Read These – April Edition

Recommended reading:

• A summary of the events leading up to the recent coup in Mali, the resignation of the former president, the Tuareg’s declaration of the independent state of Azawad, and the transition to a new government.
• And yes, Peace Corps Mali was evacuated.
• Guinea-Bissau had its own coup attempt.
• US offers $120 million for Sahel hunger
• How immersion helps to learn a language
• News profile on Audrey, a recent RPCV who served in Burkina Faso.

Read These – March Edition

Recommended reading:

• A couple of looks at Burkina since the social and military crisis of last year: 1) Burkina Faso: After the Storm and 2) Burkina Faso’s Uneasy Peace.
• Give away $1 million of Reid Hoffman’s (of LinkedIn fame) money through Kiva.
• Oxfam warns of West Africa drought ‘catastrophe’.
• Who are the Tuaregs? Learn a bit more about the continued conflict in Mali and their push for a new independent state. Check out here for some of the information on aid for the displaced populations in Burkina.
• Gold Rush in Burkina. I can confirm that my Google news alert on ‘Burkina Faso’ generally results in a 80% hit rate on mining-related stories.
• Difficulties of data collection in development. Getting the full story can be hard.
• Where should food aid come from? Local vs. international sourcing.
• 10 dead in ethnic clashes in Burkina Faso over the appointment of a new chief.
• Check out Vort Port International’s blog – a non-profit focused on appropriate technologies in the developing world, and founded by a former colleague of mine.
• Orange launches Facebook for all its phones in Africa (sadly Orange isn’t in Burkina).
• 7 worst international aid ideas.
• France officially removes “mademoiselle” from official forms.
• The greatest paper map of the United States you’ll ever see.

Read These – February Edition

Recommended reading:

• Tens of thousands of Malians flee to neighboring countries (including Burkina) due to attacks by a Tuareg rebel group in northern Mali.
• sOccket – a soccer ball that doubles as a portable generator.
• Burkina Faso didn’t fair too well in Gallop’s African household lighting survey – with only 8% of respondents reporting households with grid supplied power for lighting. Also third from the bottom in cell phone ownership.
• Melinda Gates and Nicholas Kristof answer some questions about development in a three part series. Part I, Part II, and Part III.
• The OLPC $100 tablet for the developing world.
• 12 reasons to date a Peace Corps Volunteer.
• Three jailed in Burkina over vulture voodoo smuggling.
• A new high-speed (2mb/s) Wi-Fi service is launching in Ouagadougou through Telcel, though I’m doubting the “high speed” claim  until I see it. Why the doubt? Things like this: Burkina Faso telecom operators were fined $5.4 million for poor service. The wi-fi network is supposedly coming to Bobo and Koudougou later this year as well.
• Philanthropy action has an interview on microenterprise with David McKenzie, economist at the World Bank.
• Fellow Burkina PCV Jason put up a number of cool Burkina historical maps.
• Global’s list of the top-100 NGOs.

Read These – January Edition

Recommended reading:

• After a poor rainy reason, are Sahelian nations (including Burkina) heading towards a famine? “…[T]he ‘lean season’, when food availability is at its lowest, is likely to start two to four months earlier than normal.” A serious problem for sure, especially here in the East. So far, I haven’t been personally affected, but I’ve witnessed a poor corn harvest, a few restaurants increasing prices, and a new ban on cocktail receptions at government events (normally a staple post-ministry event activity).
• Bloomberg’s controversial ‘Victoria Secret’ article regarding child labor and free trade in Burkina Faso. See Victoria Secret’s investigation and Fairtrade International’s response to the allegations.
• Burkina Faso customs chief fired over $4m cash find. On that note, check out this map of the world corruption index.
• Rumors about our local currency, the Franc CFA, potentially being devalued by France.
• Music is ubiquitously played and traded through cell phones here in West Africa. American Christopher Kirkley collected a few of those tracks and is offering them for sale through his Sahel Sounds website (the artists get a 60% cut). Check out the album here, and read a Q&A with Christopher here.
• The Economist: Africa’s fertility rates are slow to shift. Be sure to check out the fascinating population distribution graph comparison of Japan, Mexico and Nigeria.
• I recently found the great blog of Evan Lieberman, a Princeton professor of politics. Check out a few of his posts that caught my attention lately: 1) Nighttime satellite images for tracking epidemics, 2) Africa rising but not necessarily in democracies, 3) Good news on AIDS in Africa, 4) I paid a bribe: Kenyan website.
• Looking for rigorously examined and high impact charities to donate to? Check out GiveWell.org’s top-rated charities (both are in sub-Saharan Africa).
• Remember the Africa Cup of Nations controversy over the eligibility of Burkinabé national team player (born in Cameroon) Herve Zengue? Well, the Etalons will be able to participate in the tournament after all as Namibia’s last appeal attempt was rejected (though the team has left Zengue as well as another player off the squad). In his place, 16 year old Bertrand Traore of Chelsea will play (the third youngest to ever play in the tournament).
• Donate to help my fellow PCVs in the East to put on a youth camp promoting healthy lifestyles and gender equality. Also, fellow PCVs Chad and Tana are raising funds to build a theater. Help them out by donating here.

