Faith & Economics
NUMBER 52, Fall 2008
Viewpoint
Looking Back, Looking Forward
Twenty-Fifth Anniversary Remembrances of the Association of Christian Economists
John Mason, A.M.C. Waterman, Geralf Brock, J. David Richardson, William Campbell, John Anderson, Judith M. Dean, P.J. Hill, Chris Barrett, Andrew Yuengert, Earl Grinols
Symposium: Research in Partnership with Faith-Based NGOs
Introduction: Three Papers on Research in Partnership with Faith-Based NGOs
Ruth Uwaifo Oyelere
Pastoralism and Poverty: Research Informing Practice
Douglas R. Brown, Isabel Gomes, John Morton, and Tony Rinaudo
Abstract: Efforts to address the challenges faced by pastoralists in the Horn of Africa have met with little success. Pastoralists continue to experience chronic food insecurity. The consequences of climate change mean that there is little hope for sustainable improvements in household well-being apart from a radical shift in strategy among members of the development NGO community. This paper briefly discusses the context of collaboration between World Vision and the research community and then describes the results of a state-of-knowledge study targeted at identifying strategic options for interventions intended to address issues of persistent poverty among Pastoralist populations in the Horn of Africa.
Do Faith-Based NGOs Represent a Replicable Example For the Delivery of Public Services? An Application to Health Care Delivery in Developing Countries
Kenneth L. Leonard
Abstract: In this paper we examine the evidence that faith-based NGOs can provide a working example of a service delivery organization in a developing country context. Though it is well known that such organizations can provide high quality care, and in particular can serve as highly cooperative collaborators for research, it has not been generally shown that the lessons learned from such organizations are replicable. We show that for health care, and in Tanzania, the faith-based organizations succeed because they motivate the doctors under their employ to work hard. Though there is evidence that some doctors are extraordinarily and intrinsically motivated, these doctors are as likely to work in the public service as they are in faith-based NGOs.
Research Partnerships Between Faith-Based NGOs and Academic Researchers: An Example from Food Security and HIV and AIDS Research in Delhi, India
Paul E. McNamara, Joel Cuffey, Anil Cherian, and Saira Paulose
Abstract: A divide commonly exists between Christian development practitioners and academic researchers, making it difficult to collaborate and engage in potentially illuminating research projects. While solid reasons exist to explain the difficulties in linking academics and NGOs, partnerships offer the potential benefit of the generation of knowledge that can both inform development practice as well as change modes of thinking in scholarly communities. Further, we argue that such partnerships offer the possibility of a way of doing research that is distinctly Christian and thus can be a witness to peers in the development community as well as in academia. This paper presents a theological basis for a research partnership, details some of the challenges faced in building such a partnership, and describes an example of one such partnership between staff of the Emmanuel Hospital Association in India and researchers from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
Book Reviews
The Myth of the Rational Voter: Why Democracies Choose Bad Policies
by Bryan Caplan
Reviewed by P.J. Hill
Gross National Happiness: Why Happiness Matters for America-And How We Can Get More of It
by Arthur C. Brooks
Reviewed by John P. Tiemstra
Less than Two Dollars a Day: A Christian View of World Poverty and the Free Market
by Kent A. Van Til
Reviewed by Peter S. Heslam
On Capitalism
by Victor Nee and Richard Swedberg
Reviewed by Gregory A. Krohn
Economic Facts and Fallacies
by Thomas Sowell
Reviewed by Art Carden
The Good That Business Does
by Robert G. Kennedy
Reviewed by Joseph Anthony Burke