Top Five Most-Read Blogs of 2019

In April of 2019, IDinsight launched IDeas, our first blog, with this inaugural post from Co-Founder and CEO, Neil Buddy Shah. The aim? To share learnings, challenges, failures — and success stories — of how evidence and data can help decision-makers globally. In the months since we have published more than 50 blog posts receiving upwards of 15,000 views.

Below is a wrap-up of our top posts from this year.

IDinsight’s Elizabeth Bennett codes in a government school in Rajasthan, India during the Educate Girls Development Impact Bond baseline. ©IDinsight/Kate Sturla

1. Right tool, right time: Statistical software at IDinsight

In this post, our team discusses three kinds of software: Stata, R, and Python, and how we make the most of their strengths to solve our clients’ various challenges.

Family members and neighbors watch as a child is trying to read in a village in Jehanabad district, Bihar, India. ©Rukmini Banerji

2. Pradhanji and Me: The Soft Underbelly of Data

Rukmini Banerji, CEO of Pratham USA, discusses her approach to village-level data collection with a vivid story about how to engage local skeptics.

An Agrodealer demonstrates the PICS hermetically-sealed crop storage bag to curious farmers. ©IDinsight/Amy Chen

3. When evidence doesn’t drive decision-making

IDinsight’s Daniel Stein reflects on how findings from an evaluation of an agriculture project in western Kenya failed to influence decision-makers.

Picture credited to Johan Jarnestad/The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences.

4. Notes on Nobel Laureates

IDinsight team members share notes about Abhijit Banerjee, Esther Duflo, and Michael Kremer, reflecting on their contributions after they won the Nobel Prize this year.

IDinsight’s Vinod Sharma facilitates a workshop on data use for health and nutrition officials in Ranchi, Jharkhand. ©IDinsight/Aditi Gupta

5. Four challenges to building capacity in government

In this post, IDinsight’s Madhav Seth discusses challenges and roadblocks to helping government leaders build new data and evidence skills.

Thank you for reading, discussing, debating, and sharing this work with friends and colleagues. Happy holidays, we look forward to a data-driven and impactful 2020!