Clifford Geertz; Altered Foundation of Anthropology - washingtonpost.com

Clifford Geertz; Altered Foundation of Anthropology - washingtonpost.com:

"In his most influential book, The Interpretation of Cultures (1973), Dr. Geertz described culture as 'a system of inherited conceptions expressed in symbolic forms by means of which people communicate, perpetuate and develop their knowledge about and attitudes toward life.'"

I am an admirer of Dr. Geertz' work. His was a useful life! JAD

IGs Probe Allegations On Global Warming Data - washingtonpost.com

Read the full article by Juliet Eilperin in The Washington Post of November 2, 2006.

"Inspectors general at two agencies have begun an investigation into whether the Bush administration has suppressed government scientists' research on global warming, officials at NASA and the Commerce Department confirmed yesterday."

Justices Challenge EPA's Arguments in Clean Air Act Case - washingtonpost.com

The Duke Power Riverbend Steam Station power plant
in Mount Holley, N.C.
Source: Duke Energy
Read the full article by Charles Lane in The Washington Post of November 2, 2006.

"Supreme Court justices took a skeptical view of an Environmental Protection Agency crackdown on air pollution from electric power plants yesterday as the court heard oral arguments in a major case on the authority of the federal government to punish violations of the Clean Air Act.

"At issue is a wave of lawsuits begun by the EPA during the last two years of the Clinton administration in which the agency sought to force utilities to equip their refurbished older plants with state-of-the-art pollution control equipment. The EPA said it was enforcing its long-established view of the Clean Air Act's requirements. But companies objected, saying the EPA was unfairly imposing a new and stricter interpretation of ambiguous federal regulations.

"At yesterday's argument, most of the justices who spoke up seemed to agree with industry's view. 'What I'm concerned about is that companies can get whipsawed,' said Justice Antonin Scalia.

When Sean H. Dona, a lawyer for Environmental Defense, a private organization defending the EPA enforcement actions, told the court that the agency's regulations were 'clear on their face,' Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. interjected, 'That's an audacious statement.'"

Comment: A faction of the Republican Party, including decision makers in the Bush Administration, is skeptical of scientific evidence and supportive of industrial interests especially in the area of environmental regulation. It appears that that faction has succeeded in gaining a significant voice in the Supreme court. JAD

A couple of websites that sort truth from fiction

Quackwatch

Urban Legends and Folklore

"Security Council Seat Tied to Aid: Studies Cite Much More U.S. Assistance for Poor Nations"

Lead: "Republican and Democratic administrations have insisted for decades they do not engage in the grubby vote-buying practices that are common in elections for key U.N. posts." The article also states: "Yet poor countries that serve on the influential Security Council typically receive substantially more U.S. aid dollars and find it easier to obtain loans or grants from financial institutions that are strongly influenced by the United States and other economic powerhouses, according to recent academic studies......A two-year seat on the Security Council, for instance, can generate a 59 percent spike in U.S. assistance, according to a study by two Harvard University scholars that tracked U.S. economic and military assistance from 1946 to 2001. In times of crisis, U.S. aid to some member countries has increased by as much as 170 percent. Those aid levels tend to recede after the country leaves the 15-nation council." Colum Lynch, The Washington Post, November 1, 2006.

Read the original study:

How Much Is a Seat on the Security Council
Worth? Foreign Aid and Bribery at the United Nations
Ilyana Kuziemko and Eric Werker

Ten of the 15 seats on the U.N. Security Council are held by rotating members serving two-year terms. We find that a country’s U.S. aid increases by 59 percent and its U.N. aid by 8 percent when it rotates onto the council. This effect increases during years in which key diplomatic events take place (when members’ votes should be especially valuable), and the timing of the effect closely tracks a country’s election to, and exit from, the council. Finally, the U.N. results appear to be driven by UNICEF, an organization over which the United States has historically exerted great control.

WHY FIRE ENGINES ARE RED

a.. Because they've got 8 wheels and 4 people on them
b.. 8 + 4 = 12
c.. There are 12 inches in a foot
d.. One foot is a ruler
e.. There was a ruler named Queen Elizabeth
f.. A ship named Queen Elizabeth sails the seas
g.. In the seas are fish
h.. On the fish are fins
i.. The Fins fought the Russians
j.. And Russians are red
And that's why fire engines are red. Because they're always rushin'.

