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
Recent Comments
- Rukmini on Aid Watch blog ends; New work on development begins : This has been a valuable resource for me and I’m sorry to see it...
- Jesse on From Hell to Prosperity: I would like to see this graph with a comparative one which shows the number of people in each religion...
- Ellie on Aid Watch blog ends; New work on development begins : Sad to see you go, but I certainly respect the decision. Hope it is...
- Vivek Nemana on From Hell to Prosperity: Jeff, Well, the billionaire effect might explain a disproportionately high mean income, but...
- M on Aid Watch blog ends; New work on development begins : I agree that Bill and Laura should think about how they can get their message...
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Archives
Bill Easterly tweets
- The only immigration policy Congress agrees on is to keep admitting fashion models http://t.co/ZBS1Uw34eN about 1 hour ago from bitly ReplyRetweetFavorite
- New book identifies this as 1st rock and roll album -- in 1938 http://t.co/umXVgRlXeQ 02:28:18 PM May 19, 2013 from bitly ReplyRetweetFavorite
- Warning sign that Lenin was centrally planning toilet time on train back to Russia http://t.co/bV8SuNLvF3 02:11:30 PM May 19, 2013 from bitly ReplyRetweetFavorite
- Why are they singing pro-Confederacy song "Maryland, my Maryland" at Preakness horse race? 10:10:17 PM May 18, 2013 from Twitter for iPad ReplyRetweetFavorite
Aid Watch tweets
- Consensus driven, simple, numerical targets were both the strength and the weakness of the MDGs. http://t.co/od8c97a5bI via @guardian about 55 minutes ago from Buffer ReplyRetweetFavorite
- "There must be a lot of money laundering, but we're not criminals. We're just making life more convenient." http://t.co/hlhAagWUL4 @reuters about 1 hour ago from Buffer ReplyRetweetFavorite
- Where is the line between marketing social impact and exploitation? | http://t.co/YTc7AoLRMc via @Thehumanosphere 06:25:08 PM May 17, 2013 from Buffer ReplyRetweetFavorite
- Why the rise in global trade may have less to do with policy and more to do with metal boxes. http://t.co/QN6uw0wLys via @TheEconomist 05:57:06 PM May 17, 2013 from Buffer ReplyRetweetFavorite
Tag Archives: food aid
Can the story on US food aid get any worse?
Hundreds of thousands of malnourished children are receiving poor quality and even harmful food aid because of the slow introduction of more nutritious alternatives, a medical charity has warned.
The US is continuing to donate directly to relief agencies fortified flour mixes of corn and wheat with soya that do not meet international standards agreed in the 1960s…
…older corn-soy blend (CSB) pre-mixed foods donated by the US contained insufficient micronutrients, anti-nutrients that interfered with
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Posted in Disaster relief 8 Comments
US food aid policies create 561 jobs in Kansas, risk millions of lives around the world
I read recently the First Law of Policy Economics: Every inefficiency is someone’s income.
US food aid policy is definitely no exception, and it is riddled with inefficiencies.
Exhibit A: This invitation from a coalition of big US shipping interests to an event in Washington today. At this event, USA Maritime will have tried to convince lawmakers and their staff that ancient and outdated US food aid legislation, which requires virtually all US food aid…
Posted in Aid policies and approaches, Disaster relief, Political economy, Trade Also tagged Food for Peace, GAO, iron triangle, USA Maritime 18 Comments
What don’t make sense in trade don’t make sense in aid
Common sense principles in international trade are surprisingly useful for aid as well. Here’s a list of overall principles that help explain some of the most discussed aid dos and don’ts on this and other blogs.
1) Don’t trade low value items with huge transport costs. No exporter or importer in their right mind would ship bulky low-value items large distances, which is why things like construction materials are often locally-sourced. Aid examples: Nobody…
Yes, Cash is Best. Now when will USAID follow its own advice?
These two posters are finalists in a student contest to create public service announcements that tell Americans why giving cash in emergencies is better than giving goods like food, bottled water, or used clothes. (Hat tip to Saundra Schimmelpfennig).
The contest guidelines, provided by the Center for International Disaster Information (CIDI), are very clear on why they require entrants to focus on the simple message that giving money is the best way…
Posted in Aid policies and approaches, Disaster relief Also tagged Disaster relief, irony, tied aid, USAID 11 Comments
New UN report says Somali food aid failing to reach the poor (NYT)
Rather than reaching the needy, up to half of Somalia’s food aid ends up in the pockets of radical militants, corrupt bureaucrats and local businessmen, and local UN staff, according to an article in yesterday’s New York Times on the findings of a new UN report.
The report, which has not yet been made public but was shown to The New York Times by diplomats, outlines a host of problems so grave that it
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