William Easterly's Monday column in the Washington Post, "The West Can't Save Africa," was unreservedly caustic toward all the big talk and promises in 2005 about ending poverty. Easterly pinpoints a most fundamental error in Western aid's orientation toward poverty alleviation--its assumption of a savior complex toward Africans who are cast as an altogether destitute, disease-ridden, starving population. They are shut out from participating in discussions on how to "save" their own communities. Easterly's basic point is well-made and articulates the motivation behind NextBillion: "Economic development in Africa will depend--as it has elsewhere and throughout the history of the modern world--on the success of private-sector entrepreneurs, social entrepreneurs and African political reformers." NextBillion's database catalogues scores of local enterprises that are providing services and creating jobs in low-income communities--the bedrock of societies that can meet the needs of their citizens.

But what of aid? The G-8 has plans to double aid from $25 billion to $50 billion. Easterly grazes the subject of how to redirect aid by calling for "achievable and accountable programs" subject to "independent evaluation" and "with high potential for poor individuals to help themselves." Examples he gives are investments in children's education and nutrition, and SME development programs. Another intriguing possibility for aid money is to serve as initial investments or subsidies for products developed for the BOP but as yet unable to reach economies of scale and costs per unit low enough to be sold directly to the BOP. The question is how best to leverage the increasing billions in aid and philanthropy, often culpable in the past of decapacitating economies? How do we convert aid into investment dollars for local economies? The below technologies, recently in debate by NextBillion staff, might yield critical opportunities.