This tale shows how politicians can justify the wildest lies.

"Health-Related Research and Development Activities at USAID: Report to Congress"

Read the full report by the U.S. Agency for International Development (May, 2006; PDF 63 pages)

USAID research investments made over several decades have led to products that now reach millions, saving lives throughout the developing world – oral rehydration salts, vitamin A, auto-disable syringes, and vaccine vial monitors, to name a few. This report describes USAID's proactive strategy for using research funds and provides a plan for stimulating the development and introduction of key products to address diseases affecting the developing world and countries in transition. "Current and future USAID-supported research will help ensure that:

• A vaccine against HIV/AIDS will be developed that is appropriate for use in developing countries

• A new microbicide will be developed that is acceptable to women in Africa

• A vaccine will protect children from the devastation of malaria

• New products will improve the performance and public health impact of country-level tuberculosis programs and mitigate the risks of drug resistance

• New contraceptives will be available, appropriate, and accessible for the more than 123 million women seeking to prevent pregnancy and not currently using family planning

• Simple new interventions will be available to save the lives of mothers, newborns and children in communities throughout the world"

USAID Pulls Funding from ICDDR, B

The UK's Department for International Development (DfID) recently stated the following in a press release on their increased donation to the Center for Health and Population Research (perhaps better known as the International Center for Diarrheal Disease Research, Bangladesh or ICDDR, B):

“Based in Bangladesh, the centre is in a unique position to promote solutions to the health, population and nutrition problems of the poor in Bangladesh and around the world. By training Bangladeshi scientists and researchers from developing countries, the centre also contributes to strengthening the institutional capacity and scientific knowledge of local experts.”

The centre also researches issues related to child and reproductive health, and family planning. This recently led USAID, the centre’s second largest donor after DFID, to withdraw its funding on the grounds that the centre violated USAID’s policy which opposes certain family planning methods and abortion. (Italics added.)

The U.S. withdrawing funds from the ICDDR, B is a really, really bad decision! This Center became famous for its important research on Cholera. Its development of oral rehydration therapy resulted in saving the lives of countless children. Indeed, it demonstrated that research could generate simple, affordable techniques that would have profound, life-saving impacts in developing nations; that understanding triggered important increases in the funding for such research worldwide. The Center has over the decades of its existence built a solid reputation, and is the best known internationally supported center for health research focusing on the needs of developing nations. It is supported by some 55 donors, and has a distinguished international Board of Trustees.

Of course, the Center is much more. Since 1978, it has trained more than 20,000 health professionals from over 78 countries of the world. Its Dhaka Hospital provides treatment to around 110,000 patients each year (about 60% of them are under five children) with uncomplicated-and complicated diarrheal diseases, and associated health problems including malnutrition and pneumonia. Matlab, the Health and Demographic Surveillance System (HDSS), has been running for 35 years covering a population of over 200,000 and not only serves as an important element of the global infectious disease surveillance system, but has developed and demonstrated the techniques for disease surveillance in poor nations and poor populations. Its Laboratory Services Division has taken up activities on HIV surveillance, voluntary counseling and testing and other research projects for investigating the dynamics of a possible HIV epidemic. The list goes on and on.

The ICDDR, B merits U.S. support. I hope that people will communicate with their Senators and Congressmen and call for a reversal of the government's decision. I also hope that U.S. non-governmental organizations will fill the gap left by the government's withdrawl.

Cell Phones are a Powerful Technology

There are a couple of stories in the current Economist magazine (October 28th 2006) that illustrate the impact that cell phones are having in developing nations. (A subscription is needed to read the articles online.)

Mobile telephony and banking: Phoney finance

About half a million South Africans now use their mobile phones as a bank. Besides sending money to relatives and paying for goods, they can check balances, buy mobile airtime and settle utility bills. Traditional banks offer mobile banking as an added service to existing customers, most of whom are quite well off. But Wizzit, and to some extent First National Bank (FNB) and MTN Banking (a joint venture between Standard Bank and a mobile-phone network), are chasing another market: the 16m South Africans, over half of the adult population, with no bank account. Significantly, 30% of these people do have mobile phones. Wizzit hired and trained over 2,000 unemployed people, known as Wizzkids, to drum up business. It worked: eight out of ten Wizzit customers previously had no bank account and had never used an ATM.

