The Idealist: Jeffrey Sachs and the Quest to End Poverty
Jeffrey Sachs is a rock-star economist and advisor to leaders with struggling economies from Bolivia to Poland to Russia. He switched from hard-edged economist to humanitarian when he undertook to end world poverty, writing The End of Poverty (2005) and launching the Millennium Villages Project in 2006. It was a daring five-year project, financed by George Soros and like-minded donors, seeking answers to end poverty that were sustainable and transferable. Munk spent six years traveling with Sachs between African villages and donors’ meetings, living among villagers and project managers to get a sense of the progress of Sachs’ grand experiment. She chronicles efforts to reduce malaria and develop sustainable farming projects as well as head-on clashes with development officials and worries about encouraging dependency even as the project pushed for more market-oriented programs. Her accounts of the experiences of programs in Somalia and Uganda highlight the ebb and flow of enthusiasm, disappointment, resentment, and frustration among camel herders, farmers, and villagers as they struggled to survive while theories on poverty relief confronted harsh realities. --Vanessa Bush