Monday, November 17, 2008
Linking aid to military intervention
William Easterly, a professor at New York University and one of the world’s leading conservative development economists, has done a belated review (PDF) of Paul Collier’s The Bottom Billion ( “Foreign aid goes military”, New York Review of Books 55(19), 4 December 2008). Easterly looks at the increasing trend to link development to calls for Western military intervention. He also argues Collier is guilty of statistical fallacies such as confusing correlation with causation.
Labels: aid, book, development, economics, inequality
Sunday, January 20, 2008
Two more Worldwrite films
Worldwrite has produced two new short films. Cash Back is a look at the importance of remittances to economic development in the third world. For the poorest countries it can be several times the amount of official development assistance or foreign direct investment. I’m a Subsistence Farmer Get Me Out of Here is an attack on those who romanticise the lives of those who are tied to the land (itself a shortened form of a more substantial documentary made by Worldwrite). Both films can be viewed online by clicking on the links.
Labels: aid, development, economics, film, Worldwrite
Tuesday, October 16, 2007
World Bank development notes
The World Bank has updated the development notes on its website. They give a useful summary of the current orthodoxy on topics such as aid, climate change and development, equitable growth, governance and trade policy.
Labels: aid, climate, development, economics, trade
Friday, July 20, 2007
My review of The Bottom Billion
Spiked has published my review of The Bottom Billion by Paul Collier. For earlier discussions of this book see posts of 14 May, 6 June and 1 July.
Labels: Africa, aid, book, development, review, spiked
Friday, April 06, 2007
Africa update
Recent news on developments related to Africa.
* Economic growth. Africa grew by 5.7% in 2006 after a 5.3% increase in 2005, according to the United Nations’ Economic Report on Africa 2007. Although this growth is relatively strong it should be noted that African economies are starting from an exceedingly low base. The report also makes the point that Africa still depends heavily on the export of primary commodities such as crude oil, metals and minerals.
* Aid. Aid to Africa was static last year and overall aid spending fell according to the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development. This is despite the fanfare around the Gleneagles G8 summit in 2005 when Tony Blair, the British prime minister, extracted pledges from governments to boost aid spending. Although the European Union, including Britain, increased spending both America and Japan spent much less.
It would be naïve to rely on Western governments to promote African government. However, these figures do show the hollowness of their promises on aid.
* Book. On Wednesday evening attended a University of Westminster seminar on The State They’re In given by Matthew Lockwood. The book is ostensibly an attack on the prevailing consensus on African development held by the likes of the British government and aid agencies. It argues that it is in the interests of the West to promote African developmental states, following the East Asian model, to help develop Africa.
Although the book is presented as a critique its conclusions are remarkably similar to the mainstream view. Lockwood sees African corruption as a big problem while ignoring the low horizons embodied in notions such as sustainable development. His book is also endorsed by the likes of Bob Geldof, Duncan Green (the head of research at Oxfam) and Shriti Vadera (an adviser to the British Chancellor).
* Economic growth. Africa grew by 5.7% in 2006 after a 5.3% increase in 2005, according to the United Nations’ Economic Report on Africa 2007. Although this growth is relatively strong it should be noted that African economies are starting from an exceedingly low base. The report also makes the point that Africa still depends heavily on the export of primary commodities such as crude oil, metals and minerals.
* Aid. Aid to Africa was static last year and overall aid spending fell according to the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development. This is despite the fanfare around the Gleneagles G8 summit in 2005 when Tony Blair, the British prime minister, extracted pledges from governments to boost aid spending. Although the European Union, including Britain, increased spending both America and Japan spent much less.
It would be naïve to rely on Western governments to promote African government. However, these figures do show the hollowness of their promises on aid.
* Book. On Wednesday evening attended a University of Westminster seminar on The State They’re In given by Matthew Lockwood. The book is ostensibly an attack on the prevailing consensus on African development held by the likes of the British government and aid agencies. It argues that it is in the interests of the West to promote African developmental states, following the East Asian model, to help develop Africa.
Although the book is presented as a critique its conclusions are remarkably similar to the mainstream view. Lockwood sees African corruption as a big problem while ignoring the low horizons embodied in notions such as sustainable development. His book is also endorsed by the likes of Bob Geldof, Duncan Green (the head of research at Oxfam) and Shriti Vadera (an adviser to the British Chancellor).
Labels: Africa, aid, book, development, economics
