PSD Blog - The World Bank Group

Open source software and development

Was walking down the hall upstairs and came across “Open Source Software: Perspectives for Development” by Paul Dravis. Still leafing through it, but the ‘open’ vs. ‘proprietary’ software debate is sure to play an increasing role in future development discussions. This short note includes case-studies from Brazil, Tajikistan, India, and Laos.

Also of interest?: a recent World Bank event, held in collaboration with the Berkman Center for Internet and Society of Harvard Law School, Oracle and IBM, on “Evolving to Open ICT Ecosystems.”

Comments or examples of open source solutions that have had a development impact in low-income countries?

Kiva.org - P2P microfinance

The blogosphere is a-buzz about Kiva – the world’s first peer-to-peer, distributed microloan website. The site allows you to lend a small amount of money, say $25, to needy microenterprises in developing countries (for now just Uganda). You receive repayment at the end of the loan period (normally 6-12 months) without interest. If they default on the loan, your loan becomes a donation – though none of the businesses have defaulted yet.

For more see: NextBillion, WorldChanging, BoingBoing, DailyKos, TheSharpener, TimbuktuChronicles or Our Word is Our Weapon.

Update 1: Congrats to all. All of the attention generated (mostly by blogs!) means that Kiva has currently run out-of-businesses to sponsor – at least for now. (Via Alex Tabarrok)

Update 2: SocialEdge has launched The Kiva Chronicles, written by Kiva's founders.

Update 3: Y ahora también en español, ver 1 y 2.

World Summit on the Information Society

InfoDEV is hosting an online discussion in advance of the Tunis Nov. 17-18 World Summit on the Information Society. The discussion will run through November 14. The WSIS is sure to be a great event... more to follow.

A market for virtue

This Wednesday Brookings will be having an event for David Vogel’s latest book, The Market for Virtue: The Potential and Limits of Corporate Social Responsibility. Vogel claims that while CSR has resulted in numerous achievements, it should be seen as a compliment to more effective public polices - not a substitute.

Performance of state owned enterprises

Last chance! We have received numerous requests to extend the deadline of our current online discussion on ‘how to improve the performance of state enterprises' – so the discussion will now be closing on Nov. 2nd. 70 people have already sounded in.

More on brain drain

Building upon the two new ‘brain drain’ reports we discussed earlier, Ethan Zuckerman has an excellent post up on the medical brain drain from Africa:

Looking at national databases of physicians in the US, UK, Canada and Australia, [Dr. Fitzhugh Mulla] discovers that 23 to 28% of new physicians studied medicine outside the country where they are practicing. Of those emigré physicians, 40-75% are from lower income countries. This means that many nations are exporting a large portion of their trained physicians - of the 20 countries who export the highest number of physicians proportional to the number trained, 9 are in the Carribean or Sub-Saharan Africa.

What’s so good about growth?

Last week is was Joseph Stiglitz, this week Michael Mandel reviews Ben Friedman’s ‘The Moral Consequences of Economic Growth’:

Friedman has scored a dead-center hit on the critical question: Why do we value economic growth? The usual argument is that a bigger GDP -- more goods and services -- leads to happier, more satisfied citizens. But that apparently simple proposition turns out to be far more complicated. As Friedman notes, there is plenty of evidence that people judge their well-being by comparing themselves to others. As the average income in a country goes up, so do expectations. As a result, the level of GDP per person in a country, taken alone, doesn't necessarily say much about the level of happiness.

Related: Does gross national happiness mean anything to development? What is the real wealth of nations?

Donkey business

Russell Hay, a British businessman, is no stranger to asininity. While living in Namibia, he has twice driven into a donkey. On a lonely northern stretch, he swerved to avoid one, only to see it flattened by a lorry behind him.

Earlier this year, he and a friend set up Donkey Welfare of Namibia. With the Namibian government's blessing, the British outfit is planning to make donkeys glow in the dark by attaching reflective tags to their ears.

Via The Economist. We can't think of a PSD angle to this but we wanted to share it anyway…

Foundations leveraging markets

Government is moving from resource provider to catalyst and enabler. Business is globalizing and is a growing force in influencing societal well-being. Social innovations once stimulated by the public sector are increasingly seeded by business and expanded through the market. For foundations, working with companies and through markets is a critical, yet underutilized tool to unleash new resources that build assets and wealth in poor communities.

This from the new Ford Foundation report: Leveraging Business and Markets for Poor People. (Executive summary or full report). Via GiftHub.

New Latinobarómetro poll

The latest version of the always interesting Latinobarómetro poll on Latin American is out. Some findings include:

• Just 31% of Latin Americans think their country is progressing (up from 27% last year)
• A clear majority believe that a market economy is the only means by which their country can develop
• Sentiment towards privatization is improving
• Latin Americans continue to see their main problems as being unemployment, crime and poverty
• 41% of respondents knew someone who had been a victim of crime in the past 12 months (up from 33% last year)
• 70% agree that democracy is the least bad system of government
• 62% say that in no circumstances would they support a military coup (though only 51% in Ecuador, 49% in Peru, and 31% in Paraguay)

For more see Latinobarometro.org.

Update: Seems they have a blog as well.