Friends of African Village Libraries (I post regularly here)- Burkina Faso libraries December 2025 newsletter
- COLAU’s latest newsletter with updates from August to December
- Some photos from Nyariga Community Library in Ghana
- Rapport de mission d’une équipe de ABVBF à Waly
- Visite du centre de lecture et d’étude de Béréba (CLEB)
- Don de livres par ABVBF à l’école primaire publique de Waly
- Sortie de la BMP: Ste Thérèse de Houndé, Burkina Faso
- Distribution des livres CMH aux élèves de l’école B de Koumbia, Burkina Faso
- Night activities at Sumbrungu Community Library, Ghana
- Gowrie-Kunkua night reading, Ghana
Category Archives: Development thinking
Should you read the 2018 World Development Report? Not if you care about libraries and reading books (fiction and picture books)
Public and school libraries and reading books (fiction and picture books) get not a single mention in the 200 page WDR report that proclaims it is “the first ever devoted entirely to education.” The report is full of analysis of … Continue reading
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Where to donate to for Puerto Rico? Center for a New Economy
An institution on the island I respect a lot is the Center for a New Economy, and right after the hurricane they set up a relief fund. I think they will be very wise stewards of donated money. One can … Continue reading
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Interview with Liu Cixin (English subtitles)
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Are you a social scientist or historian who disdains the idea of counterfactuals? Get thee away, Satan.
A nice summary of a general problem in the social sciences, from Eric Hilt: The historians of capitalism would also have benefitted from incorporating counterfactuals into their analysis. These are, of course, thought experiments in which some condition is changed, … Continue reading
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Understatement of the year, but so true: Supervision matters for effective public services
This is obvious and true, but well worth the experiment because it has to be reinforced over and over again for NGOs and government: We conclude that sustained supervision is crucial for achieving persistent improvements in contexts where the lack … Continue reading
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The AfLIA Leadership Academy – Call for Applications
AfLIA is collaborating with the Public Library Association of the USA (PLA) to establish the AfLIA Leadership Academy aimed at: Building the knowledge, skills and confidence of library leaders to act in innovative and creative ways in meeting community needs … Continue reading
Posted in Development thinking, Reading
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Great commentary by Hamidou Anne about Macron comments #Africa #France
And a chance to look up the word élucubrations! Frères Africains, consacrons notre énergie à ce qui en vaut la peine ! Si les élucubrations d’un enfant gâté de la République nous font autant sortir de nos gonds, c’est nous … Continue reading
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Great article about development of public infrastructure in Upper East, Ghana
Only in this region will you find a ‘shifting’ airport site. What was supposed to be an airport started at Paga, Ghana’s border town near Burkina Faso, only as an airstrip. And it was in uninterrupted use until Burkina Faso … Continue reading
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Bikes for girls really good, laptops for kids “meh”: latest economic development research in AEJ-Applied
From American Economic Journal: Applied Economics Vol. 9 No. 3 July 2017 (11) Technology and Child Development: Evidence from the One Laptop per Child Program Julian Cristia, Pablo Ibarrarán, Santiago Cueto, Ana Santiago and Eugenio Severín This paper presents results … Continue reading
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DCE William Baah now basically being blamed for death of Captain Mahama
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New photos books for Burkina Faso libraries published in fastpencil
I am so proud of our team in Burkina Faso, especially Sanou Dounko, Guy Roland Hema and Alidou Boué, who have been creating photo books for printing and distribution to the Burkina Faso libraries. Interns Beth Borowsky and Maria Haddad … Continue reading
Posted in Burkina Faso, Development thinking, Education effects
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Body language of DCE sacked over galamsey and death Cpt Mahama
The District Chief Executive for Upper Denkyira West District in the Central, Daniel Appianing was sacked last week (by President Nana Akufo-Addo directly, apparently!) for suggesting that Captain Mahama- found murdered in a brutal way was responsible for protecting Chinese … Continue reading
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Nowhere to Run: Nigeria’s Climate and Environmental Crisis
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Ghana’s ‘galamsey soldiers’ scandal?
The Minister of Lands and Natural Resources, Mr John Peter Amewu, had challenged the leadership of the Ghana Armed Forces (GAF) to come clean on the activities of some soldiers who have been providing security at illegal mining sites. The … Continue reading
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Russ Roberts realizes he didn’t make the cut for “Team Development”
I found this exchange between Lant Pritchett and Russ Roberts priceless. I was on a long run, and nearly keeled over laughing. I checked my jersey, to see what my number was on Team Development. Yup, 4657. But then I … Continue reading
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For people who teach de Mel, McKenzie and Woodruff (returns to women micro-entrepreneurs =0!)… a possible important new complication
In a 2009 paper, David McKenzie and coauthors Chris Woodruff and Suresh de Mel find that giving cash grants to male entrepreneurs in Sri Lanka has a positive and significant return, while giving the same to women did not. David … Continue reading
Posted in Development thinking, Gender
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Gender in China in 2017
An Junxi’s father really wanted a son. “But I was born a girl, so my dad just thought, ‘Well, she’s young, so we’ll just dress her up like a boy,’” Ms. An said, straddling a lounge chair — full manspread … Continue reading
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Five Chinese to be tried for illegal mining in Ghana
It emerged during the court proceedings that the A-G had filed an affidavit in opposition to the bail application. It pleaded with the court not to grant bail because the activities of the five Chinese contravened the Minerals and Mining … Continue reading
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Estimates of Missing Women in Twentieth Century China
The sex ratio at birth in China began to deviate from the normal range in the early 1980s, and has continued to rise during the past three decades. Though some optimistic research studies assert that the sex ratio at birth … Continue reading
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The Sex Ratio at Birth for 5,338,853 Deliveries in China from 2012 to 2015: A Facility-Based Study
Seems like exactly the kind of study needed to confirm that the sex ratio is and has been skewed, and the issue was not just an underreporting problem as argued by Shi and Kennedy. There were 2,785,513 boys and 2,549,269 … Continue reading
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Michael Kevane 