Shanta Deverajan, the WB's new chief economist for Africa, recently launched a blog which promises to be worth following. One of his first entries was titled "Is information the answer?". Inter Press Service, for obvious reasons perhaps, appropriated the title for an article they requested from me on "any experience of research and development in Africa". My own working title had been "Africa needs more knowledge intermediaries". My contribution ends with a call for an Addis Briefings series, modelled on the Brussels Briefings. The IPS article draws on material from the IDS-initiated process on KI issues: the 2007 conference report is the first stop. The background paper to the 2008 conference and commentary from participants will bring you up to speed.
* A small correction to the IPS article: the last sentence should read: "Imagine how influential an "Addis Briefings" series could be, modelled on the lessons of the "Brussels Development Briefings", put together by a group of agencies - CTA, the European Commission, Euforic, CONCORD, and IPS Europe."
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I read the blog referred to and found myself getting irritated by the debate. Surely there can only be be reasonable discourse when the counterfactual is plausible - i.e. when it is possible/ reasonable to pose the argument "Is the lack of information the answer?". In this context this is not a question as to whether the lack of information is responsible for policy failures etc. but whether better decisions can be made with less information. The problem is ultimately one of confusing information with indisputable truisms.
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