money and happiness is somewhat counterintuitive. According to the widely cited work of Richard Easterlin, wealth beyond a certain amount does not make us happier: once we’ve achieved a reasonable degree of financial security (internationally, an annual income of roughly $15,000 per year) our basic needs are met and our sense of wellbeing does not improve as income rises. Or so studies by Easterlin and his followers have suggested.

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Leapfrogging Technology, the Case for Biometrics: Alan Gelb

January 11, 2011

Posted by Lawrence MacDonald in Aid Effectiveness, Global Development, Population and Development Tags: Alan Gelb, Biometrics, Cash transfers, Haiti, Pakistan

Alan Gelb In developed countries, official identification systems are a fact of life, providing the foundation for a myriad of transactions including elections, pension payments, and the legal system. Without functional ID systems, citizens of many developing countries miss out on the benefits of official identification. On this week’s Wonkcast, I am joined by CGD senior fellow Alan Gelb who has been researching the potential for new biometric technology, such as computerized finger printing and iris scans, to help poor countries leapfrog the long and complicated process of setting up ID systems.

In our conversation, Alan explains the depth of the problem in the developing world. “In most rich countries there are already identity systems that work more or less well,” he says. “In many poor countries, not only is there no consistent identity system but at least half of the people don’t have records of birth at all. They simply don’t exist.”
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The Year Ahead in Global Health at CGD: Amanda Glassman

January 4, 2011

Posted by Lawrence MacDonald in Global Health Policy Tags: Amanda Glassman, Global Health

To mark the start of the new year, my guest is Amanda Glassman, CGD’s new director of global health. I asked Amanda, who previously worked at the Inter-American Development Bank, the Brookings Institution, and USAID, where she sees opportunities for progress on global health in 2011 and beyond.

Amanda summarizes her priorities for CGD’s global health program with two big questions. First, how can donors deploy their global health aid budgets (more constrained than ever) to have the greatest impact on health in poor countries? Second, how can these same donors help poor countries and poor people use their own resources more effectively?