Feb 26, 2010

A Lesson from Haiti: Are Search and Rescue Teams Worth It?

The images of people being rescued from the rubble in Haiti by international search and rescue teams were inspiring and have led some to call for more investment in search and rescue teams. But looking at the data, I think that’s exactly the wrong lesson from the experience in Haiti. As a public health practitioner, and someone dedicated to outcomes measurement, it seems likely to me that SAR-focused relief efforts improperly subordinate the good of the many to the good of a very few. In other words, there are much better ways to direct disaster relief than SAR.

Feb 24, 2010

Helping Haiti’s Children, Part II

What should people do who want to help Haiti’s children?

Jan 22, 2010

Will Donor Advice Do Any Good?

As I see more and more advice on giving to Haiti appear, I’ve begun to wonder: how will we know if this proliferation of good advice has had an impact on the Haitian relief and recovery effort? What metrics will tell us that donors to Haiti and the nonprofits working there learned the lessons of the tsunami, Katrina, and Nargis?

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.

Oct 28, 2009

Microfinance: Autism or Hormone Replacement Therapy?

This has been a banner year for gathering real evidence about microfinance. But does all of this research matter? Will it change what donors believe about microfinance? In other words, is microfinance more like autism or Hormone Replacement Therapy?

Oct 12, 2009

Even More Questions About Kiva

Today I saw a Kiva document that, for me, points to a far bigger problem with Kiva than those already pointed out. Two points in the document floored me. First, all losses from Kiva-securitized loans are borne by the Kiva user. Second, Kiva’s monthly repayment reports are not based on actual repayment data.

May 04, 2009

2009 Index of Global Philanthropy and Remittances Published Amid Steep Drops in Remittance Flows

How can policy and development encourage the use of remittance funds for positive development ends? Tim Ogden and Laura Starita, the editors of Philanthropy Action, together with Heidi Metcalf, the deputy director of the Hudson Institute, tackled that question in Hudson’s 2009 Index of Global Philanthropy and Remittances.

Mar 06, 2009

Stimulus Funding for Effectiveness Research Worth Following

One part of the Obama administration’s proposed budget provides an example worth following for private philanthropy—investing in effectiveness research. Questions abound in nearly every social area, from education to health to economic development. Behavioral economics is also at work on donors and funders as they make choices about what to invest in. The impulse—as with that cookie—is to earmark money directly for recipients, because the gain seems immediate. But absent any evidence that programs work, it is a false gain. Instead, we should remember to support the research projects that can tell us for sure whether the gain is sustaining or not, and be willing to act on the evidence, even if we don’t like it.

Nov 21, 2008

Interview: Roger Frank of Developing World Markets on the Credit Crisis and Microfinance

Attention in the financial markets has been focused on the struggles of developed world institutions. To date, there hasn’t been much coverage of the impact of the financial crisis on microfinance—either on the flow of new capital to microfinance or the impact on MFIs that have borrowed money in hard currency while making loans in local currencies. Roger Frank is a partner at Developing World Markets, an investment banking and asset management firm specializing in microfinance, and has a front-row seat as the credit crisis increasingly impacts emerging market countries and microfinance. Roger spoke with Philanthropy Action recently about how the credit crisis is affecting investors and MFIs.

Sep 16, 2008

Free and Fair Trade in Healthcare