Building trust in government in a digital world
The World Bank GovTech Maturity Index, which measures how countries are digitizing public services, ranks Kenya as highly mature, the third in a four step ranking system. Kenya is already…
Understanding the relationship between digital platforms and the livelihoods of micro-entrepreneurs
Digitization is often hailed in the realm of development as a cure-all for the challenges faced by small, highly informal enterprises. It’s seen as a gateway to higher incomes, greater…
The power of a story: a communication specialist’s perspective on using narratives to communicate scientific concepts
There once was a place, not all that dissimilar from our own, where proof was as elusive as a unicorn in a jungle of doubt. Facts were frequently like whispers…
Redefining the civic engagement paradigm from participation to social acceptance: empowering civil society organizations to empower the people
Civil society organizations (CSOs) connect communities and the systems that govern them. The primary role, particularly of advocacy-based CSOs, should be to empower communities with the tools to advocate for…
Unpacking political protest: Q&A with Busara’s Gideon Too on Kenya’s #RejectFinanceBill2024
Gideon Too, Associate Vice President at Busara, provides insights on the current protests in Kenya against the 2024 Finance Bill. These have turned violent, with protesters being killed and abducted…
Money can’t move a ton of bricks: the real currency of economic life
You are driving on a road and are coming to a fork. The road splits into two: one a major motorway and the other a slightly smaller service road. After…
Making policy work for the people: how the new Indian government can use behavioral science for inclusive development in India
Over the past month, the focus in India has been on one particular kind of human behavior: voting. What would India decide? Now that the votes are counted and a…
A better how: Manage relationships when starting and ending research with human participants
Establishing and nurturing relationships with communities is critical for the success of development research involving human participants. By investing resources and effort into fostering these relationships, researchers can cultivate mutual…
Contextually grounded research in postgraduate research training in Africa: why and how
Stepping into postgraduate research training in Kenya The process of founding Eider Africa, an African-led research mentorship organization in Kenya in 2016, has been thought-provoking, healing, occasionally perplexing, and inspirational.…
Why won’t they just take the vaccine: a behavioral science approach to driving uptake of the HPV vaccine in India.
In early 2021, India saw one of its largest vaccination drives when it released the COVID vaccine and set out to vaccinate about 300 million priority groups against the virus.…