The growing community of students and professionals who are turning their attention to social endeavors as careers is inspiring. As someone who made the career switch from strategy consulting to international development work, I remember all too well the anxiety of trying to understand the different theories, familiarize myself with the players, and become fluent in the languages of this community. In addition to listening more than speaking, cultivating curiosity, and abandoning the fear of looking stupid when asking, “What does [fill in the blank] mean?”—in my first years in this new space, I asked for recommendations of books that would provide a foundation for my understanding of development, aid, and poverty. I recently revisited these recommendations as a member of the Opportunity Collaboration, and the following is a suggested reading list to provide a foundation for your adventures.

The White Man’s Burden: Why the West’s Efforts to Aid the Rest Have Done So Much Ill and So Little Good (2006)
by William Easterly
Easterly, a celebrated economist, presents one side in what has become an ongoing debate with fellow star-economist Jeffrey Sachs about the role of international aid in global poverty. Easterly argues that existing aid strategies have not and will not reduce poverty, because they don’t seriously take into account feedback from those who need the aid and because they perpetuate western colonial tendencies.

The End of Poverty: Economic Possibilities for Our Time (2006)
by Jeffrey Sachs
Taking an almost entirely diametrical approach than Easterly, Sachs outlines a detailed plan to help the poorest of the poor reach the first rung on the ladder of economic development. By increasing aid significantly to provide the basic infrastructure and human capital for markets to work effectively, Sachs argues such investment is not only economically sound but a moral imperative.

The Bottom Billion: Why the Poorest Countries are Failing and What Can Be Done About It (2007)
by Paul Collier
Economist and Africa expert Collier analyzes why a group of 50 nations, home to the poorest one billion people, are failing. Considering issues such as civil war, dependence on extractive industries, and bad governance, he argues that the strongest industrialized countries must enact a plan to help with international policies and standards.

The Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid: Eradicating Poverty Through Profits (2009)
by C.K. Prahalad
Prahalad, a business strategy professor, was among the first to argue that the fastest growing market in the world was made up of the world’s poorest people. He details the purchasing power of this segment, and advocates that big businesses should learn how to understand this population’s needs in order to develop products that address both economic mobility and corporate growth and profit.

Creating a World Without Poverty: Social Business and the Future of Capitalism (2009)
by Muhammad Yunus
Yunus, an economist and Nobel Prize Winner, was among the first to describe a social business as one that is modestly profitable but designed primarily to address a social objective. Using this approach, he argues that modern-day capitalism is too narrowly defined, particularly in its emphasis on profit maximization. By including social benefits in the equation, he believes that markets and the poor themselves can alleviate poverty.

Out of Poverty: What Works When Traditional Approaches Fail (2009)
by Paul Polak
Polak, a psychiatrist, has applied a behavioral and anthropological approach to alleviating poverty, developed by studying people in their natural surroundings. He argues that there are three mythic solutions to poverty eradication: donations, national economic growth, and big businesses. Instead, he advocates helping the poor earn money through their own efforts of developing low-cost tools that are effective and profitable.

Dead Aid: Why Aid is Not Working and How There Is a Better Way for Africa (2009) – TDC’s review of this book.
by Dambisa Moyo
Moyo, a Zambia-born economist, asserts that aid is not only ineffective—it’s harmful. Her argument packs a strong punch because she was born and raised in Africa. Moyo believes aid money promotes the corruption of governments and the dependence of citizens, and advocates that an investment approach will do more to help reduce poverty than aid ever could.

Poor Economics A Radical Rethinking of the Way to Fight Global Poverty (2011)
by Abhijit Banerjee & Esther Duflo
Using the framework of randomized control trials, which allow for large-scale data collection to evaluate the effectiveness of an intervention, these two development economists assess the impact of a wide range of development programs in alleviating poverty. They have found that most programs have not been designed with a rigorous understanding of the behaviors and needs of the poor or how aid effects them, they advocate that for programs to be successful they must be designed with evidence gathered from direct interaction with those who they are meant to benefit.

