whythawk ratings: measuring effective development

1. Overcoming the Conservation of Energy
(Analysis/Analysis)

...llar $1,900/oz. Private hospital administrators are in a similar fix. There is plenty of demand for their services, but, say hospital strategists, their key concern is the lack of staff. "Befo...

2. The hazard of market dominance
(Analysis/Analysis)

...let's mention again the power that both Telkom and Eskom have through the "delivery" of their services. When businesses compete against each other individually it can be very hard for t...

3. Netscape, the Internet and Creative Destruction
(Analysis/Analysis)

...stors. The great fortunes and great losses have been in private hands. Compare that with the products and services that governments decide are essential and that they feel are too important to be le...

4. Electricity Redux - Electricity Quotas Will Work About As Well As Race Quotas
(Analysis/Analysis)

...fter Eskom's price increase of 14.2% will require that the state spend less money elsewhere, decreasing services to the poor, or raise taxes, making business a less efficient job-creator. It'...

5. Funding departments instead of people cheats everyone
(Analysis/Analysis)

...g, as a proportion of total economic income, is 34.2%. If anyone has control over the economy and over the services that people receive it is the state. So, in the two most important sectors of stat...

6. The Speculator: Pricing in the Future
(Analysis/Analysis)

...try is 32%. Both sectors are in rapid decline, losing both jobs and investment. The flight is towards the services sector which now makes up some 68% of our economy. "The reason for the growth...

7. Trevor Manuel and the "Plunder of Skills"
(Analysis/Analysis)

...ngst us. Manto Tshabalala-Msimang, our health minister, speaking about the profit motive of private health services, declared recently, "It has been recognised internationally as unsustainable, ...

8. The Miracle of Investment
(Analysis/Analysis)

...t cannot be maintained will be shut. Those that remain will be made profitable by reducing maintenance and services. New ones – such as the investment at the biscuit mill – will never ha...

9. The spectre of loyalty over ability
(Analysis/Analysis)

...ht is Public Enterprise Minister Alec Erwin's belief that the private sector is incapable of delivering services. He has chosen to develop new broadband capacity via a state-subsidised monopoly c...

10. Investment cannot happen if the market isn't private
(Analysis/Analysis)

...l they buy? Our energy industry is highly regulated. No competitors are invited to challenge the sterling services provided by Eskom (thanks for the power-failures last week) or Telkom (thanks for t...

11. Black Diamonds and the trouble with statistics
(Analysis/Analysis)

...; These are big numbers indeed and are important for developers and retailers wanting to supply goods and services to a growing market. Yet there is a lingering concern about these figures.  ...

12. Ending poverty means abandoning charity and accepting reality
(Analysis/Analysis)

...unist state directly into a free-market economy. He disbanded the central state, sold off the nationalised services and created the direct form of a free-market state. It was a disaster and resulted...

13. Scrogues Converse: Open-space, Identity and the Missing Web
(Analysis/Analysis)

...greement. Your privacy should be entirely yours to control. But we do have to discuss convenience. The more services that come out, and the less they communicate across common standards and platforms,...

14. Atlas Shrugged at 50
(Analysis/Analysis)

...extending the range of government's violence to other businesses as well. Government does not sell any services that business wishes to buy. If they did then no threats would be necessary; they ...

15. The war of informal markets against central states; a bellwether of support
(Analysis/Analysis)

...an. Modern telecommunication systems allow them to send foreign currency via email, SMS or even money-wire services. Gideon Gono, the Zimbabwe finance minister, can raise interest rates to the moon ...

16. After Enron: the Corporate Governance of Corporate Social Investment
(Analysis/Analysis)

When a financial services company recommends that you purchase a particular stock you need to be sure that their advice is based on impartial research. After Enron... So many justifications for the

17. Getting Home in Zimbabwe: The impossibility of public transport
(Analysis/Analysis)

...es now ranging from Z$ 1.5 to 2 million most Zimbabweans cannot afford the more expensive private transport services. Most people have no choice but to wait in ever lengthening queues. The working ...

