Michael Jackson and the Problems Money Won't Solve

(photo credit: Nesster)

I remember "We Are the World." I remembered being  nine years old, sitting on the floor by our television, tape recorder in my hands, waiting to record the first performance of the song. I remember just how much hope we had. It felt like magic; like we were finally going to raise the money we needed to make the world better.

It turns out we need more than money. Our world in general, and global health in particular, are mired in problems that money alone cannot solve. At least, not in any short-term way.

There are problems that more money will solve, right now and for the long-term. I'd argue that eradicating polio is one of them. There are many more. But in 1985, we thought that all the problems we faced were like that, and we were wrong.

There are problems we can throw money at now and see impact in a decade or so. Health workforce development, ARV distribution, finding vaccines for major killers, and developing new drugs and therapies for resistant infections.

There are problems we can throw money at and make them better for the time being, with no long-term impact. We could supplement the salaries of health care providers in the developing world to eliminate brain drain. We could build better hospitals, clinics, and roads. We could buy ambulance and hire ambulance drivers for emergency transport. All of that would make things better for exactly as long as we kept funding.

And there are problems that need solutions beyond money. Getting people on ARVs isn't as good as preventing HIV in the first place, and we still haven't been able to find a way to get people to change their behavior to do that. Child spacing is the same way; all the contraception in the world won't help if people don't use it. Female genital mutilation, child rape in South Africa, devaluing girl children - I could be standing there with the money in my hands and I wouldn't know where to throw it to solve those problems. We don't just need money for more of the same programs. We need new solutions, and I don't know how we find them.

Edited to add: Michael Jackson wrote and produced We Are the World. And I still believe in that powerful sense of hope I had with my head next to the speakers on my TV. I just think it's going to take longer.