by Jeffrey D. Sachs. Penguin Press, New
York, 2005. Hardbound, 396 pp. US$27.95.
ISBN 1-59420-045-9.
Prof. Jeffrey Sachs is Director of the Earth
Institute at Columbia University and keynote
speaker at the 18th World
Congress of Soil Science 9-15th
July in Philadelphia. He has written a
fascinating book about the poverty and this
book should be read by soil scientists
fascinated by big questions, global issues
and readable books. Throughout the book
there are many views on the role of the US
in global politics and poverty alleviation.
The book title refers John Maynard Keynes’
from 1930 “Economic possibilities for our
grandchildren”. But Sachs has less patience
– not for the grandchildren but in our time,
that is: by 2025. And these he considers the
economic possibilities for our time: to meet
the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) by
2015; to end extreme poverty by 2025; and to
ensure that poor countries have stepped on
the ladder of development by 2025. Sachs is
the head of the MDG Project of the UN. The
eight MDGs were unanimously agreed to in
2002 by all 191 UN member states. These
goals are important targets for cutting
poverty in half by the year 2015, compared
with a baseline of 1990. Sachs is convinced:
they are bold but achievable.
The man and his book
The book is divided in three parts:
introductory chapters on poverty, case
studies of countries in which Sachs was
involved, and synthesis pointing the way
ahead to end poverty. Only one sixth of the
global population has a high-income status
through consistent economic growth; another
two-third has middle-income status with
moderate rates of economic growth; and one
sixth of all people are stuck in extreme
poverty with very low rates of economic
growth. Sachs gives an overview of where the
poverty occurs (mostly in Africa) and
linking it to various factors; for example,
crop yields are related to growth of Gross
Domestic Product (GDP) per capita. What
comes first: economic growth or high yields?
But obviously high yields mean high inputs
and that can only be done when money is
earned and the economy is right. Successes
include China where 64% of the population
lived on an income below one dollar per day
in 1981 but the number was reduced to 17% by
2001. By the year 2050, it is reasonable to
suppose that China will reach around half of
the Western Europe income average - that is
how quickly it can go. For India, he shows
how it changed from an impoverished country
25 years ago to high-tech information
service country in the world economy in the
1990s. That is why poor countries should not
despair, it can be done.
In the second section, Sachs describes his
experiences as advisor to various national
governments including Bolivia, Poland,
Russia, China, India and Africa, mainly
Kenya. He describes his approach in which he
views countries with huge economic problems,
like super inflation, as patients. He sees
countries as individuals in trouble who need
the help of their families, friends,
counsellors and public programs. He has
developed a clinical approach to cure the
problem and his clinical economics are
roughly as follows: countries are poor
because they are in debt, are politically
instable and have unfavourable environmental
and socio-economic conditions. As a result,
there is no economic development and they
cannot get the first foothold on the ladder.
With some help (debt cancellation and
financial injections) they get the first
foothold and the development may continue.
Without that kick-start, development may not
start at all. The end of extreme poverty is
the beginning of economic progress. It is
not quite as simple as that and Sachs shows
in various examples that happenings and
measures in one place cannot be viewed
independently of what happens elsewhere on
the globe. Just as in ecology it seems that
the holistic view has arrived in economics.
In the latter chapters, examples are given
of how poverty can be ended including the
already infamous Millennium villages like
Sauri in Western Kenya. Sachs demonstrates
that five interventions are needed to lift
the village out of poverty: 1. Agricultural
inputs (e.g. inorganic fertilisers), 2.
Investment in health, 3. Investment in
education, 4. Power, transport and
communication, 5. Safe drinking water and
sanitation. Total costs would be about $70
per person per year and Kenya would require
an annual investment in the order of $1500
million per year to provide all poor
villagers with a similar package. Current
donor support for Kenya is $100 million.
Upscaling from villages to entire countries
or continents seems to be easier in
economics than in soil science where the
problem is largely unsolved.
