Whats the Matter with

Development Today?
And What to Do About It.
Sophal Ear, Ph.D. (sear@nps.edu)
http://faculty.nps.edu/sear
Assistant Professor of National Security Affairs
U.S. Naval Postgraduate School, Monterey, CA
5 September 2009
Delivered at Renaissance Weekend, Monterey Plaza Hotel
Table of Contents
The Context
The Problem
Poverty and Infant
Mortality Maps
How other countries
developed
Case: Reducing the
sweat from
Cambodias
sweatshops
The Context 1
Purpose of Aid: to
promote national interest
(realist) or collective
interest (idealist); S-I gap
Aid as an instrument of
foreign policyto
promote political
stability and democracy
or transformational
diplomacy
Aid as means for
development (i.e.,
good change)
The Context 2
After Six Decades of Aid
Living on Less Than $1/Day
Infant Mortality
The Problem
Foreign aid often
leads to poor tax
revenues (why tax?)
No taxation = no
representation = no
accountability
Donors, govt, &
development industry
make change within
the system difficult
Cambodias Aid, Taxes, &
Revenues 2002-2006
Source: WDI Online. Accessed: 25 August 2008. http://publications.worldbank.org/WDI/
2002 2003 2004 2005 2006
ODA and official aid (current US$
millions)
484.25 514.31 483.19 540.68 528.99
Aid (% of central government
expenditures)
120.35 118.66 110.67 113.18 84.68
Aid (% of GNI) 11.79 11.50 9.49 8.99 7.59
Aid per capita (current US$) 36.52 38.13 35.22 38.74 37.26
Tax revenue (% of GDP) 8.19 7.55 8.15 7.91 8.19
Revenue, excluding grants (% of GDP) 10.31 9.41 9.86 9.68 9.81
CPIA efficiency of revenue mobilization
rating (1=low to 6=high)
N/A N/A N/A 3 3
How did others do it?
South Korea in the
early 1960s got its aid
cut by President
Kennedy
President Parks
Answer? Export or
Die
Singapore had ONE
technical advisor
(who was not based
there)
Case: Reducing the sweat
from Cambodias sweatshops
http://farm1.static.flickr.com/166/359073853_c14a9aac66_o.jpg
Where Sweatshops Are a Dream
--Nick Kristoff
New York Times, 1/14/09
Turns out, YOU get to decide.
New York Times, 1/14/09
From nothing in 1994, garments is
now 14% of Cambodias economy,
provides 350,000 jobs, and helps
1 million people
How did this happen?
http://farm1.static.flickr.com/46/171855007_1ea919192b.jpg?v=0
In 1999, US and Cambodia
agreed to link labor to trade
Better labor = more exports
http://girlseesworld.com/
3
rd
party labor standards monitoring
of garments more export quotas.
And guess what happened?
http://brookegoestochina.blogspot.com
IT WORKED!!!
http://brookegoestochina.blogspot.com
The UNs International Labour
Organization was that 3
rd
party
through its project:
http://www.betterfactories.org/
http://www.betterfactories.org/
480 point checklist; one of which
is 97% compliance with Cambodias
minimum wage
BUT, it cant work unless
YOU, as consumers, buy it.
http://farm1.static.flickr.com/166/359073853_c14a9aac66_o.jpg