I had the true pleasure and honor of seeing Dr. Jeffrey Sachs give a speech at the Earth Institute of Columbia University. Broadly, it was the Institute’s vision and efforts to reduce poverty in the developing world, seen through the microcosm of the Millennium Development Villages, a pioneering project spearheaded by Dr. Sachs in the poorest countries in the world. I state again and again, awareness is key; Dr. Sachs is at the forefront of the awareness (and implementation) movement, bridging social and commercial gaps to bring awareness of critical issues affecting so many of the world’s poor. He has been called a “rock star economist” for his relations with Bono and Bob Geldorf. He has been seen on MTV with Angelina Jolie (which I admit made me a bit squeamish, but hell, to get to that kind of market with such a message, brilliant, empowering, inspiring); and has written marvelous and thorough books on the topic, including The End of Poverty and his new Common Wealth: Economics for a Crowded Planet.
What really attracts me to his message is the pragmatic and optimistic approach to solving some of the most daunting issues of our day. “These are problems that we have the ability to solve! We need to be optimistic about the problems in Africa, and also see that there is no mystery on how to overcome these problems; the solutions, for the most part, already exist!” Sachs beams at the opening of his presentation. Optimism like his is hard to find in many under funded social fields; his insights are often attacked as unpractical, too costly, or too optimistic; but his solutions, though surely not perfect, remain the best chance for changing the lives of millions. Perfection is close to impossible when dealing in difficult, real life situations, which, by definition, are fluid situations. His solutions are ones which many of his critics can, and do, critique, but seldom attempt to improve upon; his focus on the human level, the micro, as well as the macro, putting a human face on every single unnecessary death due to a preventable illness or lack of nutrition, is striking for a person in his level. “Why is Africa stuck?” Sachs asks…”Africa is a puzzle-it is the poorest place in the world, for sure. Why is it stuck in this cycle of poverty?”
In true Sachs’ style, he lays out in detail WHY. And then lays out WHAT TO DO to help it. Something so simple, yet profound, in an arena of many experts and little result. We can look at colonialism. Colonialism did not cause this poverty trap, according to Sachs. It delayed progress, to be sure, but did not cause poverty. Adam Smith, in 1776, in his masterpiece A Wealth of Nations, states that, “The lack of navigable rivers is a huge burden to the development of Africa.” This is 1776! Before colonialization. We need to look elsewhere, to geographic positioning, lack of a green agricultural revolution, and disease burden to help to explain the current situation. These situations have led to the current poverty trap in Africa; yet each has an identifiable solution, which is critical to keep in mind, and which I will get into after. Sachs lists the special challenges facing the continent as:
1. Low Food Productivity-African countries have the lowest food yields in the world, due to a lack of modern agriculture and lack of investments for such basics as fertilizers; this has created a situation where there is simply not enough food on the continent; Africa is a “hungry planet” as Sachs states
2. High Disease Burden-due to its tropical setting and historical roles, no other place in the world has the burden of tropical disease as Africa, from Sickle Cell Anemia to Malaria; the most important thing is that this disease issue is simply not the fault of Africans (as Western blamologists like to say)-the malaria rates are a tragic result of genetic mutations of the strain over the centuries, which has created a super-strain, which only attacks humans (as a result of most other malaria strains in the world which prefer cattle or other animals for its transmission); Sachs has been all over the world, and never, he said, had he seen the prevalence of predominance of disease affecting people like in Africa. Its impact is profound and startling.
3. Economic Isolation-unfortunately, most countries on the continent are land locked (by far the most of any continent-think about South America for comparison)-land locked countries do not have access to global trade and ports; this is compounded by the “bad neighbor” situation detailed by Collier in The Bottom Billion-the negative impact on trade and growth of neighbors who are in conflict, or simply do not promote, regional trading blocs. Uniquely, most live well inland on the continent, in the fertile regions, such as Rwanda and Uganda, where agriculture can be sustained; much of East Africa is simply too arid to sustain life; however, it is extremely difficult to promote international trade, with no infrastructure, when you are thousands of miles from the coast and from trade routes. This is compounded by the colonial powers not investing at all in rail or sea links during their rule, as they did in, say India, which has a marvelous rail system (which I’ve ridden many times and can testify to!)
4. Rapid Population Growth-unlike the rest of the world, the population growth in Africa is astounding; the population, by a conservative estimate, will double by 2050; this will lead to 1.8 Billion on the continent, further stressing agriculture and fragile states. The growth rate is huge because of many reasons, but the most important is lack of access to health care and family planning; people simply do not have access to modern information on family planning; they are also continually subject to disease and death; having more children will ensure a safety net for parents; however, this often works in reverse, as agricultural plots decrease in size, and families increase, there is simply not enough food at current productivity levels to sustain growing families.
