development « Many Possibilities

Three reasons why M4D may be bad for Development

By Steve Song, on November 1st, 2011

Fair warning, this post is a slightly intemperate and possibly ill-advised rant but sometimes you just have to get something off your chest if only to enable someone else to tell you how wrong you are. I have previously raised my “issue” with the theme of Mobiles for Development or M4D as it has come [...] [...]

African Women and American Academics

By Steve Song, on May 28th, 2009

I find myself wondering if I am the only one dismayed by the “mudwrestling” going on among Dambisa Moyo, Jeffrey Sachs and William Easterly… and others. In case you haven’t heard, Dambisa Moyo has written a provocative book on the merits of development assistance. Her book, Dead Aid, challenges some of the accepted wisdom about [...] [...]

ICT Access and Usage in Africa

By Steve Song, on April 30th, 2009

In a couple of recent posts, I have mentioned the percentage of disposable income spent by Africans on mobile communication. While I have posted links to the research, I think it is worth singling out the work of Research ICT Africa. What is in desperately short supply in Africa is rigorous, demand-side evidence of ICT [...] [...]