The Graduation approach to helping people to escape from poverty was pioneered in 2002 by BRAC in Bangladesh. Today the approach is used around the world. In more than 20 years, what have we learned about how it works, when it works best, and how to implement it at scale? Shameran Abed, the Executive Director of BRAC International talks to Tim Phillips about how the Graduation approach reaches people that other programmes miss, why it works, and how it can be scaled up to meet needs around the world.

Read the full show notes

The BRAC Ultra-Poor Graduation Initiative

Multinational enterprises in every industry are shifting profits to low-tax jurisdictions. These corporate tax havens reduce tax revenues everywhere, but that hits hardest in developing countries where corporate taxes are a larger part of the overall tax take. The International Growth Centre has published a policy toolkit report into corporate tax havens. Ludvig Wier, the author, explains to Tim Phillips how profit shifting works, how a global initiative is reducing the allure of tax havens, and how AI might level the playing field for overstretched developing country tax offices.

Read the full show notes on VoxDev: https://voxdev.org/topic/public-economics/profit-shifting-global-challenge-hitting-developing-countries-hardest

IGC Policy Toolkit: Corporate tax havens and their impact on development

Vocational training is often seen as a silver bullet for unemployment and poverty, but does the evidence support that view? Why do so many training programs fail to lead to real job opportunities, and are we asking too much of these programs – or maybe the wrong questions entirely? In the latest episode of the collaboration between Yale’s Economic Growth Center and VoxDev, host Catherine Cheney is joined by Oriana Bandiera, professor of Economics at the London School of Economics, Stefano Caria, professor of economics at the University of Warwick, and Munshi Sulaiman, Director of Research at the BRAC Institute of Governance and Development and a professor in the Master of Development Studies program at BRAC University, to ask what it takes to make job skills programs work.

A fundamental part of women’s economic empowerment is helping women who want to work outside the home to find and keep a job. A major part of that decision is ensuring that they can travel to work without fear of stigma, harassment or violence on public transport. In Pakistan, a study set out to discover whether an offer of safe commuter transport would tempt women who are currently not looking for a job.

Kate Vyborny of the World Bank spoke to Tim Phillips from Lahore, where the study

took place, about the challenges women face in commuting to work and about how safe transport can change career opportunities for millions of women.

Photo credit: ADB

Read the full show notes here: https://voxdev.org/topic/infrastructure/how-safe-transport-could-unlock-womens-labour-force-participation-pakistan

How does rising external debt in low-income countries affect the natural capital that

sustains our livelihoods? A new paper focuses on three river basins that are vital to the

livelihoods and biodiversity of the countries that surround them, suggesting ways that

we can both measure and conserve that natural capital in the face of the economic

forces that threaten it. Pushpam Kumar of UN Environment Programme talks to Tim

Phillips about the alarming rise in the ratio of debt to natural capital for the 21 countries whose wealth relies on the river basins that they border, and how debt-for-nature swaps may be our best hope of avoiding both an economic and ecological disaster.

Read the full show notes here: https://voxdev.org/topic/energy-environment/debt-leading-unsustainable-exploitation-natural-resources

Geopolitical alliances are changing rapidly. Technological innovation is reshaping our economies. These trends offer a cocktail of risk and reward for countries in the global south. They are also both topics that are familiar to Simon Johnson of MIT.

Simon speaks to Tim Phillips about how policy in developing countries should respond to President Trump’s deglobalization agenda, how artificial intelligence changes the future for all countries, and where growth and jobs will come from in the future.

And of course, what it was like to win the Nobel Prize.

Read the full show notes on VoxDev: https://voxdev.org/topic/macroeconomics-growth/geopolitics-ai-future-global-development-conversation-simon-johnson

Sahel and West Africa Club: https://www.oecd.org/en/about/directorates/sahel-and-west-africa-club.html

Power and progress: https://shapingwork.mit.edu/power-and-progress/

Civil war – the latest in a long series of armed conflicts – broke out in Sudan in April

2023. Today, more than half of the population needs humanitarian aid, and almost 15

million people have been displaced. The war has also devastated the digital

infrastructure in Sudan, deepening the crisis. African Renaissance Ventures is a VC firm

that backs entrepreneurs who use technology to solve major development challenges.

Magdi Amin tells Tim Phillips about how its infrastructure might be restored, and the

risks to Sudan’s population if it is not.

Read the full show notes on VoxDev: https://voxdev.org/topic/institutions-political-economy/rebuilding-sudans-digital-infrastructure-amidst-conflict

Bangladesh's development story in the 21st century is often regarded as a model of

resilience and progress. But on 5 August 2024, student-led protests and public unrest

caused Sheikh Hasina, Bangladesh’s prime minister, to resign and flee to India. An

interim government, led by Muhammad Yunus, took over. Six months on, Bangladesh’s

political and economic future is unclear. Imran Matin, Executive Director, BRAC Institute

of Governance and Development (BIGD), is one of the experts in Bangladesh who are

attempting to discover and communicate a clearer picture of the country’s present – and its options for the future. He talks to Tim Phillips about how evidence-based policy can give the country a path forward.

With populist politicians taking power around the world, policymakers are relying less

on research and expertise, as their political narratives prioritise emotion and identity

over facts. This may have long-term consequences for global development: not least

in the US, where the Agency for International Development has been dismantled,

with thousands of staff laid off. Critical development programs have been halted, and

the future of US foreign assistance is in limbo. In the latest episode of the

collaboration between Yale’s Economic Growth Center and VoxDev, host Catherine

Cheney asks Rory Stewart, former UK Secretary of State for International

Development, Stefan Dercon of the University of Oxford and formerly chief

economist of the UK Department for International Development, and Trudi Makhaya,

former economic advisor to the President of South Africa, how we can ensure that

facts and evidence still matter in policymaking.

Check out the full show notes here: https://voxdev.org/topic/institutions-political-economy/development-dialogues-future-evidence-based-policymaking-and

What are the price impacts of cash transfer programs? Do they raise prices as well

as incomes? And what is the impact on people in the community who don’t receive

the transfer? Eeshani Kandpal of the Center for Global Development is one of the

researchers who has investigated this topic. She talks to Tim Phillips about the

conclusions of her own research, the insights of other economists, and the

implications for policy.