Kerala Rising: From Exporting People to Exporting Ideas · Page 268 of 353

KERALA RISING · FROM EXPORTING PEOPLE TO EXPORTING IDEAS

KERALA RISING · FROM EXPORTING PEOPLE TO EXPORTING IDEAS
framework is built to absorb that: each program
publishes its independent assessment in full
regardless of outcome, and a published unwind
protocol applies if an assessment is negative. Being
wrong in public, on the record, is part of the design,
it is what makes the audit credible for the programs
that follow, and it is the difference between an
institution and a sales pitch.
Why equity is the risk we take most seriously
Of all the structural risks, capture by the alreadyadvantaged deserves the most attention, because
the populations these programs most need to reach
are the ones least able to participate on equal terms.
The evidence is stark in the road-safety case: World
Bank analysis finds that poor households bear a
disproportionate share of the burden of road
crashes, over 70 percent of crash victims in poor
households lose income, against far lower rates
among the better-off, and that the same households
have the least access to social safety nets. A
recognition program that inadvertently rewarded
only the smartphone-owning, time-rich, already-safe
would widen exactly the gap a public institution
exists to close.
[9]
This is why equity is engineered into the mechanics
rather than appended as a hope. The populations
most in need of the loop are exactly the ones a
careless design would leave out, so equity is treated
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