Empowering Individuals in the Global Community Through Entrepreneurship
Whole Planet Foundation, a Whole Foods Market non-profit, supports microlending in developing countries, in order to ignite thousands of small-scale entrepreneurs and to catalyze a grass roots transformation of communities through their own ingenuity and hard work. On this page you find books, articles, videos and links that I think are important tools for understanding what has been done in the past, often poorly, and what needs to be done now and in the future to eliminate global poverty by the end of this century. In my opinion, this goal is not only doable, but is almost infallible IF we in the West will let go of some of our centuries-old habits. These habits include the demeaning and condescending cultural and economic imperialism which seems to perpetually burden the poor. In light of world poverty, trade barriers, quotas, farm subsidies and the like, are unconscionable. We must let the developing world emerge from this poverty through an economic partnership with the developed world through free trade while encouraging and incentivizing them to free their economies and establish honest rule of law, including (at least somewhat) democratic, yet limited, government.
On this page, you will find resources that support this relatively straightforward solution to ending world poverty. The opinions and recommendations expressed here are my own and do not necessarily reflect those of Whole Planet Foundation or Whole Foods Market.
The mission of Whole Planet Foundation is to provide financial support to MFIs to alleviate poverty through expansion of microcredit services in communities that supply Whole Foods Market with product. As a rule, the Foundation grants almost never fund an actual Whole Foods Market supplier/farmer, as these farmers, who are producing a high quality exportable product, are rarely among the poorest of the poor. 100% of the Foundation's overhead costs are covered by Whole Foods Market and thus 100% of donations goes to microlending programs effective at alleviating poverty.
For over 35 years, I have observed John expand his perspectives on many salient issues while he spearheaded Whole Foods Market from one store to the world's leading natural and organic grocery store with over 370 stores. We have both witnessed firsthand the tremendous good that capitalism can have on society. We have also noticed how "bad" capitalism, which almost always involves poor government, can do so much harm. It is this errant and crony capitalism that gives the black eye and what is usually represented in the media. John's evolving work on Conscious Capitalism aims to turn that perspective around.
Conscious Capitalism: Liberating the Heroic Spirit of Business by John Mackey & Rajendra Sisodia
John Mackey, Whole Foods Market’s co-founder and Co-CEO, along with Raj Sisodia, a business professor and co-founder of the Conscious Capitalism Institute, address the concepts of combining consciousness with capitalism.
Team Member Reviews:
Philip Sansone, Joy Stoddard, Steve Wanta
Lauren Evans, Victor Quiroz, Morgan Peretti,
Additional Reviews:
The Conference Board: Ideas and Opinions for the World's Business Leaders
Root Causes of Poverty Indexes
More Than Good Intentions by Dean karlan
Review by: Evan Lambert
You have to love an economics and development book that is thought provoking, easy to read and draws you in. Dean Karlan’s More Than Good Intentions easily falls into this category as he looks at which solutions really work for the poor and finding new solutions for remaining poverty issues through an economists lens backed by extensive fieldwork.
Karlan works with Jacob Appel or “Jake” who is his assistant and sidekick. He and Jake work with the JPAL folks and the Poverty Innovation Labs from Portfolios of the Poor, spending countless amount of time on the ground and with MFI members to understand their situation in contexts throughout Latin America, Africa and Asia. What is working? What isn’t? How can we do better? Why do people make the irrational decisions they do? How can we incentivize or nudge them along to behave differently?
He divides the development industry into two categories thinkers and doers, essentially those in academia and those in the field on the front line doing the work. He says that these two camps are generally divided and that these barriers should be broken down so that we can work together, thereby understanding how we can tweak the existing system to make it better and design innovative new solutions. He and Jake strive to do just that in this book by combining their traditional economics background and theory with and study of human behavior through Random Control Trials (RCT).
I appreciate how he describes the standoff between Jeffrey Sachs and Bill easterly schools of thought as nonproductive. Both sides have ample evidence and examples to demonstrate that support their theories. He states that both should be able to agree that some aid solutions work and some don’t. So starting there we have enough real world examples to evaluate in more detail and better understand what's really going on the ground. He recognizes that people do not always make decisions based upon the value of the outcome, sometimes people make bad decisions and for unknown reasons. Sometimes people “get the math wrong” and sometimes we have other interests at heart. Karlan argues that understanding these other interests and decision making processes of the poor is at the heart of understanding the problem and therefore designing appropriately designed solutions. He describes a two prong approach to poverty alleviation based on understanding the problem at hand (poverty in this case) using and behavioral and traditional economic models and using rigorous testing to trying to understand why people make decisions to ultimately identify solutions that work.
The book is organized into chapters based on people’s behaviors and he focuses the meat of the book on microcredit. He helps us see how it can be so appealing in terms of focus on women, building communities, etc. but that it also has a complete lack of evidence to show results high and many MFIs charge incredibly high interest rates etc. It has gotten so much attention and fame, and Karlan asks is it warranted? He describes microcredit as a poster child for the aid industry and says that it has garnered more support than perhaps any other agent initiative in history. Is it really all that good or is it too good to be true? We need to dig deeper.
He says people don't act rationally, for example when we're trying to pay down credit card debt we will still eat meals out. When we're trying to lose weight we will sneak a candy bar. Understanding why people make these irrational decisions and which decision they are actually are making in real world situations is at the root of the matter and the main point of this book.
One aspect that really stuck with me was when he described the way that most development organizations measure impact, which he describes as the “before and after" approach. He says this is fundamentally flawed as it does not take into account external factors. Therefore it is a waste of time and money that could be better spent elsewhere.
Another aspect of the book that I really liked with regarding to microcredit specifically are the tough questions like: “does it actually work?” and “how can we do it better?” He acknowledges that Trust is indeed the primary component that leads to borrower repayment and group success and therefore institutional success, but he finds in his trials that individual lenders who are trustworthy will actually pay back as consistently as in a group. He notes that the more successful entrepreneurs are the ones who inevitably repay the missed quota on the non trustworthy group members.
One example he used that I like to understand human behavior is by Peter Singer a utilitarian philosopher at Princeton who asked why people would jump in to save a drowning child if doing so would cost us $200, while most people we do not cut a check that could save a child's life for $200. He talks about the necessary link and needing an identifiable victim "with whom the human connects” In this section Whole Foods Market and Whole Planet Foundation get a mention for their ability to raise funds at the cash registers. In fact he describes Whole Planet as “awash in funds” due to effectively making shoppers feel as though they are helping this individual. I also liked reading about his section devoted to Kiva and looking at the difference between what is perceived by the user in terms of a direct connection was actually going on behind-the-scenes.
He brings up some good questions regarding whether or not there is a better way than the Kiva model to raise funds in terms of telling a more transparent picture and letting donors make a difference by demanding that their funds be used in only the most effective ways. Here’s an interesting fact: individual donors contribute over 200 billion every year three times as much as the sum of all corporations, foundations and bequests. Therefore individuals together can really drive change in development by demanding results and supporting only those organizations that are working effectively to alleviate poverty.
In addition to taking a hard look at microcredit he looks at some innovative approaches to problems in areas of agriculture, education, health, and sex and the solutions out there that are making a difference. Without giving away the ending I will say that Karlan is an optimist who thinks that we're making progress chipping away at poverty and that we are getting better at identifying and correcting our previous development mistakes. In summary, as we also believe, he finds that microcredit is not perfect but it does provide some real benefits in the fight against poverty. He also points to the importance of savings in combination with credit in order to be effective.
I highly recommend this book for anyone with a desire to understand microcredit more completely or for anyone working in the industry or passionate about development, poverty, and how to make the world a better place. This book greatest appeal to be is the fact that it engages the reader, moves quickly and is thought provoking. The book demands that we do better. I agree.
Destructive Emotions; How We Can Overcome Them: A Scientific Dialogue with the Dalai Lama
Review by: Daniel Zoltani
“Destructive Emotions” is a scientific and Buddhist exchange of views between the Dalai Lama, renowned Tibetan monks, and a group of psychologist, philosophers, and neuroscientists. The eighth Mind and Life dialogue, held in March 2000, in the Dalai Lama’s private quarters in Dharamsala, India, was transcribed to book form. It provides an interesting deliberation from intellectual minds as they confront questions such as; ‘What are the root causes of destructive behavior? Can we learn to control the emotions that drive these impulses? Why do seemingly rational people commit acts of cruelty and violence?’
In a detailed narrative by Daniel Goleman, the main theme of human behavior is used as a foundation to discuss personal insights and scientific findings on how we can recognize destructive emotions such as anger, greed, and delusion. The discussions are scientific based with Buddhist experiences and interpretations intermixed. Negative emotions often play a big part in the behavior of individuals and groups that cause much suffering both for the individuals as well as in communities around the world. Therefore developing further thoughts around such a field is important and warrants a multi-perspective approach. The fundamental message in the book is being aware constitutes action in vanquishing destructive emotions that pose a danger to our collective and personal futures.
Destructive Emotions is definitely a book of academia and although difficult to get through at times, incorporates many interesting topics for thought including exploration of science, religion, and cross culture perspectives on a common and specific subject. The Dalai Lama gives a remarkable performance, transforming from the compassionate persona he commonly exhibits to an inherent scientist as well as an intelligent and testing interrogator. With the Dalai Lama’s participation and support, further scientific studies of emotions, both positive and negative, continue to make headway in an effort to foster human well being and conscious thought.
“Distinguishing between constructive and destructive emotions is right there to be observed in the moment when a destructive emotion arises-the calmness, the tranquility, the balance of the mind is immediately disrupted. Other emotions do not destroy equilibrium or the sense of well-being as soon as they arise, but in fact enhance it, therefore would be called constructive.” -14th Dalai Lama; Destructive Emotions
Conscious Capitalism: Liberating the Heroic Spirit of Business by John Mackey and Rajendra Sisodia
Review by: Daniel Vidal
As a Whole Foods Market Team Member, and particularly a part of the Whole Planet Foundation team, reading Conscious Capitalism was refreshing and a great reminder of how powerful and good business can be.
I’d be the first to admit that even 23 year old me wouldn’t be sure how conscious and capitalism could be used in the same sentence but I’ve been fortunate enough to be a part of something great that has helped me quickly realize that 23 year old me didn’t know anything even though 25 year old me is still learning, perhaps I’m just more aware.
I think John Mackey and Raj Sisodia did a great job of not only arguing the inherent good of business and capitalism, but giving examples of others in the market that have adopted this idea – successfully at that – while also concrete steps that others can follow that not only allows them to maximize profits for shareholders, but create value for all stakeholders, including customers, employees and the environment.
As someone working for Whole Planet Foundation, the tangible manifestation of Whole Foods Market’s core values, and Conscious Capitalism, I’ve had a unique opportunity to see the power of CC first hand. The impact that Whole Planet Foundation has been able to make around the world where Whole Foods Market sources product is very real and significant. This impact would not be the same without the support of Whole Foods Market – who pays 100% of our overhead cost and contributes to our mission in some way or another every day.
In business, it’s the ones that innovate and respond to their stakeholders that continue to be successful. While we don’t know what the markets will be like even tomorrow, I think the Conscious Capitalism movement has set great groundwork for others wishing to not only generate profits and returns, but add value for all.
Conscious Capitalism: Liberating the Heroic Spirit of Business by John Mackey and Raj Sisodia
Review by: Steve Wanta
Disclaimer: I have worked for Whole Planet Foundation since our inception. Seeing the inner workings of a Conscious Company, Whole Foods Market makes it impossible for me to be unbiased in reviewing Conscious Capitalism. I love my job with the Foundation, the company that started it, and the Team Members, Customers, and Suppliers that support us. I feel about the book the way a Whole Foods Market outsider recently said, “I am a believer.”
For those of us that are “believers”, there is an almost religious like dogma that has the potential to arise out of passion and conviction for the movement. The danger is that our beliefs insulate us from innovating and evolving. Years ago, Mackey presented these big, bold concepts in a talk to 600 of Whole Foods Market’s leadership. He explained how critical it was (and continues to be) that Whole Foods Market maintains an open heart and mind. He warned that we could get stuck in the Green Meme and bound by a blind faith in an idea, any idea.
Conscious Capitalism gives us a blueprint to build and maintain a dynamic, learning organization that continues to grow and evolve. Principally, it requires a supportive culture that is defined by its decentralized, empowered, and collaborative nature. This has the potential to result in an innovative, agile, caring, and powerfully competitive business.
There have been naysayers that have believed that Whole Foods Market and our approach is an anomaly, a niche market. Long I have believed that the lessons detailed in Conscious Capitalism are much needed in the nonprofit sector and in particular in the industry of microfinance. The stakeholder principals create a simple model for building and leading organizations.
Relying upon our noble mission is not good enough. We need to build organizations that are able to solve the world’s most pressing problems. Social entrepreneurs know clearly why they do what they do, but they often lack the business model for creating truly great organizations. I believe Conscious Capitalism has the potential to be that guide.
My one criticism or hope for the next book is that there is an accompanying manual that guides people through a new way of thinking. Making these sorts of substantive changes require support and mentoring.
The question now facing the movement is how to promote and engage others. Time will be the great judge of the book and its message.
Social Entrepreneurship for the 21st Century by Georgia Keohane
Review by: Brian Doe
This is a recently published book on the subject of achieving social impact through business tools and business resources. The author organizes the topic in the main categories of “Social Entrepreneurship in the Nonprofit Sector” and “Social Impact in the Private Sector”.
Largely the topic is an evolution through three phases – Social Entrepreneurship, when non-profit entities (both traditional non-profits and private foundations with money to give or invest for social impact) use business tools/methods to achieve social impact in their community; Social Enterprises when for-profit entities make creating social benefit a critical component of its business, and finally the meeting point of what these two concepts hope to achieve- Social Innovation where roles and definitions are blurred to pro-actively solve social problems through private and non-profit sectors, or possibly new combinations of the two- or even long existing combinations of the two.
The book provides a brief overview of these concepts with some anecdotes about a few of the key actors in the social business/entrepreneurship industry- so it wouldn’t really be highly valuable for a reader that already follows these trends. The biggest lacking is that it lists a lot of different things happening in the sector with little or no analysis on what is working, what is catching on or what is generally failing. All the anecdotes are seemingly presented as being equally meaningful. Also the author gives short thrift to the range of possibility for “social enterprises” – leaving it at the level of those who invest in social enterprises (as a counterexample to those giving grants to nonprofits), but not really looking deeply at the companies which are actually creating social impact (which to be honest is what I had hoped to get from the book).
Some points which would be most relevant for those already engaged in the “Social Entrepreneurship” world:
Start-up and Mezzanine funding approaches from the new “Venture Philanthropists”- The “business-minded” Foundation sector is often willing to fund riskier start-up ventures for new ideas, or focus on scalability in the “mezzanine” stage of a grantee organization’s lifecycle (post-start up but not yet at high level of scale) and then exit and move on to another project. Many foundations and funders in the “new” philanthropy sector are looking for the next big idea over the “safe” donor investment, while others are looking to see how a proven good idea can be scaled to the level of ubiquitous global private sector brands like Coca-Cola. The challenge for the sector is having a grasp of what constitutes a good idea in areas such as addressing homelessness, poverty or basic literacy- and how they can grasp the historical work done in these areas to create a strong assessment and monitoring system.
The value of a dollar and cost-benefit analysis- Entrepreneurial funders focus on the value of a dollar in a their grant program versus its value applied elsewhere- trying to determine what is the monetary value of benefit from a social benefit provided by funding and how does that compare to other ways in which that dollar could be used. Social Return on Investment calculations try to mirror tools used by Venture Capital organizations, Cost Ratios measure benefits versus cost to compare various different grant programs, while Random Control Trials measure scientifically the benefit achieved from free grant capital in a controlled environment. The practicality and benefit of these exercises remains to be seen but links back to the willingness to invest in start-up initiatives but searching for a good way to measure which new ideas merit funding!
