Author Archive
Sunday, February 17th, 2008
Millennium Project: Why we must act - and how much it will cost
We’ve reviewed the proposals of the UN Millennium Project, the top-level think-tank set up by Jeffrey Sachs and Kofi Annan to recommend ways for the world to meet the Millennium Development Goals. Like Sachs’ personal plan for ending poverty by 2025, it’s a considerable shopping-list of investments and reforms to be heavily supported by rich-country […]
No Comments » - Posted in The Main Proposals by Rav Casley Gera
Sunday, February 10th, 2008
Millennium Project: Getting Started
There’s a section in the UN Millennium Project Report entitled “Getting started in 2005 - launching a decade of bold ambition”. The first few sentences make depressing reading. “There is still enough time to meet the Millennium Development Goals - though barely,” it notes. “Without a bold breakthrough in the coming year, a large number […]
No Comments » - Posted in The Main Proposals by Rav Casley Gera
Tuesday, February 5th, 2008
Development: a Super Tuesday primer
The ONE campaign, the modern US incarnation of the Make Poverty History / Global Call to Action on Poverty campaign of 2005, has put together a handy comparison of the presidential candidates’ positions on key development issues. Of the major candidates, as a rule, Hillary Clinton’s are the most detailed and John McCain’s vaguest, with […]
No Comments » - Posted in Useful sources by Rav Casley Gera
Monday, February 4th, 2008
Millennium Project: International public goods
A sort of global brain trust established by Kofi Annan to tell the world how to meet the Millennium Development Goals, the Millennium Project proposes major investments in infrastructure and social programmes in poor countries, funded largely by rich-country aid, and reforms to the international trade system. But it also calls for co-operation between rich […]
No Comments » - Posted in The Main Proposals by Rav Casley Gera
Monday, January 28th, 2008
Millennium Project on Trade
One of the most common arguments you hear against increasing aid to Africa can be summed up in a single slogan: “trade, not aid”. It’s by trading with other countries, the argument goes, that formerly poor countries in Asia have transformed their economies and slashed poverty. Simply supplying more aid might help keep people alive, […]
No Comments » - Posted in The Main Proposals by Rav Casley Gera
Monday, January 21st, 2008
Millennium Project: making aid work better
We’ve seen the recommendations of the UN Millennium Project, the coven of experts led by Jeffrey Sachs tasked with advising the world how to meet the Millennium Development Goals, for the investments and reforms poor countries need to make to meet the goals. But what about rich countries? How does the international system of aid […]
No Comments » - Posted in The Main Proposals by Rav Casley Gera
Wednesday, January 16th, 2008
UN Millennium Project: Scaling-up
We’ve already looked at how Professor Jeffrey Sachs believes small, proven interventions at local level can be “scaled up” - accompanied, of course, by a matching scale-up of aid to pay for it all. What does his UN assignment, the UN Millennium Project, have to say on the topic?
See other posts about:-
No Comments » - Posted in The Main Proposals by Rav Casley Gera
Saturday, January 12th, 2008
UN Millennium Project: small interventions = big difference
The UN Millennium Report proposes each country prepare a detailed shopping-list of interventions, from education and health to environmental protection, to achieve the Millennium Development Goals. But what kinds of interventions do they have in mind? The report outlines a host of “quick wins” - comparatively cheap, highly effective investments that could be effective in […]
No Comments » - Posted in The Main Proposals by Rav Casley Gera
Monday, December 10th, 2007
UN Millennium Project: Plans to end poverty
The UN Millennium Project, a sort of specially-convened think tank put together by Kofi Annan to report on how the world can meet the Millennium Development Goals, often suggests very similar proposals to its director, Jeffrey Sachs, and his book The End of Poverty. I’m choosing, in the absence of evidence to the contrary, to […]
No Comments » - Posted in The Main Proposals by Rav Casley Gera
Wednesday, December 5th, 2007
The UN Millennium Project
We’ve looked in detail at Jeffrey Sachs‘ proposals for massive increases in aid to Africa, and developing countries elsewhere, in a bid to end extreme poverty by 2025. We’ve also looked at the Millennium Villages project, Sachs’ bid to prove the effectiveness of aid at a local level. But Sachs isn’t only known for his […]
No Comments » - Posted in The Main Proposals by Rav Casley Gera
Friday, November 30th, 2007
Jeffrey Sachs: why - and how - we should act
Over the last few weeks (and months) we’ve gone on a bit of an odyssey through Jeffrey Sachs’ The End of Poverty and found out how the man the New York Times calls “probably the world’s most important economist” believes that with carefully targeted interventions in health, education and agriculture, along with reform of governance […]
4 Comments » - Posted in The Main Proposals by Rav Casley Gera
Wednesday, November 28th, 2007
Jeffrey Sachs wants your money
After some introductory economics lessons and a bit of autobiography, we’ve finally got through Jeffrey Sachs’ plan for eliminating poverty by 2025. Now it’s time to answer the key question: go on then, how much?
