What keeps poor countries poor is political and economic instability, not a shortage of well-designed programmes.

Their wordsThe main lesson from these countries is that political and social instability destroys development, and tends to be very hard to kick.

Their wordsThe real problem is the absence of firms small and large to employ people productively. The root of the problem is political instability, economic uncertainty, and a country’s high cost structure, among other things. A government’s attention is properly on these bigger issues.