NADEL newsletter April 2017

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Dear NADEL alumni and friends of NADEL,
I hope your year was off to a great start; with fresh ideas and renewed energy for projects aiming to improve the lives of people near and far. One of the new projects at NADEL in 2017 is an online newsletter, which should allow you to follow the activities at NADEL in a more timely and timesaving manner. For once cherry-picking of news is fostered and welcome. I would particularly like to draw your attention to an inspiring event with Duncan Green (Oxfam), Rupa Mukerji (HELVETAS Swiss Intercooperation) and Ruedi Küng (InfoAfrica) on “How change happens” on 26 April 2017. As usual, we love to hear back from you and would like to encourage all alumni to provide us with interesting news from their work that can be featured and shared in this newsletter.

All the best,
Isabel Günther
Professor of Development Economics
ETH NADEL Center for Development and Cooperation

Contents

•	Resource Extraction
•	Solar Lights
•	Private Donors
•	Tracer Study CAS D&C
•	Book launch "How Change Happens"

Oil, gas and mining: fueling development or undermining the future?

Resource extraction in developing countries is expanding rapidly. In Africa alone, over 30 countries have become resource-dependent economies. To better understand the local impact of resource extraction, NADEL has launched a 3-year SNF funded research project to develop a methodology for monitoring development outcomes in producer areas. Field research is underway in four mining sites in Burkina Faso and Mozambique. The final monitoring framework will be available as an online platform. The development impact of resource extraction also depends on policies in OECD countries. NADEL students have investigated Switzerland’s policy coherence for the case of mercury. Small-scale gold miners use this highly toxic chemical without protection. 70% of the global gold production is refined in Switzerland.


Do solar lights change people’s lives?
Access to electricity is considered both an outcome and a driver of development. Yet, over 80% of rural households in sub-Saharan Africa lack access to electricity. These households typically rely on kerosene lanterns for lighting, which have high operational costs, low-quality light, and possibly adverse health and environmental effects. Solar lights might provide a cleaner and cheaper alternative to kerosene lighting. Despite high hopes, there is still little empirical evidence on the impact of solar lights on people’s lives. A randomized control trial (RCT) conducted together with 1,400 households in Kenya, in cooperation with Solaraid and Acumen, and financed by Google tries to close this knowledge gap. The first results of the research project have been recently published in a policy brief on the economic impact of solar lighting.


Do private donors care about aid effectiveness?
Every Swiss donates on average 216 Swiss Francs per year amounting to 1.8 billion in total. In a recent experimental study (see also NZZ), Isabel Günther and Laura Metzger have analyzed the importance of aid effectiveness for donors’ decision making. While half of the people are concerned about who receives the money and about the administrative cost of the aid organizations, only 20% are interested in the impact the donation has. One reason might be that it is far easier to measure administrative cost than to investigate the effectiveness of development interventions. Administrative costs are also easier to communicate. However, impact evaluations are increasing among development organizations and are actively promoted by SDC. Should data on donation impact become more reliable and widely available, it could have a greater influence on donation behavior in the future.

Tracer Study CAS D&C

For the past 15 years, NADEL has taught the CAS in Development and Cooperation. The CAS D&C is a part-time, continuing education program that enhances the expertise of professionals working in development cooperation. To understand the career paths of the more than 300 professionals who started the CAS D&C between 2000 and 2015, NADEL conducted a survey among its alumni in 2016. CAS D&C graduates highly value the academic and professional diversity of participants, the program’s balance of theory and practical work and the collaborative learning approach. The results of the survey are summarized in a short report.

CAS tracer study report

Book launch "How Change Happens"

How can we understand the events, individuals and institutions that change the world? Can we use this to change things for the better? How does change happen? Duncan Green explores these themes in his new book. It seeks to understand how power and systems shape change, and how change can be influenced. At the invitation of NADEL, Duncan Green will present his findings on “How change happens” on April 26, 2017 at ETH. Duncan Green is a Senior Strategic Advisor of OXFAM, Professor of Practice on International Development at the London School of Economics (LSE), and author of the blog “From Poverty to Power. The book presentation will be followed by a discussion with Rupa Mukerji (HELVETAS Swiss Intercooperation) and moderated by Ruedi Küng (InfoAfrica).

NADEL in the Social Media

Contact

NADEL - Center for Development and Cooperation
Clausiusstrasse 37
8092 Zurich
Switzerland

+41 44 632 42 40

info@nadel.ethz.ch