From the Salmon

Natalie at Panta ta Ethne posted a TIME excerpt from economist Jeffrey Sachs’ new book The End of Poverty. I haven’t yet been able to pick up a copy of the book, but the full excerpt is well worth reading (480kb PDF).

As Director of the UN Millennium Project, Sachs has taken on an ambitious task — harnessing the knowledge and resources of the world’s wealthy nations to coordinate a massive response to the many causes and contributing factors of what he calls “extreme poverty” (the 1.1 billion people living on less than $1 a day).

To accomplish the goal of cutting this extreme poverty in half by 2015, many of the world’s major economic powers, including the US, have pledged to contribute 0.7% of their GNP to international development aid. I chose not to mention this in my previous post on US public opinion and how it relates to our country’s foreign aid budget, but so far, the US is contributing only 0.15% (last among signatory nations). In the TIME excerpt, Sachs makes the troubling point that there’s no political fallout in the US for lagging behind these goals. Perhaps this is where ONE can make a difference. I hope so.

I think Mr. Sachs’ efforts are noble, and I hope that the UN groups he’s coordinating are able to get the authority and the resources they need to tackle his ambitious goals. But even if they do, I believe this is only part of the solution.

The more I learn, the more I realize that the hardest part is not figuring out how to solve the problem of poverty. As Sachs argues, we may very well already have the knowledge, tools and resources to do it. The hardest part is figuring out how to get it done in a world of selfish, broken people.

In the TIME excerpt, Sachs largely dismisses corruption, tyranny and civil war as reasons for why aid has often been ineffective in the past. And I think he’s right that we shouldn’t use them as a justification for inaction. But this is still a bit of a red flag for me.

I should probably withhold judgment until I’ve read The End of Poverty, but my opinion of Sachs is largely colored by studying and writing about the post-Soviet economic transition back in college. Sachs was an adviser to Yeltsin during the early years of the new Russia, and his counsel largely failed because he underestimated Russia’s deep institutional corruption.

Corruption matters. Healthy state institutions that can provide for a rule of law, property rights and efficient tax collection matter. Civil war makes all of the solutions Sachs proposes significantly more difficult. I hope that he adresses each of these more fully in his book.

Sachs also doesn’t talk much about the other side of selfishness — what effect the agricultural subsidies in Europe and the US have on agrarian economies trying to get off their feet, for example. Again, I should probably read the book before I criticize him for omissions.

Look, I believe that government policy is crucial to this task, particularly with regards to debt forgiveness and trade policy. And I believe that international bodies like the WHO and FAO might be our best hope to provide effective coordination for the massive amounts of aid if and when it materializes.

But I don’t believe that governments and international bodies have much power to change the hearts of those who could give but aren’t. Or the hearts of those who could serve but aren’t. Or the hearts of those locked in cycles of hatred, vengeance and war. Or the hearts of those who see hundreds of billions of dollars in aid as a chance to line their own pockets.

In his own way, Sachs acknowledges this:

It all comes back to us. Individuals, working in unison, form and shape societies.... Great social forces are the mere accumulation of individual actions. Let the future say of our generation that we sent forth mighty currents of hope, and that we worked together to heal the world.

As a Christian, I have hope that this greater change is possible. And I think this hope is a necessary corollary to Mr. Sachs’ projects, systems and plans. I know that reconciliation is possible. I know that renewal is possible. I know that God can work powerfully through His kingdom. And I know that the churches in Africa and elsewhere are longing to be partners in healing. We just need to find a willingness in our churches to join them.

It all comes back to us.