Development As Freedom (2000)
by Amartya Sen
A Nobel Prize winning economist, Sen examines the essential role that elementary freedoms, social and political, have in improving the prosperity of the society at large. Although his focus on human welfare as a central aspect of economic thought is not universally accepted among economists, this approach inserts elements of ethics into a field from which it is often not emphasized. Although this is a difficult read, the concepts included are important to the dialogue about the causes and remedies to the economics of poverty.

Good to Great and the Social Sectors (2005)
by Jim Collins
Meant to accompany the seminal business book Good to Great that examined why companies succeed or fail and found nine key aspects, including: leadership, simplicity, discipline and innovation, this work focuses on applying these lessons to the nonprofit sector. While more focused on management of organizations than macro economic issues, this short and easy to read monograph suggests a roadmap of how those interested in addressing issues of poverty should pursue these efforts.

I have read or am extremely family with all but the last three of these books, and those three will likely be the next up on my personal reading list. 

The original post was found through Paul Polak’s (author of Out of Poverty, one of the featured books) Facebook, although in poking around on the site it may quickly become a regularly visited site for the TDC team.

A few years ago I briefly used GoodSearch, which donates a penny to the cause of your choice (of over 100,000 supported on their site) each time you search and at no cost to you. Back then you had to go to www.goodsearch.com each time you wanted to do a search for it to count.

Now you can install a toolbar and make it your default search engine.

The site is pretty straight forward, and after you sign up you don’t really need to go back very often. It took me a few minutes to find the list of participating organizations (I don’t like calling them charities), but other than that signing up was a breeze.

The only drawback to GoodSearch that I could find was that it is a Yahoo search (which is now powered by Bing). I will admit, I’m normally a Google-girl myself, however for at least 95% of my searches I will get the information I want either way, so I am still making the change.

There is also GoodShop, which seems great- but I haven’t had occasion to do any online shopping in the past week, so I cannot vouch for it personally.

GoodDining is the newest component. When signing up I was a little concerned that I had to provide my credit/debit card information, so I read about why. Basically, you don’t have to remember to tell your waiter that you are participating, or present a coupon, card, membership number, or anything else. By signing up your card(s), GoodSearch can automatically keep track of every donation-generating transaction you make.

These types of efforts alone won’t be enough to fully fund the truly life-changing poverty alleviation efforts that work, but it is an easy way to help those organizations you love. Just this morning I have raised $.05 for the charity I selected, without any additional effort or money on my part.

Don’t worry, we’ll update you when TDC gets our 501c3 status and can receive donations through the GoodSearch network!

Learn More: http://monthofmicrofinance.org/about/

Have you ever slid into the midday slump with a cup of coffee in hand?  Have you wondered about where your coffee came from before the caffeine had a chance to hit your system and help you finish an assignment or clean up around the house?  Probably not, and why would you?  Who wants to daydream about the poverty that your mint mocha or extra caramel macchiato has helped to create.  The likelihood is—whether you have daydreamed about it or not—that the coffee, chocolate, jeans, and sweets you consume came from a land far removed from your mind’s eye, but out of sight does not have to be out of mind.   It’s your decision to take a stand and make a difference. 

Try this video on for size the next time you pick up The Times and your tall skinny latte.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8JfGki00T0c

This video raises a few important questions.  For instance, what is it that makes us want to spend as recklessly as we do?  Why is it that the world’s richest ten percent of the population consumes fifty-nine percent of the world’s goods and services?  More importantly, what can citizens do to level the playing field if the World Trade Organization cannot enforce its sanctions and the International Monetary Fund continues to loan money in ways that make it difficult to promote growth?  The video suggests that you buy fair trade products and alter your mindset, but this is just the tip of the iceberg.  

Many think that the World Trade Organization and the International Monetary Fund are the primary paths to reducing poverty in developing nations.  Others are aware that the United States donates a sizable amount to foreign aid.  After all, we were first on the scene in Haiti, weren’t we?  (It was China actually.)  And hey, we contribute more in foreign aid dollars than any other nation.  True, but it’s not much of a contribution when you weigh it in terms of what the United States has to offer.  In fact, the United States donated one of the smallest portions of its gross net income (GNI) to foreign aid of any developed nation in 2010 and has fallen short of the 0.7 percent of its GNI promise since the U.S. signed the United Nations General Assembly Resolution in 1970.

