Paul Farmer interview

Paul Farmer
Partners in Health

Koch Associate Program

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The Zero Rupee Note

Fifth Pillar India, an NGO set up to fight corruption, has printed over 200,000 zero-denomination notes that resemble Indian currency and has begun distributing them around the country. It is asking people to give the notes to anyone demanding a bribe.

via Chris Blattman

Guides for NGOs

NGO Law and Governance: A Resource Book

ADBI's 100 Tips 100 Tools for Better Governed NGOs

Finding Aid

Michael Kremer Profile

As Abhijit Banerjee of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Kremer's colleague and coauthor, explains: "When most economists come up with an idea that might make the world a better place, they assume that they must have got it wrong, on the grounds that if it were correct it would be in place already, and, reluctantly, decide to forget about it. Michael immediately starts to think of ways to make it happen."

And make it happen, he does. His intellectual work and indefatigable public persuasion recently paved the way for the creation of a new mechanism called advance market commitments (AMCs) to further the development of a vaccine against pneumococcal diseases, which claim the lives of up to a million children in poor countries each year. Robert Barro, one of the gurus of the study of economic growth and Kremer's advisor at Harvard, says that the AMC idea "is likely to make an unprecedented contribution to the improvement of health outcomes in the world's neediest countries."

Kremer has also helped introduce a major methodological innovation in empirical development economics: the randomized evaluation of public policy interventions. This has not only helped rehabilitate the discipline of development economics in academia, it has moved governments and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) around the world to more rigorously evaluate their activities and their impact. And he has made other important academic contributions, many with the common theme of identifying ways to work collaboratively (typically at the international level) to improve the welfare of poor people. Fellow Harvard professor and Nobel Laureate Amartya Sen stresses that Kremer "has made an outstanding contribution in combining economic theory and sophisticated empirical techniques and applying it to critical policy issues in development economics."

Kremer, now 43, grew up in Kansas and attended Harvard as an undergraduate. Trips to South Asia and Kenya—where he spent a year teaching mathematics and science to students and devoting a lot of time to getting a resource-starved school in remote western Kenya up and running—triggered his interest in development. Kremer followed up on the Kenya experience by starting WorldTeach, a nonprofit organization that now sends 370 teachers annually to schools in the developing world, including such places as the Marshall Islands. He also equipped himself with a graduate degree in economics from Harvard, followed by professorships, first at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and then at Harvard.

-Harnessing Ideas to Idealism, latest edition of IMF's F&D

Related from the edition;
UAE- Country Focus (especially for FOX's Business reporters)
Changing Aid Landscape
Subprime: Tentacles of a Crisis
Africa's Missing Ingredients

The Brilliance of Mr. Briallant

Larry Brilliant at Skoll Forum



Here is Part 2 and Part 3

Others at the forum include Charles Handy, Queen Rania, Muhammed Yunus

Muslim Women in US

They seem quiet active here in US- two examples;

Turning Point is a community based, non-profit organization addressing the needs of Muslim women and children through crisis intervention, individual and group counseling, advocacy, outreach, education and training.

Laleh Bakhtiar, first American women to translate Quran;

This first ever English translation of the Quran by an American woman is unique in many ways. First of all, it is formatted as the Quran (meaning “Recitation”) was received in oral transmission and not as it is read in book format. Secondly, the translator uses formal equivalency for the first time in a translation of the Quran. She uses a scientific method in translation, the same method used for the most part in the translation of the King James Version (KJV) of the Bible. Her approach to translation is logical and uniquely different from the other translators because she uses reason. The existing translations of verse 4:34 extremely disturbed her. Where, according to conventional translations, “husbands who fear adversity on the part of their wives, first admonish them, then leave their bed,” and, finally, as a last resort, ”beat them.” The translator uses three arguments for why the interpretation of this word must revert to the Sunnah of the Prophet, peace and the mercy of God be upon him. 1. He never beat women even though the verb is a verb of a command. 2. The Arabic word has more than 25 meanings so why chose a meaning that is not in accord with the Sunnah of the Prophet. One of its meanings is “to go away” and this is exactly what the Prophet did when he faced difficulties with his wives in submission to God, as if to say: “God, you know I have tried everything and nothing has worked. I leave it up to Thee.” 3. The strongest argument that proves the word has been misunderstood is based on the following reasoning: Islam promotes marriage. The Prophet said: Marriage is half of faith. While divorce is allowed, it is considered to be deploarable. Every effort is to be made to hold a marriage together. The translator read verse 2:231. The Quran says that if a woman wants a divorce, her husband must not harm (injure, hurt, or use force) her. He must set her free in an honorable way. Using the reasoning of this verse, if a woman wants a divorce, her husband cannot do anything physical to prevent her from getting a divorce. Yet if she wants to stay married, he can beat her according to the interpretation of 4:34. This is clear, logical evidence that the word “to beat” has been misinterpreted. What woman would chose the option to stay married and be beaten rather than ask for a divorce and not be harmed. For further information see www.sublimequran.org While this translation was done by an American woman, it is not to create a gender divide, but to bring husbands and wives together in a better understanding of their relationship as complements to one another.

Kiva- A Micro-finance Success?

An interview with Premal Shah, founder of Kiva