All Blog Posts

Member blogs include thematic articles of 600-800 words on books or research by members, or human interest stories by members. To submit a thematic blog write to the relevant TG chair; for human interest blogs write to 1818society@wbgalumni.org, with “Blog Proposal” in the subject line.

The Lucrative Dangers of Tobacco Farming [1]
August 1, 2023 | Uma Lele

The global spread of tobacco production and use is like gun proliferation in the US. It is one of those evils that

>> Click Here
Destruction of World Bank-supported Hydropower Plant in Ukraine
August 1, 2023 | Istvan Dobozi

Ukraine has considerable hydropower resource potential. It operates nine major hydropower plants, accounting for about 10 per cent of the country’s total

>> Click Here
Pakistan: Hunza – Batura – Fairy Meadows: A hidden gem
July 14, 2023 | Miriam Schneidman

Sipping on a cup of chai on the balcony of the Raikot Sarai lodge while gazing at Nanga Parbat, the ninth highest

>> Click Here
Bidii Yetu – Cross Africa Odyssey to Raise Awareness of the Potential of People with Disabilities
July 14, 2023 | Matthew Gamser*

A year ago I reconnected with an old friend and former colleague who, due to a hereditary disease, progressively lost feeling in

>> Click Here
Toward A More Effective WBG Response To Global Challenges
July 1, 2023 | René Costa

The World Bank Group (WBG), a long-standing development lender, is facing criticism for not being broad enough in its mandate to address

>> Click Here
Remembering Korea: Moments from the K-Tour of May 2023
July 1, 2023 | Chad Leechor

On a cool sunny day, we gather at the Incheon Airport near Seoul, to start a stint of energetic hiking plus cultural

>> Click Here
One Hundred and Fifty Shades of Green
June 14, 2023 | Preeti S. Ahuja

Just as my fingers finished typing “One Hundred Shades of Green” – a name I thought to be apt for my microblog

>> Click Here
A UNIVERSAL FINANCIAL FRAMEWORK FOR GLOBAL CONCERNS
June 1, 2023 | René Costa

“While there are countless solutions to tackling what has been described by the UN as the “existential threat” of our times, it

>> Click Here
Bhutan: Land of the Thunder Dragon
June 1, 2023 | Jianyuan Zhu

Better to see something once than hear about it a thousand times. – Asian Proverb Dubbed as the “Land of the Thunder

>> Click Here
Bhutan Trek 2023 – A Trekking Newbie’s Perspective
May 22, 2023 | Heidi Hennrich-Hanson

Patience is not the ability to wait, but the ability to keep a good attitude while waiting – Buddha quote After 3

>> Click Here
The U.S. Inflation Reduction Act of 2022
May 16, 2023 | Chas Feinstein *

Mark Twain famously said: “Everybody talks about the weather but nobody does anything about it.” As someone who has been following the

>> Click Here
A Tale of Two Microstates: Ideas for A Climate-Smart & Nutrition-Sensitive Future
April 27, 2023 | Preeti S. Ahuja

While the focus on the key purveyors of a changing climate is rightly increasing, it is important to keep in view simultaneously,

>> Click Here
Lessons Learned from Life as a Consultant: Dealing with a Client who Refuses to Pay
April 18, 2023 | Joe Barone

When I left the Bank in March 2018, I decided to hang out my shingle as a consultant. Although the first nine

>> Click Here
Priorities for Action in the Face of Runaway Climate Change
April 13, 2023 | Vinod Thomas*

Climate change presents an extreme gulf between scientific knowledge of the risk and policy action to tackle it. Technical solutions and economic

>> Click Here
The Spiral Stairs
March 1, 2023 | Jim Brown*

With the Boeing announcement of the last 747 rolling off the line in Everett Washington this week, I realized that it has

>> Click Here
Is Free Trade Dead?
February 8, 2023 | Istvan Dobozi

Free trade is one of the few economic paradigms that unite economists of all ideological and political stripes: reduction of international trade

>> Click Here
How the Dollar-a-Day Poverty Line Came into Being
January 26, 2023 | Lyn Squire *

Even after thirty years, there are still misconceptions about how the dollar-a-day standard used to measure poverty in the developing world came

>> Click Here
A day with Pelé
January 4, 2023 | John Muir*

The late 60’s had become a busy period for me.  At the request of South American friends, I helped establish and then captain

>> Click Here
Food Security, Poverty Reduction and Economic Transformation: Time for Sustained Action by G20
December 9, 2022 | Uma Lele*

In 2022, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen called on many occasions the need to strengthen global collaboration for tackling food insecurity, most notably

>> Click Here
17 days Trekking the Tsum Valley and around the Manaslu in Nepal
December 7, 2022 | Maryvonne Plessis-Fraissard

The trip was planned for 2020 as a following chapter to the Annapurna Trek. In one of the many updates of the

>> Click Here
WBG Retirees play a HUGE role in the Community Connections Campaign
December 2, 2022 | Clare Evans*

I was born in Washington, DC, and I grew up in the DC metro area.  I have loved and enjoyed this wonderful

