White Man's Burden

A new book from William Easterly looks at why the $2.3trn spent on foreign aid over the past fifty years has had almost no discernable effect.

Easterly is an ex-World Bank economist and writes in 'The White Man's Burden' of the split between the traditional 'Planners' such as Bono and Geldof and the new 'Searchers' who seek more market oriented, bottom up approaches to Third World Aid. He makes three main criticisms of the traditional approach;

i) Planners announce good intentions but dont motivate anyone to carry them out.
ii) Planners raise expectations but take no responsibility for meeting them
iii) Planners at the top lack knowledge at the bottom

Read on...