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Marc F. Bellemare Posts

Published June 15, 2011

A Division of Labor for Aid?

That is a new idea advocated by Nemat Shafik, the outgoing Permanent Secretary in charge of the UK’s Department for International Development (DFID) in a new working paper. For Shafik,

  • The United Nations should be in charge of peace and security issues and humanitarian affairs;
  • The World Bank and regional development banks should be in charge of development finance;
  • Bilateral agencies (e.g., USAID and DFID) should be in charge of delivering health and education interventions; and
  • Foundations and philanthropies should be in charge of development innovations.

This strikes me as a sensible idea. The division of labor suggested by Shafik would increase accountability — something that is in short supply in the development world. The only difficulty is that such a division of labor will be extremely difficult to enforce if it comes to pass, what with everyone trying to get credit for “helping out.”

(HT: Roving Bandit.)

Published June 14, 2011

Food Prices Over the Last Ten Years

There was a very nice infographic in the Guardian last week showing the evolution of food prices by food group — meat, dairy, cereals, oils and fats, and sugar — over the last ten years.

By the way, this is the same data I have been using for the paper I am writing on the relationship between food prices and political unrest.