Our friend, doing the work.
Starting points for understanding international development, the books, data, and terms that come up again and again. This is a working list, added to as it grows.
Uses randomized controlled trials to test what actually changes poor households' decisions around health, education, and money, and argues development policy should follow the evidence rather than ideology.
A Zambian economist's case against government-to-government aid, arguing it entrenches dependency and corruption instead of building functioning economies. Contested, but a useful counterweight to the standard aid narrative.
Argues that roughly a billion people are stuck in a small group of countries trapped by conflict, resource curses, bad governance, or geography: a different problem than "the developing world" as a whole, and one that needs different tools.
Contrasts top-down aid "planners" who impose grand solutions with bottom-up "searchers" who solve specific problems by trial and error, and argues the second group gets more done.
Lays out the effective altruism case for judging charitable work by evidence and cost-effectiveness, not good intentions: useful for thinking about how funding decisions actually get made.
Free, country-by-country data on poverty, health, education, and the economy: the standard first stop for a development statistic.
Annual reports ranking countries on the Human Development Index, with deep dives on specific themes each year.
Independent, pan-African surveys on how ordinary people actually experience democracy, governance, and daily life: a good check against top-down narratives.
News, funding data, and jobs coverage for the global development sector: useful for understanding who funds what, and how the industry itself works.