
The Problem With International Development, and a Plan to Fix It (2014) - atesti
https://newrepublic.com/article/120178/problem-international-development-and-plan-fix-it
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esotericn
The headline is pretty click-baity but the overall idea seems good to me.

I think a way of describing this in brief would be that - well - the world is
super fuzzy. From a distance it's easy to characterize problems on a
statistical level. But that very rapidly leads to gameable outcomes.

I think a good approach to this is to basically do a small amount in a large
number of places. You can think of it as a sort of diversification / risk
reduction. Not only is this likely to lead to better outcomes overall, it's
also more psychologically satisfying and interesting I think because you get
to learn about issues you wouldn't otherwise have considered.

The human scale is usually best I think. Outside of charitable endeavours
people like to tunnel vision on stuff like GDP, employment figures, whatever.
But all of these things are just metrics for what we really care about which
is a healthy world, with healthy communities, that people feel safe, secure,
and able to exist peacefully within.

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tehabe
No. Well, the article makes an important point about saving the world
elsewhere and destroying more than you are saving. Another example is Live
Aid, which might have prolonged the civil war in Ethiopia.

But the headline is wrong. Of course you have to continue to save the world.
We have to save it at home.

