Trade-Offs for Global Do-Gooders

In a new article published by the Wall Street Journal, Bjorn Lomborg discusses what the United Nations should prioritize for the Agenda for Sustainable Development to do the most good for the world. 

Later this week, world leaders will gather in New York at the United Nations to endorse international development goals for the next 15 years. It is the culmination of a four-year process for setting priorities to help the world’s most disadvantaged people—a process beset from the start by horse-trading, haggling and endless consultation. In a bid not to offend anyone, the new development agenda is expected to include an incredible 169 targets for investment. Giving priority to 169 things is the same as giving priority to nothing at all.

If you wanted to do some real good in the world, away from the Byzantine bureaucracy of the U.N., where would you start? There is no shortage of challenges: a lack of biodiversity, regional conflicts, killer diseases, threats posed by corruption and gender-based violence, the impending problem of climate change.

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