18. Start your business in Johannesburg but hire your advisor in Cape Town
(Analysis/Analysis)

...to remain unemployed post intervention. In addition service providers in Gauteng charge 250% more for their services than in the Western Cape. Many of the small business support voucher programs, such...

19. Guess which South African cellular company offers the best contract tariffs?
(Analysis/Analysis)

...the most expensive, while under most circumstances Cell C is cheapest. Cell C and Virgin don't offer 3G services and have weaker network coverage. More interestingly is that buying large-scale co...

20. One Laptop Per Child, now costing 75% more ...
(Analysis/Analysis)

...e cash.  Given the poorly articulated purpose of OLPC, the incredible lack of infrastructure and basic services in the countries concerned, I can only hope that the donor community refuses. As fo...

21. Internet Bubble 2.0: the future of dotcom depends on the mobile phone
(Analysis/Analysis)

...have become dynamic and offer astonishing technologies.  In many parts of Europe and in Japan cellular services are cheaper than the fixed telephone services.  The same is true of South Afri...

22. Unlearning helplessness: how donors reinforce poverty and dependency
(Analysis/Analysis)

...der the impression that the poor are a market not worth pursuing. And so the poor are left paying more for services received by the rich. Transport costs are higher, food variety is poorer and signi...

23. What market is worth R 100 billion a year and is growing at 10.9%?
(Analysis/Analysis)

...on new products unless there is an overwhelming reason to do so Stokvels are complex and well-run financial services co-operatives that give the poor a hedge over short-term income fluctuations Spaza ...

24. Leveraging your good name; the power of a positive credit rating
(Analysis/Analysis)

...;t default then they can reduce the price accordingly. In a modern economy, filled with third-party rating services, you are able to build up a good name as an asset simply by behaving honourably.&nb...

25. From Linux to Mozilla: donations mean that open-source isn't really free
(Analysis/Analysis)

...intain their technical advantage. CK Prahalad talks over the video, "The poor are prepared to pay for services and products. They want to. Real poverty is relying on permanent donations and ha...

26. Demonstration Enterprise Development Consultant B
(Ratings Demonstration/Demonstration)

...  Demonstration began operations in 1992.  They offer a number of social development and training services as well as catering for the Umsobomvu voucher program. They are based in Langa a...

27. Demonstration Enterprise Development Consultant A
(Ratings Demonstration/Demonstration)

...o six staff, including two directors) and five contractors who perform consulting, training and bookkeeping services on their behalf. Positive Rating Factors: Their scale has allowed them to o...

28. Demonstration Health HIV / AIDS Orphanage B
(Ratings Demonstration/Demonstration)

... Organisation Capacity 26 children total capacity, currently have 24 children Volunteers Utilise the services of eight volunteers, currently seeking volunteers to start in April 2007 Funding...

29. Demonstration Health HIV / AIDS Orphanage A
(Ratings Demonstration/Demonstration)

...ganisation Capacity Able to care for 36 children, currently at full capacity Volunteers Utilises the services of 10 volunteers, will be requiring new volunteers in August 2007 Funding Requirem...

30. The US$ 5 trillion market at the bottom of the pyramid
(Analysis/Analysis)

...: a highly decentralised approach; partitioning of the task (on site / off site, decentralised payments and services); world class centralised facilities to aggregate and control the products as they ...

31. Demonstration Table of Ratings
(Ratings Demonstration/Demonstration)

...tment Grade (rating AAA - BBB) or Below Investment Grade (BB and below). Subscribers wishing to utilise the services of those below investment grade are advised to do so with caution. Each organisatio...

32. Development organisations need to engage with ratings agencies
(Analysis/Analysis)

...tings reports in their quest for funding without having to contract in specialised, and costly, fundraising services. As with investment, so with charity; donors are spoiled for choice and those who ...

33. Aggregation and collaboration: a guide to making money and doing good in poor nations
(Analysis/Analysis)

...s aren’t required and individuals can buy and use as much as they can afford.  SMS-based banking services overcome infrastructure limitations by putting the means of payment directly in the...

