Another reason to attend the Global Washington Annual Conference: Dean Karlan, Yale University Economics Professor,

Global Washington

Conference 2010

November 15 & 16

Microsoft Campus, Redmond

 

Check out the conference agenda, submission and selection criteria for the Video Showcase, and register here!

 

CLICK HERE to access the social networking site connecting members of the development community! (If you'd like to join, but haven't received an invitation, email megan@glboalwa.org)

 

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We are pleased to welcome Yale Professor of Economics Dean Karlan as a guest speaker at our upcoming conference!  

In 2007, The New York Times listed Karlan as one of 13 young “Economists to Watch” for his work in microfinance.  Times blogger Steven D. Levitt described Karlan as an economist who “has been doing important and innovative work, often using field experiments to answer questions related to financial decisions in developing countries.”  Karlan is an expert in economic issues relating to charitable giving and global development methodologies—especially microfinance. He is President of Innovations for Poverty Action; serves on the Board of Directors of the M.I.T. Jameel Poverty Action Lab; and is Founder and President of stickK.com. He also received a Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers in 2007.

At the conference, Dr. Karlan will share his thoughts on the challenges and successes in evaluation and impact assessment for global development work. He will provide an economist’s perspective on these solutions, particularly:

1) Evaluation matters. Wins and losses are not always where you expect them.

2) Methodology matters: Studying impact means answering a simple but elusive question: how have lives changed compared to how lives would have changed had the program not existed?  

3) Design matters.  The way products and processes are offered can have big effects on decisions people make.  

 

4) The impact of mobile technology on development, highlighting examples and successful partnerships.

Sources:

Steven J. Levitt, “Congratulations to Dean Karlan”, December 5, 2007, http://freakonomics.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/12/05/congratulations-to-dean-karlan/?pagemode=print

“Economists to Watch,” The New York Times, January 10, 2007, available from http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/10/business/10leonhardt.html?_r=2&ex=1169096400&en=be93236a9e2a3a7f&ei=5070&emc=eta1&oref=slogin

 

 

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Speaker Spotlight   Dean Karlan Professor of Economics Yale University   Dean Karlan is a Professor of Economics at Yale University.  Karlan is President of Innovations for Poverty Action, a non-profit organization that creates and evaluates solutions to social and development problems, and works to scale-up successful ideas through implementation and dissemination to policymakers, practitioners, investors and donors.  Karlan is on the Board of Directors of the M.I.T. Jameel Poverty Action Lab.  As a social entrepreneur, He is Founder and President of stickK.com, a website that uses lessons from behavioral economics to help people reach personal goals, such as weight loss and smoking cessation, through commitment contracts.  Karlan received a Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers, and was named an Alfred P. Sloan Fellow.  His research focuses on microeconomic issues of financial decision-making, specifically employing experimental methodologies to examine what works, what does not, and why in interventions in microfinance, health, behavioral economics and charitable giving.  In microfinance, he has studied credit impact, interest rate policy, savings product design, credit scoring policies, entrepreneurship training, and group versus individual liability.  Karlan received a Ph.D. in Economics from M.I.T., an M.B.A. and an M.P.P. from the University of Chicago, and a B.A. in International Affairs from the University of Virginia.

Mexican farmers battle erosion and drought -- PRI the world

On PRI's show the World today (Wed Oct 20th).  Our partner NGO in Oaxaca founder Juan Jose gave an interview about the work his team is doing at their pedregal (permaculture) site in Oaxaca Mexico. The story is here  this link includes down-loadable MP3 and other information about the great work INSO is doing can be found here

Co-founder Rick McKenney to speak at the upcoming Global WA Conference Nov 15-16

Global WA is hosting its second major conference here at the Microsoft Campus
Redmond, WA on November 15-16.

