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Blog post
Constructing housing for the poor without destroying their communities
The Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana aims to achieve housing for all by 2022. However, vacancy of 23% was reported last year in urban housing built under the programme. In this article, Rohini Pande, contends that take-up can be increased if policies are designed in a way that allows the intended beneficiaries to preserve their social networks when they relocate. We have passed...
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Blog post
Rwanda’s export challenge
Rwanda must create an additional 200,000 jobs per year to absorb its expanding population. Increasing exports could play an important role in achieving this goal. A new policy brief by the IGC outlines the challenges Rwanda needs to overcome to improve its trade balances. Since 2000, Rwanda has seen a rapid rise in exports of goods and services. Increasing exports and...
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Blog post
Women’s economic opportunities: What can South Asian countries learn from each other?
When women make their own money – or even when they have the option to work for a fair wage – their health, power in the domestic sphere, and position in society all improve, and parents begin to invest more in the health and education of their daughters. A wide range of research from South Asia and across the world has shown this. For example, a study in India...
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Blog post
Building affordable housing in Kigali
Solving the challenge of affordable urban housing remains a key concern to urban planners and city officials in rapidly urbanising cities. This blog examines a new costing tool that researchers used to model the cost factors of two promising housing designs for low-income markets. Can incrementalism and multi-story construction be effectively scaled to expand access to...
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Blog post
Getting India's women into the workforce: Time for a smart approach
In this article, Rohini Pande, the Mohammed Kamal Professor of Public Policy at Harvard Kennedy School, contends that raising India’s stubbornly low rate of female labour force participation will require behavioural interventions that address social norms. Between 1990 and 2015, India’s real GDP (gross domestic product) per capita grew from US$375 to US$1572, but its...
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Blog post
The role of election competition in strengthening Pakistan’s fledgling local democracy
Using results and original survey data from the November 2015 local government elections in the Sargodha District of rural Punjab, Pakistan, insights are offered into the institutional and organisational responses that can help strengthen local democracy. These results form part of a larger research project being conducted by the Institute of Development and Economic...
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Blog post
Barriers to labour migration in Bangladesh’s garment sector
A rigorous randomised controlled trial (RCT) impact study shows how a targeted training-programme, stipend and on-the-job training (OJT) intervention may have a significant effect on worker participation in Bangladesh’s ready-made garments (RMG) sector. Interestingly, training is only effective in increasing participation in the sector when it is bundled with a stipend,...
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Blog post
Uganda needs a caffeine fix: Insights from Vietnam’s coffee market success
Until recently Vietnam and Uganda shared a similar trajectory in the development of their coffee sectors. Today, Vietnam has emerged as the second largest coffee producer in the world. In Uganda, poor agricultural inputs and a failing institutional environment have resulted in low yields and slower development of the sector. In January 2017, world coffee exports already...
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Blog post
Driving domestic investment: FDI use and source matter
More targeted manufacturing FDI could reinforce and raise domestic investment levels in developing economies. FDI and the developing world Foreign direct investment (FDI) is widely viewed as an important source of external financing for developing countries. The Monterrey Consensus of 2002 formalised this view by making FDI one of the six pillars of development finance,...
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Blog post
Employer-sponsored health insurance: low premiums, low savings
We study the impacts of an employer-sponsored health insurance policy giving modest coverage for in-patient hospitalisation in Bangladesh. There are no evident out-of-pocket cost savings, but there are changes in health care seeking behaviour consistent with the incentives of the programme. Higher premiums for broader coverage may realise higher savings. Bangladesh, like...
Blog post
Breaking the clientelist trap: Creating demand for good governance in India
A perennial challenge for reformist politicians is how to sustain their governance reforms beyond their first term in office. In poor contexts, clientelist politicians can out-compete reformers by threatening to exclude those who vote against them from accessing public benefits. How can reformers in office counter these tactics, break the clientelist trap and create a...