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Machine learning algorithms are increasingly being used to make highly consequential decisions for citizens of the Global South. I talk to Genevieve Smith about how algorithmic decision making in the realm of financial inclusion can lead to inequitable outcomes along gender lines, how that compares to the status quo, and how we can do better as practitioners and researchers.Genevieve Smith is the founding co-director of the Responsible and Equitable AI Initiative at the Berkley AI Research Lab and is also part of the faculty at Haas. She also serves as a Gender & AI Fellow at USAID and leads research partnerships with big tech firms.

With all the buzz surrounding AI,  we're missing an understanding of how recent AI advancements affect those in the global South. I talk to Rida Qadri about ways in which generative AI fails to represent those in the Global South, what the implications of these failures are, and what's needed to do better. Rida Qadri is an interdisciplinary scholar focusing on the cultural impacts of generative AI for people and communities in the global south. She is a Research Scientist at Google Research, and has a PhD in Computational Urban Science and Masters in Urban Studies from MIT.Both Rida and I are speaking in our private capacities, and neither Rida's nor my views expressed in this episode necessarily represent those of our respective employers. 

In Pakistan, election decisions can be dependent on either the party’s label or the party’s ideology. Currently, Pakistan’s political parties are facing a number of constraints in trying to influence the outcomes of voters’ choice during election time. Dr. Niloufer Siddiqui and Dr. Asad Liaqat discuss these constraints and how the upcoming election outcomes can be influenced by the way parties are structured and the way they interact with voters.This is a guest episode from the "Let's Talk Development" podcast by CDPR. Dr. Niloufer Siddiqui is an Assistant Professor of Political Science at the Rockefeller College of Public Affairs and Policy, University at Albany-State University of New York (SUNY). She is a Nonresident Fellow at the Stimson Center and a Fellow at the Mahbub ul Haq Centre at LUMS.  Her research interests include political violence, political behavior, the politics of religion and ethnicity, voters and foreign policy, and the politics of South Asia. Her book manuscript examines why political parties in Pakistan engage in violence or form electoral alliances with violent actors.

I talk to Ahmad Iqbal about the state of local governments in Pakistan, why we should care about strong local governments, and what it would take for a lasting and strong local government system in Pakistan. Ahmad Iqbal is the former chairman of the Narowal District Council. He is one of the fiercest advocates for strong local governments in Pakistan, and has recently launched the Pakistan Local Democracy Dialogue. This episode is in Urdu. 

Pakistan has one of the largest gender gaps in voting in the world. In the 2018 election, the number of women who voted was 11 million less than the number of men who voted. What can we do to close this gender gap? How can we reach a state where women are able to exercise their democratic rights as voters on an equal footing with men? But before we talk about that, why is it even important to close this gender gap? To unpack these questions, I bring in Sarah Khan who is an Assistant Professor of Political Science at Yale University where she does research on gender and politics. We talk today about some research that we did together, along with Ali Cheema and Shandana Mohmand. This research was published in the American Political Science Review. In this episode, we take you through how we found what works to increase women’s turnout in Pakistan, why our findings are surprising, and may also be deeply problematic! Link to the research we talked about:  Ali Cheema, Sarah Khan, Asad Liaqat, and Shandana Khan Mohmand (2022) “Canvassing the Gatekeepers: A Field Experiment to Increase Women Voters’ Turnout in Pakistan,” American Political Science Review. Cambridge University Press, pp. 1–21. Sarah's recommendations: Pakistan General Election 2018 Polling Station DataRachel Brulé (2020) Women, Power, and Property: The Paradox of Gender Equality Laws in India. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press Anukriti, S., Herrera-Almanza, C., Pathak, P.K. and Karra, M. (2020), Curse of the Mummy-ji: The Influence of Mothers-in-Law on Women in India. Amer. J. Agr. Econ., 102: 1328-1351.

I talk to Fizzah Sajjad about why affordable housing in Pakistani cities remains an elusive policy dream.  We talk about the reasons why there is so much unmet demand for housing, about the harms of speculative investment in housing, and how the Naya Pakistan Housing Program falls short of its objectives. Fizzah also draws on her comparative expertise to bring in lessons that Pakistan can learn from other countries. Fizzah Sajjad is a PhD Candidate in Human Geography and Urban Studies at the London School of Economics, where she's currently doing research on speculative practices in real estate. FIzzah is an MIT-trained urban planner, and has been working in this space for almost ten years both as a researcher and a practitioner. Some links to what we talked about: The official website of the Naya Pakistan Housing Program. Fizzah references this UCLG report on Rethinking Housing Policies when discussing housing policy lessons from other countries. The Invisible Cities blog on Tanqeed that Fizzah used to work on. She references this post by Smita Rawoot in particular. Fizzah's recommendation: A free online course by Gautam Bahn: ‘Housing Justice: A View from Indian Cities’ 

Tahir Andrabi unpacks the stages of disaster recovery that Pakistan will go through. We use his experience working on the 2005 earthquakes to think through what an effective flood relief and rehabilitation effort will look like. We talk about what the long-term effects might be on livelihoods and on health and education outcomes, and the interventions that can help minimize these effects. Tahir is the Stedman-Sumner Professor of Economics at Pomona College. He was the inaugeral Dean of the LUMS School of Education, and a co-founder of the Center for Economic Research in Pakistan. It's his research on education that has achieved the most prominence, but the reason I'm talking to him for this episode is his work on disaster recovery in the aftermath of the 2005 earthquake in Pakistan.Some links to what we talked about: An archived version of RISE-PAK, the information aggregation portal developed by Tahir and his collaborators to aid recovery efforts following the 2005 earthquake. Tahir's paper (with Benjamin Daniels and Jishnu Das) on the effects of the 2005 earthquake on income, education, and health outcomes. Floods Impact Assessment by Uzair Younis and Ammar Khan, the source for the $13B damage estimate we discussed. Abida Parveen's rendition of Ghalib's "Yeh Na Thi Hamari Qismat", from which Tahir quotes a couplet to illustrate Pakistan's climate crisis. 

Asim Khwaja walks us through Pakistan's current economic crisis, and why the real solutions lie in long-term productivity increases. In the process, he also tells us what he learnt from a 5th grader during his recent visit to Pakistan, and on the important role that optimism plays both at a personal and structural level. This episode was recorded before floods started wreaking havoc across the entire country.  Here is a list of Pakistan and US-based charities involved in flood relief efforts. Please donate generously. Asim Khwaja is the Director of the Center for International Development and the Sumitomo-Foundation for Advanced Studies on International Development Professor of International Finance and Development at the Harvard Kennedy School, and co-founder of the Center for Economic Research in Pakistan (CERP). Some links to what we talked about: Atif Mian's and Asim's own Twitter threads on the causes of the economic crisis. Asim's Twitter thread about his field trip where he met the budding brain surgeon. Asim mentioned my research on what politicians know about citizens. Here is a blog about it and here is the full paper. Asim complained that I asked him about everything but his own research. Until I ask him about it in a future episode, you can read about it here. 

Unpacking Us is launching any day now! Catch the trailer for a glimpse of what's coming up. In each episode, Asad Liaqat unpacks a deep question facing Pakistani society, politics or the economy, by talking to an expert who spends their time working on that question.