The World Bank launched its Development Impact blog on 1 April 2011, and has since published exactly 1500 posts. To celebrate turning 10, the editors of the blog decided to replace its meteor logo with something that better captures the aim of development research: i.e. to inform on the range of potential outcomes and choices in policy design and development processes.
Responding to a call for artistic ideas, our Bolivian-Italian PhD fellow Mariajose Silva-Vargas sent in the image above, which was eventually selected as the new cover of the World Bank blog. Mariajose shot the picture at the iconic ‘Ivory Tower’ building at Makerere University, Uganda’s largest and oldest institution of higher learning and research.
Said Mariajose: “As researchers in development, we are often interested in understanding which intervention or policy works best. We know that, although the alternatives might look similar, they can have different impacts on people and society. This motivates us to keep learning, collaborating, and searching for the best. This picture wants to portray exactly that: similar choices that can have very different impacts.”
For her PhD research, Mariajose uses behavioural experiments and randomised controlled trials to study economic and policy questions. She is currently in Uganda working on interventions to integrate refugees into the labour market and projects related to land markets frictions. As for her photography, she likes to narrate fantastic stories moving beyond the stereotypical images of the Global South. You can check out her amazing portfolio here.
Adapted from an article on the World Bank’s Development Impact blog. Read the original post.
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Mariajose Silva Vargas