You will hear from colleagues working on a new platform to update, improve and replace the existing projects database. We are improving the way to find out where aid funds are spent and giving people the facility to trace those funds through to the people who benefit from it on the ground. You will hear examples from the team behind @dfid_uk on twitter, DFID on Facebook and other social media channels about how they look continually for different ways to interact with new audiences.

We will share news from colleagues working on ways to transform how we interact with the people and organisations who have contact with us - whether they are applying for a grant, reporting back on programmes they run on our behalf, or finding out how people are benefitting from our work. And last, but definitely not least, from the team who are leading the way in exploring new ways that technology can support development.

All these areas of work came together under the departmental digital strategy published last year following publication of the overarching government digital strategy.

Department for International Develop Digital Strategy 2012-2015

My new role is to have oversight of the many threads and priorities which the strategy covers, and report on progress – which will involve showcasing achievements as well as updates on work which is still to be done. I am looking forward to this work, as it builds on the many different projects I have been involved with as DFID’s digital capacity has developed – from the early days of creating our first ever website in 1995, launching the first intranet in 2000, through the excitement of experimenting with emerging social media channels (which included the creation of this blog platform), to seeing our presence in places like twitter, facebook and others grow.

The strategy identified the priorities for DFID to 2015 and outlined how we plan to improve digital capabilities across the organisation. There will be more from me on that over the next couple of months as we work out current levels of activity and awareness, what people's needs are and how to meet them. I look forward to working with colleagues from other government departments to share ideas and approaches.

There are some pockets of activity and enthusiasm across the organisation already. We have individuals making excellent use of social media to have conversations with specialists in their field, and we have teams working behind the scenes finding efficient ways to share evidence and improve decision making. One of my biggest challenges is to find these examples, so we can showcase how staff are using digital in their work and encourage others to try things out.

But have these changes made DFID more rigorous and effective at delivery? Have we become better able to adapt to the complex and changing environments in which we work?

Development Secretary, Justine Greening, has commissioned an internal review of the programme management cycle to look into these questions. At recent meeting of DFID’s senior managers, we agreed that the review needs to lead to faster programme design and approval; clearer and more streamlined guidance; and, more time spent on delivery and implementation.

In turn, this will help us retain the flexibility and dynamism to deliver multiple objectives; deliver quantifiable results while continuing to invest in changes that will unfreeze longer term processes; build and strengthen our reputation for innovation and agility as one of the world's leading development agencies.

I am proud (and not a little scared!) to have been asked, with my colleague, Tom Wingfield, to co-lead this review over the next five months.

While this is largely an internal process, we are also interested in external stakeholder perspectives of DFID’s programme management cycle and thought we might be able to elicit views through this blog.

We would welcome comments below or direct contact (p-vowles@dfid.gov.uk and/or t-wingfield@dfid.gov.uk) setting out what you think about how DFID manages programmes and are particularly interested in:

1) Innovation and flexibility.

• How good are we at taking risks, being flexible and innovative?
• Do we share lessons in an open and transparent way?

2) Capabilities:

• Do we have sufficient country knowledge for the contexts in which we work?
• Do we have sufficient implementation management skills and at the right levels?
• Are DFID staff you interact with able to make decisions and judgements themselves?

3) Operational Processes:

• What needs to change in our systems to make them simpler, more agile and more appropriate for working in fragile states?
• Does it feel as though all our processes add value?

Of course, I would be interested in other thoughts on what you think would make DFID a better development partner either direct to me or in the comments section below.

Prior to becoming a teacher, Mahabat – like increasing numbers of women in Central Asia – was a labour migrant in Russia where she had a tough life as a domestic worker. She is now a passionate, capable kindergarten teacher who benefits from the training made available to her from this project. Mahabat told me that “participating in a critical thinking course and also learning how to best use the new teaching resources I now have access to have helped me to become a better teacher...I have learnt new skills that help me to identify and address the problems of my pupils, especially the kids who find it difficult to focus in class.”

Mahabat with her kindergarten class. Photo: Will Schomburg/DFID.

