"Why the West's Efforts to Aid the Rest Have Done So Much Ill and So Little Good"

"The White Man's Burden: Why the West's Efforts to Aid the Rest Have Done So Much Ill and So Little Good," by William Easterly.

Read the full review in The Economist. (Subscription required.)

William Easterly apparently has a new book out, reviewed in this week's Economist. Easterly has been having a well publicized dispute with Jeffrey Sacks about development aid. Sacks is an economist and advisor to the United Nations, and a visible supporter of the Millennium Development Goals. Easterly, now an academic, was a long time World Bank economist. He has questioned the value of very large scale development programs with global ambitions, while supporting small scale efforts at the grass roots.

I suspect we need both people. I doubt that the world, or even the development community majority, is going to accept either point of view wholely and exclusively. Easterly provides a valuable service in pointing out how much aid has been wasted and how useful the efforts of those working at the grass roots can be with well directed small projects and programs. Sacks provides a useful view, emphasizing the magnitude of world poverty and the scarcity of donor resources available to improve the situation.