Evidence receipt / evaluation
Published · transcript-backedJoe Studwell: evaluation
18 Feb 2026 Conversations with Tyler Joe Studwell on Africa, Asia, and What Development Actually Requires
“— and they were misconceived, not least actually, in relation to demographics, because there were projects which actually needed more labor and bigger markets than were there.”
Source trail
Everything needed to verify it.
- Speaker
- Joe Studwell
- Attribution
- Verified speaker
- Claim type
- evaluation
- Recorded
- 18 Feb 2026
- Publisher
- Conversations with Tyler
Transcript context
…Sure. — and they were misconceived, not least actually, in relation to demographics, because there were projects which actually needed more labor and bigger markets than were there. And this is the reason that they fell into disuse very often. But what you have now all over Africa, and there’s already three, four million hectares of irrigated land that’s been added in the last couple of decades. And it’s been added by individual farmers who buy pumps and either dig boreholes themselves or get them dug by people who are providing that service. It’s this much more micro approach to building business — whether it’s agricultural business or otherwise — that’s what I think gives some cause for optimism. Djibouti aside, what do you think is the best run African port?…
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