When Helping Hurts by Steve Corbett

When Helping Hurts by Steve Corbett

With more than 450,000 copies in print, When Helping Hurts is a paradigm-forming contemporary classic on the subject of poverty alleviation.

Poverty is much more than simply a lack of material resources, and it takes much more than donations and handouts to solve it. When Helping Hurts shows how some alleviation efforts, failing to consider the complexities of poverty, have actually (and unintentionally) done more harm than good.

But it looks ahead. It encourages us to see the dignity in everyone, to empower the materially poor, and to know that we are all uniquely needy--and that God in the gospel is reconciling all things to himself.

Focusing on both North American and Majority World contexts, When Helping Hurts provides proven strategies for effective poverty alleviation, catalyzing the idea that sustainable change comes not from the outside in, but from the inside out.

Dr. Brian Fikkert is the Founder and Executive Director of Covenant College's Chalmers Center for Economic Development, as well as an Economics and Community Development Professor. Dr. Fikkert is a Ph.D. holder. Yale University, with a degree in economics, concentrating in Third World economic development and international economics. Dr. Fikkert has worked with the World Bank, the Inter-American Development Bank, and the US Agency for International Development as a consultant. He was a professor at the University of Maryland in a research fellow at the Center for Institutional Transformation and the Informal Sector before coming to Covenant College. Dr. Fikkert being a sought-after speaker who has authored a number of scholarly and popular works, the most recent of which is When Helping Hurts: How to Alleviate Poverty Without Hurting the Poor...and Yourself.