It’s easy to think that our tax dollars have contributed to some kind of international charity and are making a difference, but the truth is that even if the United States donated its full 0.7 percent, top-down foreign aid makes it likely that the money rarely reaches those who need it.  The elegance of this film comes from its simplicity.  It reminds us that the US government will not be the vessel for change.  It is our duty to change our mindset by asking questions about labor conditions for the goods we buy; supporting free trade; and writing our congressional representatives and demanding that the United States engage in a stronger effort to make its aid more efficient.  It’s our duty to inform our friends, our family, and ourselves and it’s our duty to make the right decisions.  Finally, it’s our duty to know and debate the issues around foreign aid and economic development.  It’s only through asking questions and waking up that we can finally make a difference.  

You can start your mission by visiting one of these two sites to find shops that offer fair trade products in your area.  

 http://www.wfto.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=164&Itemid=1

 http://www.transfairusa.org/content/WhereToBuy/

Works cited

http://www.globalissues.org/article/35/foreign-aid-development-assistance#Aidmoneyisactuallywaybelowwhathasbeenpromised

by Jane Wallingford  (University of Mary Washington)

Urbanization in developing countries is a necessity for economic development.  It is how countries such as the United States, England, and France got to where they are today.  An influx of workers to cities provided the necessary incentives for governments to create new laws that address a constantly increasing city population.  Without urbanization, there can be no real development.  Support for this argument can be seen in societies all over the Western world today.  Urbanization in the Western world began with the Industrial Revolution in the 18th and 19th centuries. Rural population increase prompted many to move into cities such as London and New York.  From 1725 to 1800, the population in England grew from 5 million to almost 9 million. (pg 3 The Industrial Revolution and Demographic Transition, by Aubhik Khan)  This surplus population moved into the cities.  The population increase led to unprecedented economic growth, which governments were not prepared for, resulting in child labor and an extremely low standard of living.  

These are the conditions we must prepare for in developing countries. In the time it takes to create laws that influence education, transportation, housing, and the job market, newcomers to the cities cannot find work or a suitable place to live and resort to living in slums.  This process is happening now in parts of Africa, Southeast Asia, and South America.

Rapid urbanization in African cities today can be compared in some ways to the Industrial Revolution that the Western world experienced in the 18th and 19th centuries.  Urbanization starts with an influx of people to cities, people who had previously lived in rural areas.  The rush of movement raises the population of cities, who need to provide for the new increase in population with housing, employment, food, clothes, transportation, etc.  This is where the cons of urbanization begin.  Without proper regulation, the new city-dwellers will not be able to find work, because the job market will not stable enough for them to join. Inability to find work then leads to a decrease of an already low income, which in turn leads to life in the slums because people can’t afford housing as they cannot find sufficient work.  Thus, half of the city’s population lives in poverty on one or two dollars a day.  In Africa, 60% to 70% of all urban dwellers live in slums. (Alioune Badiane, Increasing Rate of Urbanisation in Africa)

To see how urbanization will increase over the new few years. go to :

YouTube – Increasing Rate of Urbanisation in Africa

To see the negative effects of urbanization in Lagos, Nigeria, go to :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LFgb1BdPBZo

For a brief history of urbanization, go to :

http://www.faculty.fairfield.edu/faculty/hodgson/Courses/so11/population/urbanization.htm

How can we avoid the consequences of urbanization?  Government reform is one way to begin preparing for a population influx.  Urbanization is happening as we speak in Africa, South America, and parts of Southeast Asia.  By 2050, urbanization in African cities is expected to rise at least 60%.  (Increasing Rate of Urbanisation in Africa) With this knowledge we can create conditions that will welcome newcomers to cities and avoid tragedies such as slum life, drug dealing, unemployment, etc.  The government has an ability to assist in providing land, housing, jobs, and schools as well as the incentive for newcomers to invest in themselves and their opportunities.  Governments can work with the urban poor by addressing the challenges of urbanization.  Creating incentives for new residents to invest in themselves and their futures is where it starts.  However, while government involvement is crucial, if the people don’t act on their opportunities, nothing will change.  It takes effort on the part of both the government and the people to avoid poor living conditions for newcomers.

