The End of Poverty: How we can make it happen in our lifetime

In his latest book ‘The End of Poverty’ professor Jeffrey Sachs attempts to tackle issues of underdevelopment and global poverty in a book that reads like a cross between an autobiography and a travel guide. The Penguin paperback edition is addressed to anyone with an interest in current discussions on development and seeks to capitalize on the focus on poverty in the summer of 2005 (G8 Summit, Live8). To enhance its buying potential it also carries a foreword by the U2 singer Bono. The End of Poverty is an interesting book that presents elements of economic orthodoxy in an accessible and honest way through the eyes of one of the most famous economists of our time. A book so broad and ambitious however is by necessity too general to serve as a useful tool in advanced academic research. The need to appeal to a broader audience has perhaps pushed the author to making generalizations that gloss over the problems of using aid to deal with the incidence of global poverty. What is unfortunate about the book is that it gives the impression that the world’s developing countries are just waiting for an academic messiah, someone with the correct qualifications and the adequate intellect to look at the problem, devise a solution and tell them what to do. It is simplistic to think that the problem of poverty is the result of a lack of decisiveness or a misunderstanding that can be cured by a 400 page book.