Equity is our biggest project in the Kyrgyz Republic where we work with UNICEF to promote interethnic harmony in the south of the country. During our visit to monitor the progress of the project, my colleagues and I were impressed with the results. Osh, the provincial capital in the south and several of its surrounding towns, have occasionally witnessed bloody clashes between Kyrgyz and Uzbek communities, most recently during the 2010 ‘June Events’. Through a variety of different activities, Equity provides young people with the opportunity to reach their full potential and interact with one other regardless of ethnic background or economic situation. This is achieved through the development of youth centres, hospitals and schools, and support to the institutions of local government.

For example, in the Tash Bulak municipality, DFID supports a day-care centre in Ariet for disabled children. A large number of children and young people visit this centre daily where they benefit from remedial services such as vital physiotherapy and psychological care. Crucially, centres like the one in Ariet bring together these young people and their families, helping to prevent social isolation in a region where disability remains taboo.

Kindergartens and day care centres like the ones the Equity project funds help to combat social exclusion. Photo: Will Schomburg/DFID.

We firmly believe that sustainable development can only be achieved through a country-led approach and we’re confident the financial support for these centres from the municipality will help ensure their continued success. While the funding Britain provides is by no means the only solution to Kyrgyzstan’s development challenges, the dynamic communities of Dostuk and Ariet have now been empowered with the tools needed to drive forward the education and health outcomes of countless children for generations to come.

DFID has implemented a programme in the Kyrgyz Republic since 1998, in partnership with the Kyrgyz government and people. We support political reform, better access to services and increased equality. This year DFID will spend over £5 million on these projects as part of a long-term commitment to the sustainable reduction of poverty in Central Asia.

Through projects like Equity and our wider portfolio of interventions, DFID and the British Embassy ­– through UK aid – is deepening our growing relationship with the Kyrgyz government and citizens.

Let's start with the big picture - which is certainly daunting. More than 60 million people in Pakistan live on around 30p a day; nearly one in ten of the world’s out-of-school children live in Pakistan; and one in eleven children dies before their fifth birthday. The population is growing by 3 million every year and is set to rise by 50% in less than 40 years. Decades of conflict, instability, weak governance and corruption have left the state unable to deliver the services that people need.

Set against this, some things are changing - and fast. After 60 years of democratic instability, national elections this weekend will mark the first ever democratic transition from one civilian government to another. Women are gaining a voice and rights. Landmark legislation passed last year finally provides legal protection against violence, and more women will vote in this weekend’s elections than ever before – one million of them thanks to support from the UK. The media - liberalised in the mid-2000s - is flourishing, and new media and new technologies are propelling changes to banking, industry, communications, and politics which have been visible even in the two short years that I've been working here. A full 50% of Pakistanis now have access to a mobile phone. And get this - Pakistan has produced two of the world's top five most popular blackberry apps.

So the challenges are enormous, but I think there are important reasons for hope, and our support is helping to make a difference. I manage DFID's health and education work here and over the coming years we're aiming to transform education and deliver real improvements in health for poor people, especially women and girls. I'm mostly office based in Islamabad, but the best part of my job is getting out to see what's happening on the ground, where we're making progress and what still needs to be done.

A lady health worker in Pakistan, with a patient and her 14 day old baby. Picture: DFID Pakistan

For example, last Friday I went to visit some schools in central Punjab. The second one was most interesting. I walked into the headmistress' office to find her talking sixteen to the dozen to my colleague Taimoor. Without pausing for breath she recounted how hard it was trying to get her teachers to turn up every day. She would phone, cajole, scold them. She was turning down their requests for days off. But (and here she mellowed) it was working. The teachers were turning up and as a result things had improved at the school.

This was the Government Girls' Higher Secondary School in warm and dusty Jhelum. Built in 1880, it was an impressive red brick building. On the wall beside me a big banner announced the importance of the 'Punjab Schools Reform Roadmap'. This is what I went to explore - I wanted to know whether the UK's support for the Roadmap was really helping to improve things in schools.

