Talks Ashraf Ghani: How to fix broken states
About this Talk
"The aid system is broken," says Ashraf Ghani in this powerful, reform-oriented talk. He discusses how to mobilize capital for state-building; why technical assistance fails; and why classic economic theory proved useless in Afghanistan, which is "dominated by the drug economy and a mafia." He emphasizes the necessity of investment ("A dollar in private investment is equal to 20 dollars of aid") and design ingenuity to rebuild broken states. And he offers a blueprint: the 10 key functions that a state should perform, from providing infrastructure to enforcing the rule of law.
Speaker Ashraf Ghani: Expert on state-building
Ashraf Ghani was a key figure in rebuilding Afghanistan after the fall of the Taliban, and is a leading advocate for foreign investment (rather than foreign aid) as a tool for economic development and the eradication of poverty.
Why you should listen to him:
Before Afghanistan's President Karzai asked him, at the end of 2001, to become his adviser and then Finance Minister, Ashraf Ghani had spent years in academia studying state-building and social transformation, and a decade in executive positions at the World Bank trying to effect policy in these two fields. In just 30 months, he carried out radical and effective reforms (a new currency, new budget, new tariffs, etc.) and was instrumental in preparing for the elections of October 2004.
In 2006, he was a candidate to succeed Kofi Annan as Secretary General of the United Nations. He's currently the Chancellor of Kabul University, where he runs a program on state effectiveness. His message to the world: "Afghanistan should not be approached as a charity, but as an investment."
"Ghani's management skills, which sparked an economic revival in post-Taliban Afghanistan, earned him Asia's vote as the best finance minister on the continent."The New York Sun