Urbanization is partially destructive, but is also necessary.  Without the migration of large populations into cities, governments wouldn’t have an incentive to increase education, create better transportation methods, etc.  The time it takes to go through this process leaves the working class in the dust.  With reforms and the right incentives, the working class can avoid poverty.

Works and organizations cited :

Urban poverty and shelter – Practical Action

http://www.gatesfoundation.org/

The Industrial Revolution and Demographic Transition, by Aubhik Khan -http://www.philadelphiafed.org/research-and-data/publications/business-review/2008/q1/khan_demographic-transition.pdf

 by Rebecca Lamm

In 2008 there were 69 million children who were not attending school. Most of these children live in Sub-Saharan Africa and Southern Asia.  Over the past two years, enrollment has increased to 89 percent.  Some of this improvement has come from conditional cash transfer programs, such as those implemented in the Philippines.  Conditional cash transfer programs allocate funds among the poorest families on a provisional basis.  Provisions usually include sending children to school and receiving routine medical check-ups.  Conditional cash transfers are seen as an effective tool for increasing school attendance and therefore improving human capital to alleviate the poverty of communities.

Although conditional cash transfers can improve conditions, there are a few problems that can arise and should be addressed before implementing a program.  This program can increase enrollment at already established schools, but cannot provide the funds to build a school if the poor families live in an area where one does not already exist.  Also, the program cannot necessarily improve quality unless there are other measures aimed at that problem.  The conditional cash transfer programs can be successful only if proper monitoring exists and it is paired with other components of social policy.  However, the government is responsible for these contributions, and must support the program. 

Despite these potential drawbacks, the partnership between the Asian Development Bank and the Philippines is proving successful in increasing school attendance and improving health among the country’s poorest families.  In 2007, the Asian Development Bank began providing the Philippines with funds for a conditional cash transfer program called Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4P).  The Filipino government uses the country’s local banks to distribute the cash transfers to families.  It is a beneficial program for the country, in which a third of the population lives in poverty.  Almost one in five children in the Philippines never attends primary school, while three in ten drop out.  Many of these children also do not receive preventative healthcare.  The 4P program distributes on average 31 U.S. dollars to families in contract on a provisional basis.  Parents must send their children to school for 85 percent of every month and receive monthly medical check-ups for the whole family.  The parents must also attend family development classes that include lessons on budgeting, time management, and family care.  Over 500,000 families are receiving conditional cash transfers from the Asian Development Bank’s loan of 400 million dollars to the Philippine government.  Families’ incomes are capable of increasing by 20 percent annually as a result of these transfers.  The 4P program is expected to benefit 2.3 million families by the end of 2011.  Conditional cash transfers have been successful in reducing poverty in the Philippines because the program increases human capital in a country with a service-oriented economy.  Since 2007, school attendance has increased, more children have received immunizations, and more women have obtained prenatal medical care.

The Philippines’ success story shows that the use of conditional cash transfers can and should be implemented in other countries of similar political support and funding.  The cycle of poverty can be broken with a combination of increased human capital through education and healthcare.

By Mary Ann Mackey and Laura Bowman 

Sources:

http://www.adb.org/Media/Articles/2010/13316-philippines-conditional-cash-transfers/PHI-CCT-NR.pdf

 http://www.adb.org/Documents/EDRC/Policy_Briefs/PB051.pdf

 http://adb.org/Documents/Fact_Sheets/PHI.pdf

 http://www.un.org/millenniumgoals/education.shtml

 http://newsinfo.inquirerheadlines/nation/view/20100903-290239/1M-poor-families-to-get-govt-cash-aid

The Chad-Cameroon Petroleum Development and Pipeline Project was launched in October of 2000 by ExxonMobil with the goal of creating a 1,070 kilometer pipeline from the oilfields of southern Chad to the coastline of Cameroon.  A US$4.2 billion project, the Chad-Cameroon pipeline project was largely funded by the International Finance Corporation (IFC).  As an arm of the World Bank Group, the IFC agreed to fund the project if the governments of both Chad and Cameroon would adhere to a management plan that sought to alleviate each country’s poverty with the revenues generated from the project. 