Two years ago, Mrs Cheema's school, like most in Punjab saw around 25% of teachers fail to turn up to work on any given day. Without teachers to teach them, many of the 1700 female students would stop turning up too. Now, she told us, things were changing.

Debbie with headmistress Mrs Cheema. Picture. DFID Pakistan

Mrs Cheema’s school is part of the turn-around happening in 60,000 schools across Punjab. Since the UK started work with the Punjab Government on the Roadmap in 2011, 81,000 more teachers have been employed in state schools. By tackling absenteeism, around 20,000 more teachers are in classrooms teaching kids each day. We’re helping to improve the quality of teaching by giving teachers lesson plans which guide them through what they need to teach, lesson by lesson. And this year, for the first time, every child in Punjab is being given a textbook for English, Maths and Urdu - a big step forward. The statistics speak for themselves, but I wanted to cross-check them against what was happening at local level.

As we walked around the school, Mrs Cheema complained that she got little recognition for all her work ensuring her teachers were in school. She, and thousands of other head-teachers across Punjab are the key to making things better. I thought she had a really good point, and vowed to raise this with the Secretary in charge of Punjab's schools when I next met him.

Girls getting an education - pupils at the Government Girls’ Higher Secondary School. Picture: DFID Pakistan

So some things are changing - and fast. But it's only the start. There are around 20 million kids in school in Punjab, but over 3 million don't yet go to school at primary level alone. Transforming education is the focus of my work here. DFID invests in a range of education programmes across Pakistan. As a result some 4 million children in primary school will benefit from UK aid by 2015. We are helping them learn better and for longer. There are signs that all the hard work is beginning to pay off. It's early days - to transform a system of 60,000 schools will take time - but it's starting to happen. That's why I'm here. And that's why, despite all the challenges, and despite all the bad news, I'm hopeful.

I'll put up another blog soon to keep you posted on progress, including what happens this weekend, when I'll be out and about monitoring Pakistan's historic elections.

Kevin, Economist in DFID Afghanistan. Picture: Christa Rottensteiner/DFID

As someone returning to Afghanistan, I have found progress in the space of three years – the last time I worked here – extremely encouraging if signs are anything to go by. Literally. Outside our Embassy in Kabul, a giant TV screen advertising 3G mobile phone services acts as a makeshift street light. Other parts of the city too are bustling with growing Afghan consumerism - neighbourhoods specialising in the selling of toy cars, fast food and phone credit. All of this would not look too out of place in Piccadilly Circus!

My day job can be best summarised as helping the Afghan government improve the nitty-gritty aspects of public finances. This includes raising more taxes and spending public money according to need. Or, as a colleague puts it, ensuring that the financial pipes work. Better services provided by government are expected to follow, such as in education, health, roads and access to water. Whilst it is fascinating to have a national perspective from Kabul, I occasionally yearn to see what is happening out in the rest of the country, just as I did when I was in Helmand back in 2009.

You can imagine that I jumped at the chance to join Christa to discover ground truths in Herat. Together we flew on a freezing Saturday morning due west of Kabul. My first impression when we landed was how steeped in history the city is, like many other parts of Afghanistan. Some things have not changed - the remnants of a giant city wall, said to have been constructed by Alexander the Great, can still be seen. Interestingly, for me as an economist, Herat still is the trade route to Iran. Sadly, Herat still suffers from a significant number of landmines from a previous conflict though DFID is financing a project which will eventually make Herat mine-free.

We packed in a lot during the visit. We built on lessons learned from Helmand, on issues that still persist in getting public money into the provinces. I recall a great discussion with provincial directorate officials on where they believe the blockages in the national budget lie. The health sector director eloquently and diplomatically likened this to a tailor having your measurements but giving you a random suit – budgets are not always based on local needs. On a more positive note, we also saw examples of local government and politics working very well, when locally-elected representatives outside the city showed us a school built and maintained by them. This is the water pump that serves the school and houses around it.

Local representatives prioritised the building of a water pump, paid for by the UK via the World Bank’s National Solidarity Programme. Picture: Christa Rottensteiner/DFID

When visiting the provincial tax office we also stumbled on a poster informing officials of an upcoming training event provided by DFID. This was a pleasant surprise and perhaps the most joy I have felt looking at essentially an official mandate. You can find out more about how tax collection is helping the country here.

