Grand-Scale Projects May Not Alleviate African Poverty

Wealthy philanthropists have been drawn to efforts to fight disease in Africa, but will they make a difference, asks an opinion article in The New York Times.

Joe Nocera, a business columnist, focuses on the efforts of Jeffrey Sachs, head of Millennium Promise, a program that raises money to fight disease and improve farming, schools, and other key systems in Africa. The program selects poor rural villages and finds wealthy corporate backers and grant makers to “adopt” them for $300,000 over five years.

However, Mr. Nocera notes that Tyler Cowen, an economist, worries that Mr. Sachs, a Columbia University professor, “doesn’t have a coherent theory by which his model can scale up.”

Writes Mr. Nocera, “Despite the best of intentions, neither Western corporations, nor wealthy philanthropists, are equipped to solve all these problems.”

(A paid subscription is required to view Mr. Nocera’s opinion piece.)