Read These – December Edition

Recommended reading:

• What do we really know about microfinance? Here’s a summary. Clifnotes: it’s complicated, but people in poor countries act a lot like people in rich countries.
• The difference between you and the average other person in the world? 4.74 degrees.
• Kiva starts doing what we thought they were doing all along by creating Kiva Zip; its new (actual) one-to-one lending platform (like Zidisha).
• EAT, LEARN, MOVE - three awesome 1 minute travel videos.
• Hayley’s post (with some great photos) on her trip to Loropeni, a UNESCO world heritage site here in Burkina.
• A brief bio of the new Burkinabé ambassador to the US.
• Digitizing a West-African written language (already on the iPhone!)
• American politics have seemed remarkably partisan to me over the past few years, but I have often read that it only seems more partisan, and that party politics has always been a bitter affair. Then I saw the graph in this post by Nate Silver, where according to the DW-Nominate score, we have seen the most extreme liberal/conservative positions, as well as the largest short-term shifts between them in at least the past 80 years (earlier data was not presented). Party affiliation aside, this data scares me.
• Democracy Journal’s book review of Poor Economics, by Abhijit Banerjee and Esther Duflo. It sounds fascinating, and covers exactly where a lot of my interest lies in development work.
• David Damberger explains why Engineers Without Borders admits its failures in development (and even creates an annual Failure Report).
• Reusing fecal waste for fuel in Ghana.
• The top Twitter trends of the year - #egypt was  the top hashtag.
• A pretty good summary of why it’s so hard to get a cheeseburger around here.

Read These – November Edition

Recommended reading:

• Malaria breakthrough: a new vaccine, under development for the past 20 years (including tests in Burkina) cuts risk of disease in half.
• A less than stellar rainy season means “we are likely to see a real problem” with food insecurity here in eastern Burkina Faso, as well as in other Sahelian nations. I can report that most of my neighbors are doing ok, but those who focused on corn are in trouble.
• Know how to knit or crochet? Head over to knitting for nutrition, fellow PCV Hilary’s new project.
• Design for the developing world.
• Usually when a country has lots of rugged terrain, it means it’s not a good place for agriculture or trade. And that tends to mean its economy has lagged, historically. Not so in Africa, according to a new study, where rugged terrain made it difficult for slavers to penetrate, sparing those regions substantial upheaval. [via WSJ]
• Burkina Faso was cleared to play in the 2012 Africa Cup of Nations after a protest about an ineligible player was dismissed, though got put in the same group as top-seeded Ivory Coast, so we may still have some problems.
• Foreign aid directed to education in Burkina Faso has been cut by over 50 percent.
• The Gates Foundation to target Burkina Faso with agricultural grants.
• Peace Corps Postcards – I’m planning on sending one in myself.

Read These – October Edition

Recommended reading:

