Stop Trying to Save the World

The article starts by talking about PlayPump International and its idea of constructing merry-go-rounds that hooked to a water pump. Every time it was spun, a tank was filled with fresh, clean water. The NGO had no problem raising money and these pumps were installed in various villages. Although it seemed like a great idea to many, it turns out these devices were underutilized in these villages. In fact, it almost became a chore to operate, as kids did not want to play with them. This was a prime example of development ideas that grow to failure due to lack of understanding with the developing area. In the late 90’s, MIT Economics professor Michael Kramer worked in Kenya to distribute textbooks. However, through a controlled study experiment, he found that this had little to no effect on overall academic performance on students there. Kramer hypothesized that academic struggles were not caused by problems within the classroom, but outside of it. He came up with a project to eradicate stomach worms within children. The project was successful – absence rates fell by 25%, kids got taller, and friends/families got healthier. When testing these children later, they had more education and higher salaries. This was also much more cost efficient than the textbook distribution project. There was a 60-1 ratio between bump in lifetime wages to cost of treatment for kids on the deworming project. Kramer founded the NGO, Deworm the World. The eradication of stomach worms in children took place around the world in developing countries. However, questions arose as to whether something that worked within a small village will also scale within nations and continents. A controlled study showed that in some areas, this project had no effect on academic performance. In fact, in areas like Nicaragua and the Philippines, giving kids textbooks