Sachs singles out myths and questions common
reasoning in the development circuits. For
example, he disposes of the idea that the
rich have got richer because the poor have
got poorer - it would only be plausible if
gross world production had remained roughly
constant but gross world production raised
nearly fifty fold in the past two centuries.
Sachs also reminds us that until the
mid-1700s the world was very poor by any of
today’s standards; in many regions in
Western Europe and North America poverty was
fairly common until the Second World War.
Those that climbed out of poverty have thus
a moral responsibility to help those that
are still in it.
He also questions why some countries are
poor (cultural, geography, governance etc.)
and in the book there are various critical
notes on donor behaviour. Not only critical
- also quantitative. Aid per person in
sub-Saharan Africa fell from $32 in 1980 to
$22 in 2001, and Africa was poorer at the
start of the 21st century than
during the late 1960s when the IMF and World
Bank first arrived in Africa. Often aid
packages have not been delivered or as he
notes: an endless stream of misleading
announcements that come from rich countries
vis-à-vis poor countries. Rich countries
should give grants rather than loans – just
as was done under the Marshall Plan.
Politics play a role in this book and Sachs
is a firm believer that politics cannot
explain Africa’s prolonged crisis.
Relatively well-governed countries such as
Ghana and Senegal fail to prosper and it
turns out that Africa’s per capita economic
growth is significantly lower than in other
developing countries with comparable levels
of corruption and income. Sachs comes up
with an array of explanations and an
important one is the lack of sufficient aid:
The biggest problem today is not that too
many poorly governed countries get too much
help but that well-governed countries get
far too little. But not only aid, also
trade, although trade reforms alone are not
powerful enough to enable the poorest
countries to escape from extreme poverty.
In various sections, Sachs refers to soil
management and particular soil fertility and
nutrient management. For example, he refers
to the poor inherent soil conditions in
African countries: “..soils have been long
depleted of nutrients as the result of
repeated harvests without the benefit of
chemical or organic nutrient inputs.” He
also suggests how these adverse conditions
could be improved: nitrogen-fixing trees,
agroforestry and inorganic fertilizers. As a
means to let household income grow, he
mentions that technology can play a role:
“…an agricultural extension officer teaches
the farm household how to manage the soil
nutrients in a new and improved manner by
planting special nitrogen-fixing trees that
replenish the vital nitrogen nutrients of
the soil..”. He also mentions that new
agroforestry techniques can triple food
crops in the N-depleted soils of Africa. As
we know, N-fixing trees are beneficial but
cannot do the full job of soil fertility
restoration, apart from problems with
adaptation of planting trees by farmers.
Inorganic fertilisers remain indispensable,
as Sachs notes, and he favours fertiliser
subsidies like the farmers in Western Europe
receive.
Sachs,
like Jared Diamond, is fascinated by the
influence of environmental conditions on a
nation’s wealth. Some countries are
landlocked, very mountainous and have poor
inherent conditions that hinder economic
development. Nonetheless, he states that
“….it is time to banish the bogeyman of
geographical determinism” . That is somewhat
contradictory to his view elsewhere in the
book (page 208 “...geography have conspired
with economics to give Africa a particularly
weak hand….the combination of Africa’s
adverse geography and its extreme poverty
cause creates the worst poverty trap in the
world”; or on page 312: “…slower growth [in
Africa] is best explained by geographical
and ecological factors”). Areas where soils
are inherently poor are areas where people
are poor. But poor soils and people have
always existed, also in Western Europe and
the USA. Hundreds of years of inorganic and
organic inputs and other soil improvements
(liming, drainage etc.) have made many poor
soils highly productive and the people rich.
So the inherently poor soils can be made
rich but it needs inputs, and the will to
make those inputs. It is unfortunate that
there are influential people in rich
countries who think that inorganic
fertilisers are pesticides, and that organic
agriculture can feed the world. It can not,
and it is pleasing to read that Sachs has no
chemophobia – in fact he suggests that the
use of DDT, where appropriate, can help to
reduce the burden of malaria in Africa (page
262).
