Proposals— Arguing 14 - Pearson Education...Inventing the content of your proposal 287 researching: Gathering support Now that you have mapped out the problem, sketched out your

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14 In thIs chapter, you wIll learn—

14.1 how proposals are used to solve problems and make plans for the future

14.2 Methods for inventing the content of a proposal

14.3 techniques for organizing and drafting the sections of a proposal

14.4 ways to use style and design to make a proposal more visual and persuasive

Proposals—Arguing about the Future

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14.1 How proposals are used to solve problems and make plans for the future

L et’s say you have a good idea. Maybe you want to invent a new product or start a new business. Maybe you want to solve a problem in your community, or you

think you know a better way to do something (Figure 14.1). Writing a proposal will help you put your ideas into action.

Proposals are arguments about the future. They are used to explain problems and then offer plans for solving those problems. As a result, proposals are some of the most persuasive arguments you can write because their aim is to convince people to say yes to your ideas.

Proposals are common in the workplace, and they are becoming more common in advanced college courses. Increasingly, professors are asking teams of students to be entrepreneurial and write proposals that explain their projects. In the workplace, you will need to collaborate with your colleagues on proposals that describe new ideas, products, and services.

The world around you is always changing and evolving, creating new opportuni-ties and new problems to solve. In college and your career, you will use proposals to manage these changes and argue persuasively for your ideas.

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als Quick View

Proposals can follow a variety of patterns, but they will usually address the elements shown in this diagram. The Qualifications section usually won’t appear in an argument for a college course, but it is important in workplace proposals.

Introduction

Description of the Problem

Plan for Solving the Problem

Qualifications of People Involved

Conclusion: Costs & Benefits

Genre pattern

Generative Argument—Proposals areamong the most persuasive forms of argument, but they have their generativequalities also. They are often used asplanning documents for teams. Also,proposals should present solutions inways that bene�t everyone involved.

Persuasive Argument—The mainpurpose of a proposal is to persuade theaudience to accept a vision of the future.Proposals use reasoning (logos), appealsto authority (ethos), and emotional appeals(pathos) to persuade the audience to sayyes to an idea.

Generative Persuasive

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Inventing the content of your proposal 285

FIgure 14.1 using proposals to solve problemsproposals are written to solve problems by pitching new projects, products, and services.

Inventing the content of your proposalThe most challenging aspect of writing a proposal is coming up with new ideas. It’s easy to point out problems, but it’s difficult to fully understand those problems and devise solutions for doing something about them. Fortunately, you can use some powerful planning tools to help you generate the content for your proposal.

Identify the causes of the problemYour first task is to figure out what is causing the problem. A concept map is one of the most useful tools for doing so.

Put the problem you want to solve in the center of your screen or a piece of paper. Then ask yourself, “What are the three to five major causes of this problem?” Write those three to five causes around the problem (Figure 14.2).

Now ask yourself, “What are the three to five minor causes of each major cause?” Write those minor causes around each of the major courses.

Your concept map should give you an overall sense of the problem and what is causing it. Essentially, you are doing a causal analysis to explain why the problem exists.

Identify the steps in your planNow that you have a better understanding of the problem and its causes, you can figure out a plan for solving it. Your plan will include a series steps or actions that will help you reach your plan’s main objective.

Again, a concept map can be helpful at this point. Put your solution in the middle of your screen or a sheet of paper. Map out the three to five major steps that would be

14.2 Methods for inventing the content of a proposal

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286 chapter 14 proposals—arguing about the Future

needed to achieve that solution. Then around each major step write three to five mi-nor steps that would be needed to accomplish the major step ( Figure 14.3).

Your concept map will help you sketch out a step-by-step plan for solving the problem. Each major step in your map will likely become a major step in your plan. The minor steps will be used to support the major steps. Your concept map will also reveal the reasoning (logos) that supports your plan.

FIgure 14.2 using a concept Map to analyze the problemDrawing a concept map is a good way to better understand the problem and what is causing it.

Campus NotSafe at Night

Police not visibleNo escorts

Lack of security

Cameras?

No lighting

Dark areas

Blind cornersRemote buildings

Assault

Robbery

Loitering

Groups of people

People drinking

Harassment

Graf itti

Crime

FIgure 14.3 Developing a plan with a concept Mapyou can use a concept map to help you figure out the major and minor steps of your plan.

