Poor Economics

Yesterday I went to the 'globaliseringslezing' by Esther Duflo. It was about the book she wrote with Abhiijit Banerjee 'Poor Economics'. She had a sparkling lecture about their way of working on the eradication of poverty. The main message is : start looking at reality, and act regarding to that reality. Within their 'Poverty Action Lab' at MIT they do small scale projects such as stimulating communities to vaccinate their children by providing them a one-kilo- bag of lentils. It helped; more children were vaccinated and the next time also. It worked as a drive for development. Why do poor people act the way they act? Why is poverty not solved yet, despite the aid that's been given? In contrary to many scientists and workers in the field such as Sachs, Moyo, Yunus, she states that there is not 1 solution. Eradicating poverty is a blanket woven from many threads. By starting on a small scale they work on governments to take over. That last step is a tricky one. But it must be taken!
Also invited were Dutch NGO specialists such as Monique van 't Hek, Rene Grotenhuis and Andries de Jong. After the lecture it was meant to have a discussion. However, Linda Polman, who was the moderator, was acting shamefully. She kept on showing that she had read the book properly, kept on pushing the dialogue into her cynical ideas about aid, and completely forgot the knowledgeable input of the others. She was a bad moderator. Rene Grotenhuis saved by stating that he was unhappy the way the conversation went, and the audience agreed by applauding loudly. Despite this; the evening was inspiring and gave fresh ideas and results. The book is out also in Dutch: 'Arm en Kansrijk'.