Customer Reviews
Taking the poor seriously - By: Jeremy Williams, 19 Dec 2008 
`The White Man's Burden: Why the West's efforts to aid the rest have done so much ill & so little good' poses two fairly simple questions. First of all, how have the rich countries managed to give away $2.3 trillion over the last decades & still see people dying of malnutrition & entirely curable diseases? And secondly, why can the free market deliver millions of copies of a new Harry Potter book to children around the world all on the same day, but can't deliver a life-saving vaccination programme?
His conclusion is that aid has failed, from a mixture of corruption, overambition, & incompetence. He then draws a distinction between `planners', & 'searchers'. Planners are the big thinkers, the `big push' schemes like the Millennnium Development Goals, or Make Poverty History. While the planners get the celebrity endorsements, the best solutions are the ones that are home-grown - small-scale, "effective piecemeal" approaches that start with the poor & work out their needs & how to meet them. These are the 'searchers', who are concerned with what works rather than big & noble ideals.
I didn't expect to agree or to like a book that is so critical of aid, but his critique is balanced with a very real compassion for the poor. Ultimately, he's on their side, & Easterly's beliefin small-scale, bottom-up approaches is one that needs to be widely read by policy-makers.
Witty and insightful account of the failure of aid in Africa - By: A. O. AKEMU, 11 May 2008 How come $2.3 trillion dollars of Western aid has been spentin the last 50 years mostlyin Africa, my native continent, & yet millions of children still die of preventable diseases like dysentery, cholera & malaria? Why have the vast amounts of aid money & Western good intentions not been able to lift Africa out of back-breaking poverty? William Easterly's argument,in this fascinating book, is that Western aid has failed because of the traditional approach that it has taken to tackling Third World poverty: planning & bureaucracy.
According to Mr Easterly, Western aidin the form on the Bretton Woods institutions (the World Bank & the IMF) is the most recent reincarnation of the White Man's Burden, a phrase which was immortalized by Kipling. The basic argument of the White Man's Burdenin the 19th century was that Western Europe spread Christianity, commerce & civilization to the coloured, benighted races of the world (of course for the benefit of the Africans & Asians).
Mr Easterly, a former World Bank Economist, writes that the command-and-control bureaucrats of the aid establishment, whom he dubs as Planners, cannot understand the complexities of getting aid to the desperate poor because:
- There is no accountability for service delivery, as the poor cannot do this by voting.
- Planners' thinking is dominated by grandiose, non-specific plans such as ending poverty & the Millennium Development Goals
- Planners think that they already have the answers. Hence, they tend to be patronizing & have a ready-made answer for every poor country; structural adjustment, free markets & privatization
The author then contrasts the failure of the Planners with Searchers, whom he defines as people who work at the local level seeking incremental economic change for the poor by constantly experimenting with new ideas on the ground. He provides interesting accounts of aid projects, done by Searchers; Westerners & Africans, which were modestin scope but brought significant benefits to the poor. My favourite example was from India. By making a contribution of $5,000, Western donors built a toilet block for teenage girlsin a rural school. This dramatically cut the drop-out rate for the girls because, as it turns out, they (the girls) had been dropping out "in droves because of the embarrassment that they felt once they started menstruating & had no private facilities".
He brilliantly shows that Western-style market societies cannot be planned "top-down" (contrary to the goals of the Planners). Marketsin the developed West are the result of complex social & political institutions/norms that have taken thousands of years to evolve. Since free market opportunitiesin the West & The Rest depend on "bottom-up choices" which the planners don't begin to understand, Planners are doomed to failin creating marketsin the Third World.
Though the subject of the book is a serious one, the tome is spiced with witty accounts of the histories of various Third World countries: Western support for UNITAin Angola, the Contrasin Nicaragua &in Haiti. On page after page, Easterly provides grim evidence of the failure of the World Bank, the IMF & Western military intervention to bring about desired social change. More often than not, it has led to much harm asin the above-mentioned countries. The message: Economic successin the tropics cannot be planned from an officein Washington DC. Instead, as has happenedin Japan, Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia, China & India, it must be homegrown. Certainly Western aid still has a role to play but the Plannersin the World Bank & IMF would do well to be more humblein their ambitions & seek to incrementally the improve lives of individualsin the poor countries.
