BYU-Hawaii Foreign Aid Resources

https://www.humanprogress.org/in-africa-institutions-matter-more-than-infrastructure/  

    M any people who support the current social justice movement are drawn to it for deeply moral reasons, including a sense of compassion and a desire for fairness and justice. They are concerned with real racial problems such as police brutality, racial profiling, disparities in incarceration rates, and related issues. They feel horror and grief, as we all should, over our nation’s history of slavery, racial violence, and discrimination. They see other troubling forms of discrimination in addition to racism, such as sexism in the workplace, bullying due to sexual and gender identity, and so on. Critical social justice ideology is the worldview presented as the one true way to interpret these concerns. Informed by critical theory and postmodernism—ideas that developed in academia and then spilled out into society at large—this ideology is in opposition to traditional theory, which uses reason and logic to interpret the world, build on past progress, and address problems. Cert...

By the winner of the 1988 Nobel Prize in Economics, an essential and paradigm-altering framework for understanding economic development--for both rich and poor--in the twenty-first century.  Freedom, Sen argues, is both the end and most efficient means of sustaining economic life and the key to securing the general welfare of the world's entire population. Releasing the idea of individual freedom from association with any particular historical, intellectual, political, or religious tradition, Sen clearly demonstrates its current applicability and possibilities. In the new global economy, where, despite unprecedented increases in overall opulence, the contemporary world denies elementary freedoms to vast numbers--perhaps even the majority of people--he concludes, it is still possible to practically and optimistically retain a sense of social accountability. Development as Freedom is essential reading.

In 50 years, Africa received $2 trillion in foreign aid. The consequence was damage to Africa. Dambisa Moyo is a Zambian woman economist. In December 2020 she married billionaire Jared Smith, co-founder of Utah-based cloud computing company Qualtrics. From Amazon:  In the past fifty years, more than $1 trillion in development-related aid has been transferred from rich countries to Africa. Has this assistance improved the lives of Africans? No. In fact, across the continent, the recipients of this aid are not better off as a result of it, but worse—much worse. In Dead Aid, Dambisa Moyo describes the state of postwar development policy in Africa today and unflinchingly confronts one of the greatest myths of our time: that billions of dollars in aid sent from wealthy countries to developing African nations has helped to reduce poverty and increase growth. In fact, poverty levels continue to escalate and growth rates have steadily declined—and millions continue to suffer. Provocatively...

World Poverty Since 1990 Since the early 1990s more than 700 million people have been lifted out of extreme poverty, six million fewer children die every year from disease, tens of millions more girls are in school, millions more people have access to clean water, and democracy—often fragile and imperfect—has become the norm in developing countries around the world. The Great Surge  chronicles this unprecedented economic, social, and political transformation. It shows how the end of the Cold War, the development of new technologies, globalization, and courageous local leadership have combined to improve the fate of hundreds of millions of people in poor countries around the world. 

 

  The Development Set Excuse me, friends, I must catch my jet –  I’m off to join the Development Set; My bags are packed, and I’ve had my shots, I have  travellers’  cheques and pills for the trots. The Development Set is bright and noble, Our thoughts are deep and our vision global; Although we move with the better classes, Our thoughts are always with the masses. In Sheraton hotels in scattered nations,  We damn multinational corporations; Injustice sems so easy to protest, In such seething hotbeds of social unrest. We discuss malnutrition over steaks And plan hunger talks during breaks. Whether Asian floods or African drought,  We face each issue with an open mouth. We bring in consultants whose circumlocution Raises difficulties for every solution –  Thus  guaranteeing continued good eating By showing the need for another meeting. The language of the Development Set,  Stretches the English alphabet; We use swell worlds like ‘epigenetic’, ...

An Algorithm of Success: Understanding Black America , John Sibley Butler Education and entrepreneurship are the algorithm of success for minorities.  Market economies are key. "Understanding the success model of America means understanding differences between segregation, homophily and different modes of adjustment to America, one of the greatest market economies that ever existed. We have over 150 years of data to help us understand strategies that lead to success in America under all kinds of circumstances. "So what is it that leads to success? "If we were to create a learning algorithm for group success, and indeed non-success, through the generations, we start with how groups enter market economies, either with an emphasis on wage labor or as entrepreneurs. The algorithm would tell us that, in the aggregate, those groups that entered by putting self-employment at its very center, and also created educational structures for success, have much better outcomes than tho...

  Want to help someone: Shut up and listen. When most well-intentioned aid workers hear of a problem they think they can fix, they go to work. This, Ernesto Sirolli suggests, is naïve. In this funny and impassioned talk, he proposes that the first step is to listen to the people you're trying to help, and tap into their own entrepreneurial spirit. His advice on what works will help any entrepreneur.

 

      In The Tyranny of Experts, renowned economist William Easterly examines our failing efforts to fight global poverty, and argues that the "expert approved" top-down approach to development has not only made little lasting progress, but has proven a convenient rationale for decades of human rights violations perpetrated by colonialists, postcolonial dictators, and US and UK foreign policymakers seeking autocratic allies. Demonstrating how our traditional antipoverty tactics have both trampled the freedom of the world's poor and suppressed a vital debate about alternative approaches to solving poverty, Easterly presents a devastating critique of the blighted record of authoritarian development. In this masterful work, Easterly reveals the fundamental errors inherent in our traditional approach and offers new principles for Western agencies and developing countries alike: principles that, because they are predicated on respect for the rights of poor people, have the pow...

William Easterly, author of The Tyranny of the Experts. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wbjl2c9g76w

  From Amazon: Clayton M. Christensen, the author of such business classics as The Innovator’s Dilemma and the New York Times bestseller How Will You Measure Your Life, and co-authors Efosa Ojomo and Karen Dillon reveal why so many investments in economic development fail to generate sustainable prosperity, and offers a groundbreaking solution for true and lasting change. Global poverty is one of the world’s most vexing problems. For decades, we’ve assumed smart, well-intentioned people will eventually be able to change the economic trajectory of poor countries. From education to healthcare, infrastructure to eradicating corruption, too many solutions rely on trial and error. Essentially, the plan is often to identify areas that need help, flood them with resources, and hope to see change over time. But hope is not an effective strategy. Clayton M. Christensen and his co-authors reveal a paradox at the heart of our approach to solving poverty. While noble, our current solutions are...