The short answer: $135bn a year - as opposed to the $65bn/yr currently being spent - now, rising to $195bn a […]
No Comments » - Posted in The Main Proposals by Rav Casley Gera
Saturday, November 24th, 2007
Scaling up 2: Global Compact
Last time, we saw how Jeffrey Sachs outlines the case for greater investment through aid in developing countries: how, he argues, an increase in six different kinds of capital - human, business, infrastructure, the environment, public institutions, and knowledge - can make the difference between an economy growing out of poverty, and one sinking ever […]
No Comments » - Posted in The Main Proposals by Rav Casley Gera
Sunday, September 2nd, 2007
Scaling up: intervention at a global scale
After a detour to the Millennium Villages, we’re now in the final stages of our long hop, skip and jump through The End of Poverty, the ambitious blueprint for eliminating extreme poverty by Professor Jeffrey Sachs. Last time, we looked at the on-the-ground investments in things like fertiliser which Sachs argues can transform lives in […]
No Comments » - Posted in The Main Proposals by Rav Casley Gera
Saturday, August 25th, 2007
Criticisms of the Millennium Villages: some thoughts
Earlier, we looked at some of the criticisms of Jeffrey Sachs‘ Millennium Villages Project. Now, let’s see if they stand up.
See other posts about:-
3 Comments » - Posted in The Main Proposals, criticisms by Rav Casley Gera
Thursday, August 23rd, 2007
African history in ten seconds: New and improved!
This is becoming a wonderful, ever-growing saga, like The Land Before Time, although I think that ended after episode five, or Rocky, which I suppose will only end with Sylvester Stallone’s death. Having put together a spreadsheet detailing the history of African governance since independence, my friend John kindly put together a chart summarising the […]
5 Comments » - Posted in Useful sources by Rav Casley Gera
Sunday, August 19th, 2007
Trouble in the village?
Last time - what seems like months ago, apologies for the delay - we looked at Jeffrey Sachs‘ Millennium Villages, a set of 12 village-clusters across Africa where extensive aid is funding targeted packages of interventions in health, education and agriculture. Sachs believes that the programme can see villages progress from heavy reliance on […]
1 Comment » - Posted in The Main Proposals, criticisms by Rav Casley Gera
Tuesday, July 10th, 2007
Villages of dreams?
Last time, our whirlwind tour of Professor Jeffrey Sachs’ The End of Poverty took us to Africa and his explanation of the relatively cheap, simple on-the-ground investments which he argues offer hope for the end of extreme poverty by 2025. Next, we’ll zoom out and look at his proposals at the national and global scale. […]
4 Comments » - Posted in The Main Proposals by Rav Casley Gera
Thursday, June 28th, 2007
Sachs-obsessed
We are, it seems. As you may have noticed the author of The End of Poverty, Director of the Earth Institute and all-round celebrity economist recently served as the BBCs’ 2007 Reith lecturer. These annual lectures are the jewel in the crown of the beeb’s public-service current affairs broadcasting, so it’s quite a big deal. […]
2 Comments » - Posted in The Main Proposals, Useful sources by Rav Casley Gera
Thursday, June 28th, 2007
African history in ten *seconds*!
We live in a fast-paced, media-driven society. Information must be simple, clear, and colourful, or it just gets missed. In my quest to bring you ever-closer to the truth about African development, this is a lesson I never cease learning.
For those of you who found my chart summarising African history since independence too complicated, my […]
Posts feed
