October 28, 2013
Last week, Grameen Foundation CEO, Alex Counts, posted an update to his personal blog about some promising new ideas on researching the effectiveness of microfinance. In the post, he discusses the sometimes troubled relationship between microfinance practitioners and academic researchers. The post touched off a great discussion, centering on the question of how to ensure that the conclusions of researchers can be better put into practice:
“We should hold researchers to the standard they hold the rest of us – they should measure whether their research, on which millions of dollars are spent every year, produces any positive change.” -Alex Counts
Read the full post, and check out the discussion in the comments.
What do you think? How can we ensure that research leads to tangible outcomes for poor people? Join in the discussion.