34. While no-one was watching
(Analysis/Analysis)

...ation that was neglecting the children in their care. Moral hazard abounds.  The Department of Social Services will pay a foster parent a grant for every child in their care until their 15th bir...

35. Rating to create a market; questions and answers
(Analysis/Analysis)

...d versus junk food. The development sector is a massive no-go area.  Who says that the products and services offered by NGOs and charities are any good?  You can give anything away, but t...

36. Joost minds the baby: what happens to state control when technology passes them by?
(Analysis/Analysis)

...nications are already used in lieu of local telephone exchanges across Africa.  As the price for these services comes down it gets easier and easier to use the new online services. Joost will so...

37. The best bridge out of poverty is over the future of cash
(Analysis/Analysis)

...nvestors couldn’t read the JSE and so didn’t investigate.  Recently, the JSE and Financial Services Board (FSB) have introduced IFRS regulations from abroad, designed to harmonise all...

38. "On your left is an Orc fighting a Troll" - travels in hyper-reality offer lessons for the poor
(Analysis/Analysis)

...creating millions of jobs both directly and peripherally in the supply chain.  In cities where no such services existed they became an exciting new addition to the entertainment scene. The inven...

39. Western Cape economic development support agencies lack the capacity to halve unemployment
(Analysis/Analysis)

... person wishing to, or already operating, a business. Such skills development may encompass a wide range of services: from personal skills assessment, to training, business plan development or assessm...

40. We're from Mars and we want to help: four lessons in development
(Analysis/Analysis)

... also include the telecommunications infrastructure necessary to move intangible products (such as stories, services and ideas). Education: set up universities and colleges and academic programs to de...

41. Enterprise Development and Employment: Experiences in South Africa and South Eastern Europe
(Analysis/Analysis)

...ployment in South Africa by focusing on three sectors; mainly bio-fuels, contact centres and office support services, and tourism. These sectors were chosen for their relative reliance on labour, and ...

42. The Martians Really Care: four points to govern development
(Analysis/Ideas and Challenges)

... also include the telecommunications infrastructure necessary to move intangible products (such as stories, services and ideas). Education: take a selection of our best and brightest in a wide range o...

43. May I have the bill, please? A lesson in wilful ignorance ...
(Analysis/Analysis)

...clients, on the whole, are desperate and uneducated (otherwise they wouldn’t be in need of charitable services) and hardly likely to complain.  The donors don’t experience the service...

44. The lack of feedback and accountability is fatal to aid effectiveness
(Analysis/Analysis)

...y the lack of money isn’t the problem. And so, in full awareness of this shortfall, we offer our own services.  To measure the effectiveness of different approaches and different organisat...

45. Rating Copyright and Terms of Use
(FAQs/Rating FAQs)

...mation assembled, verified and presented to investors by the issuer and its agents in connection with their services. Ratings may be changed, suspended, or withdrawn at any time for any reason in the ...

46. Enterprise - Ratings and Scorecard overview
(FAQs/Rating FAQs)

...the service they received and as such is a qualitative measure. 2 Sector-Specific Scorecards 2.1 Business Services – Service Support (CS) This scorecard measures the support and responsivenes...

47. Does the new Apple iPhone cause poverty?
(Analysis/Analysis)

...cess.   There are places in the world where it is completely uneconomical to offer formal ((banking)) services.  Dangerous places where cash can easily be stolen.  The ready availabili...

48. AIDS-related illnesses cost South African businesses up to R 2.2 billion per year
(Analysis/Analysis)

...ll as being prominent in large urban centres, are uniquely placed to provide a range of quality HIV-related services (from training of home-based caregivers to provision of antiretroviral therapy) to ...

49. The end of wild seafood and the myth of "free"
(Analysis/Analysis)

...- but he’s had to give in and offer his own “free” phone. The same goes for development services which are given away – you guessed it – free.  If the services wer...

50. X Challenge: Develop the cheapest most effective school
(Analysis/Analysis)

...fering no frills at all.  You get exactly what you want and no more. Where, then, are the development services based on the same principles?  Taking exactly the opposite route is Oprah Winf...