Quote Originally Posted by tequila View Post
Dayuhan - have you ever read The Economist's Tale? I'd think you'd get a heck of a kick out of it. About a World Bank consultant on the ground in Sierra Leone in the 1980s and his struggle to get the WB to reverse policy on rice subsidies. An outstanding real-world example of dysfunctional aid at work.

The entire book is excellent, but the best passages are about the difficulty of getting good real-world data on how Third World economies actually function, and how bad data (which abounds) can lead to decisions with appalling effects.
I haven't read it, but I suspect that I've lived it a few times. In fairness I'd have to say that NGOs can be every bit as obtuse as the big multilateral agencies, sometimes more so. They do less damage, having less capacity, but every bit as obtuse.

I'll look for the book... and maybe tell a story or two; after 30 years in SE Asia I've got quite the litany!