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This blog is a global conversation among young people on poverty and other development-related issues. It's maintained by the World Bank's Youthink! team

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Infrastructure

Eau de toilet, ode de toilet, oh the toilet!

Submitted by Saadia Iqbal on November 20, 2009 - 14:33

In my oddly varied career, I once worked for one of those overpriced retailers—you know, the ones that are euphemistically called “posh.” My job was to write product descriptions for their website, so imagine my horror when one day I was given the task of describing (fasten your seatbelts) gold plated toilet brushes. These little freaks were priced about £500 (about $800) and the scariest thing of all was, people actually bought them. To this day, I’ve never understood why anyone’s, uh, excrement smears, would need such fancy treatment. Talk about a royal flush, ha ha!

Public, private, or both

Submitted by Nicholas Lembo on April 1, 2009 - 15:59

With the release of US Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner's latest plan to clear bad loans off the books of troubled banks in the US, the fact that the elaborate auction is essentially a public-private partnership has flown under the radar amidst celebrations and critiques.

Public-private partnerships (PPPs) are a relatively old tool of development work. PPPs are often implemented in developing countries for large-scale infrastructure projects, landscape or agricultural improvements, or any number of other "public goods" projects. Typically, governments will finance part or all of the project, while private firms will carry out the construction or operation of the project.

 

Better to light a candle than to curse the darkness!

Submitted by Saptarshi Pal on March 30, 2009 - 09:29

In the first week of March, I attended the 6th International Biofuels Conference in New Delhi. In this conference I learned of an entrepreneurial venture by a tiny village in India that left me amazed. The village is producing its own electricity to meet all its energy requirements!  

The Indian IT success story is known across the globe. In urban India, we pride ourselves in using the latest technology and most urban teenagers are gadget freaks. On the other hand, hundreds of villages do not even have electricity in my country. 

What do teachers, tourists, and tin miners have in common?

Submitted by Nicholas Lembo on February 25, 2009 - 08:52

Over the past year the world has experienced unstable prices in more ways than we could have imagined not that long ago. Just as turbulent as international stock exchanges and food prices? Crude oil.

Over the summer of 2008, oil prices peaked close to $150 a barrel. Last week it was selling below $40. Crashing prices mean tightening budgets in many countries that rely on income from oil extraction. In places such as Russia, Venezuela, and Iran, social programs that derived most of their funding from resource sales have been drastically cut. 

One tariff, two tariff, red tariff, blue tariff

Submitted by Nicholas Lembo on February 9, 2009 - 20:34

There's been a lot of crowing in Washington these past few days. As the US, and the rest of the world, try to navigate through our current financial crisis and recession, governments are increasingly turning to fiscal stimulus packages in attempts to boost domestic economies. 

The idea is simple enough. Fiscal stimulus is basically a fancy way of saying that the government will borrow money, either from its citizens or other countries by issuing bonds, to spend on infrastructure renewal, industrial development, or even tax cuts for corporations and citizens. It's difficult for even the world's best economists to really determine how effective such programs are in the long term but as unemployment continues to rise around the world, policymakers are beginning to wonder whether they have any other options.

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