This book gets at some of the contextual reasons about how challenging it is to be a poor person in the Global South and various randomized controlled trials that have been deployed to identify approaches that can help these people achieve better outcomes. With sections on health, education, and other fundamentals, Duflo and Banerjee provide compelling insight into some of the underlying local causes of poverty. Many of the studies presented here are impressive, showing real benefits along with the importance of testing solutions when applying them to different contexts - the effects might be different.

I was a bit frustrated with the lack of engagement of some of the global forces playing on these issues, however. There are brief discussions of institutions, but even less on the role of colonization and extraction, despite those being issues that those in the Global North have more direct control and responsibility over.

Still, overall this is an essential book for understanding global poverty and why donors should attempt to fund what actually works rather than what feels good. Highly recommend