About Aid Watch
The Aid Watch blog is a project of New York University's Development Research Institute (DRI). This blog is principally written by William Easterly, author of "The Elusive Quest for Growth: Economists Adventures and Misadventures in the Tropics" and "The White Man's Burden: Why the West's Efforts to Aid the Rest Have Done So Much Ill and So Little Good," and Professor of Economics at NYU. It is co-written by Laura Freschi and by occasional guest bloggers. Our work is based on the idea that more aid will reach the poor the more people are watching aid.
“Conscience is the inner voice that warns us somebody may be looking.” - H.L. Mencken
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Recent Posts
- The tragic disappearing of humanitarian neutrality
- New UN report says Somali food aid failing to reach the poor (NYT)
- Readers’ Submissions: Honorable Mentions in Best and Worst of Aid
- Am I useless? A critic needs to listen to critics
- New York Times on Millennium Villages
- In defense of being mean-spirited: response to a critic
Recent Comments
- Tania on The tragic disappearing of humanitarian neutrality: World Vision is an easy target and doesn’t get much sympathy bc...
- HH on The tragic disappearing of humanitarian neutrality: http://alexconstantine.blogspo t.com/2009/12/religious-rig...
- Nathan on The tragic disappearing of humanitarian neutrality: World Vision is hardly neutral, at least by the standards that currently...
- Justin Kraus on The tragic disappearing of humanitarian neutrality: Did “humanitarian neutrality” ever exist? Cold War era...
Archives
Categories
Popular Posts
- 100% African leaders advise Bono on reform of U2
- 83% Nobody wants your old shoes: How not to help in Haiti
- 34% Haiti earthquake: Help navigating complex terrain of disaster relief
- 18% The Civil War in Development Economics
- 16% How to write about poor people
- 15% If Martin Luther King had been an aid official -- the Powerpoint version of I Have a Dream
Bill Easterly Tweets
- Update: Evangelical blogs on the aid worker killings in Pakistan http://bit.ly/alyL9i about 10 hours ago from bit.ly
- Free Press => a bit of aid accountability: WFP cuts off Somali bad guys after NYT food aid diversion story http://bit.ly/csTPPG about 10 hours ago from bit.ly
- Attack on World Vision in Pakistan: the tragic disappearing of humanitarian neutrality http://bit.ly/alyL9i about 15 hours ago from bit.ly
- When humanitarian & political goals collide: half of Somali food aid going to the radicals & the corrupt http://bit.ly/csTPPG about 16 hours ago from bit.ly
Aid Watch tweets
- RT @USAID_News #Shah's testimony before the House Appropriations Subcommittee on State, Foreign Ops http://bit.ly/90XNdt 11:53:17 AM March 04, 2010 from web
- A great, thoughtful post from @patrickmeier: Haiti and the Tyranny of Technology (via @alanna_shaikh, again) http://bit.ly/aV0oYb 12:56:02 PM March 03, 2010 from web
- FP: Refugees International issues striking indictment of UN efforts in Haiti so far http://bit.ly/bPner8 via @cblatts 12:07:02 PM March 03, 2010 from web
- BBC investigation: 1984 Ethiopia famine aid spent on weapons as rebels posed as grain merchants http://bit.ly/aq53Rb 10:59:29 AM March 03, 2010 from web
Author Archives: Administrator
Live Tweeting from Our “Best and Worst of Aid” Conference
- indabamf Excitedly listening to opening session, Development Research Institute, NYU: Aid & Development Today
- indabamf @bill_easterly notes that lack of transparency & specialization are 2 factors that have made AID less effective than it could be
- indabamf There has been a upward trend to providing AID to corrupt countries
- altmandaniel @bill_easterly gives award for Worst of Aid to Defense/Diplomacy/Development approach of US, UK, Canada
- indabamf Worst of AID Oscar goes
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This Friday: “Best and Worst of Aid” Conference
For aid watchers in New York, this post is a reminder of Development Research Institute’s upcoming conference this Friday, from 9 am to 2 pm, in NYU’s Kimmel Center.
Called “The Best and Worst of Aid: Incentives, Accountability and Effectiveness,” speakers and participants will present new findings and discuss and debate the best and worst of what happened in aid this year.
(According to some rumors, the irrepressible light-hearted side of DRI will give Oscar-style…
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Invading Canada to debate aid
Bill Easterly is speaking in Toronto tomorrow.
When: Tuesday February 23, 2010, 4pm-6pm
Where: University of Toronto, Hoskin Avenue, Seeley Hall, Trinity College
(He will be largely offline for the next two days while taking part in this peaceful invasion.)
We’d like to thank the Academy…
Bill Easterly and Yaw Nyarko have their Sally Field Oscar moment (You like us! You really like us!) At least 5 of you! as they are interviewed by BBVA on the occasion of DRI winning the BBVA Frontiers of Knowledge in Development Cooperation Award. They talk about the simple focus of DRI, their motivations for working on aid, and what the award means to them. Additional footage demonstrates that Easterly and Nyarko are not…
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NYU’s Development Research Institute (including Aid Watch) receives 2009 BBVA Development Cooperation Award
Excerpts from the BBVA Foundation press release issued today:
January 29, 2010 – The awardof €400,000 goes to the Development Research Institute (DRI) for “its contribution to the analysis of foreign aid provision, and its challenge to the conventional wisdom in development assistance,” in the words of the jury’s citation.
The DRI has brought a fresh approach to aid and development research, helping ensure that the economic aid rich countries provide to the developing…