Technology as a Force for Good- A number of donors coming from private sector foundations are focusing on how technology can be used to promote and scale social change. Crowdsourcing donations/fundraising, and innovation challenges are some of the more interesting examples.
InnoCentive invites proposals for innovative solutions to complex problems among a network of 85,000 scientists and scientific organizations through its web platform. A success from this program includes SunNight Solar which is a solar flashlight which can illuminate an entire room- one of the proposed problems posed. Ashoka’s Changemakers competitions are similar in its methodology- again focusing on risky start-up funding in the social sector.
Mission Related Investing- In the evolution from Entrepreneurial Grants Programs (think Corporate Social Responsibility grants companies give) and Social Enterprises (businesses created entirely with the purpose of solving social problems)- there have been efforts at Mission Related Investing- using capital to invest in firms deemed in some way having positive impacts on social problems rather than using that money to provide grants to NGOs tackling these problems directly. The challenge (and sometimes criticism) for organizations, which often invest their endowments, or companies looking to make a social impact through investment in existing publically traded companies is whether better value comes from investing in possibly lower yielding “socially good” companies, or higher yielding traditional investments which bring more profit that could be used as targeted grants in the field. The Domini Social Equity Fund is one opportunity to invest socially with 400 publically traded companies that have certain “social” standards the Index fund has created. Unfortunately the author gives little guidance on the performance history of such companies!
Learning from Failure- If the private sector is seen as model for tackling social problems, with the tech industry often tied closely to these efforts, then failure/learning/piloting possibly bad ideas can be a mark that organizations or companies to some extent aren’t just going after the easy problems or projects. Engineers Without Borders launched a website called Admitting failure.com that encourages nonprofits to to share their programmatic failures as a broader learning exercise. This could help change the culture of secrecy and whitewashing of past philanthropy movements. “Failure is only bad if it is repeated” says the head of EWB…of course failure is also bad if it isn’t balanced by lots of wonderful successes too I would think.
Future of Innovation and new definitions of social changemakers-One quote in the book highlights that many charities, like hospitals, schools, and arts institutions, already receive a majority of their income from fees for goods and services. Even more non-profits are merging with the private sector in many ways. Meanwhile, private companies are either waking up to the demand for the world’s poorest for goods and services, or are adjusting their business missions to explicitly target social problems or needs. One chapter speaks about new corporate forms in which companies with explicit social impact goals become part of a business’s’ charter (B-Corps, Low Profit Corporations), another chapter provides an overview of hybrid approaches by firms such as Google to create a foundation and a private investment arm for social impact.
The end goal is innovation and impact towards solving social problems, which in the 21st Century is going to be a new frontier and mix of what is traditionally defined as the “Non-profit” and “Private” sectors.
Beyond the Beautiful Forevers by Katherine Boo
Review by: Steve Wanta
Beyond the Beautiful Forevers is narrative nonfiction that vividly depicts a group of families that live in the slums next to the encroaching Mumbai International Airport. There is much symbolism in the title of the book and its origin. A large wall is erected to keep the slum out of the reach and sight of the airport and the Indian boom times it represents. The wall, both symbolic and functional, is plastered with an advertisement for flooring, the New India-Beyond the Beautiful Forevers.
I read the book at a particularly timely point, during a recent trip to the slums of Delhi where we visited a local NGO that offers many of the social programs referenced in the book. In our short trip, we saw a wide array of people living in the predominately Muslim community – beggars, microentrepreneurs, passionate community workers, and committed Westerners. There was a supportive community in the midst of chaos. Our time and scope was limited which always begs the question, was it an authentic representation of the reality and a fair sampling?
Katherine Boo spent years researching the book and its characters. The challenges facing people in Beyond the Beautiful Forevers seems endless and there appears to be little hope that they have the ability to live virtuous lives. The story told is one of corruption around every corner and those that “succeed” financially cling to the opportunity of corruption. As she writes, “But for the poor of a country where corruption thieved a great deal of opportunity, corruption was one of the genuine opportunities that remained.”
I do not doubt the accounts of the book happened and continue to happen to the poor around the world but I wonder if the magnitude to which Boo writes is overstated. Authors hold the creative license to write a story. The author decides the type of story he or she wants to write. Yunus has told a story of great triumph of the poor for which he is now criticized. Boo’s story paints the bleak parts of poverty, especially urban slums. It tells the sad stories of the light in bright souls being squashed by the overwhelming weight of their circumstances. Although there is a level of admiration of the people she chronicles, the focus is overwhelmingly centered on the powerless nature of poverty.
When looking at narrative or creative nonfiction, I am left with the question-what is the point? What is the point of Yunus’ story and now Boo’s? Do we want to entertain, inspire action, or muckrake for change? I recommend this book as a stirring account of the challenging side of poverty.
The Last Hunger Season by Roger Thurow
Review by: Genie Bolduc
The Last Hunger Season begins by illustrating the prevalence of hunger and its correspondence to agricultural production in Kenya by pointing out that many children are named Wanjala- hunger, meaning that they were born in the season of hunger, when their family’s food ran out between harvests. Mr. Thurow uses the stories of four One Acre Fund microloan clients and their families to illustrate the constant struggles that afflict farmers in Western Kenya. Decisions that the farmers make and remake affect their ability to feed their families and lift them up through access to education. The constant struggle to feed their children and selves while paying school fees and trying to invest in alternate sources of income, such as cows, chickens or trees leave the clients stressed and exhausted, working from before dawn to past dusk with little to eat.
Andrew Youn, the founder of One Acre Fund, with his MBA from Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Business, asserts that what these farmers need is access to better drought resistant seed and fertilizer to give them adequate yield and that distribution is the key to helping them. He pointed out that there is no lack of distribution of Coca Cola and cell phone service, why can’t we make sure that farmers have access to the quality inputs that they need when they need it, letting them pay it back over time?
The book explores the methods that OAF uses to teach clients the principles of proper planting and weeding, for instance, having a line of women squat down and have another line of women behind them pushing down on their shoulders to show that the squatting women, who represent corn seedlings, cannot lift up and grow with the women in back of them, representing weeds, sapping their energy. It is an interesting exploration of how OAF teaches planting techniques and offers the tools to get higher yield while struggling to get new strains of drought resistant seeds developed so as to better serve their clients. It also illustrates how empowerment of the men and women and their group solidarity helps them to succeed.
My least favorite parts of the book are the interspersed bits on government policy and diminishing funding of agricultural programs as it came off as more of a lecture than presentation of information.
All in all, this is a great read for anyone who wishes to know more about One Acre Fund, the work that they do, and the effect that it has on hard working farming families in western Kenya. It is a must read for Whole Foods Market Team Member Volunteers about to embark on the volunteer program to Kenya to meet microcredit clients for One Acre Fund and do community service work.
Conscious Capitalism: Liberating the Heroic Spirit of Business by John Mackey & Rajendra Sisodia
Review by: Joy Stoddard
I love this book. With Conscious Capitalism: Liberating the Heroic Spirit of Business, John Mackey and Raj Sisodia create a roadmap to make the world a better place through conscious business.
According to Mackey and Sisodia, the four tenets of conscious capitalism include stakeholder integration, higher purpose and core values, conscious leadership and conscious culture and management. Disparaging crony capitalism, the authors guide us through examples of the four tenets from conscious businesses like Whole Foods Market, Southwest Airlines, Patagonia, Google and others that are familiar and accessible to readers. The book makes such possibly foreign concepts easy to grasp, and it’s power is in its positivity.
An example of a higher purpose of Whole Foods Market is poverty alleviation in communities around the globe that supply the company with products, such as coffee, tea, cacao, tropical fruits and vegetables and spices. Through Whole Planet Foundation, Whole Foods Market empowers microentrepreneurs to create or expand home-based businesses and have the opportunity to left themselves and their families out of poverty. I hope the book encourages thousands of business owners to manifest their unique purpose, and incorporate stakeholder integration. It’s possible and profitable! Naysayers should read Appendix A: The Business Case for Conscious Capitalism.
My dad always says you should do what you like because you'll likely be doing it for at least 8 hours a day. As a Whole Foods Market team member for 12 years, I have witnessed core values in action in this conscious capitalism business. If I weren't a Whole Foods Market team member already, I would apply after reading the book! Best wishes to all the CEOs out there who want to run a conscious business, and are now inspired by Mackey and Sisodia who are leading the way.
Conscious Capitalism: Liberating the Heroic Spirit of Business by John Mackey & Rajendra Sisodia
Review by: Lauren Evans
As the saying goes, “The longest journey that people must take is the 18 inches between their heads and their hearts.” It's crazy how difficult this journey is for so many corporations, businesses and entrepreneurs out there, mainly due to the fact that crony capitalism and general lack of consciousness is rooted in the myth that the ultimate purpose of business is to maximize profits for the investors. Why? The crony approach has a narrow view of human nature and cannot explain the causes of business success. In this book, the authors lay out a plan for large corporations to overcome decades of legacy thinking in order to achieve real success. They teach us how conscious capitalism is truly the only way you can build an organization that benefits all of its stakeholders, and they give us ideas of how to develp our SQ (spiritual intelligence) to drive conscious leadership and business practices.
Having been a Whole Foods Market Team Member for almost 10 years now, I have been able to witness how a large corporation that is growing by leaps and bounds every year still manages to remain authentic and cater to its stakeholders - all of them, including the environment, the silent stakeholder. Whole Foods Market started in Austin back in the 80s, and after opening more stores, there were some challenges with how to move forward. These conflicts ended up dividing the company, and John and the leadership team saw a need to reevaluate how we were doing business. What developed was a purpose search and the creation of our Declaration of Interdependence that laid the groundwork for our multi-stakeholder, conscious approach, as well as the creation of Whole Planet Foundation in 2005.
How do these companies who are so rooted in their old ways change for the better? This is what worked for Whole Foods and other conscious companies noted in the book - Patagonia, Southwest Airlines, Panera Bread and more:
- Start with a purpose search, create human commitment and behave like a conscious citizen in our global communities. Whole Planet Foundation was not part of the original purpose search of Whole Foods Market, but ending poverty is now one of the company's higher purposes.
- Count Team Members and customers as the most important stakeholders - customers are a company's most effective marketers, and happy Team Members result in happy customers.
- Develp a relationship with customers, then lead and educate them. I was part of the team that launched the Whole Foods Market Health Starts Here healthy eating initiative a few years ago. We partnered with third-party organizations to educate our customers about the ANDI (Aggregate Nutrient Density Index) scale. When we launched it, most people were like, "what the heck is ANDI" or "who is this ANDI guy" and "what is this kale thing," but after educating our customers about the nutrient density of foods, and that kale is the highest and most beneficial, kale started flying off the shelves. While we can't say that people are necessarily healthier because of ANDI and the Health Starts Here initiative, we can definitely say that our customers know how to make healthier choices when shopping.
- Investors are true stakeholders too. Just look at Warren Buffett - to his stakeholders, he communicates who he is, what his values are, the purpose and the strategy. What happened? He attracted investors and shareholders who most align with his philosophy and vision of his business.
- Be creative and innovative; share and collaborate. Conscious companies are always more creative and use marketing to enhance the quality of relationshps with customers. Marketing should not be used to sell, but rather to add value among people who share a company's beliefs. This is why Whole Foods Market doesn't do much advertising - global and regional marketing initiatives are used to enhance and create value for the shopping experience.
- "Decentralization, combined with empowerment, fosters innovation and collaboration." Whole Foods Market's decentralized structure allows each region to have its autonomy and function independently, while also being able to collaborate with others to bring value where appropriate.
- Create purposeful work environnments that challenge and encourage Team Members to learn and grow. What will result? As the authors note, "Team Members flourish as self-actualizing human beings." This is why Whole Foods Market doesn't necessarily pay the highest salaries in the industry and why all salary information is transparent - so that we attract employees who are motivated by a deeper purpose and connection to Whole Foods' mission and core values, rather than just the paycheck. It's also why we have initiatives like the Whole Foods Market University to teach our Team Members about a wide variety of subjects.
- Develop a conscious collaborative approach to customer-supplier relationships. Through Whole Planet Foundation's partnership with more than 200 supplier partners across all departments, we have been able to collaborate to not only fund more poverty alleviation projects around the globe, but for many supplier partners, we have given them a newfound higher purpose that has added a lot of value to their organizations.
- Don't neglect the environment, the silent stakeholder. Rather than adopting fear tactics, the authors urge readers to raise consciousness to create creativity and innovation. By having an ambassador in every store and at least one at the regional level, Whole Foods Market's Green Mission program fosters collaboration to reduce our impact on the environment in very creative ways.
- Leadership and management need to be in harmony!
While the authors seem convinced that conscious capitalism will win in the end, we as millennials have an uphill battle to fight, and I am proud to be a part of a company who is driving change and inspiring all of us to be more conscious leaders. This is a quick and easy must-read for entrepreneurs who are just starting out as well as big corporations who want to be able to drive the world's future prosperity. As the authors note, "Quiet your mind, listen attentively to your inner heart and follow its guidance."
Conscious Capitalism: Liberating the Heroic Spirit of Business by John Mackey & Rajendra Sisodia
Review by: Victor Quiroz
John Mackey & Raj Sisodia have written a well crafted and inspirational book on the merits of capitalism. Overall the book supports combining the ideas of capitalism and consciousness. The book also provides a roadmap of how to become a more conscious business. A conscious business is a business driven by a sense of higher purpose. In short, this means that the business exists for reasons other than just the pursuit of profits. This includes acting with responsibility to all stakeholders (suppliers, employees, customers, etc…), the communities in which it operates, and profits. The authors argue that a business does not exist purely for profit, but rather the opposite is true. In a conscious business profits are the vehicle which allows the business to grow and provide greater opportunity to achieve its mission and purpose in society. Mackey and Sisodia break down what is Conscious Capitalism into four tenants: reaching a higher purpose, delivering value to all stakeholders, embodying conscious leadership in management, & cultivating a conscious culture. The book is filled with stories that demonstrate these core principles in action. For example, my favorite story is one that Mackey tells in which a protester advocating against Whole Foods Market’s sale of meat products ultimately resulted in producing the 5-Step Animal Rating System. It seems as if today most companies would be more likely to dismiss the objections of someone protesting against their business. However in this story Mackey illustrates the power of the stakeholder model and how working together provided the opportunity for Whole Foods to grow as a company. In my opinion these sorts of stories are not just inspiring, but provide additional value demonstrating the advantages of being a conscious business.
Conscious Capitalism: Liberating the Heroic Spirit of Business by John Mackey & Rajendra Sisodia
Review by: Philip Sansone
The first thing that struck me about Mackey and Sisodia's book was their excellent review of the benefits from capitalism and especially to the world's poorest people. Their use and presentation of information about the positive contributions of capitalism from Johan Norberg's excellent book, In Defense of Global Capitalism, set the stage for laying out their vision for a more enlightened form of capitalism. Life before capitalism and the industrial revolution is not a world we would want to live in today or go back to.
The authors willingly point out the blemishes of capitalism and especially crony capitalism, and they point the way to a more sustainable model for capitalism. Churchill said that democracy was the worst form of government, except for all the others. The same can be said about the current state of capitalism. Mackey and Sisodia give us a viable alternative to the old capitalism.
Conscious Capitalism: Liberating the Heroic Spirit of Business by John Mackey & Rajendra Sisodia
Review by: Morgan Peretti
In John Mackey’s book, Conscious Capitalism, Mackey illustrates four tenets that drive business to be conscious, in other words, “business that is more conscious of its higher purpose, its impacts on the world and the relationships it has with various constituencies and stakeholder”(pp32-33).
