Weak States, Poor Countries

Yet this is no solution. Poor people need government to lead better lives; taking government out of the loop might improve things in the short run, but it would leave unsolved the underlying problem. Poor countries cannot forever have their health services run from abroad. Aid undermines what poor people need most: an effective government that works with them for today and tomorrow.

One thing that we can do is to agitate for our own governments to stop doing those things that make it harder for poor countries to stop being poor. Reducing aid is one, but so is limiting the arms trade, improving rich-country trade and subsidy policies, providing technical advice that is not tied to aid, and developing better drugs for diseases that do not affect rich people. We cannot help the poor by making their already-weak governments even weaker.

Angus Deaton, Professor of Economics and International Affairs at Princeton University’s Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, is the author of The Great Escape: Health, Wealth, and the Origins of Inequality (Princeton University Press, 2013.)

Copyright: Project Syndicate, 2013.

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