5 Responses

1. As a follow-up to the Targeting the Poor comment – here’s a somewhat resource-intensive approach which has been honed to effectiveness by BRAC:
   http://blog.brac.net/2013/01/where-are-the-poor-look-for-them-via-the-social-network/

2. The Targeting the Poor link was disappointing – self-identification is fine if you remove barriers, but as the article says:
   “Yet even the self-targeting method was surprisingly wide of the mark said Mr. Banerjee. As many as 40% of the people identified as eligible for the benefit by researchers in their baseline survey did not come forward to sign up for help, said Mr. Banerjee.”

   That’s really weak.

3. Just a comment to say that these are great, especially the quinoa link. You actively make me smarter – thanks so much for keeping this great blog, even the random link lists like this reflect a thoughtfulness and a voice that keep me coming back.

4. @cblatts Great links Professor Blattman, & please, why is that Africa is not making any progress & there is no development ?

5. Thanks for the quinoa link. As a quinoa eater, a few people had sent me the Guardian thing recently, and while it might beg further questions, such as those in the link, it obviously wasn’t so cut and dry.