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This reminds me of a story about African farmers I once heard. NGOs and various philanthropic organizations have been notorious for having a superficial compreh

This reminds me of a story about African farmers I once heard. NGOs and various philanthropic organizations have been notorious for having a superficial comprehension of what is actually needed to improve the lives of people in the so-called third world. We have the examples of the Nigerian or Tanzanian textile industries being severely hurt by the flooding of the market with mitumba[0] or the destruction of local shoe industry by Toms or even the impoverishment of Haitian agriculture through the distribution of free rice long after a crisis has passed, for that matter. But then you have cases where a piece of machinery breaks, and no one has the expertise to repair it, so the thing in question (a tractor, a well) is just abandoned and things go back to what they were. Technology lives in an ecosystem of expertise, supply chains, and other cultural features. Indeed, technology is part of culture. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mitumba_(clothing) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mitumba_(clothing)

notch656a 4y ago
NGOs commonly are just employment schemes for wealthy first worlders. They aren't ignorant to the fact the solution they are providing isn't practical, they're just going with whatever pays their fat salary while generating donations. That is, that very little benefit winds up in the designated beneficiaries is by design rather than accident.
gamechangr 4y ago
There is another story I have heard many times about how the Vietnam government paid local people to kill rats. To prove they killed a rat, the locals had to cut its tail off and bring it in to collect payment. The locals decided it was getting harder and harder to find rats to get paid to capture. They started to cut the tails off and release the rats back into the sewers so that they could procreate. So the government's attempt to kill all rats ended in rats being bred and eventually an increase in rat population. Here is one link that tells some of the story: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Hanoi_Rat_Massacre https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Hanoi_Rat_Massacre
- Anthony-G 4y ago
  > The French thought that this was a good idea because they had a policy of trying to encourage entrepreneurialism in Vietnam. It seems that the natives were already a lot more enterprising than the French had thought. I had heard of the story of the Cobra Effect[1] but the Hanoi Rat Masscacre is a much better documented example of the Perverse Incentive phenomenon. It also strikes me as an example of Goodhart's Law[2] in effect. 1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perverse_incentive#The_original_cobra_effect https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perverse_incentive#The_origina... 2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goodhart%27s_law https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goodhart%27s_law

notch656a 4y ago

NGOs commonly are just employment schemes for wealthy first worlders. They aren't ignorant to the fact the solution they are providing isn't practical, they're just going with whatever pays their fat salary while generating donations. That is, that very little benefit winds up in the designated beneficiaries is by design rather than accident.

gamechangr 4y ago

There is another story I have heard many times about how the Vietnam government paid local people to kill rats. To prove they killed a rat, the locals had to cut its tail off and bring it in to collect payment. The locals decided it was getting harder and harder to find rats to get paid to capture. They started to cut the tails off and release the rats back into the sewers so that they could procreate. So the government's attempt to kill all rats ended in rats being bred and eventually an increase in rat population. Here is one link that tells some of the story: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Hanoi_Rat_Massacre https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Hanoi_Rat_Massacre

Anthony-G 4y ago
> The French thought that this was a good idea because they had a policy of trying to encourage entrepreneurialism in Vietnam. It seems that the natives were already a lot more enterprising than the French had thought. I had heard of the story of the Cobra Effect[1] but the Hanoi Rat Masscacre is a much better documented example of the Perverse Incentive phenomenon. It also strikes me as an example of Goodhart's Law[2] in effect. 1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perverse_incentive#The_original_cobra_effect https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perverse_incentive#The_origina... 2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goodhart%27s_law https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goodhart%27s_law