New emperor, old clothes? International funding – who’s setting the agenda?
Philanthropy – whose canvas?
1 September 2008
Alliance magazine
Matthew Bishop defines ‘philanthrocapitalism’ as ‘some of the world’s most talented and successful people … turning their minds to problems like education, disease, climate change and terrorism’. In some ways that’s the problem. As David Hulme points out in his survey of international development assistance, the ‘world’s most talented and successful people’ have been ‘developing’ the rest of the world for a hundred years or more, through colonization, foreign aid, military intervention and now philanthropy, despite the fact that sustained change is always internally driven.
