Three legs of the stool ... education, health and jobs

Dear Colleagues

Observation of the official development assistance (ODA) industry suggests that there are many powerful reasons why the progress of society from this effort with so much money and for so long has been so modest. The fact of very poor systems of metrics and an almost non-existent structure to manage performance is a good starting point ... as well as the almost totally segregation of development activities within a number of separate sector silos.

So much more would be achieved if development analysis had a better appreciation of the importance of multi-sector initiatives. People do not live by bread alone can be restated in the ODA world in several different ways including: (1) health improvement on its own does not achieve very much; or (2) education on its own does not achieve very much. These are two legs of a stool that with these interventions alone does not stand up.

On the other hand, when there are in addition, jobs ... there is a stool that works. Better health and better education and better jobs ... then there is the beginning of what can be sustainable progress.

Peter Burgess