Mackey walks through the four tenets that make a business conscious: higher purpose, stakeholder integration, conscious leadership and conscious culture, while providing examples from Whole Foods Market as well as other conscious and less-mindful companies. Though Mackey highlights Whole Foods Market’s successes, he candidly sheds light on its shortfalls as well.
Apart from offering examples from his own experience, Mackey also offers a road map to other companies and leaders that wish increase their awareness.
This is a different kind of book on business. While it still includes aspects of economic strategy and partnerships, Mackey focuses on the macro, interconnected, and spiritual aspects of business that are rarely talked about in conventional economics literature. Though this strategy hasn’t been the industry standard, through the success of John Mackey and Whole Foods Market, we can see that it is not only possible but also advantageous to create a successful business through conscious capitalism.
First Principles by John B. Taylor
Review by: JP Kloninger
I read and found First Principles by John B. Taylor interesting and fairly enjoyable, although just a tad repetitive with the main points he was trying to make. I suppose this may have been intentional, to really drive the points home. Further, I have to admit that at times I found the writing style somewhat pretentious. Mr. Taylor has an impressive background to say the least (former U.S. Treasury undersecretary, for one) and is highly qualified to write about the subjects discussed in the book, but I found the tone and name-dropping a bit superfluous and near condescending at times. However, the book remains effective in delineating and substantiating the importance and relevance of the following principles of economic freedom:
The author references these five principles throughout the book, as he touches on their application (or lack of) throughout the history of the United States, and persuasively demonstrates how relatively high adherence to these principles has almost always been correlated with periods of economic health and growth in our country; and how periods of detraction from these principles is associated with economic downturns that we have experienced since 1776. The 1980s and 90s are discussed as a positive period of growth and prosperity in America, championed by Ronald Reagan and his administration’s adherence to the principles of continuity, the rule of law, low governmental intervention, and the allowance of market forces to create a robust, growing economy. To contrast such periods, the Great Depression of course, and the more recent Great Recession of 2008 are discussed as periods that clearly exhibited haphazard policy-making and intervention by the government, thus distorting market workings, promoting jittery financial conditions, lack of market confidence by firms and consumers, and an overly risk-averse business climate which stifled growth and worse, created busts such as we saw during the recent mortgage crisis, caused by banks’ artificial confidence and cavalier practices fostered by an overly protective and interventionist government.
Taylor fairly points out how neither Republican nor Democrat administrations are solely at fault for deviations from the proven principles of economic freedom, nor is the implementation of them to be credited to one or the other party alone. For example, he highlights the Clinton (Democrat) administration as one that recognized and acted upon the importance of a government maintaining a limited role in markets, by giving individual states greater autonomy over issues of medical care, by signing the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996. On the Republican side of the house, Taylor reminds us of the post-1968 Nixon administration, with its overly interventionist fiscal and monetary policies, despite his proclamations pre-election that he was going to act towards less interventionism.
Overall I found the book to be a timely one in light of current economic conditions. While the future of the US economy is far from clear and the rebound from 2008 has been – perhaps expectedly after the “irrational exuberance” seen in the early 2000’s – frustratingly slow, Taylor gives us a good, strong reminder of the time-tested value of the five conceptually simple principles of economic freedom. Let’s hope the current administration can at least move the needle in the next four years toward a more stable economic climate supported by low-interventionism, consistency in policy, and some loosening of the reins for American – and global – business to create value and increase well-being at large.
The Lower River by Paul Theroux
Review by: Evan Lambert
The Lower River by Paul Theroux is a book about Ellis Hock, a Returned Peace Corps Volunteer who goes back to his site in Malawi Africa 40 years later, now as a sixty something man “on the shady side of middle aged”.
Hock sees his life in the US running a man’s clothing store that he inherited from his father as boring and unfulfilling. He is not close to his daughter, he recently divorced his wife, he has no friends, no attachments, but he does have some money and his dream of returning to Africa some day. The time when Hock was an important gringo in a remote village in southern Malawi remain his fondest memories and he always held on to the dream of returning there again. The trip then is a pilgrimage of sorts and is the meaning of returning to his “home” and the happiest time of his life. In summary this book is about his trip back to the Lower River and what he discovers along the way.
This is the 2nd book I have read of Theroux’s, the first being The Mosquito Coast which is about a family living in the rough tropical Caribbean coast of Honduras. I already liked his gritty style and underlying messages so I was curious and excited to know his take on Africa and what story he would tell. The Lower River set in this book is in Malawi. When he was there 40 years the country had just gained independence, and it was a jubilant and significant time when the future was wide open. For him Africa represents many things reprimands happiness simplicity and freedom from all of the frustrations of his day-to-day life. For example there were many snakes at in Africa and he is infatuated with any and all slithery creatures. The snake theme I think represents all of Africa to him and is used repeatedly by the author to symbolize the beauty and danger of the place.
One thing I found interesting is that Hock thought he was quite a big deal when he was there, an important figure in the small village. He also liked to believe that he was doing important work and that it was sustainable and that kids were getting educated at the school that is his legacy. Much of the interaction between Hock is with the village chief, who has many opinions on development and the best way to use money based on his experience working for the Agency (insert any well meaning NGO), meaning he should always get his cut. From the moment Hock returns to his village he is accosted by his former friends for handouts and money to fund projects. The book contains significant commentary on development in general and how Aid done poorly in Africa is largely at fault for the current situation.
I would recommend this book to anyone interested in travelling, development or just looking for a good read. I found this book to be very well written, entertaining and informative. I think anybody who has had a memorable travel experience will really enjoy this something. The author uses very descriptive language you're really in the scenes in the environment portrayed in your mind’s eye. When talking about his three weeks in Ghana years ago hocks friend Roy says "Those three weeks that out in his mind as brighter and happier, more memorable meaning, and years he spent elsewhere, years ahead yielded no memories at all." For me I can say my Peace Corps experience lives in my mind in a similar way, and I’m sure I will look back at this time in Costa Rica with similar eyes some day as well.
Be the Solution: How Entrepreneurs and Conscious Capitalists Can Solve All the Worlds Problems by Michael Strong
Review by: Daniel Zoltani
I picked up this book in the hopes of grasping a deeper understanding of the “Conscious Capitalist” movement. Be the Solution most definitely helped accomplish this goal while providing a fresh and invigorating stance in regards to the endless possibilities of the liberated entrepreneurial spirit. The book went far beyond what I had expected. It not only provided a reasonable and sound argument on how and why free markets can help solve many of the world’s largest problems, such as global poverty, failing education systems, and environmental deprivation, but more importantly how through entrepreneurship we (all 7 billion of us) can live healthier, peaceful and more meaningful lives. I thoroughly enjoyed Strong's optimistic and idealistic vision of the future. I also enjoyed the books attempt to present its fundamental message, neither for nor against, the Right or the Left, or liberal or conservative, but simply as an overarching solution – “Criticize by Creating”.
Essays from John Mackey, CEO of Whole Foods, Professor Muhammad Yunus, founder of the Grameen Bank, Donna Callejon, COO of Global Giving, Candace Allen, Educator, Karter Singh Khalsa, CEO of Golden Temple of Oregon and makers of Peace Cereal and Yogi tea, Hernando de Soto, founder of the Instituto Libertad y Democracia, Dr. Don Beck originator of Spiral Dynamics, Brian Johnson, Philosopher and Entrepenour, and Jeff Klein, Executive Director of FLOW all contribute to the book in separate chapters. Each provides their own unique perspective and experience regarding business, development and their vision for the positive transformation of the world.
Be the Solution argues that economic freedom and entrepreneurial opportunity are the best conditions for innovation, wealth-creation, and increased prosperity for all. In order for entrepreneurs to bring their creative innovations to scale, they need access to “The Entrepreneur’s Tool Kit”,
What if those who thought that they were finding meaning in status and consumption were to discover a more direct and satisfying path to meaning through flow? What is Flow you ask? In a culture of freedom, respect, and integrity as entrepreneurs continue to solve problems by creating solutions, the value added acts as the main driver of our human advancement.
Flow is:
“Being completely involved in an activity for its own sake. The ego falls away. Time flies. Every action, movement, and thought follows inevitably from the previous one, like playing jazz. Your whole being is involved, and you’re using your skills to the utmost.”
I like that!
A few other topics discussed throughout the book that I found intriguing:
In the words of John Mackey, “Ultimately conscious businesses creates lasting value as the world evolves to even greater levels of prosperity, helping billions of people flourish and lead lives infused with passion, purpose, love and creativity — a world of freedom, harmony, prosperity and compassion.
In these regards, while reading Be the Solution, I couldn’t help but in my mind keep referring back to a quote I once read by the Dalai Lama:
We have bigger houses but smaller families:
We have more degrees but less sense;
more knowledge but less judgments;
more experts but more problems;
more medicines, but less healthiness.
We've been all the way to the moon and back,
but we have trouble crossing the street
to meet the new neighbor.
We build more computers
to hold more information,
to produce more copies than ever,
but we have less communication.
We have become long on quantity
but short on quality.
These are times of fast foods,
but slow digestion;
tall man, but short character;
steep profits, but shallow relationships.
It is time when there is much in the window
but nothing in the room.
How this perfectly relates to the theme of Be the Solution. Abraham Maslow’s hierarchy of needs similarly identifies the same issue:
Once peoples more basic needs for food, shelter, and safety have been met, they then crave love, esteem and self-actualization. In the developed countries, almost everyone’s basic needs have been met. Regarding the emerging economies, we know that opening the world will allow the basic needs for almost everyone on the planet to be met. Thus the fundamental problem is how to allow people’s needs for love, esteem and self-actualization to be met more effectively.
Be the Solution celebrates the accomplishments that have been made thus far and creates excitement about our human potential to solve the next set of transformational challenges.
In Defense of Global Capitalism by Johan Norberg
Review by: Daniel Vidal
In Defense of Global Capitalism by Johan Norberg is a well researched, well put together and easy to digest book that looks at certain ideas - like the claim that the rich are getting richer and the poor poorer - and combats them with detailed and verifiable facts. Norberg states that, "When I say that I mean to defend capitalism, what I have in mind is the capitalistic freedom to proceed by trial and error, without having to ask rulers and border officials for permission first."
The book is organized into sections that refute and answer many of the most common misconceptions and questions about the free market, capitalism and globalization. Norberg explores the facts concerning issues like hunger, education, freedom and equality, noting in particular the improvements and growth that China and India have seen over the years since reforming their economic systems.
When considering globalization, Norberg makes a great analogy: what if children were forced to discover everything by themselves? Wouldn’t they develop slowly? The growth of developing countries doesn’t need to take as long as it did for others and they can learn from past experiences. In this case, it’s interesting to note that most liberal countries have a per capita GDP much greater of those of the economically least liberal. The uneven distribution of wealth, according to Norberg, in the world is due to the uneven distribution of capitalism and the “losers” of the world are those that have been left out.
Johan argues convincingly that free trade and capitalism are the key to alleviating the world’s social problems. The terms capitalism and profits, with their generally negative connotations, aren’t evil and are good for the developing world and good for social progress.
While I admittedly wasn’t sure where this book would take me, it helped me realize that globalization, (conscious) business and capitalism can help improve the lives of everyone on the planet.
The Stealth of Nations: The Global Rise of the Informal Economy by Robert Neuwirth
Review by: Brian Doe
The Stealth of Nations is a look into the workers of the world’s informal economy, very relevant to the world of microfinance as most of the markets, traders and service providers described are instantly recognizable as clients served by the Foundation’s microfinance partners.
In the book, the author says the informal economy is “where the jobs are” with an estimated half of the world’s workers working off the books in the informal economy. In most of the countries where the Foundation is active the informal economy provides the majority of jobs (if not the vast majority, in the case of Africa at least). The informal economy has provided a buffer to those unemployed during the financial crisis, and is growing to supply the world demand for manufactured imports.
The author isn’t actually happy with the term “informal economy” and settles on the term System D, coming from a French West African notion of Debrouillards… or people who are particularly resourceful and ambitious- who can find a way to turn a profit even with a seemingly negligible amount of capital and navigating a lot of risk. So the term is a positive one, but the book also is honest in portraying the difficulties faced by those living in System D.
The messiness and difficulty of life in System D is well represented in the book. The running theme is that System D exists in the space where higher level legal business cannot (or finds it wouldn’t be profitable to) penetrate - transport systems in places with little security or infrastructure, sale of cheaper forged goods in developing countries (often needing to be smuggled across multiple borders), distributing water and generators into areas where larger scale service providers find it too costly to work- this is where System D takes hold and provides lots of jobs. The main point being that if the economic space of the informal market was “easy” (or legal) then informal businesses would be put out of business by larger, more efficient (and likely less labor intensive) legal enterprises, rather than the highly inefficient business systems that characterize System D.
I found the project of researching and writing this book about the informal economy to be fascinating, I may have a lot of experience in informal markets but exploring the depths of Lagos markets and informal transport systems, and observing the 24-hour vendor cycles in Rio’s markets is impressive. Most anecdotes come from his time navigating open markets of Lagos, Rio and the Paraguayan border town of Cuidad del Este; moving through the world of wholesaling in Guangzhou, China where small traders get their goods; and a look into the developed world’s System D with some stories from New York City (the U.S. has one of the smallest informal markets by percentage of GDP but one of the largest by dollar amount) as well as an historical recounting of Britain’s informal market in the Middle Ages where traders were maligned as immoral cheats and tricksters.
Some other interesting points from the author’s anecdotes:
1) The formal and informal economies are closely connected, often at odds and yet often reliant on each other. The informal economy relies on formal enterprises to invent and manufacture goods that others can copy and forge for cheap sale and distribution around the world at no profit to the original manufacturers. The formal economy, on the other hand, relies on the informal economy to largely handle the lower levels of their supply chain at an affordable enough rate to provide manufactured goods at reasonable prices to buyers in the “regulated world” even if this results in some loss through forged and stolen goods.
2) The informal market is unavoidably in the same space as illicit business and organized crime, which often exploits small traders with fees and artificial taxes (in Nigeria even bridges and roads are co-opted by thugs who demand a fee to pass). This association with the illicit also propagates a bigotry towards the informal sector by wealthy consumers and governments, a phenomenon the author describes as existing throughout history. Literature from Britain in the Middle Ages describes street traders as tricksters and frauds, as well as dens of immorality.
The best part of the book is the first 200 pages or so describing the author’s experience in System D and trying to draw some conclusions about its place in the current world economy.
The last 50-60 pages, the author make some pointed “recommendations” to the worlds’ governments and large corporations on how to better integrate System D to the benefit of informal workers. These include ideas around quasi-legalization of informal markets through special business licensing, creating associations between traders to help them organize the sector, and setting up special legal systems to provide justice to the informal trading space (even though it is their illegality and riskiness that largely allows them to exist). I have some doubt that legal companies would allow business licenses that legalize informal businesses without seeing them pay taxes. Also while the value of bringing legal protections to the poor are of incredible value (as working in microfinance has shown me), I fear government officials and organized crime would still exploit these new systems given the environment in these countries and the amount of resources available to dedicate to this initiative.
Microfinance is only briefly mentioned in the book, though I see it as a positive way to address many of the author’s concerns about supporting the small trader while also seeing informal businesses move into larger economic activities. Microfinance works to engage and support the small entrepreneur in the interim period until higher level economic activities can take hold in the developing world- the sector is increasingly doing more to bridge the spectrum of services to better support those traders ready to move into more advanced businesses as well as those who are risk averse and may just be interested in saving products and small loans. Perhaps there could be more to similarly bridge the space between formal and informal businesses, the Asian manufacturing sector is ready to move operations offshore and replace them with more up-market industries.
