At their respective blogs, Robert W. Radtke, President of Episcopal Relief & Development, and William Easterly, NYU professor of economics, make some cogent observations about methods used to boost aid to the poor of the world:
Radtke, responding to requests for his views on micro finance makes several points, including this:
The appeal of sites that offer the donor an apparently direct relationship with the beneficiary is very understandable. However, my personal reaction to those sites is similar to my reaction to child sponsorships.
I think there’s a very high risk of commoditizing poverty and poor people so that we, the donors, feel good. That’s the main reason that [at ER-D] we don’t offer direct sponsorship of microfinance beneficiaries.
Easterly writes:
[M]y big worry at Aid Watch is that relying on shallow sexy celebs to promote aid leads to a shallow aid message: just spend more aid dollars with no incentives for dollars to reach the poor.
Is there some way to grab attention for good causes without selling out to our society’s worship of celebrity & sex?
Read Radtke’s post at Our President’s Blog. Read Easterly’s post [possibly NSFW] at Aid Watch.