What an interesting list! Note that the same Challenge may occur multiple times due to a different Opportunity (solution). Communicable Diseases occurs 3 times and Malnutrition and Hunger 4 times, for example. That's good, makes the list specific solution oriented, thus clearer on cost of individual solutions, not broad problems.
One way to look at potential effectiveness of a given Opportunity is whether or not it is sustainable solely by local resources, the old "teach to fish, don't give fish" realization. In other words, giving away $$ is best done in such a way that the initial effort is locally sustainable afterwards. The list doesn't fair well, IMHO, in this regard. Look at number one: Communicable Diseases Scaled-up basic health services I'm not sure that paying for scaled up health services produces better health services down the line. It might if education were built-in. But then, if sustainability were built into the solutions, it might all work. Great list! -- Owen On Aug 12, 2007, at 8:05 AM, Robert Holmes wrote: > The Copenhagen Consensus is a Danish think-tank that gets > economists and politicians to address the question "in a world of > limited resources, if we cannot do everything at once what should > we do first?". The top-4 ratings from their 2006 meeting are: > communicable diseases > sanitation and water > education > malnutrition and hunger > Climate change slips from #10 (its position at the first CC meeting > in 2004) to #27. (Full list at: http://tinyurl.com/39udey) > > What's your take on this people? Part of me wants to reject this as > the ravings of right-wing Kyoto-protocol-hating ideologues. But > then the rational part of me recognizes that you probably do get > far more bang for your buck (in social welfare terms) with these > problems: they are (relatively) well understood and interventions > have a rapid effect on a huge number of people. In contrast, > climate control is poorly understood and it takes decades to > measure the effect. Where would you put your limited $$? > > Robert > > > > > > ============================================================ > FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv > Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College > lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org ============================================================ FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org