by Mark Weston | Jan 15, 2009 | Africa, Economics and development
Last May I wrote about a World Bank scheme to pay Tanzanians to test negative for sexually transmitted infections (a proxy for HIV/AIDS), and about the positive effects on health of Mexico’s Oportunidades conditional cash transfer programme (South Africa’s pension scheme has also had beneficial health impacts, as have programmes to pay US drug users not to inject).
A new study by Rebecca Thornton lends further support to the idea that financial incentives should play a part in HIV prevention. In a randomised trial of over 2,000 Malawians, she gave some participants money in return for testing for HIV and finding out their results. Those receiving the cash were on average twice as likely to turn up to be tested as those left empty-handed. Even pretty small sums, amounting to a tenth of a day’s wage, had a significant effect on the likelihood of getting tested.
Unfortunately, Ms Thornton also found that being tested didn’t have much impact on sexual behaviour (though several other studies have found that knowing you’re HIV-positive makes you less likely to indulge in unsafe sex). Still, cash incentives could be used to persuade the reluctant to adopt other preventative measures, like male circumcision, condom use or, as the World Bank hopes, to find their own ways of staying negative.
H/T Chris Blattman.
by David Steven | Jan 14, 2009 | Global system
According to the Telegraph, the government is considering setting up a ‘bad bank’ to take on the toxic assets that continue to drag down the UK’s financial sector.
One option is for the government to ‘buy’ all their crap at some unspecified price. Sounds like a good deal, no?
Well actually: no. Not if you’re a British bank. The problem, you see, is that this would make you own up to how bad things really are. And that would never do.
As the Telegraph report, “if banks have not written down the value of their assets aggressively enough, they may have to suddenly crystalise new losses when assets are sold to the Government.”
I remember when it was OK to feel smug as the Japanese suffered through a decade in which their ‘zombie banks’ refused to own up to the extent of their losses (see this post for more).
Now, it seems, we’re in the same position. Simply shovelling money at our financial overlords/parasites is not enough – we have to make them feel good about themselves, however badly they’ve screwed up…
by Charlie Edwards | Jan 14, 2009 | Africa
The image shows the areas in Africa most at risk from Malaria.
by Charlie Edwards | Jan 14, 2009 | Global system, North America
[vimeo]http://vimeo.com/2424744[/vimeo]
by Mark Weston | Jan 14, 2009 | Africa, Conflict and security
A few weeks back I interviewed John Robb, the military futurist and author of ‘Brave New War.’ We discussed the irruption of Latin American drug gangs into West Africa. Robb sees this as symptomatic of a broader push by “global guerrillas” – armed transnational criminal organisations – to take advantage of weaknesses in the global system:
We have a global market system that is subverting the nation state, so gaps where local control is lost are going to spring up all over the place, even in relatively developed states. There will be lapses where non-state groups like global guerrillas take control. If they’ve found a hole in West Africa, there are no barriers to their expansion.
Although they are drawn to “hollow states” like Guinea-Bissau, however, contrary to dire warnings of instability from the UN Office on Drugs and Crime the South Americans are unlikely to want to shake up the status quo too much. According to John Robb:
They don’t want warfare in West Africa – they want the maximum level of corruption and to be left alone, with bureaucratic apparatus geared towards helping them to do business. Almost across the board you’ll see that non-state groups are not trying to take over the national government. They don’t want that burden – it raises the profile, puts you on the international radar screen and leads to economic blockades. If there’s a nominal government in place they’ll keep the infrastructure up – they’re parasites off the infrastructure.
I asked Robb how Africa might deal with the problem, which got him talking about resilient communities: (more…)
