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I would just like to clarify 2 issues regarding Mr. Zxerce's comment on U.S. development assistance.First, using numbers from 2000 (as Mr. Zxerce does), the OECD reports that the U.S. gave only $7.4 billion in net official development assistance. Mr. Zxerce claims the government gave $22.6 billion (a number from a USAID report) which includes all money going to developing countries, most of which does not go towards development purposes (a lot goes to Israel; military education, training, and loans; and antiterrorism). The issue is not to focus on total government flows to developing countries, but to report how much of it is actually going towards development (to make investments in health, education, and infrastructure, for example). Prof. Sachs' recent Foreign Affairs piece "The Development Challenge" takes a very detailed look at how U.S. aid is used, showing how little actually makes it to the ground for real development. The article will help clarify most of these points, and can be downloaded at www.sachs.earth.columbia.edu under "Publications"Second, the USAID report that Mr. Zxerce's numbers come from claims that private giving to developing countries was $33.6 billion in 2002. However, this is misleading because $18 billion of this amount is individual remittances, which are not development aid at all but income transfers between family members in the United States and abroad. Counting remittances as development assistance would be tantamount to counting incomes of American expatriates sent back to the U.S. as international assistance from the rest of the world to the U.S.I hope people take time to read the book carefully, as it will help clarify the issues of how much the United States actually gives, and how an increased American effort could help meet the Millennium Development Goals and make a safer and more prosperous world.

Like a lot of college students, I read "The End of Poverty" in a comfortable coffeeshop in America and thought it sounded pretty neat. I was an economics major, with a specialty in developmental econ, and Professor Sachs's idea of "clinical economics" really struck a chord with me. After all, as Sachs says, "it's up to us" to end global poverty, right?Well, not really. See, since I sat in that coffeehouse and read "End of Poverty," I've served in the Peace Corps in Central Africa, done a lot more reading and actually gotten to work with officials from most of the aid agencies (governmental and non-) that Sachs talks about in this book. And I've come to realize that Professor Sachs's central idea in this book - what Professor William Easterly calls the next "Big New Plan" - is probably fatally flawed. It's flawed not because Prof. Sachs's research isn't top-notch - it mostly is, with some exceptions - but because it rests on two very weak assumptions. The first is that rich countries will ever "solve" poverty in the Third World through big, top-down programs designed and funded by Western planners. That is patently false. The second is that corruption isn't actually that big a problem. Also, way off the mark.We in the West would really like to think that it will only take the right combinations of (our) policies and (our) funds to "lift up" the rest of the world out of poverty. But this simply isn't the case. Obviously, aid has an important role to play. But until many third world governments - yeah, I'm looking directly at you, Afica - get serious about governing, and not just enriching the local venal coterie of government sycophants at the expense of Western taxpayers, "international development" will amount to little more than an elaborate charade played out for the benefit of well-meaning Westerners who inexplicably keep sending their money to the Third World despite precious few tangible results. (And I'm afraid that many of the old hands in most of the major development organizations agree, when they speak candidly.)Again, Prof. Sachs is a smart guy with an important perspective. But if you're looking for a more real-world approach to solutions for modern international development schemes, I highly suggest Robert Calderisi's "The Trouble with Africa" and/or William Easterly's "The White Man's Burden."

Sachs covers a lot of ground: a bit of world economic history, a bit of travelogue, moral arguments for foreign aid, and ... The Plan (to end world poverty by 2025).The Plan itself, while mostly fascinating to read (with patches of exhausting technical detail), has its challenges. The biggest problem is that, while the investments he outlines will theoretically jump-start growth, it has never been tested, and the West has a long history of failed development ideas. Among other more technical points, Sachs either underestimates the inefficiencies in the aid agencies and in governments, or he overestimates the ease of overcoming them.But the plan (and how to pay for it) makes up only four out of eighteen chapters. Here is what else awaits you: a brief economic history of the world and characterization of the rich-poor divides in the world today (chapters 1 and 2), a primer on growth economics (chapter 3), Sachs's prescription for how development economics should be practiced (chapter 4), tales of Sachs's very high level consulting in Bolivia, Poland, and Russia (chapters 5 through 7), economic histories of India and China (chapters 8 and 9), an overview of the economic and health situation in Africa (chapter 10), Sachs's views on how the West should respond to terrorism (chapter 11), The Plan (and how to pay for it (chapters 12 through 15), dispelling myths about why aid doesn't work (chapter 16), and the pep talk (chapters 17 and 18). The book can largely be read piecemeal. I particularly enjoyed chapters 1, 5 through 9, and 16.One wearisome feature is the self-promotion. Sachs is the center of everything good that happens in this book. He has only praise for organizations he still works with (the UN and Columbia University's Earth Institute) but ample criticism for others (the World Bank, Western governments).For more in this field, William Easterly's The Elusive Quest for Growth gives an excellent account of trends in development aid for Africa and why they haven't worked. Robert Klitgaard's Tropical Gangsters is an entertaining and insightful memoir of a World Bank economist advising in Sub-Saharan Africa.

