PSD Blog - The World Bank Group

Crisis Talk...the blog!

The World Bank Group is bringing its financial expertise to bear on the crisis that is now hitting emerging markets in a new blog called Crisis Talk. Perhaps they can do for emerging markets what other bloggers have done for the developed world...

The Evolving Regulatory Context for Private Education in Emerging Economies

Note from the Editor: The following post initiates an online discussion on private education that will take place on the PSD blog between November 3-14. The discussion will be moderated by the IFC's Health and Education Department and will include posts from guest commentators from outside of the World Bank Group.   

Background

In May 2008, IFC, in conjunction with the Human Development Network at the World Bank, hosted a Colloquium focusing on ‘The Evolving Regulatory Context for Private Education in Emerging Economies’. This event brought together a wide range of participants including government representatives, regulatory organizations, private providers, commentators and World Bank Group representatives. The Colloquium’s purpose was to initiate a ‘conversation’ between stakeholders involved in the regulation of private education to facilitate an open exchange of ideas and to share experiences. The online discussion provides the opportunity to extend the conversation with a wider audience.

The Online Discussion

The purpose of the online discussion is to provide a forum for stakeholders to discuss key questions relating to the evolving nature of regulation of private education.  It will provide an opportunity to share experiences and examples of good practice to facilitate informed policy development and implementation.

Even Princetonians do it...

Blogging, that is. I just ran across what appears to be their one-and-a-half month old blog: Princeton University Press blog. It's a lot of election coverage cum financial crisis commentary. The tenor of the conversation? Somewhere in the nerdy-academic-brilliant sphere - I expected no less! Here's a taste of the conversation:

You’re going to hear a lot about derivatives in the coming months. These very complicated financial instruments—which Warren Buffet termed “weapons of mass financial destruction”—will be blamed for much of the mess we find ourselves in; they also kicked your sister and stole your car keys along the way, to judge from the tone of rhetoric on the subject. But blaming derivatives for our troubles is a little like blaming the gun for a stick-up (idea for bumper sticker: “Derivatives don’t kill economies, people kill economies.” Too dorky?). Derivatives are neutral parties, equally capable of financing innovation and improving lives as they are at sowing the seeds for financial ruin.

Vodafone: Keep It Simple, Stupid

Nick Hughes, the head of Vodafone's international mobile payment solutions, recently gave a talk at CGAP about the company's work in Kenya, Afghanistan, and Tanzania. If I might sum up the talk in just a few words: KISS (Keep It Simple, Stupid). Less than two years ago, Vodafone rolled out M-PESA, a mobile payments service in Kenya. M-Pesa now has some 4 million subscribers and 3,500 frontline agents. Nick made it pretty clear that this rapid uptake far exceeded any expectations that Vodafone had when they started offering this service. 

The key to Vodafone's success? They focused entirely on offering a single service, and doing it well. M-PESA does not offer any banking services - no credit, no microloans, no savings. Rather, they simply offer a way to transfer money between two people. M-PESA didn't even originally plan to create payments for things like utilities or school fees - they discussed the possibility and decided to leave that to a later date. M-PESA makes its money by charging commissions on money transfers rather than on investing money.

A lesson in openness

I just stumbled upon the BBC's Common Platform blog. Here's how the blog's author describes the purpose of the website:

The BBC is opening up to the people and communities that fund it—sharing content, code, talent and resources. At Common Platform I'm documenting the changes as they take place, talking to the people making them happen and asking questions of those who'd rather they didn't.

Although still in its early days, the blog already reads like a fascinating diary of an organisation's attempt to open up and become more transparent and accountable to its constituencies. It is particulary refreshing to read interviews with "real" BBC staff, see their pictures and read their views about barriers to sharing content and resources with the external world.

When shall we see an equivalent website for development institutions?

(Something to add to my development 2.0 wishlist).

Liberalization and inequality

The OECD has just released a massive report on inequality - see the press release, data and related materials, and the report itself, Growing Unequal? (gated). Now that a recession is beating at the gates of most of the rich countries, questions will undoubtedly be raised about how the pain is metted out to various income groups. Calls for re-regulation of many sectors of the rich economies will likely follow. And there's no doubt that financial sector regulation is due for a very close examination.

But it's worth looking at some of the countries that have liberalized the most in the past two decades to see what the consequences have been. Two things strike me in the figure below (taken from the report) concerning inequality in the post-communist countries of eastern Europe.

       

A second time in Second Life

For the second time in a row, the Doing Business team is venturing into Second Life - an online virtual world - to release its annual report. I'll be assisting Dahlia Khalifa with the presentation on October 30th, 2pm EST. If you want to join in, you can watch streaming video of the event. The more adventurous among you can get an avatar - registration on Second Life is free - and teleport to our 'build' on this island.      

To get a feel for Second Life, check out Dahlia's interview yesterday on the upcoming virtual release of Doing Business 2009 on the Real Biz in SL show. (Dahlia handled the interview like a pro, this being her second year in Second Life.) The interview appears after the jump.

Cross-posted on the Doing Business blog.

Greenspan, chastened

Today the New York Times reports that Greenspan Concedes Flaws in His Deregulatory Approach. His solution for dealing with financial regulation going forward?

...companies selling mortgage-backed securities [should] be required to hold a significant number themselves.

History repeating itself? Let's hope not...

One of the factors often pointed to as a cause of the Great Depression was a series of competitive devaluations - 'beggar-thy-neighbor' policies that turned into a lose-lose proposition for industrialized countries. A similar downward spiral has revealed itself during the current financial crisis.

Many countries are competing for scare capital through a variety of means, for instance, through bank deposit guarantees. Once one country makes a guarantee, others feel the pressure to do the same or see deposits depart their country. A diplomatic row broke out between Britain and Iceland over this issue just a few weeks ago. But most high-income countries have mechanisms that can help coordinate and limit the potential damage of 'beggar-thy-neighbor' policies: witness the recent EU summit on the financial crisis.

Gender and Business Performance: Compliance vs. Voluntary Reporting?

On Tuesday, Calvert mutual funds released a report entitled “Examining the Cracks in the Ceiling: A Survey of Corporate Diversity Practices in the Calvert Social Index." It spells out the business case for gender diversity and family-friendly benefits. Surveys included in the report indicate that:

• 79% of female consumers surveyed by the Women's Business Enterprise National Council in 2007 stated that "knowing a company purchases from women-owned businesses would compel them to try the product or services from that company, even if they were not a current customer."
• 81% of female respondents noted that "awareness of a company’s mission to buy from women-owned businesses would moderately or significantly solidify their brand loyalty".
• "Costs associated with employee turnover can reach 30-50% of the annual salary of entry-level employees, 150% of the annual salary of middle level employees, and up to 400% of the annual salary for specialized, high level employees". 

So why are companies reluctant to publicly release information on their gender work and diversity policies? We know that investors increasingly require a broader spectrum of information in order to better understand companies’ ability to fully manage risks and opportunities in their operations. In its report, Calvert suggests that increased disclosure is needed. “To manage diversity, companies have to be able to measure it.”