Recasting the case for aid

摘要

Nobody ever accused Jeffrey Sachs of lacking purpose, thinking small or keeping his ideas to himself. The United Nations shrewdly chose the Columbia University professor to lead a team of "more than 250 experts" (they must have lost count) charged with producing a grand new proposal on development. This week Mr Sachs and his army delivered. "Investing in Development: A Practical Plan to Achieve the Millennium Development Goals" is, in many ways, an impressive—one might say heroic— piece of work. The document in full runs to ten supporting volumes and more than 3,000 pages (this writer lost count). The overview paper is packed with high-octane analysis and recommendations, no waffle, not a sentence wasted. Its aim is no less than to dispel the prevailing pessimism on aid—a deeply entrenched attitude, based on years of disappointment—and to mobilise hundreds of billions of dollars in new help for the developing world.