The Aid Industry

In a recent interview development expert William Easterly stated "...Securing pledges for more aid is not going to make poverty history. What we should be examining is the aid industry’s plans to spend this new money because it has a track record of failure dating back to the 1940s and 50s. There’s been numerous and diverse attempts to buy the poor out of poverty but none of them have been particularly successful. So in 2005 we found ourselves ostensibly throwing more good money after bad. Above all, this is tragic for the poor...“There might be one billion people living on a dollar day but they are not a political constituency - they have no voice. They are effectively customers of this multi-billion dollar aid industry but lack the ability to give feedback and influence the type of aid they receive...At the same time, aid industry investors – rich country tax payers and the politicians writing the cheques – are ill-informed and far removed from the lives and daily challenges of the world’s poor. Therefore the disconnect that resides at either end of the development supply chain mitigates against change and reform to deliver the type of development the poor so desperately want and need..."
Via NextBillion