A recent flurry of articles have claimed that female leaders are better at fighting coronavirus. There are many things wrong with this statement – most obviously that it’s too soon to judge – but it did get me thinking about the connection between political alignment and gender. One possible interpretation is that left-wing parties are more likely to take positive action against coronavirus, and also more likely to elect female leaders. The former is currently unprovable, but is the latter…

To run a good online meeting, you need to understand why most online meetings are so terrible. The first reason is that participants get distracted. Think of the slack-jawed, bored-looking participants of a typical in-person meeting. Now allow these people to sit alone, checking their email or browsing Facebook without anyone noticing. It’s no surprise that, in most online meetings, nobody except the speaker pays any attention to what is being said. Secondly, it’s difficult and intimidating to speak online.…

How much is spent on programmes that use the market systems development (MSD) approach? A quick guess (based on the BEAM Exchange programme index), is about a billion dollars over the last five years. Enough money to raise reasonable questions about the effectiveness, value for money, and impact of the approach. The BEAM Exchange led a response to these questions, putting together an evidence map of evaluations and assessments of MSD programmes which meet quality criteria. They’ve quickly amassed a…

Want to join a small, enthusiastic, and flexible team working on some of the most exciting challenges in international development? Then think about joining us – read the job description below, or click here for the pdf. 1.1         Introduction DevLearn is a consulting firm specialising in international development monitoring, evaluation, implementation and communications. Our work focuses on sustainable economic growth through agriculture, urbanisation, and industrialisation. We are particularly interested in solutions derived from systems thinking and how economic growth can…

Let me reveal a secret. When I worked as a freelance consultant, about five years ago, I was regularly included on multiple bids for international development programmes, mostly as a part-time monitoring and results measurement expert. If all had been successful, I would have been be required to work considerably more than the number of working hours in a day. Here’s another secret. The same is true of every consultant. Mostly, it works out – not all bids are successful,…

I get really frustrated by aid reform think-pieces which offer lofty suggestions for improving the aid system, while ignoring the dysfunctional, messy reality of how the system actually functions. Many of the things we complain about – ludicrous accountability requirements, inflexible projects, and a neglect of local knowledge – are not bugs but features, adopted because they satisfy the interests of aid stakeholders. Duncan Green on From Poverty To Power offered some great suggestions on how to improve aid in…

It’ll taste good, I promise I’ve worked on or reviewed hundreds of projects inflicting training on small African businesses. They all follow a similar pattern; find some people selling fruit by the side of the road (“entrepreneurs”), find a classroom (“supportive learning environment”) and encourage them to sit through tedious lectures (“participatory learner-centric delivery”). Now I’m becoming a beneficiary myself – I’ve just started a small business training programme, running in London. It’s important that evaluators understand the perspectives of…

The business owner I was interviewing turned red with anger. She tried to speak, but was too emotional to get any words out. After a pause, she managed to splutter out an answer. “The bureaucracy is crazy!” she told me. “For the last reporting period, I delivered ten boxes of receipts to the donor. For the next reporting period, they want even more! I spend more time on reporting than I spend running my business.”[1] Anyone who works in private…

Market systems programmes have been remarkably successful. Even allowing for a healthy scepticism about their reported results, the best-know programmes have supported hundreds of thousands, maybe millions of farmers to increase their income. But few market systems programmes have created significant numbers of jobs. The above programmes do report numbers of jobs created – but the results are miniscule. By the end of 2017, for example, Market Development Facility had raised incomes of 44,150 households; but created under a thousand…

For many programmes, running an impact assessment is like going to the doctor for an embarrassing medical condition. A patient with such a condition may prefer not to think about the issue until the last moment. Eventually the pain is too much to ignore, so the patient looks for the cheapest and quickest solution available. They get a cursory inspection from the doctor, try to ignore any bad news that comes out of it, and make sure that nobody ever…