Fortnightly links: the stove that didn’t cook in the night, donors and poor governance, and more

An interesting new article in Nature on the ‘ideal’ temperature for development, and what this might tell us about the consequences of climate change (handy summary in the Guardian here).

An interesting new IMF paper on the (potential) relationship between gender inequality and economic inequality.

Oxfam’s research guidelines, which offer excellent tips all the way from constructing surveys to writing up reports. On the subject of research, the UK House of Commons Library have built on their earlier primers and have produced an excellent guide on basic statistics for real life. A great tool for increasing your own numeracy, or for using to help others.

The Washington Post tells the story of the Alliance for Clean Cookstoves—an intriguing tale of development innovation that didn’t deliver all that was hoped of it. The work hasn’t been a complete failure, but the complexities that are discussed provide a cautionary tale for those who think aid success is all about innovation.

And, finally, the journal International Organization has just published an fascinating new study by Simone Dietrich looking at why different donors respond differently to poor governance in recipient countries. (Gated article here; ungated earlier version here.)

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Terence Wood

Terence Wood is a research fellow at the Development Policy Centre. His research focuses on political governance in Western Melanesia, and Australian and New Zealand aid.

Camilla Burkot

Camilla Burkot was a Research Officer at the Development Policy Centre, and Editor of the Devpolicy Blog, from 2015 to 2017. She has a background in social anthropology and holds a Master of Public Health from Columbia University, and has field experience in Eastern and Southern Africa, and PNG. She now works for the Burnet Institute.

2 Comments

  • Thanks Ash – a good lesson all around about not over claiming regarding what any particular intervention can do.

  • Thanks for these links–I found the cookstoves one really interesting, as I’ve read some critiques of it before, but it was interesting to see it laid out in the WaPo article. For those interested in the topic, last year I wrote about some research around the claims that many orgs doing clean cookstoves work were also arguing that they were a tool to end sexual violence in refugee camps– something that researchers argued was not the case.

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