Rick McKenney has been invited to join a distinguished group of experts to discuss:

Ensuring Environmental Sustainability: Stories of Successful
partnerships  November 15, 2010

Other panelists for this session include:

• Kari Vigerstol (kvigerstol@tnc.org).  Kari can talk about the 'water funds' they've set up in Latin America to fund conservation of watershed lands - also an example of public/private partnership also. 
• Marla Smith-Nilson, Executive Director , Water 1st International sustainability issues, specifically as they relate to water and sanitation projects MarlaSmith@water1st.org

To register please see this link Global WA Conference

Global Washington Conference--Bridges to Breakthroughs: How partnerships and innovation are changing the world November 15-16

Bridges to Breakthroughs: How partnerships and innovation are changing the world

Click here to register

November 15-16, 2010
Microsoft Campus
Redmond, WA

With one of the most diverse and vibrant development communities in the world, Washington State is uniquely positioned to lead global development efforts that foster sustainability, innovation, and collaboration. Bridges to Breakthroughs is a forum to engage and strengthen cross-sector partnerships, promote scientific and technological breakthroughs, and harness the collective leadership of our region’s scholars, entrepreneurs, business leaders, scientists, philanthropists, and advocates.

Following 2009’s Blueprint for Action, Global Washington brings together innovators and thought leaders in Washington State’s global development community to set actionable goals towards establishing effective partnerships. By fostering these partnerships, we build bridges that lead to breakthroughs.

Keynote Speaker: Ambassador Melanne Verveer, Ambassador-at-Large for Global Women’s Issues.
President Barack Obama appointed Melanne Verveer as Ambassador-at-Large for Global Women’s Issues. The President’s decision to create a position of Ambassador-at-Large for Global Women’s Issues is unprecedented, and reflects the elevated importance of these issues to the President and his entire Administration.
Click here to read Ambassador Verveer’s Bio.


Register today!
Sponsorship packages are available; if you are interested in being a sponsor, please contact Bookda Gheisar at 206.547.9332 or bookda@globalwa.org.

Widespread Corruption in Oaxaca State Government Threatens Well Being of People There

Shameful Acts of Neglect and Incompetence by Oaxaca State Government Helped to Bring About Sept. 28 Catastrophic Mudslide

Scores of lives have been horribly affected in Oaxaca, with scores of people having their homes flooded and countless people left homeless due to the Sept. 28 disastrous mudslide in Oaxaca. As has been recently reported, eleven people are reported missing, with no confirmed deaths so far. However, rescue crews have still not reached six communities in Tlahuitoltepec. Electricity and phone service are down in the majority of the municipality, and many roads are covered with debris or have washed away.

As the gut-wrenching and poignant photos above illustrate, real people's lives have been devastated. Ironically, in an area where people are desperate for access to clean, safe drinking water, it is dirty water that is now jeopardizing and endangering their lives. The 2010 hurricane season has caused record rainfall in southern Mexico, leading to flooding, mudslides, and deaths in several states, including Oaxaca.

Water for Humans continues to work closely with NGOs, local government officials, water experts, and universities to construct a state-of-the-art constructed wetland, that, when finished, will bring potable water to scores of people in the Oaxaca Valley who are battling dreadful sanitation conditions. We have established robust relationships that will bring much needed fresh, clean water to the people of Santo Domingo Barrio Bajo Etla in the Oaxaca Valley.

It is very unfortunate that Water for Humans has not been able to work with the Oaxaca State Government during the process of preparing for construction of our wetland. To be sure, Climate Change--with the inexplicable weather phenomena that it has brought about in recent years, is partly to blame for this horrible mudslide, as is deforestation.

But the State Government carries much blame on its shoulders for this disaster. The current Oaxaca Governor, Ulises Ruiz Ortiz, seems oblivious and ignorant of the conditions that were widely publicized by experts, who warned about the potential for mudslides like this most recent one. Gov. Ruiz decided to act only when Tlahuitoltepec officials apparently grossly exaggerated the Sept. 28 mudslide. Local officials warned the state government that mudslides could provoke a humanitarian disaster since August, when they complained that 50% of the highways in their region were damaged.

Water for Humans is grateful to our partners whom we are collaborating with on this constructed wetland project. And we look forward to the positive results of our work beginning in 2011. We also are very hopeful that Gabino Cue Monteagudo, the incoming Oaxaca Governor, who takes office this December, will prove to be a worthy and helpful partner in our wetland endeavor.

Better times are ahead for the people of Oaxaca, and the new state government should work extremely hard to restore lawful behavior and competent leadership. The people of Oaxaca deserve no less!

