VoxDev Development Economics

Tahir Andrabi, a member of the Global Education Evidence Advisory Panel, discusses the urgent need for evidence-based education policies following the Education World Forum in London. He emphasizes how policymakers often react to challenges against their ideas. The conversation dives into the lessons learned from COVID-19, revealing both the disruptions and opportunities it created for reform. Andrabi also highlights the importance of independent experts and local insights in crafting effective educational interventions, ensuring that policies serve the needs of all students.

Dominic Rohner, an academic from the University of Lausanne and author of 'The Peace Formula,' delves into the devastating impact of conflict on communities and economies. He discusses the alarming rise of global armed conflicts since WWII and how social engagement can reduce violence. Rohner critiques international peacekeeping strategies, arguing they often support corrupt regimes. He outlines democracy's role in stability through Switzerland's historical context, emphasizing leadership qualities necessary for effective peacebuilding.

Subha Mani, a specialist in vocational training's impact, and Neha Agarwal, a researcher on apprenticeship models, dive deep into youth employment challenges in developing countries. They reveal that conventional vocational programs often fail, yet certain training methods show impressive results. The conversation highlights the critical role of quality implementation and supplementary support. With a 25% increase in earnings linked to effective programs, the importance of innovating training approaches can reshape livelihoods for many.

David Evans, a leading expert on father involvement, and Pamela Jakiela, a specialist in parenting program adaptations, join Tim Phillips to discuss the crucial role fathers play in early childhood development. They explore how father engagement can complement maternal care and the alarming absence of fathers in low and middle-income countries. The conversation delves into the need for supportive policies and targeted interventions to enhance fathers' roles, showcasing successful examples from diverse cultural contexts.

Paul Collier has for many years challenged the conventional wisdom of development economics, bringing our attention to the real-world impact of policies many of us take for granted. His new book is called Left Behind. It is about how some countries or regions in the world fall behind, and what we can do to help them recover. In this week’s episode he talks to Tim Phillips about what causes a place to be left behind, the difficulty in stopping that downward spiral, and what the places that have recovered have in common.

Lisa Ho discusses the impact of flexible working arrangements on enhancing female labor force participation rates in India, exploring women's preferences for paid work, the use of gig work for machine learning algorithms, an experiment offering tasks to married women in Mumbai, hyper-local offices for women, and the impact of flexible work options on job take-up decisions.

Guest Emily Oehlsen from Open Philanthropy explains how they choose causes to maximize impact, including diversification in health interventions, successful lead contamination reduction project in Bangladesh, maximizing health and economic benefits, estimating health benefits with DALYs, and setting impact bars in philanthropy grant-making.

Charles Kenny discusses rethinking the extreme poverty line and proposes alternative ways to measure poverty effectively. He explores the origins, methodology, and evolution of measuring extreme poverty, suggesting updates like consistent calculations over time and a deprivation measure based on Sustainable Development Goals for monitoring progress.

In developing countries, we know comparatively little about how well the elderly cope with problems like depression and loneliness. There are few policies to support sufferers, partly because of this lack of data. Maddie McKelway and Garima Sharma tell Tim Phillips about some of the surprising revelations of a new cross-country study and suggest ways in which policy can improve the mental health of seniors.

Asif Saleh, executive director of BRAC, discusses the impact of climate change in Bangladesh, highlighting adaptation strategies for vulnerable communities. The podcast explores the urgency of supporting developing countries, the importance of tailored crisis response programs, the crucial role of climate finance, and the challenges in allocating government resources for climate policy.