The article comments on the views of Jeffrey Sachs, head of the United Nations "Millennium Project". Mr Sachs admits that foreign aid has not achieved much in the past. Development aid has failed to stimulate much development. Lavishly aided countries have grown no faster than those that have been neglected. This is one reason why rich countries refuse to give much. Though most have promised to donate 0.7% of gross national income, the average for the richest 22 countries is 0.25%. David Dollar and Lant Pritchett, among others, have dug up solid evidence that aid, when directed towards poor countries with sound economic policies and competent institutions, tends to accelerate growth and lift people out of poverty. In a study published earlier this year, Mr Sachs looks at tropical sub-Saharan Africa, where poverty seems most intractable, and challenges the popular idea that this is mostly down to poor governance. He cites other obstacles to Africa's growth, such as its extraordinary disease burden, the lack of deep ports and navigable rivers, the infertility of much of its soil and the colonial legacy of borders that slice the continent into lots of tiny nations with negligible markets and too little sense of nationhood to remain stable. Mr Sachs envisages funnelling most of the money through national governments, who would have to train many more teachers, engineers, nurses and other professionals, and then persuade the best of them not to emigrate to rich countries. Mr Sachs's grand plan depends on there being plenty of governments in poor countries that are clean and competent enough to be entrusted with a sudden infusion of free money.