Can aid money ever deliver intended results perfectly? In an attempt to address this question, Nancy Birdsall and William D. Savedoff coined the term Cash on Delivery Aid (COD Aid). The basic idea behind the COD Aid is that donors make a binding commitment to developing country governments to provide aid according to the outputs/results that the government delivers.
In collaboration with Alyssa Gebert and Supal Desai.
The relationship between conflict and development is a highly complex one. With recent news coverage of the atrocities in the DRC, conflict has been on the minds of many in the development community. Even the World Bank launched a website devoted to conflict and development depicting images, videos, and maps for a more interactive approach to understanding the role of aid in fragile and conflict sensitive areas. Continue reading
A recent philanthropic deed was announced on Oprah Winfrey’s show by the 26-year-old billionaire Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg. Mark announced his donation of $100 million to the Newark public school system. According to the Wall Street Journal, the gift represented an intentional decision by Zuckerberg to not wait until the end of his career to focus on philanthropy.
Zuckerberg admitted that he did not have a strong connection to Newark. Yet he intends to help the 45,000 students, because Newark is one of the lowest performing school districts in the country.
Despite the generous gesture, Zuckerberg’s giving is surrounded by controversy. While some critics are unhappy about Zuckerberg’s unwillingness to directly visit the school and be involved with the authorities, other industry experts wonder if Zuckerberg’s announcement is genuine philanthropy or image control considering it came ahead of the opening of The Social Network, an unflattering film about Zuckerberg’s rapid rise.
Besides dwelling on the social media mogul’s intent, the focus should be on how the $100 million can be used. As the New York Times reports that “the gift is .. an extraordinary sum not only for a district with an $800 million annual operating budget, but also for any publicly financed government agency.” The NYT notes that it is not yet clear how the money will be used, or over what period. The buzz around Zuckerberg’s philanthropic gesture may have a larger impact than his actual donation.
In addition to rounding up cash for investment ($57 billion of it to development projects over the last five years), the Clinton Global Initiative can also round up people (more than 1,300 of them) to the CGI’s sixth Annual Meeting held this week in NYC. Attendees to the meeting included over 64 current and former heads of state, hundreds of CEOs of major companies, and leaders from the philanthropic world and non-governmental organizations.
Started in New York yesterday, this year’s annual meeting is focused largely on the following four main topic areas, or “Action Areas”:
Adhering to prior anticipation, the meeting began with a series of pledges to help millions of people in Pakistan, Haiti, and the US’s Gulf Coast. Eric Schmidt, Google Inc.’s CEO, pledged $1 million to help Pakistan recover from floods that devastated the country and a Web-based computer application that helps rescuers find people missing in natural disasters. NRG Energy Inc., of Princeton, New Jersey, pledged $1 million to install solar power for water pumps, schools, and street lighting in the town of Boucan Carre in Haiti. EarthEcho International committed to empower youth in the Gulf states and elsewhere through a new citizen journalism initiative. Many of the initiatives were focused on Haiti, the country to which Clinton is a UN special envoy and heads efforts to raise money for its reconstruction. Continue reading
The U.K based organization-Charities Aid Foundation recently
published a report (pdf) using a Gallup survey on the charitable behavior of people in 153 countries (representing 95% of the world’s population). The U.S. ranks number five tied with Switzerland, and falls short by 2% from top notch Australia. The survey is simple. It asks people which/if any of the following they have done in the past month:
In addition to assessing charitable behavior, CAF compared it to national GDP and the population’s wellbeing (as measured by Gallup’s question assessing how a person feels about their life). Interestingly, the link between happiness and giving is stronger than the link between wealth and giving, suggesting that “giving is a more emotional act, rather than a rational one.”
Blogal Prosperity by the Center for Global Prosperity 