• News
    • Latest news
    • News search
    • Health
    • Finance
    • Food
    • Career news
    • Content series
    • Try Devex Pro
  • Jobs
    • Job search
    • Post a job
    • Employer search
    • CV Writing
    • Upcoming career events
    • Try Career Account
  • Funding
    • Funding search
    • Funding news
  • Talent
    • Candidate search
    • Devex Talent Solutions
  • Events
    • Upcoming and past events
    • Partner on an event
  • Post a job
  • About
      • About us
      • Membership
      • Newsletters
      • Advertising partnerships
      • Devex Talent Solutions
      • Contact us
Join DevexSign in
Join DevexSign in

News

  • Latest news
  • News search
  • Health
  • Finance
  • Food
  • Career news
  • Content series
  • Try Devex Pro

Jobs

  • Job search
  • Post a job
  • Employer search
  • CV Writing
  • Upcoming career events
  • Try Career Account

Funding

  • Funding search
  • Funding news

Talent

  • Candidate search
  • Devex Talent Solutions

Events

  • Upcoming and past events
  • Partner on an event
Post a job

About

  • About us
  • Membership
  • Newsletters
  • Advertising partnerships
  • Devex Talent Solutions
  • Contact us
  • My Devex
  • Update my profile % complete
  • Account & privacy settings
  • My saved jobs
  • Manage newsletters
  • Support
  • Sign out
Latest newsNews searchHealthFinanceFoodCareer newsContent seriesTry Devex Pro
    • News
    • 3 Questions for...

    Nina Munk: Charity works but it's not development

    The Millennium Villages Project is not a failure but it doesn’t exactly demonstrate a solution to poverty, Nina Munk, author of the much-talked about “The Idealist: Jeffrey Sachs and the Quest to End Poverty,” said in this exclusive interview with Devex.

    By Eliza Villarino // 10 October 2013
    The Youtube video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vSwfJBVWgbU is not available.

    Nina Munk has stirred a lot of buzz lately. Her newly released book chronicled the rise and troubles of Jeffrey Sach’s renowned brainchild, the Millennium Villages – and a large part of the trouble, it suggests, is the Columbia University professor’s approach to development.

    Reviews of “The Idealist: Jeffrey Sachs and the Quest to End Poverty” were largely positive, although Sachs was reportedly dismissive.

    For Munk, a contributing editor to Vanity Fair, the book has this message: Economic development is complicated and full of pitfalls.

    “That models or theories developed in academic laboratories can’t anticipate the chaos and complexities of the real world,” she told Devex. “That human beings are unpredictable, and sometimes even irrational.”

    In this exclusive interview, Munk explained why charity isn’t the same as economic development and stressed that despite what has been written about the Millennium Villages Project, it “is not a failure.”

    What were the biggest lessons you’ve learned about efforts to eradicate poverty as you document the developments in Millennium Villages?

    In the quest to end poverty, it’s important to be clear about the difference between economic development and humanitarian aid or charity. Thanks to the Millennium Villages Project, many people’s lives have improved. In village after village, I’ve seen first-hand the impact of the project’s interventions: less malnutrition, fewer incidents of malaria, more children in school, higher agricultural production, improved hygiene, etc. It’s impressive and important work.

    There’s never been any doubt that if you invest $5 million or $10 million into a small, isolated African village, you will see positive results. It’s called charity and it works and it’s good — but it’s not the same thing as economic development.

    People who work in the field of development wrestle with something larger: How can economic development take root and be sustained in desolate, desperate places with no roads or power or water, where people are illiterate and unlikely to live past the age of 55? Can people be lifted out of poverty, as Jeffrey Sachs puts it, or do they have to lift themselves? What’s the best way to connect a dirt-poor, rural African village to the global economy of the 21st century? And what is the point of a bumper crop if there are no buyers for that crop?

    I wish I had the answers to those questions, but I don’t. And as far as I can tell after six years of reporting on the subject, neither does anyone else. Not yet anyway.