Ok, ok, enough with the problems-many identify these in various forms, with little result. Lets look at the solutions with Dr. Sachs:
1. Agriculture-Africa needs a Green Revolution! The same revolution that swept most of the developing world, such as in India, decades ago, supported by such visionaries as the Rockefeller Foundation, and increased food yields by many multiples. However, this revolution never made it to Africa, and the continent is suffering as a result. Sharp increases in food production are urgently needed; as I read BBC News last night, there is talks of rioting and civil unrest due to high commodity prices in many weak African states; if food needs to be imported to support populations, and food prices are subject to wild swings due to crazy policies by US lawmakers (who have decided to put 1/3 of this years corn crop into our oil tanks and drive up global commodity prices!!!) domestic production needs to be built to the level of self-sufficiency. This Green Revolution, Sachs states, leads to a “healthy rural-urban migration.” It automates processes, and increases yields, so the many who flood into urban centers looking for work and a better life can be fed by the few in the rural areas, as is the case with most of the world. This simply does not occur in the current state; urban centers continue to grow, and food continues to be scarce. Africa is the only region of the world with declining food production, Imagine that. In 2008, with all the technology at our fingertips, this continent is actually decreasing in its yields!! This boggles my mind. Answer-Africa needs HIGHER FOOD PRODUCTION. The need fertilizer. They need new strategies and inputs which exist elsewhere, but simply haven’t been introduced, to increase their yields three and fourfold, or more. This will solve the most pressing problem rather easily.
2. Health- “Malaria is almost uniquely African, and also very solvable, in Africa,” Sachs notes; “…when Malaria became a people-disease in Africa, there were almost no cattle present, as a result of the tsetse fly; it evolved to be a people biter, as opposed to most other regions of the world which are primarily cattle biters.” This unfortunate historical twist has created lasting and devastating results. However, blaming PEOPLE for this is ridiculous; it is simply not their fault that they are in this situation. “Most of what we blame on the victims-the poor people, is simply not true-this is a historical and ecological burden and tragedy, aided by poverty…poverty and disease cause a naturally devastating trap, that needs outside help.” And the help is easy-anti-malarial bed nets, distributed and low or no cost; a health revolution, to accompany the green revolution, to both educate and serve the people dying needlessly. Giving access to needed medications and bed nets, through staffed community health centers, would make a critical difference in millions of lives. Access to health care is simply lacking in many areas; people are dying needlessly from illnesses which we have already cured. This is insanity.
3. Infrastructure-an economy and a country can simply not grow without adequate infrastructure; this is not in place, and many of the countries do not have access to internal funding to cover such projects; however, once in place, their benefits can multiply the levels of life, and also bring many countries into the global economic marketplace. Granted, this takes a lot of time and a lot of money. But, it needs to be done. Roads, rails, electricity. Development cannot occur without these. For years, critical infrastructure improvements have been neglected by development groups such as the World Bank; this was a mistake (admitted by the World Bank, unbelievably, in a 150 page report!) We need to move forward, rectify these mistakes, invest in the critical links to the outside world, install the plumbing to bring these countries into the fold; if not, they will simply coexist in our modern world as failed and failing states, withering away in misery; in the 21st century, we cannot allow huge swaths of the world to live a parallel existence of suffering and misery, when we have the techniques to improve at our current disposal.
I applaud Sachs’ bold, far reaching goals of poverty eradication, his relentless drive to constantly improve upon these goals, and his systematic method of implementation. His work crosses many disciplines, from economics to biology to sustainable building design to education, or as he calls it, “looking at the biophysics of life, and designing solutions in a realistic way.” Breaking unfortunate trends, he has not shied away from areas in which he is not expert; instead, he has gotten the best minds in the field, to come and work with him, building an incomparable team, with the goal of ending poverty on this planet, in our lifetimes. He has also not wasted time on unwinnable arguments, such as good the democracy debates and good governance debates that have drained to much foreign aid and attention unnecessarily; Sachs’ said, “You can lecture on good governance, but lectures will not solve the basic issues of infrastructure, health, and agriculture-these are physical problems that need to be seen in a physical reality-these are the underlying factors behind bad governance.” This is a view that is shared by Paul Collier, in his book The Bottom Billion, which I am currently reading; understanding the poverty traps is important for a historical perspective, but we need to focus on the basics, focus on improving lives at the basic levels….and there is NO correlation between democracy and development (sorry, America).
I won’t spend any more time fawning; the speech was great, and so is the man’s work. Thought, I will add, we need more great minds like his working on important social issues in this country and around the world. Imagine, if all the great brains coming out of Harvard and Yale and Stamford, instead of jumping right onto Wall Street or K Street, were given a two year reprieve on loans, to go to work in non-partisan, scientific or policy minded government think tanks, battling social issues affecting us all; its just a wild idea, but imagine the impact of a refocused society with refocused goals, even for two years. Imagine the waves of progress that could rush out in all direction from those walls. I felt one of those waves today and it was invigorating.