>> Click Here
Eating – and walking – our way around Türkiye
November 15, 2022 | Lesley Shneier*

One morning before the crack of dawn, we stumbled bleary-eyed from our cave hotel, to be taken to the hot air balloon

>> Click Here
Playing with atomic fire in Ukraine
October 1, 2022 | Istvan Dobozi

Ukraine has already experienced how dangerous a nuclear power plant can be. In 1986, the world’s worst nuclear accident took place at

>> Click Here
1818 Northumberland Hike: July 29-August 5, 2022
October 1, 2022 | Sandra Hadler, Chair Florida Chapter

Way back in July 2019, 30 some 1818 hikers and partners spent a week hiking in the Cotswolds. It was such a

>> Click Here
“Yes, We Can”
October 1, 2022 | Dhamayanthy Padmanathan

This is a verse from a very popular Girl Scout song ‘Yes, We Can’: “Can a woman be a doctor? Yes, she

>> Click Here
Cherishing what matters the most……
September 9, 2022 | Tahseen Sayed

You land after almost 6 years at an airport and waiting at immigration, you know that you have come home! You enter

>> Click Here
Hiking the Iconic Vistas of Norway
September 1, 2022 | Anis Dani

It started off as a lark and ended as the trip of a lifetime. During a high altitude hike to Nepal and

>> Click Here
My trip to the Canadian Arctic Iqaluit, Nunavut, Canada
September 1, 2022 | Alexander Keyserlingk

Introduction I wanted to go north to see how people live in the northern part of the North American continent under such

>> Click Here
Making Fitness a Habit
August 1, 2022 | Susan Dubas

You already know that exercise is good for you.   Countless studies highlight the benefits of regular physical activity.  It prevents disease, improves

>> Click Here
Conservation of a World Heritage site (Abiseo Park) and public forest land in the Province of San Martin, Peruvian Amazon
August 1, 2022 | Kevin Cleaver and Maria Nikolov

We retired from the World Bank in 2006.  We purchased and currently own a farm located immediately next to Peru’s Rio Abiseo

>> Click Here
Mapping Carbon Neutrality from Words to Deeds
August 1, 2022 | Miguel Schloss

Who would have thought that after 30 years since the UN Convention on Climate Change, the gap between the agreed goals, and

>> Click Here
THE UKRAINE TRAGEDY IS NOW GLOBAL: Impact on food security
July 1, 2022 | Nadim Khouri

On June 3, 2022, the 1818 Society Thematic Group on Agriculture and Rural Development (ARD TG) hosted a presentation on the impact

>> Click Here
Hiking El Camino de Costa Rica
July 1, 2022 | Kathia Coupry and Hugh Sloan

In April of 2022, nine of us set out on a 10-day hiking trip on El Camino de Costa Rica, from the

>> Click Here
Comity: Multilateralism in the New Cold War.
July 1, 2022 | Frank Vibert

Recently I gave a webinar to an 1818 Society audience on my new book ‘Comity; Multilateralism in the New Cold War’, (Edward

>> Click Here
Pricing the Urban Water Supply Service to Please (almost) Everybody
June 1, 2022 | Alain Loccusol

Pricing the urban water supply service is a complex exercise that aims at achieving competing objectives. Cost recovery.  Piped water has some

>> Click Here
The Art Market at Times of Global Uncertainty
June 1, 2022 | Andrés Solimano

We live in uncertain times: the world is emerging from the main effects of the Covid-19 pandemic but is affected now by

>> Click Here
DIG DEEP: Triple Crown of Open Water Swimming
June 1, 2022 | Diana Corbin

When I tell someone I have completed the Triple Crown of Open Water Swimming, they ask: WHAT is that? WHY would anyone

>> Click Here
Original World Bank Cost-Efficiency Indicators: Then & Now
May 4, 2022 | Bill Katzenstein

Updated: February 1, 2023 The Bank’s first review of its expenses in relation to lending, conducted in 1955, centered on three graphs

>> Click Here
Social Development in the World Bank
May 3, 2022 | Scott Guggenheim

“To give you an idea of how it felt then while trying to bring anthropology’s message to a rather agnostic and sceptical

>> Click Here
A Passion for Home-made Bread
May 1, 2022 | Mark Woodward

In retirement I have become passionate about baking naturally fermented bread with freshly milled, whole grain flour.  When I retired some 6

>> Click Here
Food for All
April 8, 2022 | Uma Lele, Manmohan Agarwal, Brian Baldwin, and Sambuddha Goswami

Our book arose out of several mutually reinforcing concerns: Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) were unlikely to be achieved by 2030, given the

>> Click Here
The Urgent Need to Cut Super Climate Pollutants Now!
April 7, 2022 | Alan S. Miller

I was privileged to work on climate change issues in the World Bank Group for 16 years, from 1997 to 2014.  Since

>> Click Here
Volunteering: A Life’s Inspiration
April 6, 2022 | Mavee Park and Mike James

Secrets to a long life? Pick your poison or passion: from drinking whiskey, eating bacon(!), exercise, hanging out with friends,… As Ralph Burgess Tarrant, a 110yr old

>> Click Here