All
in all, it is a bit unusual to read about
soils and economic development in economic
works. It shows that Sachs has an open eye
for an important cause of low agricultural
productivity in many poor countries. He
provides no spatial or quantitative link
between poor soil conditions and poverty (do
we have the data?) but his point is
well-made. It can only be hoped that his
plea for the provision of free or cheap
anti-malarial measures and Aids medicines go
hand-in-hand with necessary investments in
soil nutrient capitals – an idea that has
fruitlessly floated around in Africa for
more than 10 years.
As
a soil scientist, I enjoyed reading this
book, I even think that I understood most of
it. Here is a man who can write and has a
message. The message is that poverty can end
in our time – that is not a forecast, nor a
prediction, it is merely an explanation of
what is possible. Throughout the book Sachs
refers to soils wherever appropriate and
that in combination with the historical
links and insights makes this book worth
reading for many soil scientists. You may
also pick up a few ideas of where to focus
your next research project or pick and
choose convincing arguments to slot into
your grant proposal. The world is better off
if the Millennium Goals are being met, and
if soil science plays the role it deserves.
Sachs thinks bottom-up: he believes that
poverty can be reduced by helping the rural
poor; give them inputs, health, education,
safe water and a good road for
transportation to buy and sell goods and
economic development may start. True as it
may be, in some countries rural poverty was
reduced because money was flowing in from
family members working in the cities
(off-farm income). That is, and has always
been, a way of integrating people in the
cash economy and getting the first foot on
the ladder of economic development. Sachs
advocates good science and the upscaling of
successes. That is refreshing to read – it
has worked in most parts of the world so why
not use it in the extreme poor areas. But
many development agencies and donors somehow
think that science has no role to play.
I
don’t know enough of macro economics to tell
whether Sachs’ ideas and experiences
(lifting debt, good governance, financial
injections, liberalising markets, etc.) are
as glorious and celebrated as described in
this book. But I have seen enough poverty
rooted in poor environmental conditions to
understand that the plea of Sachs for ending
poverty is extremely necessary. In a world
preoccupied with terror, security and Wall
Street and Nikkei indices, compassion and
help for the poor is not only noble and
humane but also sensible. We can only hope
that a soil scientist would be able to write
a similar book, as readable, passionate and
persuasive as Sachs’ book. Something like:
The end of poor soils and their
management – ecological possibilities in our
time.
The
book is amply illustrated with graphs and
maps, which I guess is fancied by most soil
scientists with a spatial and quantitative
mind. The foreword is by Bono – the singer
of U2, an Irish rock band. Bono is the man
behind the gigantic pop music spectacle
Live8 that was held in the summer of 2005.
More importantly, he is one of the most
dyed-in-the-wool advocates of Sachs’ ideas.
They travel jointly through Africa, share
the same ideas but they target a different
audience. Obviously Sachs is highly
influential in the policy arena whereas Bono
appears to be the mobilizer and inspirator
for many (young) people throughout the
world. That might be a successful
combination and it can only be hoped that
political changes will follow public opinion
– as they mostly do. To some extent people
listen to politicians, but increasingly
politicians have started to listen to the
people they serve.
Brother in arms: Bono and his professor
At last something about the author. There
are some biographic elements and we find out
a little about the man Jeffrey Sachs, which
increases the readability of the book. We
learn how he changed his views over time,
how perseverance and persistence pay and how
he observes the smoking habits and full
ash-trays of a Polish finance minister.
Sachs was professor at Harvard before
becoming the head of the MDG projects. Sachs
has his critics. With this book he aims to
convince them of the possibilities to end
poverty. I cannot help thinking of various
gloom and doom books (Club of Rome, Paul
Ehrlich, Lester Brown etc.) that have
predicted Malthusian catastrophes which have
proved wrong, so far. The state of the world
and its progress is a difficult thing to
influence, but without hope and high aims to
influence and change its future course we
might as well do nothing and simply enjoy.
Time will tell; let’s influence time. Sachs
gives important leads and follows Thomas
Malthus' code of belief: Evil exists not
to create despair but activity.
Alfred E. Hartemink
ISRIC – World Soil Information
e-mail:
alfred.hartemink@wur.nl
