We fail well-governed poor nations

From Prof Jeffrey D. Sachs.

Sir, Bimal Ghosh ("A fine balance between aid donors and recipients", Letters, February 1) is right to point out the difficult case of poorly governed countries, where the leadership is not disposed to pursue honest, transparent and efficient policies. Our report certainly does not solve this conundrum. But the irony is that the rich world is failing to give adequate help even to the well-governed poor countries!

We agonise about what to do in the most difficult circumstances on the planet without doing enough to solve the problems right before our eyes. The US has spent about Dollars 200bn and countless lives to get to the election in Iraq. Is it really beyond us to spend a mere sliver of that, a few billion dollars, to get mosquito nets and effective anti-malaria medicines to children in impoverished yet peaceful and well-governed countries such as Senegal and Ghana, and soil nutrients (for example via nitrogen- fixing tree crops) to farmers in Kenya and Ethiopia?

Of course not. The problem is that we are simply not trying hard enough and holding ourselves accountable. If we actually help the well-governed countries to carry out the life-saving programmes they desperately seek to scale up, we would also provide a powerful example and incentive to their poorly governed neighbours.

As it is, we leave both the well-governed and poorly governed countries to suffer, despite our promises, our hand-wringing and our own interests.

Jeffrey D. Sachs, Director, UN Millennium Project