The book opens in a most powerful fashion by depicting the tremendous need of impoverished people throughout the developing world. The views, both personal through his visits, and systemic through graphs and charts, make the need apparent. I felt, both intellectually and emotionally, the desire to help. So in that sense Jeffrey Sachs has made his case.What the book also does well is describe the many reasons why the cycle of poverty exists. He discusses and dissects the many misconceptions of why many are in poverty. He describes the greatest challenge is overcoming the poverty trap. (Page 73). Several chapters go in depth into the economies of China, Russia, India and other developing countries. I found these sections to be solidly researched and well presented.The book does a great job in presenting how certain investments can reverse the cycle of poverty. Human capital, infrastructure, knowledge capital, etc., are all potential ways to influence and lift those suffering out of poverty, however these need to be addressed systemically in order to be effective.There are a few sections where he loses his train of thought and attacks American politics; this weakens his overall prose in my opinion. If we are to truly commit to solve "world hunger" this will need to be a bi-partisan effort. Emotional attacks on one party will not move this forward.The only real weakness of this book is what it doesn't say. Jeffrey ascribes all root causes and solutions to a government effort. In seems impossible in a nearly 400 page book on poverty, to not address materialism, greed, and the culture of valuing self above all else. Yet no where does he address personal responsibility. The fact that the efficiency of non-governmental charitable work through organizations like "World Vision" vastly outperforms any government processes is ignored here. The book is poorer for the lack of addressing personal accountability for each of us to care for the poor in our world community.I recommend this book despite these gaps. There are many who suffer needlessly in our world while we sit in comfort. The book does contain some great insights into the systems that may help reduce or stop the cycle of poverty and the resulting tragic consequences to children and families. The book is written very well, topics are laid out clearly, and the research is first rate.

Jeffery Sachs' "The End of Poverty" is three books in one: First, it is an exploration of the world, focusing on economics but surveying wide array of topics regarding international relations and politics, and offers a portrait of the planet today. Second, it is a crash course in development economics. Finally, it is an impassioned plea for more western aid to poor countries particularly in Africa.I know of no better book for understanding the current state of the world. In several brilliantChapters, Sachs takes us through the hyperinflation of Bolivia, the post Cold War transition to market economies in Poland, Russia, India and China, and the struggles for existence in Sub Saharan Africa. All these are put into context of International Relations, Economics and Politics, and personified through Sachs' description of his own role in these happenings. It's a tour de force.The weaknesses here are the complete absence of the Middle East, and Sachs' all-too-human tendency to portray himself as the epicenter of the events he describes, convincing Polish politicians to accept responsibility, and leading the fight against hyper inflation in Bolivia. But his involvement has not necessarily been as influential or beneficial as he portrays it: Bolivia, at least, can hardly be called a success story; Even though Sachs praises both its leaders and its policies, Bolivia is still not up to its 1980 level of GDP per Capita (p. 108).As a primer on development economics, "The End of Poverty" is a more of a mixed bag. At best, it offers powerful insights, particularly about the importance of Geography to economic development. Although the case has been made before (most famously by Jared Diamond in Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies but also by David Landes and others), Sachs really drives the point home about how close a relationship exists between geography and economic possibilities. Possibly he overstates the case somewhat - based on their geography, Egypt and Panama should have been economic empires - but Sachs truly has opened my eyes to a dimension in the question of economic development which I had barely considered before.Africa is the chief victim of its geography, Sachs argues. In his view, the solution to Africa's problems is not really economic - it is not a matter of right monetary and fiscal policies but of hospital beds, malaria nets and AIDS treatments - readily available technocratic solutions which are missing for lack of funds only.On the other hand, some of the chapters of theory are painful to read, particularly the one in which Sachs compares development economics to emergency medicine. His history of the world economy from time immemorial to the present is pedestrian and hardly innovative (it owes much to David Landes' superior The Wealth and Poverty of Nations: Why Some Are So Rich and Some So Poor . Like Landes, it also owes much to Adam Smith - he is quoted in virtually every chapter of Sachs' book). But development theory - as opposed to technocratic solutions - is ridiculously over simplified (in Sachs' view, it boils down to two words - "foreign aid" pp. 247-250), as William Easterly points out in his review [...]- it's false to think that we know all the answers, and that the UN and other aid agency are sufficiently efficient to carry out the solution even if we had known them. For development economics, Easterly's own The Elusive Quest for Growth: Economists' Adventures and Misadventures in the Tropics is a must read.As an advocate, Sachs's chief cause is persuading Western governments, and particularly the US, to live up to their obligation of spending 0.7 percent of each nation's GDP on aid. Sachs is an enthusiastic advocate of the Millenium Development Goals - a UN program to half poverty by 2015 - and of UN secretary general Kofi Annan (whom he calls "the world's finest stayrsman" p. 205. For a more balanced - although still highly favourable - view of Annan, see The Best Intentions: Kofi Annan and the UN in the Era of American World Power).Sachs effectively promotes his development goals from challenges left and right; Sachs points out that African Governments are no more corrupt then other governments (pp. 312-314); that "economic freedom" does not guarantee economic growth (p.320), and that reducing Infant Mortality rates coincides with a reduction in birth rates (pp. 324-325). I was also shocked to realize how little the US spends on foreign Aid (I knew it was little, but I didn't know it proportionally less than any Western country save Italy, p. 302) and that the 400 richest Americans are 20% richer than the one hundred and sixty one million, three hundred and fifty thousand inhabitants of Botswana, Nigeria, Senegal and Uganda (p. 305). Sachs convincingly argues that America often finds itself militarily involved in economically collapsing states (whether Vietnam, Lebanon, Zaire or Bosnia Herzegovina), and that indeed almost every country in which the US had to intervene suffered "state failure" (p.334). Wouldn't it be better to spend more on preventive medicine instead of risking American troops in the battlefield?From the left, although Sachs identifies with the motives of the "Seattle Movement", he disagrees with their policy recommendations, calling for more - not less - trade, and for a large role for Multi National Corporations in reducing poverty.Yet Sachs offers little place for dissenting views? Is the UN really this effective an instrument for poverty reduction? Is money spent in Africa really solving problems? To date, no country has been lifted from poverty via the large scale government sponsored policies Sachs promotes - instead, they have developed through mostly their own efforts with limited amounts of outside help. Africa does need more foreign aid - but maybe it needs more foreign humility, too.

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