Combating Poverty

1. African poverty and foreign aid

For Africa, as well as for other poverty stricken parts of the world, Sachs identifies key factors of development in chapter 10: agriculture, health, education, and infrastructure (here he distinguishes infrastructure of power, roads, safe water, sanitation, phone and internet connectivity, and port services, from schools and hospitals, which belong to a broader definition of infrastructure). Again, these stages are derived from progress made by many countries outside Africa in the 1960s-80s, including the Green Revolution: improvement of crops (insect and drought resistant types), and introduction of fertilizers, followed by improvements in other aspects of society, such as health and education, and greater industrial takeoff.

One of Sachs's strengths in this book is his ability to argue in a very specific way. In terms of African development, for instance, he provides what looks like a highly workable plan, of $65 per person per year in Africa, for the development of the issues mentioned above. He argues that if such money comes in the form of foreign aid, since most African countries are too poor to provide it themselves, a five year program will help launch these countries on a good start, and by 2025, extreme poverty will be significantly eased in Africa so that economic aid will no longer be needed on that continent.

Sachs has a good argument, which is also backed by actual programs of the Green Revolution currently implemented in Africa, and a Millennial Villages program where foreign aid is provided in select villages in African states for the kind of improvements aimed at for the whole Africa. What Sachs does not mention here is that unlike many other parts of the world, Africa has relatively less arable land fit for the type of agriculture such as growing staple crops like rice and wheat. And Africa suffers from more acute water shortage than many other places in the world. While a Green Revolution succeeded rather quickly in India in the 1970s, the same may not happen as quickly to Africa. But one thing I agree with  Sachs is that up to now, Africa has never received the level of international aid that other parts of the world (Israel, South Korea, Taiwan, India, China, Latin America, etc.) have for political or other reasons. Considering the level of problems in Africa, which can to a great extent be dealt with with relatively little money, such as mosquito repellent and mosquito nets to combat malaria, better hygienic knowledge and practice to combat other types of infectious diseases, a relatively simple form of water device to provide clean drinking water, external funding and organization will almost certainly help to improve the situation tremendously. Building the social and economic infrastructures in Africa may take more, and longer, than disease prevention or modest improvements in agriculture.

2. The consequences of poverty

Although he does not paint an "end of the world" scenario as Robert Kaplan does (O'Meara, Part I), Sachs does point out that poverty can cause problems with ramifications that go well beyond the borders of the poverty stricken state. One example is Darfur, a city in central Sudan. The over 50% rate of poverty in Darfur, caused by, among other things, less rainfall,  has led it to a war zone. Sachs does mention issues also raised by Kaplan and others, though, that government negligence is another reason why Darfur has fallen into such poverty. Our previous discussion of the Sudanese government has also covered the connection between resource scarcity, malfunctioning governments, and warfare/crime as a way to sustain governments. In the case of Darfur, what complicates the story more is oil found in southern Sudan in the late 1970s and oil found in Darfur in recent years, which have contributed to systematic raids in Darfur and southern Sudan by gangs covertly supported by the Sudanese state, and by rebels who protested against foreign oil drilling in Sudan. So the problem with Darfur is more complicated than poverty alone, though poverty exacerbates the problems there.

In terms of foreign policy, one cause of war, Sachs points out, is governments taking advantage of the poverty in one country and exacerbating it. The example he gives is Afghanistan, an inland, poverty stricken country that the Soviet Union tried to take advantage of in the 1980s but failed, and the US tried to take advantage of to weaken the USSR. Both superpowers exacerbated the problem of poverty in Afghanistan, paving the way for the extremist group, the Taliban, to take control of the country.

3. The role of the state and the taxpayer in all this

Of course, foreign aid to ease poverty in the world has to be paid for. In later chapters Sachs discusses various ways financial support to international aid programs can be obtained, especially through the NGO (Non Governmental Organizations). From the point of view of states, especially democratic states, financial aid comes from taxpayers' money. The level of taxation and its social redistribution also marks the degree of government intervention in society. A more fully developed welfare state will collect a significant percentage of taxes from its population. Sachs discusses the different levels of welfare states in Europe, America, and Oceania. Here it seems Sachs is moving again toward that part of his training which was Keynesian (Sachs was initially trained as a Keynesian at Harvard before he embarked on a more free market approach to the economy in the 1980s) and advocated government intervention. His solution to poverty, especially poverty in the U.S., however, is quite modest: there is no specification of how much tax to collect, and how government should intervene, but a simple figure, 2% of the gross national production (GNP). Where that money comes from (redistribution of the budget? taxing the rich? taxing the middle class?) is not specified, showing that Sachs is flexible in terms of approaches to solve global problems.