Comments

"Collective action to improve social outcomes" is a better way of putting this. Also have no difficulty with the idea that while people adapt, their subjective assessment of their own well-being is also influenced by objective considerations. So the adaptation is partial. But I think subjective well-being remains a misleading guide to well-being even if people's subjective well-being are influenced by objective considerations. This might imply that some paternalism is unavoidable, which I realise is not a comfortable concept.

Thanks Kien, If by 'social planning' you mean some sort of collective action to improve on the outcomes we would see from market based mechanisms alone, I definitely agree with you. On the adaptability and subjective utility. As I understand it set point theory is contested, although it's not my area of expertise so I'm open to correction. I would say though that the chart in my post above is, I think, evidence against the 'people adapt' hypothesis. If people adapted, on average, to most circumstances we wouldn't see any correlation between GDP and subjective utility, all countries would score more or less the same. Thanks again for your comment. Terence

Perhaps another way of putting this is that people adapt and so subjective utility is a misleading guide to well-being. If objective measures of well-being (eg life expectancy, infant mortality, unemployment) are accepted, some degree of social planning seems unavoidable.

It is good to inform young doctors that there are various opportunities waiting for them in other countries. They can help poor people and enhance their skills as well.

Jo, In case Philippa doesn't see this, "noodle bowls" are the mess of bilateral rules and regulations which result from a large number of regional or bilateral trade agreements. One of the traditional criticisms of such agreements (and an argument in favour of WTO and multilateralism) is that they create this expensive and distortionary complex set of deals. I read Philippa as saying that there are more serious things to worry about when it comes to free-trade agreements than this. And note her criticisms re the treatment of IP apply to bilateral and multilateral deals alike,

I agree with you Patrick. PNG should not be put down by themselves or by other people. To be clear we are still are developing country. Therefore no man has no right to degrade PNG!!!

Thanks for this Wesley, and also for your paper which I enjoyed reading very much - it's great to be able to expand this conversation. I agree entirely with all that you have said about export potential and blockages arising from Australian quarantine and phyto-sanitary issues. These are less of an impediment (by a very significant margin) when it comes to exporting agri-prducts (e.g. root crops) to New Zealand from the Pacific. Your paper references the work of PT&I in this space and they have certainly done some sterling work with producers, including assistance with labelling, barcodes, etc. This is reflective of the need to work with the entirety of supply chains. I think there are a couple of points to add in relation to supplying domestic markets (see also the forthcoming 'Pacific Conversation' with Astrid Boulekone). In countries such as Vanuatu there is more to be done about linking primary producers with the tourism sector. (I won't bore you again with the 'why tourism is like mining' argument). In all Melanesian countries, urban populations are growing and for reasons of economy and public health (nutrition) there are increasingly strong arguments for ensuring that foodstuffs can move from rural to urban locations and be affordable to people who are not able to produce for themselves because they do not have access to a garden or they do not have time to grow food because they are participating in the wage economy (or a combination of the two). To return to the current 'steer' for the Australian aid program, there have been several mentions of leveraging private sector (and in particular Australian private sector) actors as development partners. Carnival (owner and operator of P&O cruise ships) has been cited as an exemplary 'development partner' (by people other than me). I hope we can see this partnership being 'leveraged' so that Carnival becomes an active (and indeed proactive) purchaser of niche products such as those you have identified here. Their track record in this space is extremely disappointing so there is plenty of opportunity to improve and impress.

Thanks Philippa. Great post on an important issue. What are "noodle bowls"?

Thanks for the post Neil, good to see this publication getting attention a couple of years after it came out. There is a lot to recommend in it, the main attribute being the examination of the way economic policy reforms are actually achieved, as opposed to assumptions of how they're achieved. These case studies have helped extend the growing body of work around the need for aid agencies to understand how "to think and work in a more politically informed way" into quite practical applications. For example the Asia Foundation subsequently developed and ran 'development entrepreneur' training programs, to test the idea that these kinds of actors could be identified, mentored and encouraged in their quest for positive reforms. See <a href="http://asiafoundation.org/publications/pdf/1062" rel="nofollow">here</a> [pdf] for an outline of that. In discussions that flowed from these economic reform case studies with the Asia Foundation I raised the question of whether the same 'basic ingredients' applied for social sector policy reforms. That is obviously of interest to agencies that invest heavily in 'reforms' in education, health, etc. To the credit of the Asia Foundation they took up the challenge to look into that question, and have now completed a second series of case studies examining that question, and the publication (Room for Manuever: Social Sector Policy Reform in the Philippines) will be launched in early March 2014 (full disclosure: these were part funded by Australian Aid Philippines program where I was formerly engaged). And to connect to Chris' comment - Adrian Leftwich, the late Research Director of the DLP Program, was actively involved in these social sector reform case studies and a contributor to the upcoming book. I would think under the new focus of the Australian Aid program since the election there would be more scope for this kind of analysis - i.e. attempts to dig deep into the political reality of how change happens in the countries where Australian aid is directed, and use that information to shape partnerships that allow for flexible support to passionate, connected and committed people who have a particular reform or advocacy goal to focus on. The idea of a 'development entrepreneur' is a catchy one, and hopefully one that gains momentum.

