-
Blog post
Should graduation programmes replace the more conventional cash transfers?
The past decade has seen an exponential rise in social protection initiatives – mostly in the form of unconditional cash transfer programmes. In Latin America, Africa and South Asia, these emerge as promising interventions to reduce poverty. There is also a rising global trend of using conditionalities linked to such transfers to increase school enrolment, and access to...
-
Blog post
Increasing religious awareness and professional training
The discovery of natural gas triggered violent extremism in Northern Mozambique. Could religious awareness and professional training quell violence? [caption id="attachment_28440" align="alignnone" width="768"] Figure 1: The Economist, Aug 9th 2018.[/caption] There is vast economic and political science literature on conflict and civil wars, which mostly focuses on the...
-
Blog post
Building a capable civil service in Liberia: The role of the Performance Management System
Over the past thirty years, Liberia has encountered a mix of challenges, from negotiating civil war and an Ebola epidemic to welcoming the first democratic transition of power in three-quarters of a century. The recently elected Weah administration has made governance one of the four pillars of its ‘Pro-poor Agenda for Prosperity and Development’, including a push to...
-
Blog post
Lighting up Rwanda: Assessing the demand for pay-as-you-go lighting
The government of Rwanda has successfully increased the rate of electrification, from 10% in 2010 to 43% in 2018. However, for 57% of the population without electricity, the alternative energy sources include traditional biomass, kerosene, and rechargeable lamps which can harm respiratory health and the environment. In 2017, the Rwandan government launched a universal...
-
Blog post
What do we (not) know about the benefits of households' electrification?
Household electrification has recently become a controversial topic. When The Economist declared that “electricity does not change poor lives as much as was thought,” a number of non-profits and industry representatives wrote indignant responses (CEO of SolarAid, CrossBoundary) arguing that electricity, including distributed solar power, can be a game-changer for rural...
-
Blog post
Informal workers and taxation in Zambia: Who pays and does it make a difference?
Taxation in Africa has been increasingly covered in the news, especially with controversial attempts in countries such as Benin, Tanzania, and Uganda to tax users of social media sites and phone texting services. While the true intentions of these efforts are debatable, raising sufficient domestic revenue has long been a challenge for many African governments. A long line...
-
Blog post
The Chinese are here: An analysis of import penetration and firm performance in Sub-Saharan Africa
In the early 1990s, most of the imports into Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) originated mainly from Western economies such as the US, UK, France, and Germany. 25 years later, the share of imports from the UK had decreased to 2.3% in 2015 from 13.9% in 1990, while that of the US to 4.6% in 2015 from 13% in 1992. On the other hand, China’s share of total imports in SSA rose to...
-
Blog post
Understanding Third Tier Organisations (TTOs) in Pakistan and their role in filling public delivery gaps at the community level
Research into Third Tier Organisations in Pakistan highlights the important work they carry out in spite of a lack of significant government funding. Pakistan Poverty Alleviation Fund (PPAF), a not-for-profit, along with its partner organizations has been working on social mobilization and development of voluntary organizations at community level across Pakistan. A...
-
Blog post
Learning to teach by learning to learn: Measuring the effects of an innovative teacher training programme in Uganda
In 2007, Uganda became the first African country to introduce free universal secondary education. Yet, in 2017, 79% of students who began primary school, which is also free, did not make it to secondary school at all.[1] How can the delivery of education be improved to address this issue?A unique teacher training programme in Uganda has begun and is providing significant...
-
Blog post
Improving Tanzania’s power quality: Can data help?
For many Tanzanians, the sun sets and it’s pitch black – in fact, according to government data at least two-thirds of Tanzanians don’t have access to electricity. For those who do, many experience problems with reliability and quality of service – i.e. power cuts, and fluctuations in power supply that can damage equipment. This affects people’s daily lives and...
Blog post
Humans of policy research: Personal stories from implementing and government partners of the Ethiopia Industrial Park Community impact evaluation
Policymakers, government partners, and local stakeholders play a critical role in the success (or failure) of an impact evaluation. Often motivated by a desire to have better evidence for decision making, policymakers engage with research teams on the development, design, and implementation of these impact evaluations. By working together, researchers can make sure that...