Foreign Policy magazine just released its top 100 Global Thinkers for 2009. Twelve out of the top 100 were what is loosely called “development experts:”
Ashraf Ghani and Clare Lockhart (20), Paul Collier (36), Jeffrey Sachs (39), William Easterly (39), Esther Duflo (41), Muhammad Yunus (46), Amartya Sen (58), George Ayittey (76), Paul Farmer (83), Jacqueline Novogratz (85), Andrew Mwenda (98).
With the obligatory caveats about the more well-deserving who were omitted and questionable rankings, it is nice to see the diversity of the list: female and male, Central Asian, South Asian, African, European, and American, pro-aid and anti-aid, self-confident experts and those who don’t believe in experts (e.g. me), and even good experts and bad experts (kidding)?!
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Surprised Dr Moyo is not on the list…not because I think she deserves it.
The name on that list that surprises me most is George Ayittey. I think he makes some good points and it’s immeasurably valuable to have African intellectuals participating in the aid debate to the extent that he has, but I find his ideas rather shallow and undeveloped and his writing repetitive and tedious. I made these points at greater length in my review of his book here: http://bit.ly/5OAAvM
Congratulations on making the list! While compilations such as these can sometimes be futile and mere pats-on-the-back garnered by those on the “inside,” this one serves as a required reading list for anyone hoping to become literate in global development politics. Not only does it summarize global successes of 2009, but it points a student like myself toward ongoing opportunities, still flush with possibilities.
Congratulations! Although I don’t think I can bring myself to read who exactly were named as the top 12 going by your comment that “Twelve out of the top 100 were what is loosely called “development experts:” (Gates and Clinton ok – but I’m guessing it also mentions Bono, and in worst nightmare scenarios….Jolie and, hey, maybe Pitt, Clooney and anyone else ever in, or even loosely associated with, an Ocean’s 11/12 or 13 film…)
I’m extremely surprised that Amartya Sen is 58 though…esp when Collier (!?!) is 36.
(As an aside, has anyone seen the movie Bruno? As in one scene Bruno meets with two – apparently real – PR Charity consultants ‘for celebrities wanting to enter the ‘humanitarian aid’ world’. Beggars belief but worth watching.)
Ahh – re-read your post (was thinking it was a 100 people – all in ‘development’ in some way or another – my mistake – so can scratch my earlier comment re celebrities)…still though, Malcom Gladwell as number 19…out of the top 100 global thinkers in the World?? seriously? Come on Foreign Policy – that’s absurd.
Emily Oster is on the list too — that arguably raises the count from 12 to 13. Her ideas have certainly been influential in development circles.
I think you have to include Elinor Ostrom as a “development expert” as well.
What about Latin America?
The list is embarrassing.
World’s no 2 Great Thinker, Barack Obama. No 13, Dick Cheney and it gets worse.
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