Okay @danielyu & @Arno what about the secondary part of this with the Atlas Of Economic Complexity resources?

Wouldn’t it be helpful to use some of these tools/data to come up with the highest potential impact ventures to support? 

Like maybe one could look for what African countries have the highest similarity scores / adjacent capabilities to start building more generics pharmaceutical industries to support the region’s global health goals.

Or what countries may be most able to develop very low-cost meat alternatives / plant-based protein products for better animal welfare?

Like are there opportunities for donors to support both private business in low income countries & other high impact cause areas simultaneously?

Thanks for the clarification. I’ve had a curiosity if these types of logistics developments would have a significant impact, but had yet to run into anyone with good context to give a rough check / back-of-the-envelope potential impact calculation.

Last mile delivery is efficient & not a problem?

The point of things like drone & cargo airship developments is more point to point delivery without extra things like unloading & loading trucks that navigate unimproved roads.

If we are considering pushing more people to start businesses in developing countries & building out their own supply chain / logistics, then what might we think about interventions to ease & accelerate logistics in more widespread ways?

Like should EAs focus some support for things like the further development of drone delivery or cargo airships, which could lower the cost of transport & trade to, from, & among developing countries, especially those without good ports, roads, or rail?

Cargo Airships Could Be Big:
https://www.elidourado.com/p/cargo-airships 

Cargo Airships Are Happening:
https://www.elidourado.com/p/airship-industries 

I wonder if EA or something similar was mostly made up of say people from various countries in Africa with more ties & influence over local settings then would we see different and/or more ambitious interventions or business interventions or even political pushes from the community?

Like for example would we see interventions to create more trade between specific neighboring countries or the funding of political campaigns?

Or like if I were the economics nerd I am in a country in Africa I’d be pushing politically to create a stronger African Union that could create larger common markets of consumer demand & use the consolidated demand to bargain for things that would increase technology transfers & then push for forced-export lead industrial policy like what several Asian countries did (https://byrnehobart.medium.com/lessons-from-the-east-asian-economic-miracle-5f8d0f2354d9), essentially trying to replicate China or South Korea’s rise but for a lot of Africa.

For anything trade & industrial policy related, I find the Atlas Of Economic Complexity (https://atlas.hks.harvard.edu/countries/156) an interesting resource.
I like the categorizing of countries into different economic strategies & the prioritized list of suggested new product opportunities for countries. Could be very useful for anyone exploring the markets & business opportunities of developing countries.

Comment copied from comments on: https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/tnDQPGFW8vRFiAhrN/what-three-years-of-program-delivery-in-west-africa-taught 

Agreed.

Also for trade & industrial policy purposes I find the Atlas Of Economic Complexity (https://atlas.hks.harvard.edu/countries/384) an interesting resource.
I like the categorizing of countries into different economic strategies & the prioritized list of suggested new product opportunities for countries.

I also wonder if EA or something similar was mostly made up of say people from various countries in Africa with more ties & influence over local settings then would we see different and/or more ambitious interventions or even political pushes from the community? Like for example would we see interventions to create more trade between specific neighboring countries or the funding of political campaigns?

Like if I were the economics nerd I am in a country in Africa I’d be pushing politically to create a stronger African Union that could create larger common markets of consumer demand & use the consolidated demand to bargain for things that would increase technology transfers & then push for forced-export lead industrial policy like what several Asian countries did (https://byrnehobart.medium.com/lessons-from-the-east-asian-economic-miracle-5f8d0f2354d9), essentially trying to replicate China’s rise but for a lot of Africa.

I also wonder if EA or something similar was mostly made up of say people from various countries in Africa with more ties & influence over local settings then would we see different and/or more ambitious interventions or even political pushes from the community?

Like for example would we see interventions to create more trade between specific neighboring countries or the funding of political campaigns?

Or like if I were the economics nerd I am in a country in Africa I’d be pushing politically to create a stronger African Union that could create larger common markets of consumer demand & use the consolidated demand to bargain for things that would increase technology transfers & then push for forced-export lead industrial policy like what several Asian countries did (https://byrnehobart.medium.com/lessons-from-the-east-asian-economic-miracle-5f8d0f2354d9), essentially trying to replicate China’s rise but for a lot of Africa.

As for your post about EA & a lot of EA participants being in far away developed countries, I agree & my exposure to this line of thinking largely comes from the book The Anti-Politics Machine (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Anti-Politics_Machine) describing previous failures in international development from a lack of local knowledge. It’s actually something I find interesting about EA interventions, as instead of trying to develop detailed local knowledge they work around the issue with things that require less local knowledge to work. It’s easier to support a one-time technical intervention like vaccines with like New Incentives that do not require continued follow-up throughout a person’s life or to just send cash with GiveDirectly. And I can’t say this is a bad or even sub-optimal approach as things like vaccines have such great benefits for such low cost & low risk of intervention failure. It more reveals how under funded everything is that things like vaccines & cash transfers to expectant mothers aren’t fully saturated leaving only interventions that could use more local context. 

Hello Arthur,

Welcome to the EA forum & to the bootcamp. Do you have a Linked-In or other preferred social media account to connect? It may be worth linking it here for people.

As for me, I am also listening in to the bootcamp & I am a software developer for Chemonics, previously the largest USAID global health contractor. With the dismantling of USAID we may soon look to provide other services to multi-laterals & to individual country governments & organizations so your opinions may be interesting.