Shuttles

Lit sheltersPredictable times

More routes

Low energy lights

More lights

Light corridors

Improved lighting

Police on bikes

Safety patrols

Take back the night

Student escorts

Socialnetworking

Information networking

Digital signs Videosurveillance

StrengthenSafety

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Inventing the content of your proposal 287

researching: Gathering supportNow that you have mapped out the problem, sketched out your plan, and identified costs and benefits, you are ready to do research on your topic with a combination of electronic, print, and empirical sources.

Electronic sources—The Internet can help you find useful electronic sources, including information about projects similar to the one you are proposing. You can also look for evidence and examples that would support your argument.

Identify the costs and BenefitsWith your plan roughed out, you should identify its costs and benefits. Start by iden-tifying which steps will cost money or time (Figure 14.4). Then make an estimate of those costs. At this point, you will only be able to form a rough estimate of the costs. That’s fine for now. You can figure out the real costs as the proposal nears completion.

After you have roughed out the costs, create another list that identifies the ben-efits of your proposal (Figure 14.4). Ask yourself, “If this plan were to succeed, what benefits would the audience receive?” You want to help your audience do their own cost-benefits analysis so they can see that the benefits of the project are worth its costs.

Costs (Money and Time) Benefits of My Plan

• Create Safety Task Force (Meet once a week)• Develop after-dark shuttle ($1,000,000)• Improve lighting on campus ($2,000,000)• Establish safety patrols ($10,000)• Create information network ($500,000)

• Increase the number of students taking night classes• Allow students to feel more comfortable studying on campus at night• Reduce risk and number of assaults on campus• Improve the reputation of campus in the community• Help parents feel more secure about sending their kids to our university• Minimize graffiti and damage caused by loiterers and troublemakers• Improved production of faculty who want to work on campus after dark• Make campus a draw for the community to bring in more revenue to local businesses

FIgure 14.4 Making a rough estimate of costs and Benefitsat this point, the costs and benefits of your plan will be rough. nevertheless, listing them helps you decide whether the benefits are worth the costs.

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Print sources—Newspapers and magazines often provide the most useful print information because proposals tend to be about current or local issues. These print sources will help you deepen your factual understanding of the problem and perhaps gain new insights that you didn’t have before.

Empirical sources—On just about any college campus, you can find experts to interview about the problem you are trying to solve. You can use your university’s website to find out which faculty or staff members are experts on your topic. Then contact them to set up an appointment, preferably during their office hours.

When researching your topic, you should triangulate your sources to determine whether the evidence you have collected is reliable (See Chapter 16 on Developing Your Research Process).

organizing and Drafting your proposalProposals are typically complex arguments, so they can be a challenge to organize.

You might find it helpful to think of each section in the proposal as a separate document. For example, you can draft the Description of the Problem section as a causal analysis that explains the problem, its causes, and its effects. Then you can draft the Plan for Solving the Problem as a description in which you explain your plan step by step. When you are finished drafting each section separately, you can put them together and revise the proposal from top to bottom.

Moves for arguingProposals are some of the most persuasive arguments. Here are some moves to help you get your audience to say yes.

The problem we are trying to solve was caused by , , and .

If we don’t do something about this problem, , , and will

happen.

Recently, and have happened, which has opened a unique opportu-

nity for us to do something new.

We are proposing a plan with major steps/phases.

Our team is uniquely qualified to do this project because we are and .

The benefits of the project, which include , , and , are

worth the cost, which is .

If you accept our proposal, you will receive , , and .

14.3 Techniques for organizing and drafting the sections of a proposal

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organizing and Drafting your proposal 289

the Introduction: Identifying the problemA proposal’s introduction typically makes up to six moves:

Grab the audience’s attention—Use an anecdote, compelling statement, interesting fact, or intriguing question to capture the audience’s attention.

Identify your topic—Tell your audience what your proposal is about if your grabber didn’t do so already. In other words, clearly identify the problem you are trying to solve.

State your purpose—In one sentence, tell your audience the purpose of your proposal. Often a proposal’s purpose is stated directly, using phrasing like the following: “In this proposal, our primary objective is to…”

State your main point (thesis)—Clearly state the result you are seeking so your audience knows exactly what you are asking them to agree to.

Weak thesis: campus safety needs to be improved at our university.

Better thesis: we are asking you to approve an integrated plan for campus safety that will make this university safer and more competitive. our safety plan will help us retain top students, improve our university’s reputation, and attract top-tier research faculty.

