Jeffrey Sachs - The End of Poverty

It has taken me a long time to read The End of Poverty, it is quite a hard book to read. In fact I skipped chunks at the end which I dislike doing. I have an interest in the subject matter from Open University course on Third World Development and at times it read a bit too much like a text book. In parts I found the book inspirational and in other parts dull and repetitive, and at other times just wanted to throw it against the wall.

Sachs is an economist and there is a lot of economics in it, this alone is not a problem it is the way that it is spelt out and over simplified so that every formula is so carefully explained. This maybe a good thing for some people but made the book drag for me with a base knowledge, plus I think it would make people with no economic knowledge daunted as the over-simplification meant everything was explained in such detail it took a long time to read and then another example was given….

Some of Sachs theory makes sense certainly, but it does go over the same thing rather a lot. Writing it in a book isn’t going to solve the problem, if, as he says, it is a lack of support from the Western governments. Debt relief or cancellation is a bonus but a long commitment to projects is what is needed, as Sachs says. It is all very well Sachs telling me that, but my £10 a month to charity, while useful, is not going to help if it is billions of dollars that are required from governments in the West. There is little the individual can do other than write to their MPs and question governments that have other things on their mind (that is not an excuse, that is just how it is – giving money to Africa does not win elections).

We really only have Sachs word on it that this is the way to go. He has an impressive CV and details how he has helped countries like Poland get back on their feet and also refers to countries that he has not helped and their problems (an interesting, if over long and not always relevant part of the book). However, there is still an awful lot that needs to be done and regrettably I am not in the situation to ‘foster economic systems’ that will help.

The end of extreme poverty (living on less than the equivalent of US$1 per day per person) is the ideal and Sachs believes it is workable in the next 20-25 years. I hope he is right.