Aid Thoughts

I've written a short piece for Foreign Policy on the problems with giving in-kind aid to Haiti (and to other countries). Regular readers and fellow bloggers will recognise many of the arguments and examples in the piece:

However, cost-effectiveness and the marginalization of local markets are not the only worries. When Clowns Without Borders, an NGO that provides free clown-based services to the poor, lands in Port-au-Prince, the main concern is not the harm they might cause to the Haitian miming industry, but whether flying in imported clowns is an efficient use of resources.