Liberation technology: Mobiles, protests and pundits

(I)n August residents of Muyinga province acted fast when they saw fresh corpses drifting downstream; they used their mobile phones to contact NGOs, who in turn tipped off the United Nations, whose soldiers got to the scene fast enough to recover some forensic evidence.

The use of mobiles as a tool of “empowerment”, even in the poorest and worst-governed parts of the world, is not always so grisly. The cruder kinds of electoral fraud, relying on poor communications between the capital and the boondocks, are now much harder. Even with minimal resources, monitors can count the voters and conduct exit polls—and then phone their findings to a radio station before the authorities stuff the ballot boxes. Such methods have helped make elections a bit cleaner in places like Ghana and Kenya.

Applying the Logical Framework Approach to Organizational Planning

I got an email asking how one would apply the LogFrame approach for organizations (as opposed to projects) in order to help establish organization-wide goals and indicators of impact. I have been thinking about the problem.

The Logical Framework was pioneered in 1970 for U.S. AID and other foreign assistance projects. It is now one of the chief tools used by the international development community to help design projects so as to achieve measurable results. The LogFrame utilizes a hierarchy: goals, objectives, outputs and inputs. It also utilizes for each level in the hierarchy, to supplement the narrative summary, a set of verifiable indicators, a specification of the sources of data for those indicators, and an explicit statement of key objectives.

Certainly one could simply define the overall goal of an organization (its mission statement), then make a project towards achieving that goal. Define the inputs that are to be available. Then make a plan that would allocate the inputs to achieve specific outputs that would fulfill specified objectives.

The benefit of the LogFrame approach, in my mind, is the discipline it imposes on the planning process. Its emphasis on verifiable indicators makes monitoring progress a natural outgrowth of the planning process, and part of implementation. While many have emphasized quantitative indicators, qualitative indicators are possible and indeed may be quite useful. The requirement that key assumptions be specified should lead to detailed consideration of the assumptions, including an assessment of their importance to the effort and the likelihood that they are valid.

One problem of applying the LogFrame to an organization is that its implicit project nature may not be well suited to the ongoing nature of an organization. Thus an organization may have specific objectives such as a level of activity or impact by a given date, but it also has objectives related to internal capacity building and positioning itself for future impact. Of course, it is possible to specify multiple objectives, as is often done for projects, but that might not be enough to get away from the bias.

Another frequently cited problem is that the use of the LogFrame has been associated in practice with overly costly preliminary planning, and on the other hand, with inadequate implementation management, monitoring and mid-course corrections. Dangerous territory for organizations.

One application of the LogFrame to organizations does seem obvious, and that is to projectize the reengineering or reorganization of the entity. In this case, the process should be time limited, and should have clear goals, objectives, inputs and outputs.

It also occurs to me that there is a potentially interesting extension of the LogFrame approach to organizations. Formal organizations have organizational diagrams, which disaggregate them into hierarchies of organizational units. One could facilitate a reengineering process by creating a LogFrame for each unit within the organization, using hierarchical processes (both top-down and bottoms-up) to define unit objectives, outputs and inputs, as well as their verifiable indicators and assumptions. The process might be very useful as a planning approach, facilitating communication across and throughout the organization about expectations as well priorities in the allocation of resources. The process might also provide management with tools for monitoring progress in the reengineering process.

What do we know about U.S. responsibility to Iraqis?

We know that the public justification of the invasion of Iraq -- weapons of mass destruction and ties with Al Qaeda -- proved false. We know that following the destruction of the Iraqi military, the United States and the United Kingdom disbanded the remains of the military and that their "DeBathification" fired thousands of workers from the Iraqi government, and that government services suffered as a result. We know that the United States and the United Kingdom, especially through the Coalition Provisional Authority, undertook a massive reorganization of the Iraqi economy and of Iraqi institutions. We know that in the years following the invasion security has been inadequate, and the insurgency has increased dramatically. We know that tens of thousands of Iraqis have been killed, and that the Iraqi economy and infrastructure are a mess.

