Policy Analysis

Harsh Desai

Program Manager

Harsh previously served as Program Manager in GIS Analytics and Extractives Policy.

Summary

Harsh served as a Program Manager in GIS Analytics and Extractives Policy on the Policy Analysis Unit at AidData. He managed AidData's program with USAID-Cote D'Ivoire to improve data systems for HIV/AIDS tracking throughout the country, as well as AidData's extractives and natural resources portfolio. Previously, he served as a Junior Program Manager on AidData's former Data and Technology team. Harsh obtained his B.A. in Political Science and Philosophy from the University of Missouri-Kansas City and MSc in Development Management from the London School of Economics and Political Science. He has previously served as an independent consultant for AidData, Oxfam Great Britain, and the Overseas Development Institute.

Education

Background

July 25, 2018

Creating open geographic data for the fight against HIV/AIDS

The #MapCiV mapathon is the first step in a broader strategy to collect data about poorly understood areas of Côte d’Ivoire, and harness technology to reveal new insights that lead to more informed policy decisions.

March 21, 2016

“Beyond Africa”: A glimpse into AidData’s forthcoming dataset on Chinese financing in ecological hotspots

The forthcoming dataset captures more than 1100 Chinese projects from 2000 to 2014 in 19 countries, totaling $95 billion in total official financing.

October 22, 2015

What’s new in AidData’s latest Chinese development finance dataset?

Last week, we released our 1.2 dataset and TUFF methodology updates. So, what are the five most important changes to come with these updates?

August 27, 2015

Introducing the next generation of development innovators: AidData's student Shark Tank makes a splash

Inspired by a similar event held in February of 2015 in which AidData’s staff pitched innovative development ideas, teams of students developed research proposals that leverage sub-national spatial data to address relevant policy and research questions over the course of 8 weeks.

June 4, 2015

“First data responders?”: Lessons learned from Nepal

In the aftermath of the Nepal earthquake, hyper-local, crowdsourced data functioned as signposts for both national and international organizations as they sought to provide timely relief to those areas in greatest need of assistance.

January 16, 2015

Looking Back Anew: AidData’s #ChinainAfrica November Launch Event

The dashboard launched at the event attempts to create a space for discussion about China’s role in Africa, opening up a broader conversation where anyone can provide comments and contribute multimedia content on the projects of interest to them.

December 12, 2014

Unlocking the Black Box: Transparency Matters and the NGO Aid Map

In this post, we spotlight what this mapping tool has to offer and some hopes for how it can be further strengthened to advance open data for development in 2015.

November 18, 2014

Democratizing Development: Mapping Chinese Investments in Africa

Launching today, AidData’s interactive geospatial dashboard features over 2000 Chinese-backed development projects in Africa, disaggregated to the provincial, municipal, or street-corner level.

October 14, 2014

Style or Substance?: The BRICS in the Post-Busan World

The arrival of the BRICS had clearly brought about a fresh start in how we perceive development finance.

October 7, 2014

South-South Cooperation: Providing Context in a Changing Landscape

We’re increasingly aware of the important role that countries in the global South play in development cooperation. But as long as we depend on existing definitions for measuring development cooperation we won’t really understand how big this role is.

July 29, 2014

How TUFF Is It To Track Chinese Aid? Insights from Beijing’s Latest White Paper on Foreign Aid

China’s State Council published a white paper providing an overview of its funding for overseas development activities. We took this opportunity to test how well AidData has been able to capture Chinese funding with our Tracking Underreported Financial Flows (TUFF) methodology.

Impact Evaluation

Parceling out prosperity? An impact evaluation of natural resource sector investments in Liberia

Brad Parks, Jonas Bunte, Harsh Desai, Kanio Gbala, and Daniel Miller Runfola

2019-02-19

Policy Report

Ties That Bind: Quantifying China's public diplomacy and its "good neighbor" effect

Samantha Custer, Brooke Russell, Matthew DiLorenzo, Mengfan Cheng, Siddhartha Ghose, Jacob Sims, Jennifer Turner, Harsh Desai

2018-06-27

Journal Article

Natural resource sector FDI, government policy, and economic growth: Quasi-experimental evidence from Liberia

World Development

Jonas B. Bunte, Harsh Desai, Kanio Gbala, Bradley C. Parks, Daniel Miller Runfola

2018-03-20

Working Paper

Natural Resource Sector FDI and Growth in Post-Conflict Settings: Subnational Evidence from Liberia

Jonas B. Bunte, Harsh Desai, Kanio Gbala, Brad Parks, Daniel Miller Runfola

2017-02-01

Methodology

An Open-Source Methodology for Tracking Natural Resource Concessions in Liberia: Version 1.0

Harsh Desai, Miranda Zhonghui Lv, Charles Perla, Brad Parks

2016-10-01

Methodology

AidData’s TUFF Methodology, Version 1.2

Austin M. Strange, Bradley Parks, Charles Perla, Harsh Desai

2015-09-01