Book Tip No. 65 (2023): BJOERN LOMBORG: BEST THINGS FIRST. THE 12 MOST EFFICIENT SOLUTIONS FOR THE WORLD’S POOREST AND OUR GLOBAL SDG PROMISES.
Copenhagen 2023.
By Hans-Christian Riekhof
Several Lomborg books have already been introduced and discussed here (Björn Lomborg: Climate Panic and Björn Lomborg: Cool it! Why we should keep a cool head despite climate change.); they mainly deal with the topics of environment, health, prosperity and resource use. Lomborg’s evidence-based view of the state and development of our (environmental) world is refreshing, and many of the long-term developments shown do not receive sufficient attention in our media landscape, which is interested in current and dramatic events.
When Lomborg deals with global poverty and its fight in his just published book, one can therefore be curious. Lomborg, together with the Copenhagen Consensus Think Tank he co-founded, is addressing one of the most pressing problems on our planet.
His methodological approach is as simple as it is ingenious: he compares the effectiveness of the programs against poverty with the costs of these programs. These are cost-benefit considerations, as any managing director of a medium-sized company makes, but which are rather unusual in the allocation of public funds and the distribution of development aid budgets.
The result of a detailed list of 12 highly effective programs: with a budget of only 35 billion US dollars, over 4 million human lives can be saved and a value of 1.1 trillion US dollars can be generated. An exciting read on a topic that does not take place in TV talk shows.
