If you haven’t noticed ;-), there is a very healthy debate going on about whether our current approaches to international aid (and in particular, rich country government to poor country government block grants) is working or not to help these poorer countries grow their become less poor. This is actually a very timely topic. Why?… Continue reading Great review of Dambisa Moyo’s book, Dead Aid
Poor Economics: A radical rethinking of the way to fight global poverty By: Abhijit Banerjee and Esther Duflo This is a continuation of my book review. See Part I of book review > Here are a few highlights I took away for the book: Most poor aren’t hungry. Despite what the experts say. Generally, the… Continue reading Book Review: Poor Economics – Part II
Poor Economics: A radical rethinking of the way to fight global poverty By: Abhijit Banerjee and Esther Duflo This is one of the best books I’ve read on addressing global poverty. And I’ve read a LOT of books on this topic. It summarizes a massive amount of primary in-the-field research and has lots of interesting… Continue reading Book Review: Poor Economics
Recommended Reading Portfolios of the Poor: How the World’s Poor Live on $2 a Day by Collins, Morduch, Rutherford & Ruthven This recently published book has got a lot of buzz amongst the microfinance industry as providing new insights into the actual financial activities of < $2/day (key UN definition of very poor) families. The… Continue reading Portfolios of the Poor book review
Slavery by Mahatma Phule Slavery was written around 1900 as an expose on the caste system in India. As a reformer and social activist, Phule (along with his wife) advocated for women’s education and sought to bring light on the devastating “slavery of the mind” which enabled the upper caste peoples (particularly the Brahmin caste)… Continue reading Slavery book review
RECOMMENDED READING Out of Poverty: What works when traditional approaches fail by Paul Polak Polak, a psychiatrist by training, shifted his full-time efforts to working on poverty over 25 years ago. He founded International Development Enterprise to focus on helping small, developing country farmers earn more income. IDE has already helped millions of very small… Continue reading Out of Poverty book review
The Bottom Billion: Why The Poorest Countries Are Failing and What Can Be Done About It By Paul Collier When a book is recommended by both The Economist (more conservative) AND George Soros (quite liberal), it is bound to be interesting … and this book did not disappoint. Collier is a British economist and former… Continue reading The Bottom Billion book review
A Billion Bootstraps: Microcredit, Barefoot Banking, and the Business Solution for Ending Poverty by Phil Smith and Eric Thurman I think this the best book that I’ve read so far which provides an introduction to microcredit which is designed for a non-industry expert and, more specifically, for someone who is looking to get involved in… Continue reading A Billion Bootstraps book review
Creating a World Without Poverty: How Social Businesses Can Transform Our Lives by Muhammad Yunus Muhammad Yunus, 2006 Nobel Peace Prize recipient, has recently released his second book, Creating a World Without Poverty. The centerpiece of this book is Yunus proposal for a new kind of institution called a “social business” which is a for-profit… Continue reading Creating a World Without Poverty book review
How to Change the World: Social Entrepreneurs and the Power of New Ideas by David Bornstein Written in 2003 and updated in 2007, Bornstein’s book takes a look at the growing emergence of what he calls social entrepreneurs … entrepreneurs who are innovating in ways which bring significant new social/societal (and often economic) benefits. His… Continue reading How to Change the World
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