Aid Debate at the Financial Times

There's a debate running at the Financial Times' arena section.  Lots of important folks discussing whether aid works or not. Dambisa Moyo of Dead Aid fame, Jeffrey Sachs of The End of Poverty, Steve Radelet of the Center for Global Development and Martin Wolf, the FT'S chief economics, writer are all involved.

After reading what's there I added the following comment:

"There's truth in both of these camps: some aid does seem to work while much of it is wasted or worse. Part of the problem is that too little attention is paid to measuring outcomes/effectiveness of aid projects. Efforts by groups like the Poverty Action Lab help on this front. Another part of the problem is, as critics point out, that too little aid gets to the poor on the ground. One way around this is to give small grants of money directly to the poor. Or take an example like the African Development Foundation in the US -- its mission is to provide direct support for Africa-driven solutions to problems of poverty and marginalization. With small grants, it supports social entrepreneurs and traditional entrepreneurs who create jobs and diversify local livelihoods. ADF takes seriously the challenge just issued by the Danish government in its Commission on Africa report: African entrepreneurs are the key to African economic growth -- supporting them and helping them to become more competitive in world markets may well be a winning strategy for aid."

Of course, another direct way to help the poor help themselves is through effective private social entreprise efforts, such as Indego Africa. These efforts, hard to quantify, are nonetheless essential because they bring the creativity, talent, and drive of entrepreneurs to bear to meet local needs such as job creation, improved sanitation, education, medical care, child care, agricultural productivity. . . you get the point. The photo, btw, is of a girl I met at a private orphanage in Botswana.

- Karol