• Lack of gender-equality gaps in developing countries is a big deal, and therefore development programs often target women. Here’s a counterpoint: instead focus on increasing total family income (read: man’s income), rather than women’s income as it has a better chance of increasing more in absolute terms and trickling down to the family. Not sure I agree, but interesting.
• The Atlantic’s roundup of what people don’t get about my job, an intimate look into a variety of professions while trying to explain away common misconceptions. If I were to include a Peace Corps Volunteer entry it would be, “I’m not sacrificing as much as you think.”
• PlaySay: learn a language using facebook. Love this idea and hope it’s well implemented.
• There’s a global teacher shortage, and Burkina is in the 3rd worst shape in the world. See the data on the Guardian’s DataBlog.
• Indian banks implement human ATMs to open up basic banking services to millions of rural Indians.
• Skype and GPS technologies have allowed for humanitarianism from afar. Slate gives us the pros and cons.
• Fellow Burkina PCV Valerie shares some pretty hilarious outtakes from her daily conversations in village.
• I’ve somehow neglected to mention the amazingness of FanChaco – a frozen chocolate treat by FanMilk that’s sold for $0.33 by young kids in Ouaga who rove the city with portable coolers (side project: bring this to the East). Anywho, I stumbled upon this great blog post where a former Guinea PCV took up selling FanChaco as a part-time job in Abidjan, Ivory Coast. He even made the front page of the local paper.
• While in training, the newly minted PCVs made a fun video about our relationship with our ever present bikes.
• Speaking of bikes, the Burkina Bike Tour blog and PCV Lauren have both put up a lot of previously unseen photos from the tour.
• SEAWL Humor: Aid works love trainings. This one really hits close to home.
• Fellow PCV Diana: fabric designer.
• How to peal a head of garlic in under 10 seconds. Brilliant.
• Anthony Bourdain’s interview in Playboy.

Read These – September Edition

Recommended reading:

• 1) Gadaffi offered asylum in Burkina. 2) Rumors his convoy was en route to Ouaga (routing through Niger). 3) Niger and Burkina Faso deny rumors.
• Check out this animated US map showing the opening of US post offices over time. Notable in its own right, but interesting in a development context to remind us that building infrastructure takes time.
• An interesting study on accounting education in the developing world shows that focusing on the act of accounting often takes away from business owners actually using the data to understand their businesses. The takeaway? Teach “rules of thumb” (separate business/personal accounts, just write things down, etc) rather than formal accounting. I’m going to see how I can adjust my accounting sessions to reflect this reality.
• Contrary to popular belief, the poor can actually have much more complicated financial lives than the rich. Check out this great review of the book Portfolios of the Poor.
• SEAWL: Pretending to enjoy tasteless local staples (like tô here in Burkina) is one of the best ways to show that one is bien intégré.
• Returned Burkina PCV Coleman Donaldson awarded Fulbright to study West African language policy at the Institut National des Langues et Civilisations Orientales.
• World peace could be closer than you think.
• National Geographic has embedded a lot of cool aerial photos in Google Earth. One idea - take a virtual African safari.
• Microfinance study: Borrowers who received two month grace periods before making repayments earned on average 25% higher profits. But there’s a downside – they also defaulted three times more often than those without the grace period.
• Humor: How to write about Africa.
• Solved: how to best board an airplane? Plus, the nugget that every minute a plane spends at a terminal costs a carrier $30.
• Beer aids marathon recovery!? Alas, there’s a catch: Nonalcoholic beer.

Read These – August Edition

Recommended reading:

• Moringa leaves are a true super food – in fact, it’s the most nutritious plant source found in nature, and something that PCVs promote heavily here in Burkina. Check out one attempt to commercialize Moringa powder and oil here.
• Gladwell: starting your own business doesn’t mean you’re necessarily a risk taker.
• Mapped: an interactive history of Africa’s borders.
• While establishing small businesses in developing countries is a good thing, development workers shouldn’t forget about establishing mid-sized businesses to help create a middle class.
• Who gives/receives the most aid? Check out these graphs.
• There are lies, damn lies, and statistics (proof that salmon can read our emotions).
• My US vacation randomly afforded me the opportunity to meet a future small enterprise development PCV in San Francisco (he’s coming to Burkina in October). Check out his blog here.
• Competition winners of a redesigned nutrition facts label.
• Graphed: belief in evolution versus national wealth.

Burkina News: Rainy Season Links

A few articles to keep you posted on current events in-country.

• Reuters: Burkina sacks hundreds of soldiers over unrest
• Inter Press Service: Burkina Faso launches Operation 100,000 Ploughs in response to demands of small farmers
• Bloomberg: Booming cotton no boon to African farmers (Burkina/U.S. comparison)
• Bloomberg: Burkina is considering changing its constitution after mutinies, protests
• All Africa: Burkina is losing its forests
• Bloomberg: Burkina Faso’s Cotton Planting Plans Face Delay After Inadequate Rainfall (rainy season is off to a slow start)
• Denver Post: US Green Card Lottery results voided