The successful companies of the future in the developing world, financial or trade sector, will be those that can harness the power of the informal economy and build-up or start-up large-scale production businesses in these areas- what those look like remain to be seen. Perhaps the social business sector and tailoring new products to the poor can be a new niche for the United States business sector to engage the world’s informal sector, and compete with Asia.
The Stealth of Nations is a fairly easy read, and makes the reader think more about the complexity and interconnectedness of the global informal economy to the formal one.
More Than Good Intentions: Improving the Ways the World's Poor Borrow, Save, Farm, Learn, and Stay Healthy by Dean Karlan and Jacob Appel
Review by: Steve Wanta
What makes microfinance effective? Unlike the industry professionals, Professor Karlan, the author of More than Good Intentions starts with a different question, “Is microfinance effective?” Karlan explains many of the inherent flaws in previous research studies conducted by the MFI themselves. The rigor and method of many of the classic microfinance studies is questioned. His work and this book identify this bias and attempt to best control the complex world of poverty to isolate the role of microfinance. Over many years, across many countries, with a wide array of organizations, Karlan and his team implemented a number of Random Control Trials (RCTs) to examine a wide array of effects; on incomes, consumption, consumer decisions, etc.
The use of rigorous research has been utilized by businesses to determine consumer behavior towards products and been an important part of keeping up or head of trends. As microfinance markets become more competitive, being able to evolve with your customers will be even more important. MFIs that can become more sophisticated that will offer new, more, and better services will be the leaders. This book points to interesting examples that one might not expect.
As is often noted, microfinance means many different things to many different people from loan size, loan products, and the stated mission of different MFIs. Although many different studies where performed, the ability to apply findings from one study to microfinance in another country or even a different MFI would be difficult. The methodologies researched varied widely from poverty-focused group loans in India to individual consumer loans in South Africa.
The most interesting research looked at the issue of client retention and the impact on changing the lending methodology. Green Bank, an MFI in the Philippines had issues of client desertion and worried that changing the group-based model would adversely impact their repayment rates and other key indicators. Karlan’s team help pilot the implementation of the ASA model whereby all clients are individually liable with absolutely no group guarantee available. The research found across the board that this change would be positive for the MFI and thus a full rollout was implemented.
This is a great example of the need for microfinance organizations to continue to innovate and not remain stagnant in the services they provide the poor.
No Ancient Wisdom, No Followers: The Challenges of Chinese Authoritarian Capitalism by James McGregor
Review by: Steve Wanta
This was a very interesting read when looking at the often over simplified, very polarizing image of China. There are many images that are conjured of China when discussing manufacturing, trade, human rights but what is so astonishing is the rapid ascent of a formerly nonexistent middle class.
The book details the “China Model”, authoritarian capitalism that has fueled the rapid growth of the economy and turned China in a major global power. The iron hand of the Communist Party has driven to government and continues to control the path of a country.
Do the ends justify the means? China is proving that societies are dynamic and that the “ends” change, and in order to continue to evolve so do the “means” need to evolve. In the conclusion, the author writes, “The Twelfth Five-Year Plan changes the previous slogan of ‘Strong State, Wealthy People’ to ‘Wealthy People, Strong State.’” It is clear that China’s current model will eventually run out of steam. The corruption and general inefficiencies of the State Owned Enterprises will not be able to keep up.
In the meantime, the global cry to trade with China on a level playfield appears to be a fight the rest of the world has been unable to win. Like microcredit, real and lasting development comes from the bottom up. Real reform will need to be driven by the people of China. The new middle class will demand greater transparency and not stand for the corruption that the books cites as come place in Chinese politics.
In today’s interdependent world, the success and failure of the Chinese experiment will affect all of us.
Sufferings in Africa by Captain James Riley
Review by: Genie Bolduc
This book was listed by Abraham Lincoln as one of the books that most influenced his life.
Born in 1777 in Connecticut, Captain Riley’s school education ended when at 8 years old when he was lent out to a farmer neighbor to earn his keep. The farmer, preferring that he stay working in the field rather than attend school, limited his school education, but his parents had taught him “by both precept and practice, that to be honest, industrious and prudent; to govern my passions, (which were violent,) to feel for and relieve the stresses of others when in my power; to be mild and affable in my manners, and virtuous in all my actions was to be happy; and they, generally, had instilled into my youthful mind, every good principle.” With this solid moral compass, Captain Riley went to sea at 15 years old to see the world. He was somewhat prosperous until the year of 1808 when his ship was seized by the French and he was held until the later part of 1809, and though he lost nearly all of his property, he remarks that he returned wiser for he had learned to read and write both English and French, and “took lessons from the school of adversity” which served him well in his later sufferings in Africa.
He attached himself to a ship and sailed, having left the Bay of Gibraltar on the 23rd of August 1815, only to be shipwrecked on the western coast of Africa. Captured and enslaved by nomadic Arabs, Captain Riley and his men are beaten and starved while traversing the Sahara. His tale is a harrowing story of adversity and survival, from drinking camel urine when there was no water because it was less salty than their own urine to finding a way to convincing his captor that if he and his mates were delivered to Morocco that their captor would be handsomely rewarded . His ability to keep his wits about him in horrible adversity and to be constantly thinking of how best to gain any advantage for himself and his men is impressive and inspiring.
Half the Sky by Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn
Review by: Joy Stoddard
I read Half the Sky when one of its sponsorship partners invited Whole Planet Foundation to consider joining the book’s promotional efforts and partners such as mutual partners BRAC (our microfinance partner in Sierra Leone, Sri Lanka and Uganda), Every Mother Counts (whose purpose is maternal health), and Fonkoze (our microfinance partner in Haiti), and many other change-makers. Inspired by the Chinese proverb “Women hold up half the sky”, Pulitzer Prize winning writers Kristof and WuDunn passionately take us on their journey of chronicling the suffering and strength of girls, daughters, mothers, and wives they interviewed in Africa and Asia. They offer piercing descriptions of twenty-first century slavery, the sub-culture of prostitution, rape as a weapon of war, honor killings, maternal mortality, negative impacts of American foreign policy on women worldwide, and female genital cutting.
Woven in to each chapter is a spotlight on an inspiring, hard working individual or group or institution who is working to end the abuses, including Muhammad Yunus and Grameen Bank and Kashf Foundation, in the microcredit sector. Reading Half the Sky reinforces that the transformative power of microcredit – though not a silver bullet – can reduce the occurrence of these atrocities by empowering impoverished women in the developing world with the opportunity to earn income through a home-based business and invest in the family’s nutrition and education.
Finally, Kristof and WuDunn lead us to a closing chapter entitled “What You Can Do” and “four steps we can take in the next ten minutes”, urging readers to act now and get involved in the world: donate to organizations empowering rural communities around the globe, volunteer abroad, educate yourself on policies that effect the very poor, and speak out for change.
Free to Choose by Milton & Rose Friedman
Review by: Victor Quiroz
In Free to Choose, Friedman explains the importance of economic, political, and personal freedom and argues against government policies that interfere with personal freedoms and interrupt the efficiency of the free market. Friedman does a great job of taking complex problems and explaining them in a simplified way. I found this especially helpful since I have little background in economics. Although this book was written more than 30 years ago, I thought it was interesting how much of it seems to echo our present.
In the earlier parts of the book Friedman warns against the consequences of government interference and overregulation of free markets. Since it was written in 1980, the total numbers of regulations and obstacles to free enterprise have increased dramatically (roughly about 7,000 new pages of regulation since 1980). He also delves into controversial government run programs such as public healthcare, education, and social security. I thought it was especially interesting how these haven’t changed much over three decades.
This book really opened my mind to thinking about how many government run programs operate in the U.S. For example, in chapter 4, “Cradle to Grave”, Friedman examines the development of the welfare state in the U.S. In the beginning, there were few who received the benefits from such programs; coupled with many taxpayers available to support them. However, as these programs grew, the numbers changed and now we have many who are receiving the benefits and fewer tax payers to support these programs. As a result, today we are confronting the issues of expanding government programs that are costing more and more each year. Friedman further explains by classifying spending priority into four categories. (This video clearly and quickly explains these four categories). He sums up his points in saying,
"Nobody spends somebody else's money as carefully as he spends his own. Nobody uses somebody else's resources as carefully as he uses his own. So if you want efficiency and effectiveness, if you want knowledge to be properly utilized, you have to do it through the means of private property."
Basically, Friedman argues that people can more effectively and efficiently spend their own money rather than to let the government do it for them. Overall, I really enjoyed this book. I thought it was really informative and that it his arguments strongly reinforce the important role freedom plays in the market.
Africa's Moment by Jean-Michael Servino and Olivier Ray
Review by: Lauren Evans
I picked up this book to learn more about a place I have never been and to gain an understanding of Africa’s rich history and why it is emerging as a force to be reckoned with. Reading it gave me a fresh perspective on Africa, the world’s most rapidly changing continent, as well as a positive outlook for its future. I was also able to learn a lot about Africa’s geography, as the French authors take the reader on a journey around the continent and mention places I have never even heard of. In reading it, I found it helpful to have a map handy to gain a deeper understanding of the anecdotes.
Africa is a melting pot, and one of many contradictions. Tradition versus modernity; rampant poverty, violence and corruption amidst a booming middle class and economic growth; migration and the struggle for integration; population explosion against fragile social balances. Africa boasts the largest concentration of minerals in the world, but Sub-Saharan areas are very poor with little access to food, water and agricultural capabilities. But, it’s ultimately these contradictions that are creating the foundation for an epic turnaround of the continent and its people, and we can all play a part in changing its course.
Africa is now in its “moment.” Population growth is booming. Once strict and violent borders between countries rich in traditional and religious divides are being loosened and broken down by modernity, emigration and immigration, creating economic growth. Africa’s population will double in 30 years, and two out of every three Africans today are under the age of 25. In addition, there is a mass rural exodus happening that is creating mobility, and the migration of the poor from rural to urban areas is creating prosperity. It’s creating solidarity by encouraging people to work together to lift themselves out of poverty, to change their own lives, and urban areas lend themselves to resources and solutions not available in rural Africa. It was quite interesting to me that China, who is Africa’s biggest trade partner, has an Africa immigrant population that has grown five-fold in the last five years. The authors state, “Globalization has strengthened the feeling of solidarity that binds them.” Africa is emerging out of the state that mass media often depicts: a poor and hopeless dustbowl, and the urbanization it is experiencing is the most rapid our world has ever known.
Coincidentally, I came across an article just last week in Business Times called “Investors Hope to Seize on Africa’s Moment” where they note that Sub-Saharan Africa is “now ready to rival India and China as an economic success story.” The tone of the book and the stories the authors tell us definitely point to that result. But why has Africa been failing until recently? It can’t be attributed to one thing, and definitely can’t be attributed to its troubled history (quite the common myth), but I think the biggest culprit and the direct cause of its poor economic development is development aid. This "aid" is not sustainable and is detrimental to the mobility of Africa because it creates a culture of dependency and inequality. Africa has realized that and is putting its own measures in place to move from disaster to progress.
It’s easy to think that Africa’s troubled past ensures that it will face a troubled future. I am glad I read this book, because I finished it with a very positive outlook. I have hope for Africa, and I want to do what I can to play a part in its global emergence. 150 years from now, will Africa be following in Asia’s footsteps? Who knows, but I know that whatever happens, it will be exciting to watch.
The Dragon’s Gift: The Real Story of China in Africa, by Deborah Brautigam
Review by: Brian Doe
Author Deborah Brautigam, a scholar on China-Africa relations and the Director of International Development at John Hopkins’s SAIS program, feels the modern narrative of China’s engagement in Africa is unfairly simplistic and ignores the longstanding historical Chinese presence in Africa over the last 70 years. The book lays out the history of China in Africa, primarily in the 20th century, and the evolution of the country’s strategy supporting economic development on the continent- with its successes and failures.
The strengths of the book are,
The weaknesses are the tendency to shy away from direct criticism of Chinese policy and State-heavy direction, and a lack of data to support some of her arguments (granted the Chinese govt doesn’t release a lot of data)- the author relies heavily on anecdotes, case studies and sometimes annoyingly, an over reliance on quotes from Chinese and African government officials singing praise of China’s work in Africa, rather than other more objective sources. It is hard to tell if the anecdotes really represent meaningful trends of the Chinese experience on the continent, hard to tell if success stories were really objectively successes.
China’s History as a Backdrop to International Engagement:
China’s history from 1900 to 1960 is fascinating, complex and vital to understanding the China we see today on the African continent- and the world. A few key points that help understand how the country engaged in Africa over the 20th century are -
Mutual benefit, self-reliance, non-interference would positively impact China’s strategy abroad- a legacy of the first half of the 20th century. Mao’s legacy of government-led resource allocation on a grand scale would of course also affect Chinese international strategy for the good and bad.
China in Africa: Chinese engagement basically fits into three periods-
(1950-60s) Brash Mao launching a Chinese footprint internationally, largely focused on politics over economics- supporting likeminded revolutionaries in Africa (Sierra Leone, Guinea, Zimbabwe and others) and sending capital and construction teams to new African governments swearing not to recognize Taiwan to build state-owned factories and other public infrastructure- Mao’s stated objective was to jumpstart self-reliant governments in Africa.
(1970-80s) A more sober Chinese engagement in Africa focused on bilateral support between governments to build state-owned economic infrastructure on loans that would be repaid with the production forthcoming from financed factories and farms, increasingly these would be financed by the Chinese Exim Bank and managed by teams of Chinese in order to ensure higher sustainability- this period highlighting the value of “mutual benefit”;
(1990-00s) the last and most recent trend of “going global” in which China seeks to graduate mature industries out of China to other parts of the world, and transition their African strategy to include more joint-ventures with existing African partners to better bolster sustainability and overcome impediments to foreign management navigating the African environment.
I focus largely on the evolution of China’s manufacturing in these breakdowns, because it is such a huge part of China in Africa- however the author also describes many other forms of engagement over the years:
Plus other interventions over the period that merge the social and economic to the hopeful benefit of African recipients.
The author also engages in a long conversation on defining Chinese engagement as either aid or investment- however I found the Chinese government to be so implicated in both social and economic activities, that it seemed impossible to really try and sort out point for point what is assistance and what is profit. Enough to say that the Chinese have strategies to both assist Africa and profit from Africa, and that most of this is done by the Chinese government directly through various types of loans (some of which the Chinese do agree to write-off in the 1990s), export credits and some development assistance- with most contracts for work going to Chinese firms (public and private).
So what does the author see as being China’s advantages and disadvantages in Africa?
The advantages the author clearly lays out are:
1) From the beginning the Chinese followed the principle that developing countries are successful when they direct aid to building things that can later make a profit for the country and when they leverage their natural resources as collateral for debt to build productive infrastructure to utilize those resources. They had this strategy 70 years ago and it gives Africa a strong model for development.
This focus on African manufacturing and production, and leveraging natural resources available in African countries, was unfortunately largely a failure in Africa under Mao who didn’t understand that new African governments wouldn’t be able to manage an economy as he was doing in China. In the 70/80s it sort of limped along like many of the similar loan programs by programs such as the World Bank and IMF (though China theoretically doesn’t believe in dictating African policy beyond demanding countries deny Taiwan diplomatic relations).
But in the modern period there are signs that this historical focus on aid (or at least up front capital) for productive infrastructure can bear fruit on the continent. It has also set a precedent that China is interested in seeing production happen in Africa and not siphoning resources out to be exploited in Asia.
