Foreign Aid Effectiveness

Instead of conditioning improvement in the developing world on the largesse of billionaires, we should identify the structural phenomenon that are retarding quality of life there and invent new solutions that target those phenomenon directly. Instead of buying condoms and bottled water for Haiti, we should fix Haiti's government and economy.

There are a billion people that do not have access to clean water. One human being dies every three seconds because of poverty(related issues).I think that Bill Gates sees the point in helping eradicate malaria, rather than boosting growth at home. These individuals have done more than their fair share in boosting their local economies, and I believe their money would be better spent in supporting charities that are doing just this. And though I think that charities are not sustainable in the

If you're actually trying to help the developing world, this is very low gains for a high amount of effort. Also, if you doled these out they would immediately be stolen or sold away and hoarded.

Do you really think that poor kids stop dying of preventable diseases if every single person who’s reading HN changes? Inner change is not the vaccine, it can’t feed people, it can’t help with improving living conditions for the poor countries. It’s Doing something for them that should help. Bill Gates is so right at having his own plan how to help people and offering us to take part in it. The actions should help not mere inner change.

I understand that assisting AIDS sufferers in Uganda is a favorite cause of Bram Moolenaar. However in the absence of an overall plan to help the country develop, such short-term interventions may be a net harm to the very populations they're intended to help.http://www.economist.com/news/middle-e

quite this is first worlders trying to nickle and dime poor third world country'sAccess to clean water and basic medical services will do far more.

wealthy countries could just donate some of their money to these people too ?

I'm having trouble understanding what you're hoping to bring to the conversation. The basic problem is this. There are a great deal of resources that can be brought to bear on solving problems in the world. There are lots of philanthropists in the world, with lots of money.The problem is picking the right problem. There are big problems, like hunger. No matter how many resources you have, you're never going to make a dent in world hunger.There are smaller problems, like dam

Start simple, with the problems around you...Hunger, conservation, disease, drinking water and dare I say it: warThere is no incentive to solve most of these issues, which is why there are so many poor and hungry people in the world today.If you only obtain info from HN, escape it for a bit and read blogs about NPOs doing work in Africa.A little perspective on reality will help you realize how meaningless "free internet" is when somebody is looking for $3 to buy some rice f

I think 3rd world aid could do with a lot less "imagining" and more hard facts about causes and effects. I am not saying "don't help them", but I think it is naive to think to just give them things or money would make things fine. More likely than not they are poor because they are being exploited and suppressed. Who knows, maybe some dictator will just take all the vaccine shipments and sell them to another country. (Granted, I am imagining here, too).