    Can the Millennium Villages Project still have a happy ending?

    That depends on your definition of a happy ending.

    A few years ago, I interviewed George Soros about his decision to invest $50 million in the Millennium Villages Project. What if the MVP wasn’t the solution to global poverty? Wasn’t his investment a huge risk? I asked. Soros shrugged.

    “As a humanitarian action, it was a good investment on its own,” he replied. “But if it succeeded, then of course you’d get a reward that would be way out of proportion to the investment made.”

    Maybe Jeffrey Sachs and the MVP haven’t found the solution to global poverty. Maybe Sachs, in oversimplifying the problem and amplifying his own abilities, set himself up for failure. Nevertheless, as a “humanitarian action,” to use Soros’s term, the MVP is not a failure: People’s lives have been improved. There’s no shame in doing good — even if that good work is not “scalable.”

    What is your message to aid workers, most of whom, like Jeffrey Sachs, are driven by idealism?

    To use a famous quote: “Do all the good you can, by all the means you can, in all the ways you can, in all the places you can, at all the times you can, to all the people you can, as long as ever you can.”

    Otherwise, really, what’s the point?

    Read more development aid news online, and subscribe to The Development Newswire to receive top international development headlines from the world’s leading donors, news sources and opinion leaders — emailed to you FREE every business day.

      Printing articles to share with others is a breach of our terms and conditions and copyright policy. Please use the sharing options on the left side of the article. Devex Pro members may share up to 10 articles per month using the Pro share tool ( ).

      About the author

      • Eliza Villarino

        Eliza Villarino

        Eliza Villarino currently manages one of today’s leading publications on humanitarian aid, global health and international development, the weekly GDB. At Devex, she has helped grow a global newsroom, with talented journalists from major development hubs such as Washington, D.C, London and Brussels. She regularly writes about innovations in global development.

      Search for articles

      Related Jobs

      • MONITORING, EVALUATION, AND LEARNING (MEL) ADVISER
        Emerging Markets International (EMI) (Formerly Cardno Emerging Markets)
        Solomon Islands | Australia
      • Revenue and Partnership Cultivation Network Architect (Executive Vice President Level)
        Heifer International
        Worldwide
      • Finance Coordinator Vanuatu
        DT Global
        Port-Vila, Vanuatu
      • See more

      Most Read

      • 1
        Opinion: Mobile credit, savings, and insurance can drive financial health
      • 2
        FCDO's top development contractors in 2024/25
      • 3
        Strengthening health systems by measuring what really matters
      • 4
        Opinion: India’s bold leadership in turning the tide for TB
      • 5
        Reigniting momentum for maternal, newborn, and child health

      Trending

      Financing for Development Conference

      The Trump Effect

      Newsletters

      Related Stories

      Devex Career HubDevex Career Hub: 3 New Year’s resolutions for development jobseekers

      Devex Career Hub: 3 New Year’s resolutions for development jobseekers

      #GlobaldevJobsCareer advice from a young consultant who landed a World Bank gig

      Career advice from a young consultant who landed a World Bank gig

      Devex NewswireDevex Newswire: Sevilla summit tests patience — and global ambition

      Devex Newswire: Sevilla summit tests patience — and global ambition

      Devex NewswireDevex Newswire: Mark your calendars with 2025’s big global development moments

      Devex Newswire: Mark your calendars with 2025’s big global development moments

      • News
      • Jobs
      • Funding
      • Talent
      • Events

      Devex is the media platform for the global development community.

      A social enterprise, we connect and inform over 1.3 million development, health, humanitarian, and sustainability professionals through news, business intelligence, and funding & career opportunities so you can do more good for more people. We invite you to join us.

      • About us
      • Membership
      • Newsletters
      • Advertising partnerships
      • Devex Talent Solutions
      • Post a job
      • Careers at Devex
      • Contact us
      © Copyright 2000 - 2025 Devex|User Agreement|Privacy Statement