posted by Carrie Reiling
A collection of recent articles highlight the drawbacks of intertwining business with development aid.
“The key to reducing poverty is … fewer armchair experts”
Weh Yeoh, disability development worker based in Cambodia, in an article for WhyDev asks, “Why do so many people opine baselessly about the key to ending poverty?” Well-meaning individuals often subscribe to a top-down idea of aid, despite ongoing conversations in the development sector about how to “get development right.”
Weh Yeoh, disability development worker based in Cambodia, in an article for WhyDev asks, “Why do so many people opine baselessly about the key to ending poverty?” Well-meaning individuals often subscribe to a top-down idea of aid, despite ongoing conversations in the development sector about how to “get development right.”
World leaders, technocrats, and philanthropists are increasingly working together to explore “how science, microfinance and social media could consign poverty to history.” As the aid sector becomes increasingly more business-like, with efficiency as the goal, one concern discussed in this post for The Africa Report is that these philanthrocrats still lack accountability and are based outside Africa.
Accountability is the theme of this article by Andrew Bowman (writing for New Internationalist Magazine), as he questions how the private sector influences and changes development priorities, especially when the funds are as vast as Bill Gates’ Foundation.