What an interesting list! Note that the same Challenge may occur
multiple times due to a different Opportunity (solution).
Communicable Diseases occurs 3 times and Malnutrition and Hunger 4
times, for example. That's good, makes the list specific solution
oriented, thus clearer on cost of individual solutions, not broad
problems.
One way to look at potential effectiveness of a given Opportunity is
whether or not it is sustainable solely by local resources, the old
"teach to fish, don't give fish" realization. In other words, giving
away $$ is best done in such a way that the initial effort is locally
sustainable afterwards.
The list doesn't fair well, IMHO, in this regard. Look at number one:
Communicable Diseases Scaled-up basic health services
I'm not sure that paying for scaled up health services produces
better health services down the line. It might if education were
built-in.
But then, if sustainability were built into the solutions, it might
all work. Great list!
-- Owen
On Aug 12, 2007, at 8:05 AM, Robert Holmes wrote:
> The Copenhagen Consensus is a Danish think-tank that gets
> economists and politicians to address the question "in a world of
> limited resources, if we cannot do everything at once what should
> we do first?". The top-4 ratings from their 2006 meeting are:
> communicable diseases
> sanitation and water
> education
> malnutrition and hunger
> Climate change slips from #10 (its position at the first CC meeting
> in 2004) to #27. (Full list at: http://tinyurl.com/39udey)
>
> What's your take on this people? Part of me wants to reject this as
> the ravings of right-wing Kyoto-protocol-hating ideologues. But
> then the rational part of me recognizes that you probably do get
> far more bang for your buck (in social welfare terms) with these
> problems: they are (relatively) well understood and interventions
> have a rapid effect on a huge number of people. In contrast,
> climate control is poorly understood and it takes decades to
> measure the effect. Where would you put your limited $$?
>
> Robert
>
>
>
>
>
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