Book Clubs

If your book club is interested in reading More Than Good Intentions you can email morethangoodintentions@gmail.com to request a discussion with the authors.

Discussion Questions

1. Have you ever seen a development program at work and wondered whether it could have been designed better?  What made you like the program initially?  What did you think could be improved, and what led you to think that?   What data would you have needed to know if you were right?

2. Which cause—whether it was discussed in the book or not—do you feel the most strongly about? Why?

3. In Chapter 1 the authors tell the story of “The Monks and the Fish” to talk about how sometimes we make decisions based on feelings of satisfaction rather than what is the most efficient. What are some other decisions where we make that trade-off?

4. Think about the cause you mentioned earlier, or another one you’re passionate about.  How do you determine the way you will engage with it—as a reader, discussant, volunteer, donor, or otherwise?  If you decide to dedicate your own time or money to a specific organization dedicated to that cause, how do you choose which one?

5. How did the story of Philip in Chapter 5 make you feel? Can you find a way to sympathize with his decision to buy a rice cooker instead of pay off the entirety of his debt to the boardinghouse owner?   

6. How do cultural factors impact development initiatives? What are some examples of how cultural norms—social structures, the makeup of families, religion, etc—could help or hinder the implementation of a development program?

7. Who was your favorite character in the book? What made him/her endearing or compelling?

8. Which story in the book did you find most frustrating or challenging, and why?

9. Did the book leave you with any lingering questions or curiosity? If so, what did you learn and what would you like to learn more about?

10. An early working title for this book was Pragmatic Optimism. It was later scrapped because it didn’t sound very exciting.  Do you think this title captures the book’s message?  Why or why not?

11. In Chapter 11 we read about the “Sugar Daddies” program in Kenya, where an evaluation found the rate of pregnancy (and presumably of HIV, too) among teenage girls falling, even while they reported having more sex.  Did this or other findings strike you as counterintuitive?  Which stories were the most surprising?

12. The book puts an emphasis on microsavings rather than microcredit. What is the difference between the two? What kinds of people are suited to microcredit, and what kinds to microsavings?  Can you think of settings in which microcredit, or microsavings, might not work?