Comments for the GEG blog

Comment on The Aid Critic: Bill Easterly by The Real Issues in the aid debate, part 1: Economics | the GEG blog

The Real Issues in the aid debate, part 1: Economics | the GEG blog — Mon, 06 Dec 2010 15:39:53 +0000

[...] in this GEG blog series on The (Dead) Aid Debate, I reviewed the contributions of Dambisa Moyo, Bill Easterly and Yash Tandon. While all raise important issues, they do not raise what I consider to be the real [...]

Comment on The Real Issues in the aid debate, part 1: Economics by Nsom Joseph

Nsom Joseph — Sun, 21 Nov 2010 15:48:03 +0000

Much has been said about the strategies needed to kick start development in Africa. The real problem is not that of strategy but more of leadership. Most african heads of states are not committed at all to the development of their countries. All what interest them is power. One african writer actually expressed this situation as “The beautiful ones are not yet born” meaning that africa shall continue in this mess till the time that these leaders shall be up to the task.

Comment on Questions for the G20: A crisis response or real governance change? by Will Global Health Break the Back of the G20? | the GEG blog

Will Global Health Break the Back of the G20? | the GEG blog — Mon, 05 Jul 2010 12:22:25 +0000

[...] Back in November, I blogged about what the G20 might mean for health, and argued that drawing any substantive conclusions back then was premature. The issue of the G20 in health was taken up in a big way by the new Global Health Security Centre at Chatham House which organized a one day conference on ‘What’s next for the G20? Investing in health and development’. [...]

Comment on A Manifesto for Aid Reform: Changing the Way We Think About and Give Foreign Aid by Virtual Economics

Virtual Economics — Thu, 17 Jun 2010 04:32:39 +0000

Absolutely right! Instead of bringing end to foreign aid, policy-makers and development professionals should restructure the aid systems.

Comment on A Manifesto for Aid Reform: Changing the Way We Think About and Give Foreign Aid by Sam Gardner

Sam Gardner — Fri, 16 Apr 2010 20:52:05 +0000

Dear Lindsay,

A very challenging post, I can support most of the statements. However, when looking at the European Aid, we see a rather results oriented, project based approach, which is indeed overly bureaucratic, but way more effective than most of the aid given by the member states themselves. Indeed, the individual member states will not stop their thing soon, although if they keep in the same politically correct course, they might wither in irrelevance.

Comment on The Global Economic Crisis, Murky Protectionism, and Developing Countries by Rev. Ojewumi, J.S.

Rev. Ojewumi, J.S. — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 11:11:37 +0000

Guided Globalization is what should be promoted in the developed nations so as to assist them to grow.

Comment on A Manifesto for Aid Reform: Changing the Way We Think About and Give Foreign Aid by Bahar Salimova

Bahar Salimova — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 22:00:08 +0000

Lindsay,

It is a very interesting article. Indeed, the architecture and effectiveness of development aid has been the focus of debates in the past several years. Some interesting work has been done by the Independent Evaluation Group (IEG) in assessing the development effectiveness of World Bank Group’s programs and projects. IEG’s resources are available on http://www.worldbank.org/ieg/. Also, users can follow latest updates from IEG on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/IndependentEvaluationGroup.

Comment on A Manifesto for Aid Reform: Changing the Way We Think About and Give Foreign Aid by Sameer Mithal

Sameer Mithal — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 18:48:23 +0000

Interesting blog. However, I would argue that you have missed the biggest impediment in the aid industry and stunts impact … this is that of sustainability.

There is an inherent “mind block” within aid agencies to not grant money to private companies that are making profits but at the same time are satisfying social obligations.

Somehow “making money” is synonymous with being evil in the aid agency nomenclature. By providing grants to companies that are actually sustainable has a much bigger and lasting impact on the problem than simply a one time donation of money.

The model is broken and nobody admits it. My company works in Ghana and other countries – we are making a real impact (over 100,000 people have access to clean drinking water) but we do it in a profitable and sustainable way.

Comment on The Aid Critic: Bill Easterly by Kartik Akileswaran

Kartik Akileswaran — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 03:30:56 +0000

Great point about the typical neo-classical focus on individual agency. One of the guiding questions of sociology is “structure or agency?”, and I think if Easterly and other like-minded economists considered this problematic in their analyses, they would arrive at much more well-grounded and nuanced conclusions such as yours.

Look forward to reading the rest of your series!

Comment on The Aid Critic: Bill Easterly by Kathryn

Kathryn — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 20:15:09 +0000

This is an interesting perspective Lindsay. Thank you. I’d be curious to hear your perspective on Paul Polak’s work and book, “Out of Poverty, What Works When Traditional Approaches Fail. ” someday too.