Development

Every day, policymakers around the world face a dizzying array of choices. The more they spend on, say, education, the less there is to run hospitals, fight pollution or boost agricultural productivity. Lobby groups, activists and the media promote certain causes — solar panels, the Zika virus, closing tax loopholes immediately — while less fashionable issues, such as nutrition or non-communicable diseases, can slip beneath the radar.

Every day, policymakers around the world face a dizzying array of choices. The more they spend on, say, education, the less there is to run hospitals, fight pollution, or boost agricultural productivity. Lobby groups, activists, and the media promote certain causes – solar panels, the Zika virus, closing tax loopholes immediately – while less fashionable issues, like nutrition or non-communicable diseases, can slip beneath the radar.

Jeden Tag müssen Politiker in der ganzen Welt eine verwirrende Vielfalt von Entscheidungen treffen. Je mehr sie für sagen wir Bildung ausgeben, desto weniger steht für Krankenhäuser, Umweltschutz oder die Steigerung der landwirtschaftlichen Produktivität zur Verfügung. Lobbygruppen, Aktivisten und die Medien sprechen sich für bestimmte Anliegen aus - Solaranlagen, das Zika-Virus, das sofortige Schließen von Steuerschlupflöchern - während weniger populäre Themen wie Ernährung oder nicht übertragbare Krankheiten kaum wahrgenommen werden.

Politici na celém světě čelí každý den závratnému množství voleb. Čím více investují například do vzdělání, tím méně zbyde na provoz nemocnic, boj se znečištěním či na zvýšení zemědělské produktivity. Lobbistické skupiny, aktivisté a média prosazují určitá témata – solární panely, virus Zika, uzavírání mezer v daňovém systému – zatímco méně atraktivní témata jako výživa, nebo nepřenosné choroby, mohou zmizet z radaru.

What we eat is seen as more important than ever. And everywhere we are urged to go organic: we are told it is more nutritious, it improves animal welfare and helps the environment. In reality, that is mostly marketing hype. 

In 2012 Stanford University’s Centre for Health Policy did the biggest comparison of organic and conventional foods and found no robust evidence for organics being more nutritious. A brand-new review has just repeated its finding: “Scientific studies do not show that organic products are more nutritious and safer than conventional foods.

IT is almost universally agreed that more education is good for society.

But it turns out that some popular educational policies achieve very little, while others that are often overlooked can make a huge difference.

Reducing class sizes would seem to be an obvious improvement, but by itself, smaller class size has not been shown to boost educational performance.

Over the past two decades, Bangladesh has remarkably managed to feed an increasing population better - the UN's Food and Agricultural Organization estimates that in 1993, the average Bangladeshi had access to just 2,000 calories per day, whereas today that number has increased to 2,450 calories per day. To a large extent, this success comes on the back of ever-higher rice production - rice makes up 70 percent of the average daily calorie intake.

Like many places around the globe, Bangladesh has made great strides in liberalising trade over recent decades. 25 ago, the protection rate, which takes into account tariffs and other trade barriers, was 74 percent. Today, that rate is just 27 percent.

Bangladesh's manufacturing sector has grown steadily as the country has industrialised. Manufacturing now accounts for 30 percent of GDP, nearly double the share of agriculture. That industry is largely driven by the readymade garment (RMG) sector, which represents a whopping 85 percent of all export earnings and employs 4 million people, 80 percent of whom are women.

Tens of millions of Bangladeshis have gained access to electricity over recent years. In 2000, just 32 percent of the population had electricity access; today that figure stands at nearly 60 percent, according to the World Bank.

Yet the national energy sector still lags behind many of its neighbours, and the power Bangladesh manages to generate is unreliable - blackouts and shortages cost an estimated 0.5 percent of GDP annually. What are the smartest ways to bring reliable energy to more Bangladeshis?