Crash Course on International Development

How does one approach the incredibly fine balance of working internationally towards poverty alleviation, imposing oneself for the "betterment" of the poor uneducated/dispossessed/displaced/(fill in the blank) of the world? How does one approach an, if not unknown, otherwise foreign framework of government, society, cultural values, etc. and infinite distinctions within each of those without posing the utter condescension of claiming to be "objective" in an ultimately subjective and interdependent process? The failures, realignments and corrections to inevitable pitfalls form the tightrope of international aid, investment, and business, and Jeffrey Sachs has laid out a handy framework for sketching a portrait of a region or nation in his book The End of Poverty. I thought I'd share my notes on how to approach international work because the processes involved are humbling in the amount of time and effort one must invest from the start, and also because I found it useful to have an outline. With the risk of people becoming "disillusioned" with international work because of the "corruption/lack of will/moral depravity of the people/(again, fill in the blank)," it is important to first start with some groundwork, and this text really showed me many shortcomings of the international community haphazardly entering into humanitarian or social work. What we lack mainly is what Sachs calls "differential diagnosis." Although the amount of research that he proposes is probably twice as much as the American government did before going to war with Afghanistan, the point is that we need a similar, if not more thorough, knowledge of an area to be as productive in peacekeeping as we are in war. My notes from his book are as follows, I hope you find it helpful if you are interested in this type of thing:

1. Measure the Extent of Extreme Poverty

• Create poverty maps: household surveys, geographic information, national income accounts, etc.
• Proportions: Extreme poverty, schooling, health care, roads, water, sanitation, electricity, nutrition (for both urban and rural communities)
• Risk Factors: demographic trends (birth/death/international or internal migration), environment (sea level, erosion, deforestation, land degradation, depletion of water, biodiversity loss), climate shocks, infectious disease, world fluctuations in key commodities

2. Research Economic Policy

• Cost of doing business in the country (regionally), coverage of key infrastructure (power, water, roads, transport services), how are costs affected by lack of infrastructure, trade policy framework, how are trade barriers impinging on costs of production (especially exports), investor incentives, is government investing in human capital (health, nutrition, disease control, education, and family planning)?

3. The Fiscal Framework

• Levels of budget spending/public revenues (% of GDP and $/person), public spending in GDP in various categories (health, education, infrastructure), overhanging public sector debt, how much would debt relief contribute to government capacity to expand public services, hidden off-balance-sheet lines on public sector (debts of central bank, hidden losses of commercial banking system)?

4. Physical Geography and Human Ecology

• Transport conditions, proximity of population to seaports & airports, rivers, paved roads, railways, costs of transport freight (fertilizers, food crops, machinery, industrial products) within country & internationally, distribution of population, how does distribution affect infrastructure costs?
• Agronomic conditions affected by physical environment, length of growing season, how does it affect crop choice/nutrition/income levels, soil patterns, topographies, hydrology and land use affecting crop yields, suitability for irrigation, land improvements, long-term/international climate change?
• Ecosystem degradation (erosion due to deforestation, lack of pollination due to lack of biodiversity, etc.), invasive species (fertility & fisheries), toxins/water
• Disease from ecological reasons, malaria (epidemic or endemic?), animal disease patterns, plant pests (to livelihoods, international trade, human health, etc.)

5. Patterns of Governance

• Leader (democratic, dictator, communist, etc.)
• Management of registering business, trading property, defending contracts, bidding for government endorsement
• Public services provided (water, sanitation, power, basic health, education)?
• Corruption - does government represent narrow elite or certain ethnic group?

6. Cultural Barriers to Economic Development

• Class, caste, ethnicity, religion, gender inequity (legally, education, reproductive rights, informally)
• Women - can they participate in economy outside of household, can they own/inherit land, can they vote?
• Ethnic Groups - is there discrimination, inter-ethnic violence, diaspora?

7. Geopolitics - Security and Economic Relations

• International sanctions, cross-border security threats (refugees, terrorism, warfare), regional trade groups, trade barriers from wealthy world