It certainly appears now that the strategy of the Coalition is to build a strong military presence, with large numbers of Iraqis in domestic forces supported by foreign advisers and troops. We know that Iraq has never know a real democratic government, and that its population is deeply divided along ethnic, cultural and religious lines. We know that many U.S. interventions in the past, in societies with at least some similarities to Iraq, have resulted in military-supported dictators imposing order on the country then ruling badly and postponing the introduction of democratic governance for long periods.

We know Colin Powell said at the outset of the war:

If You Break it, You Pay For It, Mr. President

What are the implications of this knowledge?

The people of the United States have incurred a responsibility to the people of Iraq! We now have to figure out how best to fulfill that responsibility.

I don't think that slogans are the best way to approach that analysis.

I do think that the people of the United States have a duty to the people of Iraq to keep troops there as long as they will do more good than harm. We certainly have a duty to do the best we can to help the Iraqis to rebuild their institutions and to reestablish stability. We also have a more general obligation to undo as much as possible of the damage resulting as a result of our government's interventions.

Knowledge for Development

Knowledge for Development:

This CTA "website supports the policy dialog on S&T for agricultural and rural development in African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries. It enables the ACP scientific community - primarily agricultural research and development scientists and technologists, policy makers, farmers and other stakeholders and actors - to share and review results of national and regional efforts and collaborate to harness science and technology for the development of agriculture in their countries."

"It's Who? You Know."

The article by Al Kamen in The Washington Post, October 30, 2006.

"State Department career diplomats are in an uproar over the recent appointment of a mid-level civil servant who worked for Undersecretary Karen Hughes to a top job running the new Public Diplomacy Rapid Response office in Brussels.

In an unusually strong letter last week to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice , J. Anthony Holmes , head of the American Foreign Service Association, called the selection of Diane Zeleny a 'pre-cooked deal,' apparently done by manipulating the process and violating personnel rules and standard practices. AFSA, he said, was filing a grievance 'to undo this assignment.'"

Comment: Those people really understand Public Diplomacy don't they! JAD

Bush Appointee Said to Reject Advice on Endangered Species - washingtonpost.com

Read the article by Juliet Eilperin in The Washington Post, October 30, 2006.:

"A senior Bush political appointee at the Interior Department has rejected staff scientists' recommendations to protect imperiled animals and plants under the Endangered Species Act at least six times in the past three years, documents show.

"In addition, staff complaints that their scientific findings were frequently overruled or disparaged at the behest of landowners or industry have led the agency's inspector general to look into the role of Julie MacDonald, who has been deputy assistant secretary of the interior for fish and wildlife and parks since 2004, in decisions on protecting endangered species......

"Two advocacy groups, the Union of Concerned Scientists and the Center for Biological Diversity, provided the documents to The Washington Post. Francesca Grifo, who directs the union's scientific integrity program, said MacDonald's actions are 'not business as usual but a systemic problem of tampering with science that is putting our environment at risk.'"

Francesca is an old friend and colleague, who is fighting the good fight! Go girl!

The International Budget Project

From The Economist print edition, October 26th 2006
Go to the project website.

I think knowledge of government budgets and expenditures is especially important for development. If it is not publicly available, corruption seems unavoidable. If it is publicly available, then it can be analyzed, and there can be debate on the best way to use government resources. That is why I like this project so much. Check out a couple of its products:

The Open Budget Index 2006

This index has been used to rate 59 countries on how open their budget books are to their citizens. It is intended to provide citizens, legislators, and civil society advocates with the comprehensive and practical information needed to gauge a government’s commitment to budget transparency and accountability. Armed with this kind of information, lenders, development advocates, and aid organizations can identify meaningful budget reforms needed in specific countries to combat corruption and strengthen basic services to improve people's lives. It was unveiled October 18, 2006 by the Open Budget Initiative of the International Budget Project.