2) The Chinese understand what it is like to be a developing country, they don’t fear the developing context and are still mindful of their experience as a developing country. Practically speaking, the Chinese are willing to work and set up business in places where Western countries fear to tread, they are willing to live and work in conditions not off par from locals which makes Chinese expat teams cheaper, the businesses more likely to be profitable and jobs in Chinese construction jobs not competitive with local institutions (as the author argues that Western NGO jobs are).
3) The Chinese Government has the ability to quickly mobilize mass amounts of capital to fund approved projects in Africa - the Chinese state is the source of money, the construction company to build, the management team to run a factory and the keeper of international political and economic strategy. The author argues that the notion that the Chinese fund with no strings attached is false, and the Chinese investment process includes its own bureaucracy- but largely capital is mobilized with much greater ease than would a comparative Western program, and more streamlined since the number of outside stakeholders is limited. The size of investments are also overstated in the Western media- but routinely the Chinese government is able to send hundreds of millions of dollars or even billions of dollars to fund a major infrastructure construction programs, often to be built extremely quickly.
The disadvantages, predictably…
1) Government control of strategy, economy, money- the flip side to Chinese government control of resources is that first, politics interferes with smart investment. But more importantly, many of the conspiracy theories, rumors and dark predictions of Chinese involvement in Africa that the author tries to dispel and confront- unavoidably relate to general confusion about the lines between business and government, aid and investment, charity and profit in the Chinese context.
The Chinese government is not transparent on its strategy or history, it allows for management of large-scale infrastructure investments by State owned firms – the end result, even under the most well-intentioned Chinese investment strategy (Chinese management of African firms came about due to sustainability concerns), is that it seems like the Chinese government is taking control of very visible aspects of African infrastructure.
2) China’s “One China Policy”, meaning that countries that acknowledge Taiwan would be sanctioned from Chinese engagement, and those that only have ties with China would receive beneficial treatment. Cold War rivalries of course created all sorts of illogical motivators for aid and investment and this is similar.
3) Confidence in State-owned economies as a model for other countries, this may seem obvious and it was unlikely that China wasn’t going to support state-owned businesses, but it really did negate a lot of the other strategic advantages China had going for it- an eagerness to invest in productive infrastructure that when handed over to African governments weren’t maintained, investment strategies often impacted by African presidential elections, . In recent years this has been reduced quite a lot, but a big potential was lost in the first 30 years of Chinese engagement on the continent.
So what is the end message to take away from the book? First China has long been engaged in Africa, and its strategy is a complex one based on Chinese values and philosophies, experience as a developing country and member of the modern world in terms of aid and investment in the continent- China didn’t suddenly enter Africa 10 years ago to suck up available natural resources.
But more importantly, China has over 60 years of managing manufacturing operations in Africa in varying types of partnerships with African parties. At the same time they have a host of maturing industries which need to be moved abroad to make room for more up-market industries in China- Africa could be a key landing place for these industries. In the lingo of today’s development world, China probably isn’t going to be a bullet” to poverty in Africa but it holds a lot of potential for reinvigorating the development model through domestic manufacturing based on African-Foreign joint-ventures.
A Fistful of Rice: My Unexpected Quest to End Poverty Through Profitability by Vikram Akula
Review by: Daniel Zoltani
I decided to read Akula’s A Fistful of Rice after returning from a recent trip to India. The trip took me to southern India where I visited Whole Planet Foundation’s partner, Microcredit Initiative Grameen (MIG) Kerala Project, as well as to Uttar Pradesh in north east India to conduct a site review for a potential new partnership with CASHPOR Microfinance. The visit made clear the India microfinance sector is still recovering from the 2010 Andhra Pradesh microfinance crisis and the events of the crisis continue to impact microfinance operations throughout the country. SKS Microfinance, among other players and factors, arguably contributed towards the 2010 crisis. The SKS IPO and the crisis in Andhra Pradesh that followed shortly thereafter postdates this book’s publication.
A Fistful of Rice is a quick and easy read taking the reader through Vikram Akula's personal journey of establishing micro-financing business, SKS Microfinance, and his ethical argument for for-profit microfinance. Basically, his main point is that if investors can make money providing loans to the poor, more of the poor will get the entrepreneurial loans they need to bring themselves out of poverty. If an established model that is both efficient and scalable has no capital constraints, the organization would be able to reach far more poor people than a non-profit lender constrained by funding could ever imagine. A financial return to the investors rewards them for their investment but more importantly ensures access to additional future funding; a “win win” for everyone.
Akula walks the reader through his experiences that led him to this argument and the processes put into action to move from theory to practice. Launched in 1998, SKS operations exploded and by 2010 had over 6.2 million borrowers with an organizational loan balance outstanding of $925.8 million. SKS focuses entirely on women, targets the very poor, utilizes the group solidarity model, maintains interest rates similar to both the non-profit projects I recently visited in India (and that would be considered low from a global even regional perspective), and even has an ultra poor program similar to that of Grameen Banks’ or BRACs International ultra poor program. So what’s the big deal if it is for-profit or not?
In 2010, SKS becomes the second microfinance institution to sell shares of the company to the public, prompting Yunus to make this derisive comment in Microfinance Focus: “The concern is that when you put an IPO, you are promising your investors that there is a lot of money to be made and this is a wrong message. Poor people should not be shown as an opportunity to make money out of.”
As a public company, SKS is legally obligated to make the most money it can for its shareholders. According to Akula, establishing brand recognition and achieving scale through rapid expansion was the best way to do so, referring to it as “Google territory”. Yet finding balance between aggressive growth while maintaining the relationships, discipline, respect and consistency that makes microfinance work is a challenge when profit maximization is the bottom line. Compromising the wellbeing of the stakeholder for the shareholder is dangerous business when the stakeholders of the company include 6.2 million of the worlds poorest. For example, it was hard to envision SKS prioritizing the maximization of customer satisfaction over profit maximization when for example Akula mentions in the book that at one point he started taking a stopwatch into the field to time how long his employees spent with customers in order to streamline the business in line with a McDonald's like management approach. For me, the legal structure of non-profit or for-profit is far less important than the direction, objectives and priorities of ownership that strike a balance between profit and pro-poor.
Vikram Akula pioneered aggressive growth, for-profit micro-finance. His argument for profitable micro-finance is compelling and the book outlines this argument in a simplistic and straightforward approach; with substantial profit margins, his company was able to expand at a pace that would be impossible to match by similar non-profit organizations and serve millions of micro-entrepreneurs. Hindsight is 20/20, and it was with this perspective that I enjoyed reading A Fistful of Rice. The quick read is worth it if you would like to better understand the advantages of taking a full business approach in development yet keep in mind it sheds little light on the disadvantages regarding the astonishing growth achieved that has since led to serious issues for SKS and the sector as a whole.
Getting Better – Why Global Development is Succeeding – and How We Can Improve the World Even More by Charles Kenny
Review by: Victor Quiroz
The book Getting Better, by Charles Kenny ultimately explains that the world today faces many challenges in alleviating poverty throughout developing world. These challenges include a lack of access to education, health services, and other basic human needs such as food or clean water. However, despite these challenges through continuous innovations in medicine, technology, education, and governments, over time the economic situation has improved and that the world has become a much better place to live. Kenny does a great job of debunking some of the beliefs that have inhibited public efforts to increase the quality of life. For example, one of those beliefs is that growth models have a direct impact on improving the economic situation in poor countries. However, the reality is that policy changes and models have little effect on a countries growth. Kenny claims that what really causes a country to grow cannot depend on just attribute (such as education, technology, or investment), but the driver of that growth really depends on where the country is and what it faces during the long haul. Another topic that Kenny covers (which I really enjoyed learning about) is how the world has escaped from what is known as the Malthusian Trap. The Malthusian Trap suggests that, “the only check on population growth is near starvation”. According to the Malthusian Trap, mankind had essentially capped out its highest levels of production. As a result, when populations increased income diminishes. Vice-verse as the death rates increases so does incomes across the population. Kenny explains that these ideas held true up until about the time of the industrial revolution. As a result, income per person dramatically increased and so did the quality of life. This is one example how technology and innovation broke the Malthusian Trap and paved the way for a better world today.
Poor Economics – A Radical Rethinking of the Way to Fight Global Poverty, by Abhijit V. Banerjee and Esther Duflo
Review by: JP Kloninger
A very interesting and relevant book written by two accomplished and highly educated MIT economists and co-founders of the Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL), with the mission of reducing poverty by ensuring that policy is based on scientific evidence.
While clearly well-researched and with a definite academic, near textbook-like bent, this book remains accessible to the layperson and only sparingly uses a few simple graphs to illustrate important concepts such as that of the “S-shaped curve” plotted on an x-axis representing current income, and a y-axis representing future income. They use this curve to pictorially represent the “poverty trap”, a condition (and position along the S-curve) in which income in the future is lower than income today for a person, illustrating a theoretically irreversible position of poverty.
Poor Economics couples the theoretical models presented with plenty of real-world examples. They explain some seemingly paradoxical behaviors that keep the poor in a state of poverty, for example by presenting the case of Kenyan farmers who, despite full knowledge that usage of fertilizer for their crops will increase yields and subsequently revenues at a faster rate than costs, still abstain from purchasing fertilizer season after season: This occurs because they do not purchase fertilizer right after the harvest, when they have more cash available than usual. When the critical time for fertilizing comes around during the planting season, they have spent most of their cash on other goods and services, and so they remain in a poverty trap.
Another interesting study and successful project mentioned in this book occurred in Rajasthan, India, where immunization rates were very low -- in the order of 6% -- despite their being offered for free by the government. Two changes in the program caused large increases in the vaccination rate: It surpassed 18% with the deployment of mobile units that travelled to residents’ home areas, and further it reached 38% when a free bag of lentils was offered along with the vaccination.
The book is persuasive in highlighting that too often the effectiveness of efforts to alleviate poverty is not measured, and when it is measured it is not done appropriately. One case study that underscores the value of measuring a project’s impact accurately and thoroughly, is that of a de-worming medicine distribution effort in Kenya in 1998. The findings were essentially that children treated with such medicine earn in the order of 20% more as young adults, compared to those who do not get treatment. Results such as these support one of the authors’ main messages – that poverty alleviation is most effectively and quickly achieved by utilizing a variety of methods (that have been tested and measured to ensure their success) simultaneously, as opposed to taking a single-method treatment approach. Of course, an indispensable tool in this multi-faceted approach is microfinance, though here again Mr. Banerjee and Ms. Duflo reinforce that even microfinance is not a sole, isolated “silver bullet” for the eradication of poverty.
Freakonomics by Stephen J. Dubner & Steven D. Levitt
Review by: Daniel Vidal
Freakonomics is a fun and easy read that explores, from an economist’s perspective, “the hidden side of everything". In this book Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner answer some rather unusual questions with some obvious and some not-so-obvious results and answers.
Questions like the ones below are asked and help the reader realize that by doing just a little research, some of life’s mysteries can be made to make a bit more sense.
As New York Times reviewer, Jon Moe, puts it, these mysteries “could be illuminated and made even more fascinating by asking the right questions and drawing connections.” For example, why do Sumo Wrestlers with a 7-7 record win 80% of the time vs. their 8-6 competitors in a best of 15 series? Couldn’t someone conclude that a wrestler with a better record would win more often than not? What role do incentives and a certain level of corruption in the wresting world play?
And what if you can you show statistically that difficult questions at the end of a test will be more correct than easy ones at the beginning? If this correlation exists, could a teacher’s pay/bonus structure be to blame?
I particularly enjoyed this book because it helped me realize that not everything is as it seems on the surface. Asking the right questions or looking at a situation or problem from a different view can shed light on it in a way that you may have never seen before. While there are critics who question some of the data, conclusions and whether or not this book can be considered economics (some suggest econometrics instead), I would recommend it as an interesting read that, if nothing else, gets your wheels turning.
No Longer at Ease by Chinua Achebe
Review by: Lauren Evans
From the author of Things Fall Apart and Arrow of God comes Chinua Achebe’s No Longer at Ease, his second book in the African trilogy and one that was published in 1960, the year Nigeria received its independence from England. I had already read the first and third book in this trilogy and was excited to pick this one up. The book is set in the 1950s with Obi Okonkwo, the grandson of main character Okonkwo from Things Fall Apart, returning to Nigeria from England, where he had gone to receive his education. The story opens with Obi on trial for having accepted a bribe, then goes back to the pre-trial past to give us an idea of how he ended up there and ends with the story returning full circle.
Obi went to England on scholarship to pursue a degree in English. After returning to Nigeria and his hometown of Umuofia, he takes a position with the Scholarship Board as the Administrative Assistant to the Inspector of Schools. Soon after, he’s offered a bribe by a man who is trying to get a scholarship for his little sister. The girl even visits Obi and offers to bribe him with sex, but Obi turns it down, even though he is tempted because of severe financial hardship. While all this is going on, Obi develops a romantic relationship with Clara Okeke, a Nigerian woman he met while in England who is an “osu,” an outcast looked down upon by her descendants. Obi cannot marry her under the traditional ways of the Igbo people of Nigeria – his father and mother strongly oppose it, with his mother saying that she will kill herself if the marriage happens. When Clara hears the news, she tells Obi she is pregnant, and he arranges for her to have an illegal abortion that lead to health and financial complications. Then, Obi’s mother passes away.
In dealing with the death of his mother and trying to juggle repaying his school loan, paying for his siblings’ education and helping Clara with her abortion, Obi sinks into deep depression. Accepting bribes seems like the only way out, so Obi accepts many of them, until he gets to a point where he has paid off all his debts and can no longer live a life of corruption and guilt. He takes one last bribe, only to get caught in a sting operation. He is arrested, and the story comes full circle, taking us back to where we started.
I found it interesting that Obi's birth name is Obiajulu which means "the mind at last is at rest" –quite the irony, considering the title of the novel and the fact that Obi is caught between two worlds in a generation of change. Even though No Longer at Ease condemns the system of corruption and bribery that exists within modern Nigeria, we also see that there are clear advantages to it.
Africa: How 17 Countries are Leading the Way by Steven Radelet
Review by: Joy Stoddard
Emerging Africa is a data-filled overview of 17 African nations finding success in combating poverty, increasing prosperity, securing peace and widening the global circle of development. For the 300 million people who live in these countries, “challenges are great, success is far from assured, but hopes are growing and enterprise is expanding”. The 17 include Botswana, Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, Ethiopia, Ghana, Lesotho, Mali, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, Rwanda, São Tomé and Principe, Seychelles, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda, and Zambia. Radelet separates out the oil producing and other countries to focus on these 17 that happen to comprise nearly half of Africa’s population.
After an interesting introduction by Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, President of the Republic of Liberia, we are presented with Radelet’s summary of the five fundamental challenges he believes to have ignited the turnaround for these countries: the rise of more democratic and accountable governments, the implementation of more sensible economic policies, the end of the decades-long debt crisis, the spread of new technologies, and the emergence of policy makers, activists and business leaders (he calls these “cheetahs”). To me, some of the most interesting accounts present how these countries are breaking out of the poverty trap, including the end of “the Big Man” and the emergence of democracy and governance and the brief profiles of several Africans belonging to the cheetah generation whose ideas, technology, entrepreneurship, market power and push for good governance and accountability are providing hope...
Radelet concludes by detailing the challenges ahead: deepening democracy and strengthening governance, creating new economic opportunities for a growing workforce, managing the rise of China, adapting to climate change, and building strong education and health systems. Personally, I appreciated the data and charts used to illuminate recent progress and inspire the road ahead.
Arrow of God, by Chinua Achebe
Review by: Lauren Evans
I picked up this book after having read and enjoyed Achebe’s Things Fall Apart several years ago. Released in 1964, it’s the final novel in his African trilogy. This powerfully written and engaging story documents the struggle between continuity and change in 1920’s Nigeria.
