Bill Gates Is Right: Corruption Isn't the Problem We Think It Is

At the end of January, Bill and Melinda Gates released their annual letter describing the work of the $38 billion Gates Foundation and their views on the state of global development. The letter—a strong defense of development aid—reignited the embers of a confrontation between proponents and opponents of development assistance, led by champions based at either end of Broadway: Colombia University’s Jeff Sachs (for) and New York University’s Bill Easterly (against). The Twitter exchanges and dueling op-eds were enough to make most development wonks forget about the Super Bowl.

Almost ignored in the firefight is an even more provocative issue raised by Bill Gates in his letter: namely, the suggestion that corruption isn’t nearly the barrier to development that most people think it is. It was an almost unheard of line from a major donor over the past 15 years. As it happens, it is also right.