Impact of Civil Society Budget Work: Case Studies on Brazil, Croatia, India, Mexico, South Africa, and Uganda

The International Budget Project (IBP) and the Institute for Development Studies (IDS) at the University of Sussex have produced in-depth case studies of six established budget groups. The objective of the exercise was to learn specifically about the impact of sustained budget work on good governance and poverty reduction. The independent budget organizations in Brazil, Croatia, India, Mexico, South Africa and Uganda that were studied have been engaged in budget analysis and budget advocacy for a period of 5-10 years. Methods included interviews with politicians, government officials and representatives of civil society organizations; focus group discussions; analysis of laws and procedures governing budget transparency; analysis of secondary documentation and media reports; and field visits. The authors conclude that the "case study groups’ media and dissemination work, together with training and capacity building, have considerably expanded budget literacy and the engagement of parts of civil society, the media and the legislature in the budget process."

Development Gateway Highlight: S&T Policy Objectives in a Global Knowledge Society

The Development Gateway Knowledge Economy community portal has just published my highlight on science policy.

Check out the full length version: S&T Policy Objectives in a Global Knowledge Society.

Check out some Science, Technology and Innovation Policy Review Resources.


Shangai S&T Museum
Flickr.com; le niners' photostream

"The Politics of Technology for an African Renaissance"

This brief paper describes "a framework for grouping various technological views into non-exclusive groupings in relation to the idea of control or power, humanity and nature, culture and development, and the idea of values and meanings. These views can perhaps be arbitrarily grouped into seven varieties, with no clear boundaries:

(1) - The Instrumentalist / Utilitarian / Functionalist Views
(2) - The Determinist / Autonomist / Fatalist Views
(3) - The Essentialist / Substantivist / Fundamentalist Views
(4) - The Luddist / Rejectionist / Technophobic Views
(5) - The Environmentalist / Naturalist / Romantic Views
(6) - The Pre-Modernist / Traditionalist / Preservationist Views
(7) - The Constructivist / Voluntarist / Idealistic Views/"

Jacques L. Hamel, Economic Commission for Africa, undated.

DFID White Paper on International Development

Read the UK Department for International Development White Paper: Eliminating World Poverty: Making Governance Work for the Poor.

"We will deliver the promises we made in 2005 by: increasing our development budget to 0.7% of gross national income by 2013; concentrating our resources on the poorest countries – particularly sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia – and working more in fragile states; making sure that wider UK policies support development; and doubling funding for science and technology."

Diasporas of Highly Skilled and Migration of Talent

Go to the website of this World Bank Knowledge for Development Program Pilot Project:

"As countries move to second-generation reforms and focus on long-term growth agenda, they increasingly reach to their Diasporas as an entry point to articulate and implement such agendas. This trend is all the more remarkable because it is present in countries of all sizes and income levels. On requests of the governments, (the World Bank's) K4D Program has provided advisory services to develop relevant pilot initiatives in Chile, Mexico and Argentina."

"U.S. Finds Too Many KBR Reports 'Proprietary'"

Read the full article by Griff Witte, The Washington Post, October 28, 2006.

The article states:

A Halliburton Co. subsidiary is abusing federal regulations by marking nearly all information it gives to the government about its operations in Iraq "proprietary," a practice that promotes unnecessary secrecy and could hurt competition, according to a report released yesterday by U.S. auditors.

Under federal law, contractors are allowed to mark some documents proprietary, especially when they are bidding on a deal. But auditors for the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction found Halliburton subsidiary KBR Inc. was using that stamp even with such basic records as daily head counts of how many people ate at the company's dining facilities. KBR is the Pentagon's largest contractor in Iraq, providing logistics support for the Army including meals, fuel, laundry service and base construction.

There is a real problem in government funded work not being available to the public in the United States (and I suspect in most other countries). The idea of getting companies to share data with the government by guaranteeing that it will not be shown to competitors is good, but subject to abuse in practice/

So too is the classification of information that may reduce the security of the United States a good idea, but one that has been often abused in the past, and one that probably is being more abused now and will be abused in the future.

Research that is funded by the government should go in the public domain. In the past, when making such data available meant publishing on paper, there was a rationale for not publishing negative results or other results that did not pass peer review for journal publication. Today such data is in electronic form to begin with, and publication on the web is cheap.

There seem to have been cases of negative results not being published in the past because they would diminish the value of commercial products. While this seems to be more a problem of company funded research, when those results have a bearing in regulatory action such as of the Food and Drug Administration, this too is an abuse.

Knowledge does not help development if it is not used, and knowledge held secret to prevent its use is an abuse!