Arrow of God takes the reader to the district of Umuaro, where colonialism slowly takes reign over its more traditional way of life. The six villages that make up Umuaru are united by their worship of the god Ulu and work together as one. The book opens with a war between Umuaro and its neighboring district Okperi over land they want to claim. After meeting with Ezeulu, Ulu’s chief priest, the British colonial administration steps in to stop the war and rules in favor of Okperi. This is the beginning of a chain of events that forever changes the community of Umuaru.
The Umuaro people are upset with Ezeulu because he didn't take their side, and because he walks the fine line between being friends with the white man and upholding Umuaro culture. Both the residents of Umuaro and the British administrators have their own customs, and neither understand or care to know about the other. This struggle between tradition and change creates a massive disconnect between what’s happening on the ground and in the administration offices. The British administrators on the ground in the small area didn’t agree with policies they were supposed to enforce, believing they contribute to and create problems rather than solving them.
What kept me captivated during this read was watching Ezeulu and his crazy actions, always wondering what he would do next. I also think that the common theme of misunderstanding in the book helped pull me in, because the frustrations that it created were very engaging.
Although I found it hard to get into at first, I really enjoyed reading this book and look forward to also reading No Longer at Ease to complete the triolgy. I think I will pick this one up again in the future to dig deeper into the story. Even Achebe notes in his introduction, “For Arrow of God, that peculiar quality may lie in the fact that it is the novel which I am most likely to be caught sitting down to read again.”
In Spite of the Gods – The Strange Rise of Modern India, by Edward Luce
Review by: JP Kloninger
Mr. Luce is very well-qualified to write a book such as this about India, having been the Financial Times’ South Asia bureau chief based in New Delhi, between 2001 and 2006. Additionally his wife and her family are from India.
In Spite of the Gods takes an ambitious stab at explaining Indian society, politics, and economics in a relatively short volume. One of the overarching depictions he successfully makes is the myriad of apparent contradictions there are in modern India, in its efforts to modernize and become a global leader, vis-à-vis deeply entrenched counteracting forces such as caste system hierarchies and antiquated, restrictive public systems such as the “license raj”, finally eliminated in India in the early ‘90s.
I personally enjoyed Luce’s accounts of his travels and experiences in places as contrasting as the relatively affluent, tech-oriented south; and the less developed, mismanaged and poor north of India. There is a very telling story about visiting an unusual official in Kerala by the name of V.J. Kurian, who has caused a stir in his region because of being non-corrupt… and this is in Southern India, which is generally considered the better-governed part of the country!
The book is rich in anecdotes and well backed-up with relevant statistics. Some figures to note are that India has only 35 million taxpayers in a country with a population of well over 1 Billion, 93% of the people have no job security, and well over 300 million live in absolute poverty. This is in spite of explosive growth rates in technology (cell phone ownership went from 3 million in 2000 to 100 million in 2005) and infrastructure in the past few decades.
At one point Mr. Luce compares India to a swarm of bees, reflecting chaos and randomness from the inside, but a certain order and cohesiveness when seen as a whole from the outside. While in this way he seems generally optimistic about the overall prospects for India and its people in light of the huge development strides it has made, he is not without wise caution that its success going forward is by no means guaranteed.
This was an entertaining and informative read, that provides a very useful backdrop from which to interpret future observations of India’s “strange rise” on the global stage.
Africa’s Moment, by Jean-Michel Severino and Olivier Ray
Review by: Joy Stoddard
Severino is a former vice president of the World Bank and Ray works at the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs Department for Policy Analysis.
Regarding Africa, Severino says, it is time to change our rear-view mirrors for telescopes. He describes an Africa of 2,000 languages and deep ethnic diversity, a land mass 2.5 times the size of the continental United States, and a population projection of 1 billion extra inhabitants between now and 2050, with a growing middle class and just as many obstacles as opportunities for a bright future. Although the book details Africa’s challenges of geographism, structuralism, and culturalism, Severino urges us to toss past notions of Africa as tragedy – mired in poverty, violence and corruption, weighed down by the structural adjustment programs of the Bretton Woods institutions - and highlights rising country stars, vast natural resources, new markets attracting China and India, and cosmopolitan youth with a mind on shaping their own destiny.
Severino’s position is that Africa is at its turning point, that the 21st century “will be the century of Africa”. Having visited Morocco, Senegal and Ghana in June 2012, and Kenya in April 2010, I can see his points. Africa’s Moment provides a unique perspective on Africa’s past and its potential future.
The Dressmaker of Khair Khana, by Gayle Tzemach Lemmon
Review by: Genie Bolduc
Written by former ABC News reporter Gayle Tzemach Lemmon, this story of Kamila Sadiqi reminds me of the strength, common sense and persistence of women micro entrepreneurs whom I have met.
The story starts with the takeover of Kabul by the Taliban, limiting Kamila and her sisters’ freedoms overnight and taking her from being a teacher to being almost cloistered in her house due to the imposition of Sharia law. Despite her frustration and virtual imprisonment she sees the possibility for a business out of her home as long as she and the other women participating are discrete. Despite impediments to her freedom of movement and ability to work when women were the only ones available to earn a living to support the family, Kamila Sadiqi defies boundaries imposed on her by the Taliban and in that way helps her entire community.
She proceeds not only to learn to sew herself, but to create a business employing many neighborhood women, making clothes which she takes, at great risk to herself and family, to town to sell, creating prosperity for her family and her community.
The book is an interesting portrait of the effect of the Taliban on the men, and particularly the women, of one family and their entire community through the imposition of very strict religious law. It is told in the fashion of a novel versus a historical account or documentary and in that way helps you to feel the growing imposition of restrictions, despair and danger and the ultimate victory of the entrepreneurial spirit in a compelling way.
Due Diligence: An Impertinent Inquiry into Microfinance, by David Roodman
Review by: Steve Wanta
David Roodman has completed a thorough investigation of microfinance which has drawn interesting parallels from today’s industry with the history of financial services. As an academic, he relies heavily on research much of which he discredits for its lack of rigor. Coupled with what appears to be a modest amount of field research, Roodman arrives at the conclusion that the net impact of microfinance on poverty is zero, not necessarily positive but also not negative. Very clearly he comes to the conclusion that microfinance is in fact good but for three seldom cited reasons.
1. Microfinance effectively smoothes incomes but is ineffective at helping the poor escape from poverty: Microcredit typically funds subsistent activity if invested in business at all. Microcredit is better suited for income smoothing which in it of itself is important.
2. Development as Freedom: Economist and philosopher Amartya Sen argues that the essence of development is expanding freedom, meaning greater control over one's circumstances. Poor people use financial services precisely in order to gain more control over their financial lives. And microcredit is often said to empower women by giving them more say over family finances. On the other hand, debt can entrap, reducing freedom.
3. Development as Industry Building: The most powerful force against poverty history has been industrialization, the process of churning that continually introduces new products and new ways of making old ones, along the way generating jobs and profits. [5] Within economics, this conception of development is associated with Joseph Schumpeter, who popularized the term “creative destruction.” From the point of development as industry building, support for microfinance has succeeded, not in turning clients into Schumpeterian entrepreneurial heroes, but in building microfinance institutions and industries that cater to poor people, create jobs, that enrich the national economic fabric.
Roodman Opinion: He summarizes his beliefs in the statement,
“For microfinance insiders, I side with the philosophy of the American network group Acción International and the German ProCredit group, a holding company of microfinance banks; I question the Microcredit Summit Campaign in its push to get microcredit to 175 million of the world’s poorest people by 2015. For potential funders of microfinance… I advise against directly financing microcredit portfolios.”
At a very high level, I agree with the three broad statements. As you dive into each point more deeply, I disagree fundamentally with key elements of his first two points. First, Roodman wants to de-emphasize credit in general and advocates against lending to the poorest through group lending. He cites the potential negative elements of peer pressure imposed by members of a group. In this regard, Roodman does not demonstrate the same statistical rigor for the potential adverse effects as he does for the positive effects of community building reported by the industry. Roodman uses the same anecdotal methods to demonstrate negative aspects of microfinance.
The reality of poor communities around the world that Roodman overlooks is that access to a consistent opportunity, credit or a job does not exist. There remain still, hundreds of millions of people without access to reliable financial services. To be clear, many of ACCION and ProCredit affiliates admittedly are not interested in serving a large section of the very poor that are in need and capable of managing credit. See Pro Mujer Nicaragua.
With access to credit, the poor have an opportunity to tap into their potential to provide for their family. As is very clear in the BRAC model and other similar organizations, credit is the carrot that begins to create a community fiber. The social capital that is created by knowing you are not alone in poverty; the support and friendship by commiserating with your neighbor, and countless other positives of sharing as a group are all real benefits but difficult to quantify.
Without a doubt, there are issues with the group process. Primarily the potential burden of defaulting members, the time consuming meetings, and the lack of dynamic products that may not be offered are a few of the issues we have seen in the field. What is missed by Roodman and dangerous in his assertion to abandon the group model is that these negatives appear over time. When groups are properly formed, there is a newness and excitement about getting credit (the carrot) for the first time. This is the easiest way (both for the client and the institution) to offer fast credit with little to no requirements while being accessible to the very poor with little to no assets.
So the argument is better made that microfinance institutions would be advised to continue to innovate, create graduation programs for successful centers, and continue to offer new, more, and better services. In both the Philippines and Vietnam, major MFIs CARD and TYM have transitioned to the ASA model (explicit individual loans within the center structure) in order to address client retention.
This is a healthy evolution for the client and the institution. Put simply, we must crawl before we can walk and then eventually run.
In Roodman’s second argument, Development as Freedom, he concludes that the group method may in fact create less freedom for the poor. Because of debt and potential obligation for the debt of another group member, the poor are at risk of losing control of their freedom. Roodman uses Sen’s analysis of freedom without recognizing another critical freedom made famous by Milton Fiedman, the freedom to choose. Borrowers choose to enter into a relationship with the MFI and acknowledge their responsibilities, both as an individual and group. For the millions without access, they do not have the benefit of a choice.
The critical aspects of microfinance that effectively targets the very poor are the organization’s mission, approach, and commitment to putting the client first. The responsibility to know the client’s situation, their business, and the local context are critical to offering an appropriate amount of credit. Over-indebtedness is an issue in some parts of the world so caution is always required.
All industries and every successful organization need to continue to evolve. Microfinance in particular cannot rest on its past accomplishments. The responsibility to continue to offer new, more, and better services to the poor is too important.
NOTE: I found the citation of Helen Todd’s research from Bangladesh in the 80’s as particularly interesting. My interpretation is that Roodman uses Helen’s findings to demonstrate microfinance is different than it purports to be. Her research is used to build the case for the negative effects of group lending. Roodman never spoke to Helen and did not mention that she later went on to found Moris Rasik, Timor Leste’s largest microfinance institution.
Portfolios of the Poor: How the World’s Poor Live on $2 a Day, by Daryl Collins, Jonathan Morduch, Stuart Rutherford and Orlanda Ruthven
Review by: Philip Sansone
The four authors, two from the development finance arena and two from academia, team up to do a study with the poor that no one that we know has attempted on this scale. Over a period of a year the authors conducted year-long interviews with specific poor families in Bangladesh, South Africa and India. The “financial diaries” reveal the poor as few have previously grasped. All of us here at the Foundation with rural development and third world experience (over 60 combined years) found they learned many valuable things from reading this book. For instance, none of us knew that the poor are willing to pay someone to guard their money in “savings” accounts held by local moneylenders. The fee is acceptable because leaving money around is a sure why for all of it to be stolen.
Many governments prohibit “informal” financial institutions, like the microfinance organizations we customarily work with, from taking savings and paying interest on the savings. In light of what the authors of Portfolio of the Poor found, those policies prohibiting interest paying savings account held or managed by MFIs and are designed to help the poor may hurt the poor, as so many well intended government policies end up doing. This one makes no sense at all.
Due Diligence: An Impertinent Inquiry into Microfinance, by David Roodman
Review by: Steve Wanta
David Roodman has completed a thorough investigation of microfinance which has drawn interesting parallels from today’s industry with the history of financial services. As an academic, he relies heavily on research much of which he discredits for its lack of rigor. Coupled with what appears to be a modest amount of field research, Roodman arrives at the conclusion that the net impact of microfinance on poverty is zero, not necessarily positive but also not negative. Very clearly he comes to the conclusion that microfinance is in fact good but for three seldom cited reasons.
1. Microfinance effectively smoothes incomes but is ineffective at helping the poor escape from poverty: Microcredit typically funds subsistent activity if invested in business at all. Microcredit is better suited for income smoothing which in it of itself is important.
2. Development as Freedom: Economist and philosopher Amartya Sen argues that the essence of development is expanding freedom, meaning greater control over one's circumstances. Poor people use financial services precisely in order to gain more control over their financial lives. And microcredit is often said to empower women by giving them more say over family finances. On the other hand, debt can entrap, reducing freedom.
3. Development as Industry Building: The most powerful force against poverty history has been industrialization, the process of churning that continually introduces new products and new ways of making old ones, along the way generating jobs and profits. [5] Within economics, this conception of development is associated with Joseph Schumpeter, who popularized the term “creative destruction.” From the point of development as industry building, support for microfinance has succeeded, not in turning clients into Schumpeterian entrepreneurial heroes, but in building microfinance institutions and industries that cater to poor people, create jobs, that enrich the national economic fabric.
Roodman Opinion: He summarizes his beliefs in the statement,
“For microfinance insiders, I side with the philosophy of the American network group Acción International and the German ProCredit group, a holding company of microfinance banks; I question the Microcredit Summit Campaign in its push to get microcredit to 175 million of the world’s poorest people by 2015. For potential funders of microfinance… I advise against directly financing microcredit portfolios.”
At a very high level, I agree with the three broad statements. As you dive into each point more deeply, I disagree fundamentally with key elements of his first two points. First, Roodman wants to de-emphasize credit in general and advocates against lending to the poorest through group lending. He cites the potential negative elements of peer pressure imposed by members of a group. In this regard, Roodman does not demonstrate the same statistical rigor for the potential adverse effects as he does for the positive effects of community building reported by the industry. Roodman uses the same anecdotal methods to demonstrate negative aspects of microfinance.
The reality of poor communities around the world that Roodman overlooks is that access to a consistent opportunity, credit or a job does not exist. There remain still, hundreds of millions of people without access to reliable financial services. To be clear, many of ACCION and ProCredit affiliates admittedly are not interested in serving a large section of the very poor that are in need and capable of managing credit. See Pro Mujer Nicaragua.
With access to credit, the poor have an opportunity to tap into their potential to provide for their family. As is very clear in the BRAC model and other similar organizations, credit is the carrot that begins to create a community fiber. The social capital that is created by knowing you are not alone in poverty; the support and friendship by commiserating with your neighbor, and countless other positives of sharing as a group are all real benefits but difficult to quantify.
Without a doubt, there are issues with the group process. Primarily the potential burden of defaulting members, the time consuming meetings, and the lack of dynamic products that may not be offered are a few of the issues we have seen in the field. What is missed by Roodman and dangerous in his assertion to abandon the group model is that these negatives appear over time. When groups are properly formed, there is a newness and excitement about getting credit (the carrot) for the first time. This is the easiest way (both for the client and the institution) to offer fast credit with little to no requirements while being accessible to the very poor with little to no assets.
So the argument is better made that microfinance institutions would be advised to continue to innovate, create graduation programs for successful centers, and continue to offer new, more, and better services. In both the Philippines and Vietnam, major MFIs CARD and TYM have transitioned to the ASA model (explicit individual loans within the center structure) in order to address client retention.
This is a healthy evolution for the client and the institution. Put simply, we must crawl before we can walk and then eventually run.