Thank you for the clarification Just an update on the Betterwork programme, they received about $4M in the 2012/2013 financial year in June 2013, as part of the Australia-ILO Partnership. Based on your analysis of the revised budget for 2013/14, there may be no funding in the current financial year. The funds for the second year may be allocated in the 2014/15 budget. The Betterwork programme is a joint IFC/ILO programme, hence the IFC plays an important role in the programme and donors have funded Betterwork through either the IFC or the ILO, http://betterwork.org/global/?page_id=304 The Minister’s recent address on the current government’s policy for aid, auger well for Betterwork, as the programme supports trade and also provides leadership opportunities for women to progress in the formal sector. The trade benefits to the countries the programme has worked in have been well documented. Over 10 years in Cambodia, the Better Factories programme has resulted in the export garment sector being a significant part of the country’s economy and providing opportunities to hundreds of thousand of women in the garment sector, ( http://betterwork.org/global/?p=687 and http://betterwork.org/global/?page_id=3550 ) Betterwork paly an important role in the supply chain also, http://economix.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/02/07/the-challenges-of-running-responsible-supply-chains/?_php=true&_type=blogs&_php=true&_type=blogs&_r=1 This has resulted in international brands like Disney requiring Betterwork to be operating in the country they are sourcing from. Other brands, including Australian brands are becoming partners with Betterwork. Hopefully the funding allocation for the ILO and the Betterwork Programme in 2013/2014 will happen in the near future, as I understand the programme is facing possible funding challenges if Australian donor funding is delayed.

Thank you for the interesting post. I too salute the idealism and motivation of medical students, many of whom genuinely came into medicine to 'make a difference' and are keen to do this in a global context. Having been one of these medical students in the UK and devoted my student days to setting up opportunities (in the form of Medsin http://medsin.org/) for students to follow their global health passions I have great sympathy with your point. I do also recognise the complexities and dangers and think it is important to come up with solutions that strengthen both the training path of the students but also ensure that any initiatives fit with development best practice. I have seen wonderful student/junior doctor projects and disastrous ones. The best cases are when the enthusiasm of the medical student body can work with strong long-term projects to bring energy and committed workforce to support an ongoing project, whilst also giving the student/doctor an experience that fits into a recognised training path in their own country. The worse cases I have seen have placed the volunteer in danger, or been damaging to the community in which they were placed. The other danger is that the student/doctor can feel very lost on return as the establishment does not recognise their experience. I think it is vital to work with the medical education establishment to ensure that there is plenty of opportunity within the curriculum to learn about global health and development, but also to work with Colleges to ensure that these kinds of experiences are valued and even recognised as training. This may help the student/doctor not to suffer from the confusion of their global health interests not fitting with the constraints of medical career paths. Also, if partnerships can develop between the medical establishment in Australia and institutions in developing counties it provides the kind of bilateral capacity building that is ideal. In my junior doctor days we set up the UCL Institute for Global Health ( https://www.ucl.ac.uk/igh/undergraduate/ ) specifically to provide education in global health for undergraduate medical students. It would be great to see more undergraduate global health teaching developing, as a core part of the medical curriculum, to support the incredible motivated students that you describe.

Thanks to Mr Sachs for his offer of 1 February. The stories on the success of aid for public health are always worth reading, especially as they contribute to taking the debate beyond the query still current "does aid work". Some of the evidence has been established in a 2010 report by the World Health Organisation titled "Protecting Health: Thinking Small" (WHO Bulletin 2010:88:713-715). That report demonstrated the value of linking microfinance lending with a package including health-care subsidies, training and interventions for social inclusion.