Village representatives of Baland shahi. Picture: Christa Rottensteiner/DFID

One highlight I did not expect was culinary – we had lunch with Afghan counterparts in a restaurant overlooking the town, with delicious local food.

We also met with the provincial governor during our visit, to talk about an existing DFID support to his office. The conversation was in English (Christa an Austrian, he an Afghan and me originally coming from Hong Kong) as he sat in front of a wall filled with pictures of the last two centuries of Herat’s governors. He wheeled out his economic strategy; music to an economist’s ears. We were even luckier to be invited by him to see the old citadel, used by previous emperors of the city before it was even part of Afghanistan. The panoramic views of the city on offer inside the fort are a sight to behold. This reminded me of something a colleague recently mentioned, having seen it inscribed on a stone outside the Kabul museum: a nation stays alive when its culture stays alive.

The impressive Qala Iktyaruddin citadel. Picture: Christa Rottensteiner/DFID

Paul Farmer, Maureen Bisognano, Fiona Godlee, Charles Alessi - the Panel at Turning World Upside Down

The beauty of the Turning the World Upside Down idea (the brain-child of Lord Nigel Crisp – here and here), is that it challenges our perceptions of development as something provided by ‘developed’ to ‘less developed’ countries. The website launches a movement whose intent is to promote a model of co-development, in which we recognise the mutual nature of development, promoting the idea that we can and should be learning from one another. An example of the ideas presented at the meeting included work with Community Health Workers in Brazil, which is now being used as part of a research project on health service delivery in Wales. Prof Andy Haines, of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, talks about Brazil’s experience here.

Necessity is one of the greatest drivers of creativity, and innovative ideas being developed to overcome or cope with sheer lack of resources in developing countries may provide helpful insights to different ways of working that can have benefits in rich and poor countries alike. The site is seeking to gather ideas and examples of innovation, and hopefully will lead to some robust evaluation of these approaches, helping build an evidence base for new, effective ways of working.

I was prompted to blog on this idea as I have been reading a set of country case studies on Universal Health Care, commissioned by the World Bank (here), which contain a number of important lessons, including from Brazil, which could be of value to other countries.

Taking the Brazil thread of this post a step further, Brazil’s experience, as the host of the 3^rd Global Forum of the Global Health Workforce Alliance, to be in Recife in November this year, will be one of the key inputs to what is shaping up to be an important meeting. Given the importance of building a strong and capable health workforce in support of Universal Health Coverage, the research and evidence feeding into this meeting is likely to be central to the on-going consultation on what will shape priorities after 2015, in the so called ‘post MDG’ period (and here).

An article by Professor Mala Rao in the British Medical Journal also highlights how DFID’s work in India and an innovative technical partnership established with China is already fostering a process of mutual learning. The nature of UK aid is transforming rapidly to reflect the changing nature of our country partnerships.

Poor Economics by Banerjee and Duflo

With a fairly slow broadband connection at home, I found myself staying up late 1 or 2 evenings a week to read the fascinating online material (e.g. Why do some people starve themselves to buy TVs or not bother to get kids vaccinated?), watch YouTube videos (complete with script) and attempt quizzes that pass for homework in collaboration with 35,000 other students around the globe. Not having to write essays was a big plus, but the multiple choice questions set were searching and the bulletin boards posted showed fellow student's desperate pleas for help and occasional hints. I presume the moderators stop obvious cheating - I haven't encountered any answer sharing online!

edX MOOC course: Challenges of Global Poverty

Despite conflicting international travel and some tired early mornings I'm over the hump and should finish in a few weeks. In theory I will have 12 credits to a degree, although this is where the business model will kick-in as the MOOC organizers try to convert mass online activity into profit, for example by charging for accreditation and certificates that accumulate to recognized qualifications.

