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
- Jeffrey K. Silverman on Statement from CARE on Bruckner FOIA Request: I hope that OIG is reading some of these postings, especially about...
- Jeffrey K. Silverman on NGO Transparency: Counterpart International to release budget: That might be giving AEI too much credit, and it...
- AA on IAD on A-i-d: @ Tulip: Your comment about rich taxpayers driving aid policy may be true for Europeans, but I see some trouble with...
- Jim on Africans do not want or need Britain’s development aid: The statistics posted by Terence are fascinating. If Bill Easterly...
- Katrina on Be Careful What You Export: Brendon, I think the NHS is a good boiler plate model that can be tinkered. I’m in Uganda...
- edinburgh photograph on Statement from CARE on Bruckner FOIA Request: Great favorite is usually most definitely the idea is usually these...
Archives
Bill Easterly tweets
- Dear Aid Watchers, Laura and I are gone for a week, Adam Martin is Guest Editor, starting with today's great post http://bit.ly/ces1l3 02:12:45 PM August 30, 2010 from bitly
- Have a happy Last Week of the Summer 01:52:50 PM August 30, 2010 from web
- Beloved tweeps: I am going off line for a week in a last-ditch effort to regain my sanity, no more tweets from me till after Labor Day. 01:52:30 PM August 30, 2010 from web
- What to learn from those wacky animal-shaped Sudanese urban plans: rich country urban planners are just as wacky http://bit.ly/ces1l3 01:50:42 PM August 30, 2010 from bitly
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
Tag Archives: Davos
What the World’s Leaders did on their Winter Vacation: Nothing
Mark Thoma has a different take on Davos than our little dust-up on this blog about Refugee Run:
Faced with the opportunity of a generation to fix global finances, the world’s most powerful people went skiing.
Perhaps @amonck would like to start a dialogue with Professor Thoma?
Maybe I can “help.” I think Davos has always been oversold as a global problem-solver, in the same category as G-7 summits. There is no good historical evidence…
Refugee Run Redux at Davos: the UNHCR displaced?
A year ago this blog featured an invitation to Experience Life as a Refugee at Davos. Some commentators and myself criticized the Refugee Run as an insensitive fund-raising event by the UN High Commissioner for Refugees. UNHCR listened to the criticism — and repeated the event this year at Davos. (HT Rex Brynen at PAXSIMS.)
The Refugee Run provides a snapshot of the often terrifying ordeal suffered by people forced to flee their homes because
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Did Bill and Melinda Gates Claim Malaria Victories Based on Phony Numbers?
Tuesday’s Financial Times printed a Martin Wolf interview with the Gateses from Davos, available as a video on the FT web site.
A sample quote from the interview:
We’re trying to make sure that people understand this: aid is effective…So, for instance, malaria incidence is down in countries such as Zambia, Ethiopia, and Rwanda. It’s down in some countries by over 50 percent and some by 60 percent…[if we and other donors] come
…
Posted in Data and statistics, Global health
Also tagged aid effectiveness, Bill and Melinda Gates, malaria, WHO
15 Comments
I Call Your Authenticity, and I Raise You One Ideology
People sometimes try to win a debate by playing “trump cards” that allegedly overturn any other argument, instead of practicing reasoned arguments based on logic, common sense, and evidence.
One attempted “trump card” is that an “authentic” member of group X is in favor of a certain policy towards group X. The hidden assumption is that any “authentic” member of group X can speak for all other members of group X, and knows what is…
Posted in Cognitive biases
Also tagged Dambisa Moyo, Financial Times, Refugee Run, trump cards
22 Comments
And Now For Something Completely Different: Davos Features “Refugee Run”
When somebody sent me this invitation from Antonio Guterres, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, I thought at first it was a joke from the Onion. What do you think of the Davos rich and powerful going through the “Refugee Run” theme park re-enactment of life in a refugee camp?
Can Davos man empathize with refugees when he or she is not in danger and is going back to a luxury banquet and…