Ulises Ruiz Ortiz, Governor of the State of Oaxaca
Note: Gov. Ortiz has been accused by some of murder and rigging the 2004 election, which brought him to power.



Your Comments Invited -- Water for Humans would like to hear from you about the impact you believe lawlessness and corruption in the Oaxaca State Government has had on the people in Oaxaca. What do you think the new Oaxaca Governor should do to help improve the well being of the people of Oaxaca?

Corruption And Deforestation Caused Oaxaca’s Mudslide Disaster

Corruption And Deforestation Caused Oaxaca’s Mudslide Disaster

Written by Kristin Bricker

Wednesday, 29 September 2010 18:49

On Tuesday morning, the world awoke to the news that a mudslide had buried 80% of Tlahuitoltepec, Oaxaca, a municipality of 10,000 people. Tearful Tlahuitoltepec officials told the press that 300-500 people were feared buried under the mud, while Oaxaca's Governor Ulises Ruiz Ortiz placed the number of possible deaths at "up to 1,000." The federal government deployed the military and federal police to the zone, and even the United States offered its assistance in digging out Tlahuitoltepec residents.   Now, as more rescue crews are gaining access to the municipality, the government has toned down its assessment of the damage. Eleven people are reported missing, with no confirmed deaths. However, rescue crews have still not reached six communities in Tlahuitoltepec. Electricity and phone service are down in the majority of the municipality, and many roads are covered with debris or have washed away. Regardless of its final death toll, the disaster was foreseeable and highlights the deadly consequences of the state's notorious, rampant corruption in public works. Deforestation The 2010 hurricane season has caused record rainfall  in southern Mexico, leading to flooding, mudslides, and deaths in several states, including Oaxaca.   A report published by the federal government's Mineral Resources Council in 2001 warned that as a result of deforestation, Tlahuitoltepec regularly suffers major landslides during hurricane season.  The report, entitled "Natural Dangers," warns that Tlahuitoltepec's mudslides tend to affect both roads and houses. The government has done nothing to address the mudslide problem in Tlahuitoltepec, where many residents live on the slopes of steep hills. The mudslide that shocked the world on September 28 didn't happen overnight. The mud began to slide on September 13, causing the walls of nearby houses to crack as the earth began to move. At that time, Mexico's Civil Protection (similar to the US government's Federal Emergency Management Agency) told the municipal president to evacuate the town. However, neither the state nor the federal government appear to have helped with the evacuation, nor did they offer Tlahuitoltepec residents a refuge.  It was only after local officials apparently exaggerated the magnitude of the September 28 mudslide that state police began to escort residents out of Tlahuitoltepec. As rescue crews continue to arrive and evaluate the situation in the entire indigenous Mixe region (where Tlahuitoltepec is located), they will decide if they will evacuate up to 30,000 people. "In that zone it rains a lot.  The land is unstable and there could be more mudslides," Oaxacan Governor Ulises Ruiz told El Universal. "It's better to act, because something could happen." Oaxacan Roads Paved With Corruption Unfortunately, Gov. Ruiz decided to act only when Tlahuitoltepec officials grossly exaggerated the September 28 mudslide.  Local officials have been warning the state government that the mudslides could provoke a humanitarian disaster since August, when they complained that 50% of the highways in their region were damaged.  "If they aren't repaired, we'll run the risk that various towns will be completely cut off in the coming days," state Congressman Floriberto Vásquez Vásquez told the state government and press. The state government ignored his pleas.   On September 8, Vásquez's warnings became reality. On that day, a Oaxaca state official reported that 80% of the state's 22,000 km of highways were damaged due to both mudslides and shoddy construction, cutting off over thirty communities from the outside world. The Mixe was one of the most affected regions.   Roads and Runways of Oaxaca (CAO), the state agency in charge of building and maintaining Oaxaca's roads, responded to concerns over the highways' dire conditions by saying that it couldn't repair them because it had no money left in its budget.  Adiario, a Oaxacan newspaper that openly supports the state's ruling party, wrote in an op-ed (PDF): "CAO officials' statements that 'there aren't any resources' to fix the 80% of the highways that are currently damaged in Oaxaca are surprising.  One asks why the CAO...has a multi-million peso annual budget that is mismanaged.  That, sirs, is called incompetence.  