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
Recent Comments
- Andrew on Beautiful fractals and ugly inequality: Can you please share the data sources?
- Sina on Beautiful fractals and ugly inequality: this is really good
- Ben Ramalingam on Welcome to economics, all you students (and aid workers): “The number of aid ideas that violate elementary principles...
- Dan Kyba on Welcome to economics, all you students (and aid workers): Market economies and the economics that underpins it has also been,...
- Raphael on Help the World’s Poor: Buy Some New Clothes: Benjamin, I am curious to know where you draw the ethical line. People...
- David Dolejsi on Welcome to economics, all you students (and aid workers): When I was a freshman at my university, they gave us Economics...
Archives
Bill Easterly tweets
- Saying it better! RT@patrin Forget optimal choices, econ is why Disney CEO salary is 140,000x of Ghanaian rock-breakers http://bit.ly/aRxMBt about 10 hours ago from web
- Greetings, Aid workers, welcome to your 1st day of classes on Principles of Economics http://bit.ly/aRxMBt about 15 hours ago from bitly
- World Bank denies expert in charge of development is fictional, he's in secure location in Main Complex, 3rd basement http://bit.ly/bvdx4t 07:57:32 PM September 07, 2010 from bitly
- Hello all, back on Twitter after a week off. Anything happen while I was gone? 03:54:25 PM September 07, 2010 from web
Aid Watch tweets
- IAD on A-i-d http://bit.ly/9Yqk1H. Claudia Williamson discusses Elinor Ostrom's work on development. 12:29:51 PM September 03, 2010 from web
- Be Careful What you Export: http://bit.ly/cE3e1v 11:11:33 AM September 02, 2010 from web
- TransparencyBrawl 2010 continues: http://bit.ly/aG1ytu 08:18:35 PM September 01, 2010 from web
- Hayek vs. the Intellectuals, in technicolor! http://bit.ly/cSnS8m 11:25:39 AM September 01, 2010 from web
Category Archives: Language
Africa: land of wildebeest and child soldiers
UPDATE: response to criticisms at end of this post.
(Apologies to the great blog Wronging Rights for stealing one of their headline templates.)
Big attention grabber in the NYT with this picture splashed all over the front page.
The usual mixed emotions: (1) compassion and sorrow for these and other children caught up in horrific wars, (2) alarm at exploitation of the child soldier stereotype for Africa.
Very crude data that I checked…
Also posted in In the news
17 Comments
Why the World Bank supports tyrants: the Gerund Defense
World Bank Ethiopia country director Ken Ohashi has a letter in the New York Review of Books responding to Helen Epstein’s charge that the Bank is supporting tyranny (which we also blogged). Ken’s letter defends World Bank aid to Ethiopia:
There are concerns about the overall governance of the country, efficiency and fairness of resource use, the risk of dependence on aid, and protection of basic human rights, as Ms. Epstein points out.
…
Also posted in Aid policies and approaches, International organizational behavior
Tagged Ethiopia, Helen Epstein, Meles Zenawi, World Bank
35 Comments
When you might want a skeptic…
UPDATE 3:41pm June 7: see end of post.
I am a passenger in a car with my friend Owen driving…we’re chatting.
Me: did you see that sign? I think we better turn around.
Owen: why are you always so negative!?
Me: but the sign said…
Owen: if people listen to you skeptics, there’ll be no more funding for roads.
Me: I just think this time that…
Owen: why are you so negative when us drivers work
…
Also posted in Meta/ about Aid Watch
42 Comments
Wax and Gold: Meles Zenawi’s Double Dealings with Aid Donors
Helen Epstein, author of The Invisible Cure: Why We Are Losing The Fight Against AIDS in Africa, has a stunning piece on aid to Ethiopia published in this month’s New York Review of Books.
Epstein argues that the main cause of fertile southern Ethiopia’s chronic food shortages—the so-called “green famine” —is Ethiopia’s toxic and repressive political system, presided over since 1991 by Meles Zenawi. While Meles placates donors and Western governments with speeches about fighting…
Why are we not allowed to talk about individual rights in development?
| Individual rights for rich countries | Individual rights in development discourse |
|---|---|
| “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.” | “Implementing the strengthened approach to governance … will require … …careful development of a … detailed results framework, consideration of budget and staffing implications … and further consultations with stakeholders…The specific initiatives needed to fully operationalize this strategy will be outlined in an Implementation Plan…” |
Lincoln’s Birthday Valentine’s Day Declaration: I ♥ Democracy
Democracy doesn’t attract as much love as it deserves in aid and development circles.
Many wonder if benevolent autocrats might be better for development than messy elections, even though there is no evidence to support benevolent autocracy. There is a strong positive association between democracy and LEVEL of per capita income, which at least some authors argue is causal. (It’s true there is no robust association between democracy and GROWTH of income, but then…
What we talk about when we talk about aid: A plea for accuracy
The following post is by Alanna Shaikh. Alanna is a global health professional who blogs at UN Dispatch and Blood and Milk.
One thing that seems to get lost in debates over aid is the idea that “aid” is not a monolith. People talking about aid may mean church-to-church shipments of used clothes, World Bank loans to build dams, money transfers from donor governments, or expatriate-run projects that aim to provide services or…
Tagged aid, Alanna Shaikh, charity, development, precision
13 Comments
Levi’s sees the light on human rights for Native Americans
A previous post suggested that American liberty was still a work in progress. One illustration was a Levi’s ad that celebrates the seizing of Native American land for ourselves.
To Levi’s credit, they responded to an email invitation to respond to our blog.
Now that we have pointed out that the language in their ad seems to, well — how should I put this diplomatically – kind of lend support to nearly wiping out the…