In Roodman’s second argument, Development as Freedom, he concludes that the group method may in fact create less freedom for the poor. Because of debt and potential obligation for the debt of another group member, the poor are at risk of losing control of their freedom. Roodman uses Sen’s analysis of freedom without recognizing another critical freedom made famous by Milton Fiedman, the freedom to choose. Borrowers choose to enter into a relationship with the MFI and acknowledge their responsibilities, both as an individual and group. For the millions without access, they do not have the benefit of a choice.
The critical aspects of microfinance that effectively targets the very poor are the organization’s mission, approach, and commitment to putting the client first. The responsibility to know the client’s situation, their business, and the local context are critical to offering an appropriate amount of credit. Over-indebtedness is an issue in some parts of the world so caution is always required.
All industries and every successful organization need to continue to evolve. Microfinance in particular cannot rest on its past accomplishments. The responsibility to continue to offer new, more, and better services to the poor is too important.
NOTE: I found the citation of Helen Todd’s research from Bangladesh in the 80’s as particularly interesting. My interpretation is that Roodman uses Helen’s findings to demonstrate microfinance is different than it purports to be. Her research is used to build the case for the negative effects of group lending. Roodman never spoke to Helen and did not mention that she later went on to found Moris Rasik, Timor Leste’s largest microfinance institution.
Banker to the Poor, by Muhammad Yunus
Review by: Philip Sansone
This is the seminal work on microcredit and the Grameen Method by the winner of the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize. Highly recommended and a must for anyone interested in microcredit or international development.
Dead Aid: Why Aid Is Not Working and How There Is a Better Way for Africa, by Dambisa Moyo
Review by: Philip Sansone
Moyo, an Western educated African, suggests that Western development aid is actually harming Africa far more than it is helping it, as it seems to support corrupt governments, promotes corruption and crony capitalism. Compelling reading and a must read for anyone interested in African development.
The White Man's Burden - Why the West's Efforts to Aid the Rest Have Done So Much Ill and So Little Good, by William Easterly
Review by: Philip Sansone
Easterly is an ex-World Bank economist and can clearly make a case for what went wrong and how to change our approach. He is considered on the opposite philosophical spectrum as statist Jeffery Sachs. This is a must-read.
The Elusive Quest for Growth - Economists' Adventures and Misadventures in the Tropics, by William Easterly
Review by: Philip Sansone
This is Easterly's first book and if I had to choose one over the other, I would choose The White Man's Burden. Nevertheless, this book has the best explanation I've read on why capital fundamentalism, the approach to economic development based on the work by economist and Nobel Prize winner Robert Solow, was such a dismal failure in the Third World. However, as Solow pointed out decades ago, the model was never intended for developing economies of the Third World. Easterly clearly shows that we have been wedded to this failed economic development philosophy for the last 50+ years.
The Trouble with Africa - Why Foreign Aid Isn't Working, by Robert Calderisi
Review by: Philip Sansone
Calderisi is another 30-year veteran of the World Bank and an expert on Africa. His assessment of Africa concurs with Easterly's, and is also as "politically incorrect," as it bucks the status quo that for 50 years has failed to do much except spend huge amounts of money. Recommended, but if you read "White Man's Burden," this is not a must-read.
The Bottom Billion - Why the Poorest Countries are Failing and What Can Be Done About It, by Paul Collier
Review by: Philip Sansone
Recommended by The Economist as a middle point between Sachs' statism and Easterly's approach. I concur, except the "middle point" is about 80% towards Easterly's position.
The Other Path - The Economic Answer to Terrorism, by Hernando de Soto
Review by: Philip Sansone
De Soto is the famed Peruvian economist most known for his work in showing the importance of rule of law, especially property rights, in the alleviation of poverty. In this 1989 book he shows how with a few but vital changes in Peruvian law, Peru was able to defeat the Maoist terrorist threat known as The Shining Path, simply by taking away its main weapon - chronic systemic property rights abuse on the rural peasant population. Read at least the preface written in 2002 and Chapter 1.
The Mystery of Capital - Why Capitalism Triumphs in the West and Fails Everywhere Else, by Hernando de Soto
Review by: Philip Sansone
The Economist magazine says of this book, "The most intelligent book yet written about the current challenge of establishment capitalism in the developing world." The challenge he refers to, of course, is that, apparently, four-fifths of the world's population has been left out of the program and how that problem can be remedied.
Whole Earth Discipline: An Ecopragmatist Manifesto, by Stewart Brand
Review by: Philip Sansone
The first part of this review serves as an introduction to Environmentalism’s Impact on World Poverty section of book recommendations.
Arguably, Stewart Brand can be called the father, or at least the godfather of modern environmentalism. Publisher of the famed Whole Earth Catalog, he comes with impeccable environmentalist credentials. With Whole Earth Discipline: An Ecopragmatist Manifesto he joins other “ecopragmatists”, like Patrick Moore, co-founder of Greenpeace, Bjorn Lomborg, founder of the Copenhagen Consensus, James McWilliams, author of Just Food and energy expert Robert Bryce, author of Power Hungry, who rely on facts and science when questioning popular environmental beliefs. What all these environmentalists have in common is the realization that utopia is somewhere in the future. It might be far into the future, or it might arrive this decade or this century. But for now we have to contend with the laws of physics and other realities as we constantly move forward in our quest for a cleaner, environmentally sound environment. What they all realize, too, is that many of our environmental policies are very detrimental to the world’s poor and hinder their ability to escape grinding poverty. These policies are not only a form of cultural imperialism, but, also, hypocritical and blatantly unfair to developing countries. After all, the developed world; i.e. the wealthy countries had access to cheap energy and polluted our environment on our way to riches, so how can we deny the poor the same access? These countries will have something we didn’t and that is help and technology to clean up their mess far faster than we did. First step though is to relieve hunger and gain some wealth. We’ve proved that the environment will recover just fine.
Brand covers all this. His chapters on urbanization titled City Planet and Urban Promise are exceptionally clear and document the environmental benefits of urban living, an anathema to radical environmentalists, but nevertheless, an undeniable fact.
Confessions of a Greenpeace Dropout: the Making of a Sensible Environmentalist, by Patrick Moore
Review by: Philip Sansone
Patrick Moore is a Greenpeace co-founder and scientist. He who holds a PhD in ecology. He left Greenpeace in mid-1980s due to "philosophical differences".
This is his story and his indictment of the organization he helped found and its drift to utopian surrealism.If you don’t want to get an education on and a tutorial about organizational insanity that the first 150 or so pages of Greenpeace history reveals, or how the radical, irrational elements took it over, then skip to Chapter XI, Greenpeace Sails Off the Deep End. Here Moore sums up his reasons for leaving and highlights the final straw that led to his departure: Greenpeace’s vendetta against chorine. According to Moore, “…more than 75% of our pharmaceuticals, including antibiotics, were based” on chlorine. He points out to Greenpeace that table salt is “two-thirds chorine by weight”, “an essential nutrient for plants and animals” and that no “form of life would be possible without it”. All to no avail.Greenpeace wanted a “global ban” on chlorine, and Moore sees no choice but to quit.
I highly recommend his last seven chapters that deal with the paramount environment issues of today from an ecopragmatist-scientist perspective.From his unique viewpoint as a scientist and environmentalist of impeccable credentials, Moore addresses trees and sustainability, energy, food and genetic modification, biodiversity and species extinction, necessary chemicals in our life, population and climate change.His final chapter, Charting a Sensible Course to a Sustainable Future, brings it all together in a practical, doable agenda that probably will do some real good for the environment without impoverishing the world’s poor. One surprise suggestion is to use more trees and paper and, of course, plant more trees, as well.
Just Food: Where Locavores Get It Wrong and How We Can Truly Eat Responsibly, by James E. McWilliams
Review by: Philip Sansone
From the inside cover flap, "We suffer today from food anxiety, bombarded as we are with confusing messages about how to eat a healthy and ethical diet. Should we eat locally? Is organic really better for the environment? Can genetically modified foods and farm-raised fish be good for us? And is it possible to be a meat eater and still be green?"
And, "Just Food tells the whole truth about fresh food. Drawing on hard facts, James E. McWilliams challenges popular wisdom, myth and misinformation, and reveals that the greenest food choices are often surprising. For example, transporting fruits of vegetables from thousands of miles away may be more energy efficient than growing them a the farm down the road; genetically modified crops can keep millions of pounds of insecticides off American fields every year; and farm-raised freshwater fish may soon be our most sustainable form of protein." I couldn't have said it better.
These are not things locavores and others in the slow money, slow food movement and the environmentalist elite want to hear. But these are messages they need to hear not only to better protect the environment, but also to be able to keep feeding a growing world population that isn’t expected to peak until later this century when it will start to decline as the poor gain wealth.
Just Food: Where Locavores Get It Wrong and How We Can Truly Eat Responsibly, by James E. McWilliams
Review by: Philip Sansone
The West got rich on cheap power, but now many Western radical environmentalist elites are getting all neurotic about climate change and want to shut down the whole economic juggernaut just as it is reaching billions of the neglected and abused poor.This is the absolute height of hypocrisy, and Bryce does a good job dispelling many of the myths of the green energy movement.Bryce himself was once considered an extreme green. Now he is a moderate green, an ecopragmatist.Through his years of thoroughly researching the subject of alternative energy for several books, he is now considered somewhat of a pariah by the extreme greens, since he can no longer honestly support many of the myths surrounding alternative energy. Green ideologists beware and be forewarned – don’t read Bryce’s book unless you are prepared to join him in the ranks of the “unwashed non-believing deniers”.The world’s poor may someday thank Bryce for what one admirer claims is an absolute honest intellect who simply follows the facts and is willing to leave his old notions by the side of the proverbial road.A wise man. And a must read on alternative energy and its mostly negative impact on the developing world.
Cool It: The Skeptical Environmentalist's Guide to Global Warming, by Bjorn Lomborg
Review by: Philip Sansone
Bjorn Lomborg is the Danish environmentalist statistician who is trying to bring some calm rational sense to environmental spending and the cost to achieve the desired climate changes. Ostensibly, this book is about global warming, but it is really about how we should spend our money to fix the solvable problems and the return on investment we can expect on the various endeavors.
His book is about half notes and references, and shows that much of the global warming scare is alarmist with the most likely scenarios not coming close to approaching the apocalyptic vision put forth by many. In fact, according to Lomborg and others, the most likely climate change is actually not that bad and certainly a lot better than if the planet were cooling. According to Lomborg analysis, the problems that will arise over the next 100 years are solvable, especially with a wealthier world better able to afford the fixes.
Shadow Cities: A Billion Squatters, a New Urban World, by Robert Neuwirth
Review by: Philip Sansone
This is the book that helped many, including Whole Earth Catalog founder Stewart Brand, understand how valuable urbanization is for the poor and in turn the environment. Shadow Cities shows that the squatter slums are often not stagnate horrible places, but rather dynamic environments where the poor are changing their lives and creating wealth. Peruvian economist Hernando de Soto pointed out many years ago that urban settings provide the poor with access to better food and nutrition, education, health services and education, all of which add not only to the quality of their lives, but also serves to prolong their lives while giving their children a fighting chance to really escape poverty.
The small subsistence farms that I call "poverty factories" only offer mentally diminished malnourished children who are often bred for their "free" labor on the farms and as a sort of social security for the parents; environmental degradation, as the poor are some of the worst stewards of the environment; and a shorter life of hard labor in the fields. Neuwirth points out that in the Shadow Cities life again has a chance to be something other than awful.
Population growth needs to be curtailed and, in fact, the growth is declining as the world's poor accumulate wealth. The population is expected to peak around 10 billion before it starts to come back down. Urbanization will help stem population growth, while concentrating environmental impact and subsequent management and providing a far better environment to raise children than in the rural countryside. The arguments are complex, so I suggest reading the book to fully understand this process. Brand estimates that by the turn of century humans will be almost totally urbanized and only utilizing about 3% of the land. The vast unpopulated areas will be, essentially, one huge natural wilderness.
The Rational Optimist: How Prosperity Evolves, by Matt Ridley
Review by: Philip Sansone
Ridley starts at the very beginning going all the way to start of the the Paleolithic and then traces human development forward. Reading this book is an awesome experience. It will dispel any doom and gloom one might have about where we are heading and how fast we have gone from a world where everyone was living in abject poverty to the near future when poverty as we know it will be remembered only in museums. A thoroughly enjoyable and enormously entertaining and informative work. Highly recommended.
Heaven and Earth: Global Warming the Missing Science, by Ian Plimer
Review by: Philip Sansone
One might say that before Climategate there was Plimer, twice winner of Australia’s highest scientific honor and a professor in the School of Earth and Environmental Sciences at The University of Adelaide, raising the alarm against the climate change alarmists and challenging the notion that the global warming science is settled.Highly opinionated, but opinions that appear to be solidly backed by data or the lack thereof, as the case may be.If you want to read one book written by a climate scientist that disagrees with the global warming proponents, this would be a good place to start.
Shadow Cities: A Billion Squatters, a New Urban World, by Robert Neuwirth
Review by: Philip Sansone
This is the book that helped many, including Whole Earth Catalog founder Stewart Brand, understand how valuable urbanization is for the poor and in turn the environment. Shadow Cities shows that the squatter slums are often not stagnate horrible places, but rather dynamic environments where the poor are changing their lives and creating wealth. Peruvian economist Hernando de Soto pointed out many years ago that urban settings provide the poor with access to better food and nutrition, education, health services and education, all of which add not only to the quality of their lives, but also serves to prolong their lives while giving their children a fighting chance to really escape poverty.
The small subsistence farms that I call "poverty factories" only offer mentally diminished malnourished children who are often bred for their "free" labor on the farms and as a sort of social security for the parents; environmental degradation, as the poor are some of the worst stewards of the environment; and a shorter life of hard labor in the fields. Neuwirth points out that in the Shadow Cities life again has a chance to be something other than awful.
Population growth needs to be curtailed and, in fact, the growth is declining as the world's poor accumulate wealth. The population is expected to peak around 10 billion before it starts to come back down. Urbanization will help stem population growth, while concentrating environmental impact and subsequent management and providing a far better environment to raise children than in the rural countryside. The arguments are complex, so I suggest reading the book to fully understand this process. Brand estimates that by the turn of century humans will be almost totally urbanized and only utilizing about 3% of the land. The vast unpopulated areas will be, essentially, one huge natural wilderness.
Copenhagen Consensus Website, by Bjorn Lomborg et al
Review by: Philip Sansone
Lomborg is the founder of the Copenhagen Consensus. I highly recommend this approach to solving world poverty. If you read nothing else, read the first two chapters of his book, Cool It, and then spend an hour on the Copenhagen Consensus website
The Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid-Eradicating Poverty Through Profits, by C.K. Prahalad
Review by: Philip Sansone
Big business is finally getting what "Banker to the Poor" Professor Yunus has been saying for 30 years. There is a lot of money at the bottom of the economic pyramid, even if it is only a few pennies from each, because there are 4 billion people "down there" and most have at least a few pennies to spend each day. This book advocates businesses serving the poor with the same products the rich have access to, although packaged, marketed and distributed much differently. This will enrich their lives in many ways, including creating the business of distributing these products to themselves. Treating the world's poor with dignity, as decent, hard working and valuable assets of the world instead of as a huge collective charity case is paramount to changing poverty consciousness. I highly recommend reading at least the first two chapters.
In Defense of Global Capitalism, by Johan Norberg
Review by: Philip Sansone
This book comes highly recommended by both John Mackey and Philip Sansone. It is quoted extensively in John’s forthcoming book, Conscious Capitalism, which is due to be released in late 2012.