Will MOOCs revolutionise the delivery of tertiary education in developing countries like Tanzania? This is a question of great interest, can they bypass the financial and bureaucratic challenges faced by poor but capable, intelligent students? I hope so! This is the sort of initiative that DFID may support in the future, internally we're crystal ball gazing to understand the trends across the whole spectrum of development and ensure we have the necessary ideas, tools and skills to respond to such challenges in the future.

In Tanzania COSTECH the government technology and innovation agency is partnering with the World Bank to launch a MOOC using content from 1 of the major new providers Coursera. It will focus on IT skills and knowledge, seeking to support college students to become employable – a common complaint is that current Tanzanian school and college graduates lack the rounded skill-set that employers seek.

I feel it is likely that there will need to be a lot more adaption of content, delivery models and support mechanism to realize these benefits. Internet access is erratic and expensive, but perhaps more of a barrier will be language and cultural issues for students who may be unaccustomed to student centred, but independent and at the same time collaborative, learning.

My friends and family had lots of questions and preconceptions about Sudan and what I would be doing. Some of these I could answer before I left, some of which I can now answer having been here 18 months and some of which I'm still learning about. I thought it might be helpful for my first blog to answer some of these questions.

Are you going to the North or the South?

This I could answer before I left, having applied for a job in Khartoum, Sudan and not South Sudan (capital Juba). In a referendum in January 2011 the South Sudanese voted for secession and South Sudan became the world's newest country on 9 July 2011, transforming Sudan from the largest country in Africa to the third largest. Sudan is almost all desert, irrigated by the White and Blue Niles which meet in Khartoum and move north to Egypt. South Sudan by comparison is greener with the world's largest swamp, the Sudd. Most of Sudan's people are Muslims, while in South Sudan, there are Christians, Muslims and adherents of traditional beliefs.

What is life in Khartoum like?

Pyramids at Meroe, Sudan. Picture: Emily Beardsmore/DFID

Sudanese people are famously friendly. Khartoum's low crime rates make it one of the safest cities in Africa. My parents and siblings visited me for Christmas and we visited Sudan’s pyramids, some of which are older than those in Egypt. Khartoum is one of the world's hottest cities - in December the temperature is a pleasant 30 degrees celcius most days. Now it is over 40 degrees most days, and soon it will be summer when it will be even hotter.

What does a ‘policy and aid effectiveness officer’ do?

Parliamentary Under Secretary of State Lynne Featherstone visits a WFP programme in Tawilia Darfur. January 2013. Picture: Sophie Wood/FCO

Before I arrived I had an idea of what my job might involve - like most job titles it's full of buzz words and it wasn't clear what interesting things I would get to do. My job is about making sure that the work DFID is doing in Sudan is accountable to the British taxpayer and that they know what we are delivering in Sudan. It's involved organising two ministerial visits for the Parliamentary Undersecretary of State for International Development, most recently in January 2013 for Lynne Featherstone and her predecessor Stephen O’Brien in November 2011. These visits are a great opportunity to show ministers the impact British aid is having on the ground.On the most recent visit, I accompanied the minister to visit DFID programmes in Darfur which included meeting women who were supported by the World Food Programme to make and sell fuel efficient stoves and bricks. Darfur is the size of France and so we had to use a helicopter to visit some of the field sights.

I have also led on DFID Sudan’s response to a yellow fever outbreak in Darfur. This was the worst outbreak globally for 20 years. DFID Sudan funded 2 million vaccines to help stop the outbreak in Darfur.The policy part of my role involves leading on the Multilateral Aid Review, which in 2010 looked at the performance of multilateral organisations that DFID funds. In Sudan we have been giving our thoughts on the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) and the International Organisation for Migration's (IOM) performance in country back to the DFID head office on a 6 monthly basis. This helps DFID to make decisions about where it can achieve the best value for money in funding multilateral organisations.Accountability also drives my work on communications, part of which is this blog. It also involves working with press office in London to explain to the UK public what we are doing in Sudan.

What does DFID do in Sudan?

