TOR150: Testing The Assumptions Of The Social Sector With Chris Blattman Of The University of Chicago

Terms Of Reference Podcast

Professor Chris Blattman is the Ramalee E. Pearson Professor of Global Conflict Studies at The University of Chicago, at the Harris School of Public Policy, as well as a research associate at National Bureau of Economic Research, among many other things. He's a heavyweight in the world of understanding what works - and more importantly what doesn't - in aid and development.

As you'll hear on the show, Chris thinks he's a professor because he was a failed development professional. This is actually a lucky turn for the rest of us because he is a critical voice in the R&D department of the development and aid sector. In our discussion, you'll hear us discuss how research finds its way into practice and how we learned that microfinance doesn’t work to alleviate poverty. We also discuss why you can’t test programs and programming, but rather you have to test the assumptions those programs are built on, in order to find out what works. We round out our discussion on what the future of the social sector could look like over the next five years.