CGD in the News
Letters to The Editor: The Last Thing Ghana Needs Is More Rescuers (Financial Times)
Sir, Michael Weinstein ("The economic paradox of Ghana's poverty", November 10) wrongly suggests that there is little that poor countries themselves can do to crawl out of poverty. He correctly points out that Ghana and South Korea had similar income levels 40 years ago, but have since gone in opposite directions. Korea's per capita income is today about $10,000. Ghana's is just $300. But Mr Weinstein suggests that the difference between the two is based solely on structural factors, namely high malaria rates and lower access to ports in Ghana. Geography may indeed be a factor, but surely policies matter as well.
Letter to The Editor: Attack on Brazil Abounds in Ironies (Financial Times)
Sir, Peter Hakim (October 22) refers to Brazil's "reputation as a spoiler", failing to take leadership in the face of its own "broadly distrustful public and divided business community". Two ironies jump out here.
When The Rich Talk Aid, The Poor Don't always Get It (International Herald Tribune)
Political leaders in the world's richest nations frequently proclaim their fervent desire to end poverty worldwide and boast of their spending on foreign aid to poor nations, reports the International Herald Tribune. Their aid efforts - which add up to about $58 billion a year - are praiseworthy. But grandstanding over foreign aid obscures the critical influence that rich countries' other policies have on the development of poor nations.
Letters to The Editor: US Emphasis on Performance is Tailor-made for The Global Fund (Financial Times)
Sir, Jeffrey Sachs ("America should not fight Aids on its own", February 4) regrets that the US has allotted, out of its new commitment of $10bn over five years for tackling the Aids pandemic, only $1bn to the multilateral Global Fund to Fight Aids, Tuberculosis and Malaria. He calls on Europe and Japan to fill the gap in the Global Fund's immediate needs. But let us not give up on US multilateralism so quickly, nor on the clear need for the US to play a leading role in providing both funds and policy guidance to the Global Fund over the next decade.