DFID is the second largest bilateral donor to Sudan and we have some ambitious results that we want to deliver by 2015 including supporting 800,000 people to get access to water and 250,000 women with access to security and justice services. In future blogs I will look at our results in more detail. For more information our Operational Plan is a great place to start. On the diplomacy and defence sides, the UK has been supporting talks between Sudan and South Sudan, financially and technically.

Women in Tawila, Darfur. Picture: Sophie Wood/FCO

What about Darfur? Is there on-going conflict? 

When most people think about Sudan they will think about Darfur or conflict. Darfur makes up about 50% of DFID's spend in Sudan and so is central to our work here. Sudan has only had 11 years of total peace since independence in 1956 -therefore DFID's work in Sudan focuses on responding to the immediate effects of conflict and the underlying drivers. However there is no short answer to either of these questions and they will need a full blog in future to answer fully. If you're interested, the British Ambassador to Khartoum has blogged this week on Darfur following a donor conference in Doha.

In future blogs I hope to talk about DFID's priorities in Sudan, the 10 year anniversary of the Darfur Conflict, how the UK responded to the yellow fever outbreak in Darfur, our new programme on Female Genital Cutting, how we measure and record what we are delivering in Sudan, amongst other things. Please let me know if there is anything you'd particularly like to hear about.

Mitch and Vendell representing the Caribbean Union of Fisherfolk Associations. Picture: Anne Philpott/DFID

Mitch Addison Lay has come all the way across the ocean to Dublin to tell us about the Caribbean Union of Fisherfolk Associations and their worries about diminishing fish stocks close to the shores of many of their islands. He was first and foremost a red snapper line fisherman but had worked hard to bring unity across his fellow Caribbean fisherfolk. The experience had taught him that, "It's easier to get politicians to listen than to get fisherfolk together". He told us that fishing for him and his fellow fisherfolk is "a way of life, which is not economic, but an entire life for us, socially and culturally".The Dublin Conference on Hunger, Nutrition and Climate Change has been different in its determination to bring people who are immediately affected by these issues to ensure they meet policy makers. The messages generated will then feed into the post Millennium Development Goals (MDG) framework discussions. The conference is made up of 'grassroots' participants, many of whom are leaving their home country for the first time. These include pastoralists from Ethiopia, Malawian farmers, Arctic peoples and a group of Mongolian cattle herders. The other half of policy makers come from non-governmental organisations (NGOs), governments and UN agencies.

The opening ceremony urged us all to "listen up" and started with Eamon Gilmore, the Irish Foreign Affairs Minister telling us how he felt a deep empathy for women headed small holders as he grew up on a small farm, run by his mother where weather was the determining force in their livelihoods - if it rained and a crop spoiled they would go hungry. The President of Ireland, Michael Higgens spoke of Ireland's "deep compassion for others experience of hunger" due to their own history of famine.

Runa Khatun from Shushilan NGO in Bangladesh with colleagues. Picture: Anne Philpott/DFID

The day was spent listening to people telling their own stories of the impact of climate change, hunger and nutrition – and the relationship between them all. We also heard from World Vision youth ambassadors who spoke about hopes for their adult lives - Alex Nallo came from Palestine to urge action in tackling these issues which would have an impact on him in his 40’s. He said there will be "limits to their inventiveness" to deal with the combined stress of all three. Runa Khatun, representing Shushilan NGO in Bangladesh, said that they were women who classified themselves as extremely poor and vulnerable to floods who wanted to increase their resilience to disasters by organising together, and a combination of cash and food helped to improve their collective quality of life.

DFID’s Policy Director Nick Dyer was nominated as a policy champion for one of these learning circles and needed to define, determine and articulate the lessons of empowerment we gained. Although empowerment was hard to define, key themes were emerging such as dignity, participation and knowledge, as well as discussion of what outcomes were empowering. We also tackled how to get there in terms of a collective process to a receptive environment and we were tasked to deliver a one minute video address – a real challenge when tackling a subject as complex as empowerment.