If there are dozens of communities that are completely cut off by mudslides and collapsed highways, it is a priority to come up with the money to solve the problem....Audits are necessary, because, despite the allocation of resources, the money doesn't reach the victims the majority of the time."   Claims of corruption in Oaxaca's highway projects and other public works are as old as the highways themselves. The suspicions stem from the projects' high costs and shoddy results.  Some highways fall apart within months.   Public officials often award no-bid construction contracts to their friends and fellow party members.  Citizens suspect that funds from many of these contracts are used to fund political campaigns. Such is the case in Salina Cruz, Oaxaca, where Jesús Hiram Mortera funded his campaign for municipal president with his earnings from public works projects. Two successive municipal presidents awarded him the majority of the public works contracts in the town. The government is now auditing the two former municipal presidents over alleged embezzlement of funds through Mortera's construction projects. Of particular concern is Mortera's "rehabilitation" of a four-lane highway in Salina Cruz.  The highway has collapsed three times since Mortera "rehabilitated" it.   So far no one has proven that Oaxacan politicians and contractors embezzle money from highway projects by using cheap materials and pocketing the difference. In 2008, state auditors concluded that Carlos Alberto Ramos Aragón used a boulevard construction project to embezzle money when he served as municipal president of Pinotepa Nacional, Oaxaca, but they never discovered exactly how: Ramos Aragón simply didn't hand over receipts to the auditors. Ramos Aragón was never punished for this presumed embezzlement. He currently serves as director of Oaxaca's State Civil Protection Institute, one of the agencies in charge of Tlahuitoltepec rescue efforts.   While details on how politicians embezzle money from completed highway projects are vague or unproven, a recent scandal in the federal program "Firm Ground" demonstrates how many Oaxacans suspect contractors and politicians are stealing money from highway projects. The federal government provided funding to states such as Oaxaca through the "Firm Ground" project to install concrete floors in homes that had dirt floors.  The federal government calculated the amount of cement it sent to the states based on the quantity and dimensions of the homes that would receive new floors through the program.  In Guerrero, another state that received cement through "Firm Ground," a federal audit found that state and local politicians watered down the donated cement with cheaper sand so less cement was needed to install the floors.  Beneficiaries were left with low-quality floors, while local politicians turned around and sold the excess cement.  Guerrero politicians and contractors embezzled $149 million pesos through the scheme, according to the federal audit. Some Oaxacan communities are demanding a similar audit of the “Firm Ground” program in their state.  Residents claim that local politicians are using the same scheme to deliver less cement to beneficiaries, and that the politicians use the excess cement to buy votes.  Angry residents also claim that politicians pay the workers in charge of installing the floors half of what the federal government budgeted for their salaries, and that the politicians pocket the other half.   While audits have yet to uncover embezzlement schemes connected to the materials used to construct Oaxaca's notoriously terrible highways, "phantom" highway projects are common. In phantom projects, the government pays for a roadway to be constructed or paved. The local officials claim that the project was completed and collect the cash, but in reality the project was never even initiated. Just this past August, the federal government fired nine Oaxacan officials for embezzling $930,000 pesos through phantom roadway projects. In April, authorities from sixty towns marched in San Juan Mixtepec to protest the municipal president's alleged embezzlement of $10 million pesos in federal funds through phantom road, bridge, and potable water projects.   The consequences of corruption and embezzlement in public works is costly and deadly, as the disaster in Tlahuitoltepec demonstrates. Exaggerated reports of the mudslide’s magnitude circulated for over ten hours before the first rescue crews could reach the devastated town, which is located only two-and-a-half hours from Oaxaca City. The first rescue crews arrived on foot because the roads were impassable. Heavy equipment such as bulldozers arrived much later. While the world watched in horror as collapsed highways and bridges delayed rescuers and equipment, no one in Oaxaca was surprised—bad road conditions have become a fact of life. While massive loss of life appears to have been avoided in Tlahuitoltepec, the mudslide should serve as a warning to the state and federal government that more oversight and accountability are needed to avoid a future catastrophe.