Sometimes, Mr Easterly's analysis is quite dry. For example, he presents information showing that peoplein (rich) Denmark are more trustful of each other than peoplein (poor) The Philippines are. However, he erroneously concludes that wealth is a determinant of trustin a society. Could it be that Danes are more trustful of each other because theirs is a more ethnically homogenous & equal society than The Philippines? Could a breakdownin social institutionsin The Philippines be the cause of mistrust, say more than wealth?
The distinction between Planners & Searchers struck me as being too simplistic. It is hard to believe that everyone who works for the World Bank & IMF falls neatly into the "Planner" category. Surely, the truth is more complex than the author presents it. However, since the crude distinction works wellin contrasting the traditional approach to aid, I'll not fault the author for this.
Finally, the author presents some ideas for getting aid to work:
- Make aid agencies individually accountable for individual, feasible areas that help poor people improve their lives
- Give aid agencies the opportunity to experiment & search for what works
- Abandon the utopian blueprint to fix the Third World's complex problems. Instead focus on getting specific, incremental improvementin people's livesin fields such as health, sanitation & food security. Broad-brush plans for delivering market economies, `Making Poverty History" or establishing the rule of law, laudable as they are, are going to fail
In the concluding chapter, the author makes a most poignant point: "Aid won't make poverty history...only the self reliant efforts of poor people & poor societies themselves can end poverty, borrowing ideas & institutions from the West when it suits them to do so". It is a message with which I concur & one that I, as a Nigerian, have taken to heart. I recommend White Man's Burden for making such a timely point.
Excellent - By: C. Clement, 08 Feb 2008 
An excellent book. Easterly sets out a balanced review of how aid has benefited/ not benefited many developing nationsin an excellent thought provoking manner. Thoroughly recommended.
Intelligent critique of foreign aid policies - By: Rolf Dobelli, 18 May 2007 At the World Economic Forumin 2007, author William Easterly gave the audience some distressing news: The $2.3 trillionin aid sent to Africa since the 1950s had done nothing to increase Africa's GDP. It had been largely a waste of money. Bill Gates, who was sitting next to Easterly that day, admonished the author for focusing on narrowly economic benchmarks: "You don't eat GDP," Gates said petulantly. Easterly's riposte came a few days laterin The Wall Street Journal, where he chided the world's richest college dropout for missing "the economics class that listed the components of GDP, such as food." Readers who enjoy such debates will love this acerbic, clearheaded book. Easterly, a former World Bank economist who is fervently committed to global prosperity, demolishes the myths that prop up ineffective efforts to help developing nations. He points his wrecking-ball at photo-op celebrities & utopian economists who feel that big plans & big aid budgets will eventually build big economies (the last 50 years of contrary evidence notwithstanding). Ah, you say, at least they are trying to do something good, while many others simply watch the impoverished world's agonyin dismay. Instead, the author argues, only alternative, pinpointed aid tactics can succeed, but only if they use local knowledge & implementation. We recommend this to anyone interestedin economic development & emerging markets, & to lovers of intelligent polemic on issues that matter.
Despite truly embarrasing title this book should be read - By: Joanne, 09 May 2007 I bought this book fully expecting to disagree with almost everything the author said, but feeling that to have an open mind I should read it.
The title I found hugely embarrasing especially as I spend most of my time readingin public places where large proportions of the people are not white.
Easterly despite having spent a good time of his career earning money from the World Bank actually spends most of the time explaining how foreign aid policy has failed to work over the last 50 years largely due to the desire to have a 'Big Plan' & the arrogance of foreigners (from predominantly white nations)in their interventionsin the rest of the world.
I actually found myself agreeing with more of this book than I thought I would & certainly most of it was easy but interesting to read. I think some of the explanations & criticisms were too clear cut but I could see that often trying to comply with a Big Plan does indeed distract from the more important task of finding ways to improve lives.
Two things about the book really annoyed me. One was the constant reference to Planners v Searchers which was much along the lines of here come the 'baddies'in the black clothes called 'Planners' & against them are the good, little people trying to bring lightin their white clothes 'Searchers'.
Secondly was the use of statistics. I think if you have a good grasp of statistical analysis then you would be disappointed with the frequent lack of referencing of the data or only referencing secondary sources. If you are not statistically biased then trying to read & re-read the descriptions of the analysis - 'adjusting for reverse causality' is difficult because you are left unconvinced as to whether the conclusions presented have a strong basis.
However even saying this I felt there were many interesting points to considerin this book, generally it was writtenin an easy style all be it a little too frivolous at times. For anyone interestedin development, aid or foreign policy this is a MUST READ book.
