Jun 29, 2010

U.S. Lagging, Not Leading, Social Entrepreneurship

Jun 02, 2010

The Brown Revolution

It’s often discussed that philanthropy has a fad problem. Philanthropic attention tends to gravitate to the “new”, and even when these “hot” areas show success, they are infrequently carried to scale. In other cases, donors simply declare victory and move on, leaving programs that require on-going funding to spiral downward into failure.

Agriculture is one area that has been a victim of philanthropy fads. Investment poured into the sector during the 1960s and 1970s and yielded perhaps the greatest success in the history of global philanthropy: the green revolution. But the success of the green revolution in Asia led many funders to focus on other sectors, believing the problem was solved. As a result, investment in agriculture and agricultural research declined and progress on improved varieties of global staple crops slowed—and the green revolution never reached Africa.

Recently there has been some movement on this front. The Gates Foundation in particular has become vocal about agriculture in Africa in particular, initiating the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa and bringing other funders on board.

But the neglect of the agricultural sector has exposed us all to a counter-revolution, a brown revolution.

Apr 23, 2010

Esther Duflo wins John Bates Clark Medal

Today Esther Duflo was announced as the winner of the John Bates Clark Medal. The award is granted to the economist under age 40 who has “contributed the most to the profession.“ The increasing recognition of Duflo’s groundbreaking work to bring experimental economics to bear on real world questions is a ray of hope that philanthropy and public policy can learn from what works.

You can read an extensive interview with Esther Duflo here.

Apr 20, 2010

Thoughts from Day One of the Global Philanthropy Forum

Jan 07, 2010

Is Agro-Imperialism Really Agro-Opportunity?

Investors from countries with a lot of money but very little arable land—such as Saudi Arabia, South Korea and India—have purchased the rights to develop millions of acres for agriculture and export the yield for sale in their native countries. Observers implicitly conclude that the lease of Ethiopian land to foreign developers amounts to nothing less than exploitation of the poor by the wealthy. But does it have to be?

Nov 16, 2009

Saving the World By Lowering Your Expectations

Impatient optimists are like investors in subprime mortgages in 2007. They can be so blinded by the upside that they fail to do their due diligence. In the end, their impatience and pursuit of outsize returns fuels waste and disappointment. Patient optimists, by contrast, have lowered their expectations of any particular program or intervention, but not their belief in a better world over the long term. If we’re going to succeed in making the world a better place, we need to convince more people to lower their expectations, too.

Nov 11, 2009

Big Climate Impact for Little Climate Dollars

For substantially less than $10 million you can have a big impact on climate change by using the tools of behavioral economics to help individuals conserve energy. Specifically the widespread deployment of real-time use meters and commitment contracts can help people who want to save energy meet their goals—and it requires very little external funding.

Oct 15, 2009

Water Tabulations

Water use and preservation may be going increasingly high tech.

Sep 15, 2009

Progress on Climate Change. Really.

As the UN’s climate change conference draws nearer and debate on a possible cap-and-trade scheme in the US begins again, we’ll be seeing a tidal wave of reports on climate change. Almost all of them will be bad news, whether it’s further evidence of rapid change or pessimism about the prospects for concluding a meaningful agreement. But there is plenty of good news to be found.

Jun 25, 2009

Counter-productive

The new Carbon Counter in New York City is counterproductive. It gets the science exactly wrong.