Aid Thoughts

Digesting the difficult decisions of development
đź“š This is an archive of Aid Thoughts, a development economics blog that was active from 2009 to 2017. Posts are preserved in their original form.

Category: Governance

110 posts

A Checklist for the Modern Development Bureaucrat

November 01, 2017

How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb

August 19, 2015

I drink your milkshake

February 27, 2015

Malawi: The Next Generation

May 15, 2014

Don't damn the man, migrate away from him

February 10, 2014

Sexist reasons for gender equity

July 12, 2013

It's good to be the president

December 23, 2012

Get your assumptions out in the open

October 04, 2012

Dar es Salaam and the megacity

July 31, 2012

Ex-president

July 25, 2012

UK Aid, accountability and optimal logo placement

June 27, 2012

A Cost-Effective New Initiative That Puts Power in Poor People's Hands

May 18, 2012

In which Malawi’s government decides to uphold the constitution

April 08, 2012

In which Malawi's government decides to ignore the constitution

April 07, 2012

On the death of presidents and ignoring the averages

April 06, 2012

For all debts public and private

March 14, 2012

UNESCO and evil dictators

March 09, 2012

Malawi's president and the art of diplomacy

March 07, 2012

Time inconsistency, Malawi edition

February 16, 2012

A man of no importance

February 10, 2012

A Couple of Provocative Thoughts

September 15, 2011

Accountability and the Gates Foundation

September 02, 2011

Take me to the riot

July 19, 2011

Influence

June 08, 2011

When the Levee Breaks

May 19, 2011

Short on words, but long on things to say

May 03, 2011

You wanna get nuts? Come on, let's get nuts

April 29, 2011

Political security, for the price of a bag of fertiliser

April 26, 2011

No growth for you

April 22, 2011

Decline and Fall

April 20, 2011

Everyone Says You’re So Fragile

April 12, 2011

Thinking carefully about mimicry

April 11, 2011

Result!

March 18, 2011

My name is Mud

March 07, 2011

More on Transparency

March 02, 2011

The hidden obligations of transparency

February 28, 2011

New rules for Africa's resource scramble

February 21, 2011

Considering the counterfactual and the subsidising of subsistence in Malawi

February 16, 2011

Inquilab

February 15, 2011

AM I THE ONLY ONE WHO CARES ABOUT THE RULES?!

January 26, 2011

Is this the City that Launches a Thousand Charters?

January 21, 2011

Blood Chocolate

January 18, 2011

Revolution in Africa?

January 15, 2011

Pulling the Strings

January 12, 2011

Links about States

January 10, 2011

In which Gbagbo joins the 700 club

January 06, 2011

Give it away, give it away, give it away now

January 05, 2011

The sins of the social network

January 05, 2011

Revolution, Oppression, Ornithology and a semi-Charter City

January 04, 2011

MGMT

December 07, 2010

The pie in the sky

December 02, 2010

It's Complicated

November 18, 2010

Quant wars

November 16, 2010

The Retired Dictators' Old Age Home

November 11, 2010

The Value of Conflict

November 04, 2010

Observations on Election Day

November 01, 2010

Pigani kura, msipige vita!

October 30, 2010

More on Mobile Phones for Politics

October 20, 2010

A Human Thing

September 06, 2010

Religion and the Legal System do not Mix

August 20, 2010

We’ll always have Paris…

August 17, 2010

The More Things Change...

August 13, 2010

Counting desires

July 27, 2010

On the Weakness of States

July 27, 2010

Unity and Fragmentation

July 08, 2010

The baby and the bath water

June 18, 2010

More on Romer’s Great Folly

June 14, 2010

In Need of Sexing Up: Audit

May 02, 2010

The Society Wedding of the Year

April 21, 2010

We should be Scared, but not of what we’re Scared of

April 15, 2010

New Political Strategies in East Africa

April 02, 2010

Devarajan on public provision and political failure

March 25, 2010

Gideon Gono, be glad you're not North Korean

March 18, 2010

Geldof, cognitive dissonance and the Paris Declaration

March 16, 2010

Taking sides

March 08, 2010

Heroes and Villains in the Same Body

February 14, 2010

Some thoughts on and from 'It's Our Turn to Eat'

January 17, 2010

The Comforts of Daily Chaos

January 14, 2010

Street Fighting Men?

January 08, 2010

Having your carbon cake and eating it too

January 05, 2010

To smile or not to smile

December 09, 2009

A quiet debate on aid

December 03, 2009

A Very Exciting Post about Grey-Suited Bureaucracy

November 24, 2009

Owning Up to Ownership

November 19, 2009

Internal consistency

November 18, 2009

Let them vote with their feet

November 06, 2009

“Pay Me Money – Pay Respect; Don’t Insult My Intellect”

November 06, 2009

Democracy and climate change

November 03, 2009

You can build it. But they still might not come.

October 30, 2009

Some thoughts on MDGs 2.0

October 27, 2009

Taxing Times

October 23, 2009

Turning the oil frown upside down

October 22, 2009

Sachs on the challenges of global governance

October 21, 2009

Economic crimes against humanity

October 14, 2009

Living Just Enough for the City? Extended Thoughts on the Charter Cities Proposal

October 07, 2009

"That'll be two hundred trillion dollars and three cents, please..."

October 02, 2009

The dog with two bones

September 18, 2009

We Can Work It Out! We Can Work It Out!

September 15, 2009

What do you want to be when you grow up? Corrupt.

September 13, 2009

If it’s good enough for New Zealand...

September 12, 2009

A confusion of nations; a violence of states

August 27, 2009

Public or Private Questions

August 25, 2009

Otherwise how has your month been?

August 18, 2009

Promoting democracy with the subtlety of Michael Bay

August 14, 2009

Intentionally missing the point

July 18, 2009

Ghana, meet Obama

July 13, 2009

What's in a name?

July 08, 2009

Development in dangerous places?

July 07, 2009

If only you knew the power of nagging

July 06, 2009

Fighting corruption through fashion

July 01, 2009