‘David Hulme’s is a passionate and personal yet professional plea for attacking poverty rather than trying to stop bodies washing ashore in the Mediterranean. We can still argue about definitions of poverty and the value of charity, but it is no longer possible in our interconnected planet to deny the self-interests of the wealthy West in addressing pandemics, narco-trafficking, climate deterioration and terrorism. Read why things have to change.’

Thomas G. Weiss, The CUNY Graduate Center

‘This excellent short book provides a succinct overview of current debates on foreign aid, and argues that it is not aid itself which should be at issue, but its form and content. Marshalling a wide literature, it proposes a pivot towards new horizons such as trade and the environment. The argument is developed in a form which will be accessible to a broad range of readers, including civil society and policy makers.’

Ravi Kanbur, Charles H. Dyson School of Applied Economics and Management, Cornell University

‘We live in “one world”: this book provides a powerful and accessible exposition of what this means for ethics, policies and politics.’

Frances Stewart, University of Oxford

‘This is a timely and magisterial overview, wide-ranging and judicious, an invaluable update on where we are and where we should go in international development.’

Robert Chambers, Institute of Development Studies

‘In an age where nations are highly integrated yet increasingly unequal, there is no more important issue than ensuring that everyone “lives well”. But how to achieve this? As Hulme carefully argues, old paradigms focused on conditional aid to political allies but indifference to domestic politics must give way to a focus on how relations between and within nations – rich, rising and failing alike – are structured. Everyday citizens and development professionals around the world need to grapple with these issues, and in Hulme they have both a passionate and an instructive guide.’

Michael Woolcock, World Bank and Harvard University

‘A timely book on global poverty that is not about poverty but about why we should ALL care for it. The globalized economy of the 21st century needs a normative basis for global partnerships for sustainable development.’

Sakiko Fukuda-Parr, The New School, New York

Global Futures Series

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Howard Davies, Can Financial Markets be Controlled?

Jonathan Fenby, Will China Dominate the 21st Century?

Andrew Gamble, Can the Welfare State Survive?

Joseph S. Nye Jr., Is the American Century Over?

Jan Zielonka, Is the EU Doomed?

The right of David Hulme to be identified as Author of this Work has been asserted in accordance with the UK Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

First published in 2016 by Polity Press

Polity Press
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Cambridge CB2 1UR, UK

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Malden, MA 02148, USA

All rights reserved. Except for the quotation of short passages for the purpose of criticism and review, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher.

ISBN-13: 978-0-7456-8609-7

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

Names: Hulme, David, author.
Title: Should rich nations help the poor?/David Hulme.
Description: Cambridge, UK; Malden, MA: Polity Press, 2016. | Includes bibliographical references.
Identifiers: LCCN 2015047855 (print) | LCCN 2016004750 (ebook) | ISBN 9780745686059 (hardback) | ISBN 9780745686066 (pbk.) | ISBN 9780745686080 (Mobi) | ISBN 9780745686097 (Epub)
Subjects: LCSH: Economic assistance--Moral and ethical aspects--Developing countries. | Economic development--Moral and ethical aspects--Developing countries. | Developed countries--Foreign economic relations--Developing countries. | Developing countries--Foreign economic relations--Developed countries.
Classification: LCC HC60. H866155 2016 (print) | LCC HC60 (ebook) | DDC 338.9109172/4--dc23
LC record available at http://lccn.loc.gov/2015047855

The publisher has used its best endeavours to ensure that the URLs for external websites referred to in this book are correct and active at the time of going to press. However, the publisher has no responsibility for the websites and can make no guarantee that a site will remain live or that the content is or will remain appropriate.

Every effort has been made to trace all copyright holders, but if any have been inadvertently overlooked the publisher will be pleased to include any necessary credits in any subsequent reprint or edition.

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Acknowledgements

My academic colleagues and students at the University of Manchester’s Global Development Institute (GDI; previously known as the Institute for Development Policy and Management and Brooks World Poverty Institute) have provided the intellectual base and academic stimulation behind this essay. My particular thanks to colleagues who read full drafts of the manuscript and provided invaluable advice: Tony Bebbington, Dan Brockington, Chris Jordan and Sophie King. Also thanks to colleagues who provided specialist guidance on the analysis: Nicola Banks, Armando Barrientos, Admos Chimhowu, Sam Hickey, Heiner Janus, Uma Kothari, Fabiola Mieres, James Scott, Kunal Sen, Rorden Wilkinson and Pablo Yanguas-gil. Comments and advice from doctoral students at GDI’s ‘Work-in-Progress’ seminars were very help-ful. My personal assistant at the GDI, Denise Redston, did a million jobs (as usual) that permitted the volume to be completed – many thanks, again.

I am indebted to Louise Knight at Polity Press, who had the original idea for the book, provided excellent guidance and thoughtful comments throughout, and whose energy motivated me from its inception to its completion. Louise’s colleagues at Polity, Nekane Tanaka Galdos and Pascal Porcheron, supported me through submission and production. Justin Dyer helped edit the text into a form much more readable than the original.

Last, but not least, sincere thanks to the countless people – from heads of UN agencies to NGO fieldworkers in Tanzania to poor women in the villages of Bangladesh – who have helped me understand, over the years, what it means to live in ‘one world’.