Although all parties agreed with the management plan, the Chad-Cameroon Petroleum Development and Pipeline Project was met with a great amount of resistance by over 80 human rights groups.  These human rights groups were certainly justified in their resistance to the pipeline project.  According to Transparency International’s 2000 Corruption Perception Index, Cameroon ranked seventh most corrupt out of a survey of 90 countries.  In spite of these facts and outcries, the World Bank moved ahead with the pipeline project.

In October 2003, a mere few weeks after the oil began to flow in Chad, ExxonMobil gave itself a great pat on the back by running a full-page ad in The New York Times.  ExxonMobil claimed in this ad that the pipeline project had funded numerous health education programs and had caused a major boost in local employment, with over 35,000 jobs created during the pipeline construction phase.  ExxonMobil’s ad also claimed to have avoided building in areas of cultural and ecological significance and to have provided compensation for those people whose crops were destroyed during the construction phase. 

Christiane Badgley’s documentary, Cameroon: Pipeline to Prosperity?, paints a drastically different picture than the one that ExxonMobil and the World Bank Group paints of the project’s accomplishments.  In the ten years since the start of the pipeline project, the picture of Cameroon on the ground is the complete opposite of what a prosperous country looks like.  While ExxonMobil claims that its pipeline project created over 35,000 jobs, it fails to explicate how long these jobs lasted.  In Badgley’s documentary, two workers explain that their jobs as bush cutters lasted only a day or two, during which time they were paid $6.50 per day.  ExxonMobil also does not explain that the other jobs that it created were for skilled workers and lasted only two to three weeks.  Throughout the documentary, you see national parks that are barely functional, Bagyeli children with insufficient schoolbags, and families with half-constructed houses.  All of these problems can be directly attributed to the pipeline project.  In Cameroon: Pipeline to Prosperity?, villager after villager cites the hardships they have faced as a result of the pipeline and the promises of compensation that were never fulfilled.

Where is my compensation?  This is a question that countless Cameroonian villagers have asked.  Numerous instances of corruption have been linked to this pipeline project.  In Badgley’s documentary, you see US$9,000 fishponds and US$25,000 electricity projects simply abandoned.  The villagers Badgley interviews explain that ExxonMobil and the government of Cameroon both agree that the compensation has been paid and that work on the ground has begun yet project after project has been abandoned, including the Kribi International Airport.

The rampant corruption surrounding the pipeline project is not exclusive to the Cameroonian government; the Chadian government has been just as dishonest.  It has since been discovered that the Chadian government used its US$25 million bonus from 2000 to purchase weapons for its military, instead of putting the money towards alleviating poverty as it promised.

The biggest question one is faced with at the end of Cameroon: Pipeline to Prosperity? is: Why is the World Bank continuing to fund these obviously corrupt regimes in Chad and Cameroon?  Ten years later, the World Bank and human rights groups alike do not have the answer.

Link to Christiane Badgley’s Cameroon: Pipeline to Prosperity?: http://www.pbs.org/frontlineworld/stories/bribe/2010/06/ten-years-ago-this-month.html

By Brandy Simpson and Rachel Hanigan

Our CTA (in partnership with Nourish International) was announced during a special session titled “Special Session for University Presidents and National Youth Organization Leaders: Empowering Global Citizens: The Responsibility of Universities and Nonprofit Organizations in Shaping the Next Generation of Leaders.” Our CTA Title: ‘Mentoring Emerging Leaders in Economic Development’

Two TDC Team Members, Erin Kelly and Courtney Hayes, were also invited to present the Two Dollar Challenge at what is known as the Exchange – a physical location where non-profits and students are giving the opportunity to have a table to display their work.