The Stanford Social Innovation Review just published The Art of the Development Deal, an examination of the Trump Administration’s approach to foreign aid.
The article underscores the urgency of our work. As PSI aims to eradicate poverty and ensure healthy families in the developing world, we must also make foreign aid more politically viable – particularly in America where the Trump Administration has proposed to cut foreign aid by one third.
Ensuring that we solve problems at scale by addressing market or structural failures is one way to gain support. The article cites PSI’s work on sanitation issues in India as a positive example.
In India, more than 564 million people lack access to toilets. This creates immense social and public health problems, especially for women and children. In an effort to combat this problem, PSI and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation are working alongside local entrepreneurs to assemble everything needed for a family to buy a toiled, including financing, local masons, installation and cleaning.
Together, we’ve created a profitable sanitation market that now enables even the poorest consumers to select and purchase sanitation goods and services from a variety of choices.
The article is provocative. And while we don’t agree with every point, we appreciate the conversation.
Read the full piece in the Stanford Social Innovation Review and email us to let us know what you think.
