Wed • Nov 25th, 2009 • by Tom Nees • Comments 5
doing good is harder than it looks
Anyone interested in ending global poverty will want to read “How We Can Help” a November 22, column by Nicholas D. Kristof , in The New York Times Book Review.
He surveys books with conflicting opinions on how to help more than a billion people who live on less than a dollar a day emerge from extreme poverty.
Since taking on a leadership role with NCMI, a faith-based organization intent on ending global poverty, I’ve been reading these books looking for insights about the best way to relieve human suffering resulting from poverty.
A debate is raging among “bleeding hearts” – as Kristof somewhat affectingly describes those motivated by compassion.
On one side are those like Jeffery Sachs, who in “The End of Poverty” argued that the solution lies in more foreign aid from wealthy nations to reach the United Nations Millennium Development Goals. For every $100 of income, the U.S. gives 18 cents in development assistance to poor countries. Sweden gives four times that.
In “The White Man’s Burden: Why the West’s Efforts to Aid the Rest Have Done So Much Ill and So Little Good,” William Easterly, a New York University professor, contends that more money may do more harm than good.
Dambisa Moyo, a Zambian economist and author of “Dead Aid: Why Aid Is Not Working and How There Is A Better Way for Africa” agrees. “The novelty,” Kristof writes, “of an African denouncing aid to Africa, and her book has set off another wave of bitter, personal feuding between the two camps.”
Kristof has taken up the cause of ending the abuse of women in his NY Times column and his recent book with Cheryl WuDunn, Half the Sky: Turning Oppression Into Opportunity for Women Worldwide. In his travels among the poorest of the poor he has seen foreign aid projects that work as well as those that don’t.
Between the more aid and the no aid folks is Paul Collier, a Oxford University economist, who in The Bottom Billion, advocates for remedies to mitigate the internal traps that keep poor countries poor in spite of outside assistance. And Kristof likes the The Blue Sweater, a memoir by Jacqueline Novogratz describing her entrepreneurial initiatives among women in Rwanda and other African countries. As the founder of the Aucumen Fund she advocates for “patient capital” a blend of aid and capitalism.
“The helping hand strikes again,” was a cynical critique from the streets directed at some of us trying to relieve poverty in Washington, DC. I learned early on that there are right ways and wrong ways of helping. And I also learned, as Kristof concludes: “doing good is harder than it looks.”
November 25th, 2009 at 8:38 am
Tom: Excellent overview of the issues surrounding AID. I think these issues are made even more complicated by a Christian’s need to be obedient. There is paralysis in analysis when it comes to responding to global poverty. The community of faith must seek wisdom. On the one hand, we are compelled to respond to the individual and community needs that surround us (Matthew 25) and on the other hand, we must use evidence-based and research driven strategies that address the systemic issues that contribute to poverty. These too are made more complicated by the cultural and economic challenges in regions such as Africa. Throwing money at the problem without systems of accountability and targeted outcomes has proven to be a waste of resources. However, the need for immediate resources to respond to hunger, the global pandemic that is AIDS cannot wait for tested systems to be put into place. We have to do both – urgent response while building global capacity to develop health and food systems that assure long-term remedies. When you see communities of suffering, it is difficult to counsel delay and ask them to wait for their governments to get their act together. I think we can respond and leverage government reform at the same time. I am not sure as a Christian, I can do anything less. Just a thought. Thanks for your ideas.
November 25th, 2009 at 9:20 am
I don’t believe “no aid” is an answer to the dilemma. On the other hand, I think “too much” aid easily slides over into paternalism which is deadly to a society and community. A balance should be found with great thought and sensitivity. It is important to remember that those who live in conditions which we measure as poor have both pride and dignity.
November 25th, 2009 at 9:44 am
So thankful for your thought-provoking and heart-stirring articles. Cause me to burst out in prayer: “Lord, help us to live with You so supreme in our lives that the world will hear us coming and know that REAL HELP REALLY IS ON THE WAY!” All Joy, Captain Tom. kerry willis
December 7th, 2009 at 6:10 pm
When I was 9, our family moved to Ethiopia. For the next 7 years, Dad taught biology at an agricultural college established near Harar by Oklahoma State University. The college then had 20 faculty members and 300 students. Today, it is a major university with thousands of students and many majors, though agriculture remains a major focus, and it has spawned 16 other agriculture colleges throughout that country. The Okies hoped to be out of Ethiopia within 20 years. They actually accomplished that goal in just 12, as their graduates returned with Ph.D.s from Europe and the U.S. and replaced their former teachers. This initiative’s philosophical framework was grounded in Harry Truman’s Point Four Program and it was funded through the State Department’s US AID division. Too many Americans believe that AID is money thrown down a rathole. The Alemaya University experience shows precisely the opposite.
December 7th, 2009 at 7:14 pm
Stan – Obviously this is the right way of doing aid. I’m sure there are important lessons to be learned from this success.