Lorenzo Davids is the Executive Director of Urban Issues Consulting.
I have had Prof Raghuram Rajan’s book ‘The Third Pillar on my shelf for almost 7 years now. I have given copies to a South African premier, an MEC for Social Development, and to philanthropy and NGO CEOs.
It’s a disturbing account about who decides what matters. Increasingly, development slogans like "communities matter" and "people first" no longer hold any truth. Like a slow cancer, constellations of foundations, donors, multilateral institutions, academic and expert networks have become a ‘Central Committee’ determining the future of countries and their people.
Without ballots or public mandate, this new unelected, global “Central Committee” has emerged - one that demands efficiency and urgency through grants, frameworks and funding priorities rather than laws and decrees. History warned us about the dangers of Central Committees: small circles convinced that their expertise confers on them, the few, the right to decide for millions.
History tends to show that every age develops its own central committee. Unlike the old Soviet Central Committee or today’s White House, the central committee of the philanthro-empire issues no decrees. It governs through grants, development frameworks and self-identified funding priorities.
