This book boldly addresses the question: Why has so much foreign assistance done so little good? Easterly’s answer is simple and in stark contrast to conventional wisdom and literature, most notably Jeffrey Sachs’ Ending Poverty. The reason, according to Easterly, is that foreign assistance has been designed by people he terms “planners” instead of relying on market forces. He compares the well-meaning “planners” to those he calls “searchers.” Planners, he says, design grand schemes to solve the problems of the poor, relying on analysis and centrally planned interventions, while searchers seek functional local solutions and build on them.

Easterly, himself a former economist with the World Bank (and therefore a planner), argues that planners are what cause most foreign aid to fail. The legend of foreign aid, according to Easterly, is that the poor cannot emerge from poverty without “an aid-financed Big Push, involving investments and actions to address all constraints to development, after which they will have a takeoff into self-sustained growth, and aid will no longer be needed.” Politicians, actors, musicians and the public love the idea that we can somehow engineer the end of poverty while at the same time achieving democracy, ensuring environmental health and primary education for all.

Easterly devotes most of the book to a fascinating discussion of why and how such grand schemes fail. He provides sobering statistics to back up his analysis. For example, Easterly shows that most of the countries that have received the largest amount of assistance are still the poorest, and also often the most undemocratic or free. And, some of the countries that were the poorest at the end of World War II have now emerged to relative prosperity without any significant foreign aid.

The solution to the “White Man’s Burden,” Easterly argues, is to have no plan, but instead to let aid agencies compete for “market share.” In other words, those wishing to lead efforts to end hunger and poverty should be financed based on their track record. In the end, he does not recommend ending foreign aid, but rather “homegrown” solutions, small developments like vaccines and improved seeds. “When you are in a hole,” he says, “the top priority is to stop digging. Discard your patronizing confidence that you know how to solve other people’s problems better than they do. Don’t try to fix governments or societies. Don’t invade other countries… The aim should be to make individuals better off, not to transform governments or societies.”

This review originally appeared in the November/December 2006 issue of World Ark, the magazine of Heifer International. Reviewed by Jim De Vries, Heifer’s Senior Vice President of Programs. Used with permission.