From the inside flap of “In Defense of Global Capitalism”: "Johan Norberg's book is a stunningly insightful, brilliantly detailed refutation of the crank theories of the anti-globalists. In Defense of Global Capitalism is a shining example of what a gifted mind can do working with the truth to advance the cause of capitalism, which in the end is the cause of every decent man and woman." --Ben Stein
The Road to Serfdom, by F.A. Hayek
Review by: Philip Sansone
This book by the Nobel Prize winning economist deals with "the relation between individual liberty and government authority." He won the Medal of Freedom, as well.
Free to Choose, by Milton and Rose Friedman
Review by: Philip Sansone
If you read only one book on market economic theory, read this classic "inquiry into the relationship between freedom and economics."
Capitalism, Socialism and Democracy, by Joseph A. Schumpeter
Review by: Philip Sansone
First published in 1942, this rather academic treatise is still a must read, as it thoroughly establishes entrepreneurial capitalism as superior to socialism in any of its many guises.
Poor People, by William T. Vollmann
Review by: Philip Sansone
A book about the poor by someone who is not only talking to the poor, but also listening to what they are saying. Vollmann is a wonderful writer, too.
Good Capitalism, Bad Capitalism - And the Economics of Growth and Prosperity, by William J. Baumol et al
Review by: Philip Sansone
Not a must, but an interesting read, nonetheless
• Living at the poverty level is very dangerous, precarious, and not at all idyllic. Suicides among the poor, although not generally studied, are believed to be quite common, perhaps with rates much higher than in the wealthy countries.
• Chronic childhood malnutrition is very common and reduces a child’s IQ by an average of 20%. (Per the noted Peruvian economist – not the Spanish explorer - Hernando de Soto).
• Almost uncountable parasites and diseases such as malaria, dengue, Rotavirus, and seemingly countless others kill millions of poor every year. Disease which we don't have to worry about and for the most part conquered years ago.
• Life expectancy can easily be half of ours.
• Suicides have always been high among the poor. Before microcredit, there were moneylenders – loan sharks. Many so-called “microfinance” lenders today are just loan sharks in new clothes that use brutal techniques to collect delinquent loans.
There are many causes for suicides among the poor, just like with the wealthy, such as:
1. Release from the burden of a dull, stifling life of hard labor.
2. Escape from the responsibility of supporting a large family created as a sort of social security for “old age” (sometime after 30) and to provide “free” labor for the family farm.
3. Escape from illness, including chronic depression and other mental illnesses where there is no money for medical care, or no medical care even if a little money could be found.
4. Old age itself is an additional burden on the poor family and is often accompanied by painful physical conditions from decades of working the farms. Suicide is what you do when medicine and hospice are not available.
Life on the "poverty factory", i.e. the subsistence and so-called "peaceful" farms, is gut wrenchingly difficult with 16+ hours of backbreaking days for both the very young and old is not uncommon during planting and harvest seasons.
• At the best of times, these farms breed little more than child labor, chronic malnutrition, over population, and ignorant illiterate people who will never be able to escape poverty. During the worst of times, they breed famine and even an early death.
• The farms get smaller with each new generation trying to farm the same plot of land. The rest flee to the city, but are ill prepared to do much except manual labor.
• These farms and farmers are some of the worst environmental stewards, destroying forests, over using chemicals and soil depletion among others.
• Suicides are not uncommon, as poor nutrition, high infant mortality, diseases, grueling work or not enough work, putrid living conditions all take a psychological toll.
Local moneylenders, government bureaucrats, and other local plutocrats abuse and steal from the poor who have no power or rights to stop them.
• Property rights are almost non-existent. De Soto’s studies show that wealth creation is almost impossible without some way of storing wealth in real assets.
• Judicial systems are corrupt and favor the landowners and wealthy.
• Police frequently brutalize the poor, especially with the urban slum dwellers.
• When governments ban microloans to the poor or heavily regulate interest rates this only deprives the poor access to capital that could help them live better lives and drives them into the hands of the local moneylenders who interest rates can run into the thousands.
Loan sharks use brutal techniques to collect on delinquent loans and confiscate meager property.
• These local moneylenders are often the same government bureaucrats who are outlawing the competition.
• Slum landlords in many cities are actually bureaucrats who build shanties and rent them out to the poor. Property rights and micro lending give the poor weapons to use against these corrupt bureaucrats who are often trying to kill any legislature that would impinge on their side businesses.
WPF refuses to work with government run MFIs (microfinance institutions), as we’ve found these are almost always poorly run, corrupt and generally inept.
Whole Planet Foundation works primarily with Grameen or Village type microloan organizations that do not require collateral or use legal coercive means to collect.
1. The Grameen or Village Method is fairly complicated but includes a gradual increase in credit as the borrower proves she can handle the debt.
2. The group (of usually 5) guarantees the first borrow whom they select to receive the groups first loan. Once that loan is being repaid successfully, a second member is selected and so forth.
3. Due diligence is done and education is given to make sure the borrower has not taken out other loans or will take out other loans.
4. Loans are kept small. The example of the Bangladeshi woman who had $250 in debt, which is almost 2 years income to a subsistence Bangladeshi farmer (urban manual labor pays $17 a month) could never happen in a Grameen style MFI that is run correctly
5. We do an enormous amount of local due diligence and site visitations before agreeing to fund a particular MFI. We now have permanent Regional Director stationed in Latin America (Costa Rica), Africa (Senegal) and Asia (Hanoi).
Multinational businesses are now seeing that there is a lot of business that can be done with the poorest-of-the-poor by packaging and pricing their products specifically for the poor.
• These quality products are no more expensive than the traditional poor quality products the poor have been buying.
• These new products often generate much needed jobs at this level, the so-called “bottom of the pyramid”.
• The poor have the right to not only access to capital but quality products that will make their lives a little nicer, easier and dignified.
• Yet many anti-business groups oppose big business from providing services to the poor.
Becoming part of the world community, the "consumer mentality" community will bring prosperity and a happier and heathier life to the world's poorest.
• It is estimated that by the end of this century the average "poorest of the poor" person at the very least will be living at the level of an average person in Portugal today and very easily could be living at the level of an average lower middleclass American. In essence, world poverty as we know it will have been eradicated.
• In one word, YES, microcredit can help relieve poverty, but it is not a silver bullet. A poor women and her family do not escape poverty after receiving a single loan. Challenges continue but microcredit provides a tool and access to capital in order to change her and her family’s lives.
• Whole Planet Foundation believes in the power of the poor and is committed to supporting new, more, and better opportunities to alleviating poverty.
The claim that after decades of microlending in Bangladesh there is no evidence that poverty has been reduced is a comment we’ve heard often.
• Bangladesh’s population now stands at over 160,000,000, or more than half what we have in the US and they are all crammed into a space about the size of Ohio.
• Obvious poverty hasn’t been reduced due to the huge population growth; population growth is a result of extreme poverty.
o Still, millions of lives have been improved although the need is still huge and demand for capital enormous.
o Nevertheless, even in Bangladesh the growth of the population is now about half what it was in the 1970’s.
o This follows the worldwide trend that as a population gets wealthier, the rate decreases.
• This seems to contradict the report, which states that according to “standard” measurements poverty hasn’t improved.
o We’ve never seen any measurements standards that are even remotely close to being universal. Indeed, we believe that each community would have to have its own standards to measure against.
• It is undeniable that when a woman consistently takes out and repays microloans successfully, as millions in Bangladesh and elsewhere have done, her family income will improve.
o Perhaps not above the so-called poverty level of, say, $4-5 a day, but many easily double the $1 or less a day income to $2 or more.
o This increased income is generally spent on the wellbeing of the family, providing better nutrition, education, housing and medical care for children and, thus, giving these children the real opportunity to escape poverty.
o We like to say that escaping poverty is generational.
• Yes, Whole Planet Foundation partners with Professor Muhammad Yunus and Grameen Trust in the state of Kerala which is not affected by the issues in Andhra Pradesh, India. The criticisms, like collection methods and interest rates of the Andhra Pradesh State Government are key factors that the Whole Planet Foundation programs team has looked at with all of our partners.
• The recent suicides in India are very unfortunate circumstances. Indeed these are not Whole Planet Foundation-supported borrowers as we partner only with global MFIs that share our philosophy and allow us absolute transparency into their practices and accounting for us to independently evaluate and monitor in order to guarantee that our borrowers are treated fairly and with respect.
• A well run MFI takes great pain to make sure borrowers are not borrowing from multiple sources and that their credit load is manageable. However, as one can imagine, where money is involved, the unscrupulous abound. Our advice would be to ignore the sensationalist press reports always looking for the provocative.
• Whole Planet Foundation does not set interest rates. Interest Rates charged by Whole Planet Foundation microfinance partners in the field are impacted by a number of factors and vary by country. We work with MFIs that have agreed to keep the interest as low as possible while covering inflation, cost of capital, MFI overhead, and other associated health, savings, insurance, and education services (when these service are offered), and profit. Profits are retained at the lending center and used to further possibly larger loans.
• Sometimes they are very high by Western standards, but the highest rates inevitably come from moneylenders who traditionally are the only ones willing to lend to the poor. Risks can be substantial, but the poor are usually good credit risks.
So, why the high rate from moneylenders?
1. In short, lack of competition. The term “usury” is subjective. What appears usurious to the West is actually quite reasonable, all things considered, in the developing world.
2. Interest rate levels in a competitive free market place will follow three laws of “neoclassical” economics (per Mark Skousen’s excellent “The Making of Modern Economics”:
The Law of Imputation
• The Consumer Origin of Value; i.e. the consumer alone determines “productive activity” not the government or labor (as the Marxist asserted) or anyone else. The FINAL demand determines pricing.
Marginal Utility/Cost
• i.e. prices and costs are determined at the “margins”; by the benefit/cost to buyers and sellers. The poor borrower will determine if there is sufficient benefit she can derive from paying the cost of a loan.
Subjective Value is ENTIRELY dependent on the DESIRES of consumers and producers
• i.e. wages, rents, interest and profits are determined by the subjective valuations of the consumer and users. (The borrower isn’t going to pay the interest rate if it doesn’t have the value they think is necessary to justify the price.)
That’s theory and the reality is that interest rates charged by competent, socially conscious microfinance organizations (MFI) are sometimes very high, as well. Note: Even Grameen Trust, Grameen Method MFIs and other MFI’s APR interest rates can reach to 70% and beyond. Why? Several reasons: Interest rates are determined locally by five main factors. They are:
1. Rate of inflation in the country
• Double digit inflation is not uncommon in developing countries. Interest rates have to cover inflation.
2. The cost of capital (COC)
• The rate that the MFI must pay for capital; i.e. cash in the capital market (banks, etc) that they use to relend to poor borrowers. Hundreds of billions of dollars will be needed to fund the billions of potential poor borrowers.
• Cost of capital (COC) is often well into double digits 15-20% in developing countries. Interest rates now must cover inflation + cost of capital (COC usually does cover some of the inflation, but often not all.)
3. Cost of providing the loan
• MFI’s Overhead is very high due to the fact that the most successful operations usually visit borrowers 25-50 times a year at locations near the borrower’s homes and this takes an army of field loan officers, motorcycles and other support.
• Traditional banks can’t do this. Interest rates now must cover inflation + cost of capital + MFI overhead.
4. Additionally, some MFIs believe it is imperative that they extend other crucial services to the poor along with the loan. These can include:
• Health exams and other medical services such as family planning and reproductive or parenting education.
• Business advice and education/training
• Marketing advice and assistance for their crops or products
• Mandatory savings (often cited as necessary to escape poverty)
• Health and/or life insurance
5. Profit or for the non-profit “excess capital”. Either way, the MFI must end up the year in the black or face going out of business.
In conclusion, interest rates and fees must cover:
1) Inflation 2) Cost of Capital 3) MFI overhead 4) Other associated services, such as health, savings, insurance and education services 5) Profits or excess capital at year end.
• So, it is not only interest that is involved in the “interest rate” charged to borrowers. Still, these loans are appreciated and generally much cheaper than a moneylender, plus it delivers other valuable services and access that the poor borrower usually does not have access to.
• If the choice is having to pay higher than Western rates for interest or no access to capital, the choice is clear and unambiguous from the poor's point of view (if not the arm chair critic sitting in a comfortable living room or office thousands of miles away).
• In communities void of jobs and based on the informal economy, credit is the first and often the only opportunity that the poor have to improve their family’s lives. Whole Planet Foundation focuses on supporting access to more opportunities in the form of microcredit with world-class organizations that deliver much more than a loan.
• Our partners provide a multitude of services from literacy workshops, to business training, to critical health services all which are not possible without first investing in the poor's own personal capacity with microcredit.
• In order to assure the right partners with an appropriate methodology are selected, Whole Planet Foundation has a team of development professionals that live and travel throughout the developing world to conduct onsite due diligence and monitoring of our partners’ performance.
• This team conducts a site visit in order to select the microfinance partner and returns in person at least once during the grant period to monitor and evaluate, as well as conducting regular remote reviews.
• On average over the last 30 years, this has been 2-3%. Practically every MFI has a different approach to the problem. However, generally, with our MFI partners the portfolios at risk (PAR) are quite low - less than 3% is the norm. Within the 3%, the bad loans are either paid by the group, set aside while a new business loan is taken or simply written off. We do not support any MFI that resorts to asset taking or other coercive measures to satisfy a debt.
• During our due diligence phase of selection a new MFI partner, WPF will review these as well as all policies of a potential WPF grant recipient to make sure their policies are acceptable. However, we are not in the MFI incubator or improvement business; i.e. our mission is to get business development funds into the hands of the very poor. We look for MFIs who have a proven track record for doing just that. We have staff to monitor and evaluate how well our grants funds are spent, but no staff for MFI training development.
• Mixmarket.org has an extensive amount of information on MFIs. We can see Whole Planet Foundation historical data compared to yearly disbursement totals from about 1,900 MFIs worldwide. We can see that not only is Whole Planet Foundation in line with the market, but that MFIs on a global scale have experienced accelerated growth over the past 8 years.
• Latest Whole Planet Foundation metrics show phenomenal growth since our first country (Costa Rica) and loan in 2006. We now have authorized grants in excess of $10 million, in 29 countries to over 170,000 families with about 800,000 direct beneficiaries in these families.
• The other indirect beneficiaries from re-lending the loan money over and over to ever more borrowers along with the positive economic impact from all these new businesses to the communities is incalculable. Surely it must be in the millions of beneficiaries. As far as our future growth, Whole Planet Foundation will almost double the number of countries we are working in from 29 as of January 2011 to about 60 by the end of 2012.
• A good part of the answer lies in the concept of the economics term Purchasing Power Parity, which asks how much money would be needed to purchase the same goods and services in two countries, and uses that to calculate an implicit foreign exchange rate.
• PPP indicators are ratios that indicate how many currency units a particular quantity of goods and services costs in different countries. Since the same basket of goods has a different cost to people in different countries due to differences in their currencies’ purchasing power, at the extremes this condition causes people to be relatively ‘poor’, and others to be relatively ‘rich’. For a very educational, entertaining, and even useful application of the theory of PPP, please go to the following link regarding The Economist magazine’s Big Mac Index: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Mac_Index
• One microcredit loan is almost never enough to help a poor family escape poverty. It will, however, along with subsequent business expansion loans, help individuals provide better nutrition, healthcare, housing, education, and schooling to their children, who will then be better prepared to escape poverty.
• Ending poverty is a generational endeavor. Sometimes, although not very often, an economic middle-class level can be attained by a first generation microloan recipient.
George C. Marshall (U.S. Secretary of State 1947) Father of the Marshall PlanOur policy is directed not against any country or doctrine, but against hunger, poverty, desperation and chaos.
