Bottom of the Pyramid Lessons
Banerjee and Duflo recognize five lessons from their extensive research about the realities of being poor (Banerjee, 268-271):
- The poor often lack critical pieces of information and believe things that are not true.
- The poor have responsibility for too many aspects of their lives.
- There are good reasons that some markets are missing for the poor.
- Poor countries are not doomed because they are poor.
- It is possible to change governance and policy without changing the existing social and politcal structures.
Let a farmer know where the best market his, and what a reasonable price is, and he will modify his farming habits to take advantage of this new information. The poor have to worry about all aspects of their lives, to be experts at too many things, from health to nutrition to education for their kids, to markets, to politics. It is over-whelming. Making sure public nurses actually show up for work at the local infirmary makes a difference. Poor countries, by focusing on crucial first steps, are able to extricate themselves from poverty. It might be a health step, like immunization or figuring out whether you need to charge for a mosquito net, or whether, if you give it away, folks will use it more. A role for aid exists - beyond the normal supply of grain based food. Infrastructure particular to a specific community my work better. Help farmers get their produce to market, or create a market for their produce. Governance is important to long-term growth. Methods exist to right long histories of wrongs. Again, focus on a crucial few strategies makes sense. Alleviating corruption, if only in one part of interaction with the government, makes a difference. Just steps to provide legal identification might be enough to enfranchise a whole population.
Seemingly simple steps to get the ball rolling.
Reference
Banerjee, Abhijit V. and Ester Duflo. Poor Economics. A Radical Rethinking of the Way to Fight Global Poverty. PublicAffairs. 2011.