I just returned from the National Missionary Conference in Indy through the Church of Christ/Christian Church. Great times! Tumaini had a booth and we did a workshop (I say we, Dr. Mutunga was invited to lead one and he invited me to help, it was an honor and privilege to be a part of it). It was also a blessing to be there, see some old friends (former pastors, the dean of the college, etc.) and get reconnected to the missionary world.

I also had the opportunity to sit in on the session hosted by Dr. Alan Rabe on Humanitarian Aid. Dr. Rabe is the dean of the Ministry Dept. at Hope International and has a long track record of working with and for Feed the Children, World Vision, etc. He's worked in more countries than I know. But what I found most interesting in his session was how he picked up William Easterly's "The White Man's Burden" and noted how not only well-written it is but how honest and truthful it is when dealing with humanitarian aid. It turns out that Dr. Mutunga had recommended it to him and another friend in the audience, Dr. Robert Reese, had read it as well. What a great discussion we had afterward. Anyway, I've written my thoughts on this book before in this space, but I want to reinforce what I think is one of the best quotes of this book:

Financing consumption of a few poor people is not bad, but the Big Push (Millenium Goals, etc.) hoped for the society-wide transformation that would come from aid financing investment and growth.

In my mind (and this seemed to be agreed upon by the others) this is what separates Sachs and Bono and their paradigm from Easterly and his. Sachs is calling for major aid increases at the government level in hopes that the government will properly invest it in the countries infrastructure (roads, health care, education, etc). History has shown this doesn't happen, and I have a number of articles from Kenyan newspapers saying the same.

In making his point, Eastly presents a case study, the situation of a young girl in rural Ethiopia who every morning at sunrise gathers a load of firewood, carries it on her back for a half-day's walk to Addis Ababa, sells the firewood, then walks back to her village to present the money gained to her family for their survival (I could tell similar stories of countless children in Kenya). Does the girl want to do this the rest of her life, of course not! She wants to go to school, get an education, and better her life. There are millions like her around the world. Easterly's concern is that the Big Push can't or at least hasn't helped this girl get an education. For all of the foreign aid Kenya has received, millions still lack clean drinking water, something that the Big Push is supposed to address. The people in these countries could care less what foreign aid is going where and what governments are fighting over, they just want clean water, education, food, etc., something that in spite of all the promises they still have not received or been given access to. The answer then, in my mind and basically endorsed by Easterly, is grass roots Searchers (those who look for what the people need rather than coming in and telling the people what they need and then giving it to them, even though the people dont need it) going to the end of the earth to find out what people need, finding out how we can help them get that, then through microfinancing (or donations where necessary) assisting them to get what they need so they can move from survival up the economic ladder.

I don't believe the Sachs plan can accomplish this, but I am hopeful that the Easterly plan is exactly what the people need!