Comments on: Gates Foundation Can't Go It Alone http://philanthropy.foreignpolicyblogs.com/2008/02/12/gates-foundation-cant-go-it-alone/ The World Affairs Blog Network Sat, 07 Nov 2009 18:44:01 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.7.1 hourly 1 By: Kevin Dean http://philanthropy.foreignpolicyblogs.com/2008/02/12/gates-foundation-cant-go-it-alone/comment-page-1/#comment-173 Kevin Dean Tue, 19 Feb 2008 01:51:48 +0000 http://philanthropy.foreignpolicyblogs.com/2008/02/12/gates-foundation-cant-go-it-alone/#comment-173 Gates Keeper - 'Fun' may not have been the best choice of words, but I do think that it is an exciting time to be working in development, as it becomes a more core part of foreign policy and brings in new resources from public and private sources. On your broader point - the danger of naivite - we may have to agree to disagree. Development professionals have made a lot of mistakes that were based on the best practices of the time. Integrated rural development and structural adjustments are just two examples. It is unlikely that all of our current received wisdom is 100% correct. In my opinion, what we should want from new people to the field is that they maintain an open mind to advice and a wilingness to heed our hard-learned lessons from the past. Gates Keeper - ‘Fun’ may not have been the best choice of words, but I do think that it is an exciting time to be working in development, as it becomes a more core part of foreign policy and brings in new resources from public and private sources. On your broader point - the danger of naivite - we may have to agree to disagree.

Development professionals have made a lot of mistakes that were based on the best practices of the time. Integrated rural development and structural adjustments are just two examples. It is unlikely that all of our current received wisdom is 100% correct.

In my opinion, what we should want from new people to the field is that they maintain an open mind to advice and a wilingness to heed our hard-learned lessons from the past.

]]> By: Gates Keeper http://philanthropy.foreignpolicyblogs.com/2008/02/12/gates-foundation-cant-go-it-alone/comment-page-1/#comment-146 Gates Keeper Sun, 17 Feb 2008 06:47:16 +0000 http://philanthropy.foreignpolicyblogs.com/2008/02/12/gates-foundation-cant-go-it-alone/#comment-146 Thanks for your compliment and I hope you continue to read and comment on Gates Keepers. It may be 'fun' for professional basketball players and their fans if Bill and Melinda walk out onto the court and join them in a game. It is not 'fun' when naive amateurs like the Gates wander into the arena of human development and make decisions that affect people's lives. It is hard to work with amateurs. Naivete has its costs to others. Gates Keeper Thanks for your compliment and I hope you continue to read and comment on Gates Keepers.

It may be ‘fun’ for professional basketball players and their fans if Bill and Melinda walk out onto the court and join them in a game. It is not ‘fun’ when naive amateurs like the Gates wander into the arena of human development and make decisions that affect people's lives. It is hard to work with amateurs. Naivete has its costs to others.

Gates Keeper

]]> By: links for 2008-02-13 | Tactical Philanthropy http://philanthropy.foreignpolicyblogs.com/2008/02/12/gates-foundation-cant-go-it-alone/comment-page-1/#comment-81 links for 2008-02-13 | Tactical Philanthropy Wed, 13 Feb 2008 07:20:48 +0000 http://philanthropy.foreignpolicyblogs.com/2008/02/12/gates-foundation-cant-go-it-alone/#comment-81 [...] at 12:21 am and filed under Philanthropy. Bookmark the permalink. Follow any comments here with the RSS feed for this post. Trackbacks are closed, but you can post a comment. « links for2008-02-12 [...] [...] at 12:21 am and filed under Philanthropy. Bookmark the permalink. Follow any comments here with the RSS feed for this post. Trackbacks are closed, but you can post a comment. « links for2008-02-12 [...]

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