Nick Dyer, Policy Director at DFID with Mary Robinson. Picture: Anne Philpott/DFID

Nick met Mary Robinson earlier in the day and as well as discussing how we would work together towards the 'Nutrition for Growth' event on 8 June, she outlined her vision for wider use of clean energy in low income countries and how climate justice is a cause worthy of global solidarity.UNICEF rounded off the day by launching a new report on the status of stunting worldwide and successful nutrition responses. The report reminded us that one in four children globally are stunted, robbing them of critical life chances in many areas of their lives and their mental and physical potential. 80% of these children live in just 20 countries making targeting of simple and proven steps easier such as improving women's nutrition, early and exclusive breastfeeding, providing additional vitamins and minerals as well as appropriate food in pregnancy and the first 2 years of a child's life. The report ends on a hopeful note showing that stunting is reducing in specific contexts. In Maharashtra state in India, the percentage of stunted children dropped from 39% in 2005 to 23% in 2012 largely because of support to frontline workers who focus on improving child nutrition.

On this hopeful note, Joe Costello, the Irish Minister for State for Trade and Development, spoke of 2013 being the moment to mobilise for nutrition. He linked this conference at the end of the Irish EU presidency with our own 'Nutrition for Growth' conference at the start the UK G8 presidency – and the need to continue to pitch high for delivery for the 870 million hungry in the world. The Dublin event highlighted just how far we have come to bring attention to the issue of malnutrition – and how we now need to tackle it.

Rating and review systems aren't new. They are the backbone of websites like Tripadvisor, Ebay and Amazon, to name a few. Amazon's Founder and CEO, Jeff Bezoz has argued that these websites don't just succeed because they have the rating and review systems – they succeed because they allow negative feedback as well. In the early days, Amazon was under pressure to delete negative customer reviews. But he took the view that customers would not come to Amazon to buy products if they didn't trust Amazon, and knowing that negative feedback was displayed was critical to building that trust. Now that sellers know that they can get negative feedback, they have adjusted their strategies and improved their performance. They no longer put pressure on Amazon to delete comments, yet continue to advertise through Amazon.

My friend has had a similar experience with Airbnb. Initially, she was worried that she would get negative reviews from her guests because the water pressure in her flat wasn't good. But, rather than wait for negative reviews, she decided to be upfront about the water problems when she welcomed the new guests. Now, all she gets is good reviews on her flat once her guests leave. By being open about the good and the bad, she's now making a tidy little sum to pay for her holidays.

A few days ago I wrote a blog post about knowledge sharing, a topic that Indonesia has put on the agenda of the Global Partnership. Indonesia wants to stimulate the international community to find innovative ways to scale up and make knowledge sharing (known in some circles as technical assistance) even more effective in delivering development.

Sharing knowledge on health in northern Nigeria. Picture: Lindsay Mgbor/DFID, 2012

Since I wrote the post, and discussing it with others, I've been wondering whether, in many ways knowledge sharing has marketplace-like properties – as experts have a clear product, their knowledge. In her 2010 Ted Talk, Noreena Hertz laments a number of problems with relying on experts. But whether or not we like experts, the fact is, that like many of the products Amazon sold or my friends flat, there's an information gap (or, in economic speak, an asymmetry). Experts might have a view about good they are, but those trying to get the knowledge – such as government officials in developing countries – can't easily assess their quality. Experts themselves also have no real idea how good they are in comparison to others. And there’s no "central list" of who are the best global experts on different policy areas like tax, or the environment.

If a lack of information about the quality of knowledge shared or technical assistance is a problem in development, then the system of inviting open feedback and review may be useful to emulate – creating an open marketplace for experts from all over the world and rating them online, based on real feedback from the users, particularly officials from developing country governments. Experts could even be organised in "hubs" for different policy areas, such as food security or green growth.

Does anything exist like this in development? I haven't come across it. The South South Opportunity website has a great set of case studies with lessons learnt for each, but it doesn't quite get to the heart of who was behind each project, or set out actual feedback.  Perhaps its because there are barriers to opening up such information, such as data protection or competition rules. That said, barriers might be overcome by looking in more depth at what Airbnb and Amazon have done to overcome similar issues. A truly "trusted, collaborative marketplace" might be well worth exploring, even if people are initially a little scared of negative feedback.