2. "lift people up" to a level at which they can make use of the infrastructure, through education and covering some of their basic needs.
No-string-attached donations are great for (2), but they are limited in impact and quite pointless if the people don't have the "infrastructure" to grab to once they are "lifted up a bit" - you'll only end up with poor uneducated people that will have more children so you'll end up with more poor uneducated people.
Otoh, if you build the infrastructure but you don't do something to directly lift people up from misery, poverty and depression or hopelessness you'll probably end up with an even bigger waste of resources and lots of angry people.
Philantropists and governments that want to lift their countries out of poverty should understand that you need both (1) and (2) simultaneously and that of course you need to have (2) with no-strings-attached (an ER doctor doesn't make a cardiac arrest patient sign a contract before resuscitating him!!!).
From the examples posted in the articles it seems to me that 1) can be reduced to the financial part (e.g. microcredit systems such as water.org) and 2) should come first - you need to create a fertile ground where people can lift themselves up from basic survival mode into some sort of business to sustain their family. Once you have enough people being able to sell services to others, infrastructure should come automatically - probably roughly in the order of maslow's pyramid. The only other infrastructure that might be worth it to boost other than financials is education, since this should be expected to accelerate the growth process.
1. build infrastructure (water, electricity, roads, communication, education services, political infrastructure, financial etc.)
2. "lift people up" to a level at which they can make use of the infrastructure, through education and covering some of their basic needs.
No-string-attached donations are great for (2), but they are limited in impact and quite pointless if the people don't have the "infrastructure" to grab to once they are "lifted up a bit" - you'll only end up with poor uneducated people that will have more children so you'll end up with more poor uneducated people.
Otoh, if you build the infrastructure but you don't do something to directly lift people up from misery, poverty and depression or hopelessness you'll probably end up with an even bigger waste of resources and lots of angry people.
Philantropists and governments that want to lift their countries out of poverty should understand that you need both (1) and (2) simultaneously and that of course you need to have (2) with no-strings-attached (an ER doctor doesn't make a cardiac arrest patient sign a contract before resuscitating him!!!).