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The importance of adopting a 'worm's eye view' perspective to address poverty and economic development in the arab world. The author, william easterly, former senior advisor at the world bank, critiques top-down approaches to poverty alleviation and advocates for empowering the poor through productivity, connectivity, and community engagement. The text also explores the role of telecommunications and the grameen bank in bangladesh as successful examples of this approach.
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Arab world ‘held back by poor governance’
The linking of economic prosperity to political
reforms will strike a particularly sensitive chord in theArab world. Many regimes pride themselves on beinggood students of multilateral institutions
and justify
their absolute power on the grounds that they are bestsuited to provide economic and social development.
William Easterly, former Senior AdvisorThe World Bank
“ Many times over the last fifty years, we economists thought that we hadfound the right answer to economic growth. It started with
foreign aid to
fill the gap between “necessary” investment and saving
…..
Supplementing this idea was the notion that
education
was a form of
accumulating “human machinery” that would bring growth. Next, concernedabout how “excess” population might overwhelm the productive capacity ofthe economy, we promoted
population control
. Then, we realized
government policies hindered growth, we promoted official loans to inducecountries to
policy reforms
. Finally, when countries had trouble repaying
their loans they incurred to do policy reforms, we offered
debt
forgiveness
.
None of these elixirs has worked as promised…”
Instead of seeing 2b mouths to feed, we need to think what we can do to make those •
2b brains
to think for themselves
4b eyes and ears
to keep watch on governments
4b hands and legs
to move things
Telecommunications in Bangladesh as of 1993
Only 2 phones per 1,000 people
Virtually none in rural areas, leaving 100 millionunserved
$500 connection fee — and 5-10 years waiting period
Most phones were analog and did not work
A business opportunity
The government is notbuilding the necessaryinfrastructures.
A part of the increasedproductivity could be channeledto pay for the service.
A businessneeds to be (and can be)
created
The real problem : A lack of other infrastructures Not Enough •
Grameen Bank •
At this point, I learned to adopt the worm’s eye viewfrom Grameen Bank
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