This article is the second post focused on prize mechanisms in
international development. You can read the first, on the Haiti
Mobile Money Initiative, here. You may access the full Dalberg
report by clicking: Here To incentivize the development of
private spacecraft, promote the creation of algorithms to
predict movie enjoyment, and generate behavior changes around
health, prizes work quite well. As some recent examples
demonstrate, these mechanisms also can be effective catalysts
for international development. Yet as Vicky Hausman, Associate
Partner at Dalberg Global Development Advisors tells us,
"announcing a cash reward and a set of rules is often not enough
to achieve the desired result." The prize mechanism for
international development recently came into focus with
Dalberg's report on the Gates Foundation/USAID Haiti Mobile
Money Initiative. The insights from that competition for a $2.5
million top prize as well as observations from numerous other
prize incentive attempts provides a growing body of in