Offer background information—Provide historical information on your topic so your audience has a basic understanding of the problem you are try-ing to solve. You might talk about how the problem began or what changed to create this problem.

Stress the importance of the topic—Explain briefly why this problem should be important to your audience.

These introductory moves can be made in just about any order, and not all of them are needed. Minimally, you should tell your audience your topic, purpose, and main point.

the problem section: analyzing the problem’s causesIn the Problem section, you want to explain the problem, its causes, and its effects as clearly as possible. As mentioned before, you might find it helpful to draft this section as a causal analysis that could stand alone.

The opening paragraph for this section will typically make two moves: state the problem and stress its importance.

currently, our campus is not considered a safe place at night by students, faculty, and staff. Many people are afraid to be here after dark because they are worried about being assaulted or harassed. as a result, our university is missing opportunities to expand its course offerings, increase research activities, and stage cultural events in the evening.

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In the body of this section, you should analyze the causes and effects of the prob-lem, discussing each major cause separately.

Major Cause 1: Lack of Adequate Lighting

the lack of adequate lighting is the primary reason people do not feel safe on campus at night. In our survey of students and faculty, we discovered that 62 percent of women and 34 percent of men will not walk on campus at night alone, specifically because there isn’t enough lighting. sergeant cal hoskins, a campus police officer, confirmed that there are too many dark areas on campus where assaults could happen. he said, “the current lighting on campus is not consistent. a pedestrian might be in a well-lit area in one part of the campus, but then they need to cross a dark area to get to the next well-lit area. those dark areas are problematic.” his statement reinforces what we found when we toured campus at night with a map (Figure B). walking around campus, we marked areas that were “well-lit,” “partially lit,” and “dark.” as shown in Figure B, there are large dark spaces between the islands of well-lit and partially lit areas of campus. there are many “shadow areas” with little or no lighting.

this lack of lighting has both apparent and subtle effects. one obvious effect is that students won’t take classes or study on campus at night. students who don’t feel safe walking to class from their dorm room or the parking lot will avoid signing up for classes that are held after dark. as a result, the university misses out on offering revenue-generat-ing classes to resident students and commuter students. a less apparent effect is that stu-dents have fewer opportunities to study on campus, join clubs, or simply socialize. In other words, the nighttime activities that help students succeed and value the university are not available because students feel they need to stay in their dorms or housing after dark.

Each major cause would receive this kind of thorough analysis in which the minor causes and the effects are explained to the audience.

the plan section: Describing your solutionYour next task is to describe your plan for solving the problem. You want to explain step by step how you would solve the problem and why you would do it that way.

In the opening paragraph of this section, you should briefly identify your solution and tell the audience why your approach makes the most sense. Some proposal writ-ers like to forecast the major steps of their plan by listing them at this point:

to improve security, we are proposing the campus night owls project, an integrated plan for improving the safety of campus. our plan has four major steps:

• phase one: Improve campus lighting to create safety corridors.

• phase two: create safety patrols of police and student volunteers.

• phase three: add more nighttime shuttle busses that help people move around campus.

• phase Four: Develop a safety networking system to keep people informed.

an integrated security system like the campus night owls project would make people safer while improving the university’s ability to compete for top students and faculty.

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organizing and Drafting your proposal 291

The body paragraphs of this section should describe your plan step by step in detail. Each major step will likely receive one to three paragraphs of coverage.

Phase Four: Develop a Safety Networking System to Keep People Informed

one of the best ways to help people feel more secure is to create an safety networking system that allows them to monitor security issues on campus and to quickly receive information when a security incident occurs. twitter, Facebook, and a university-wide e-mail listserv would allow the university police quickly announce a security incident and recommend courses of action. twitter and Facebook would be especially effec-tive ways to send safety information, because students would receive alerts on their phones. so, if something happens while they are en route to campus or walking across campus, they can take immediate action.

another way to get information out is to install electronic message boards throughout campus. usually, these message boards would offer information about campus events and the weather. But, in an emergency situation, they could explain what is happening and offer safety information.

Typically, the final paragraph in your proposal’s Plan section will summarize the deliverables of the project. Deliverables are the items that the audience will receive if they say yes to the project.

when the campus night owls project is finished, our campus will be much safer because of its integrated security system. we will have lighting corridors for safe walk-ing, security patrols staffed by campus police and students, regular night shuttles that move people around campus, and an information networking system that keeps peo-ple informed. with this system in place, we will see an increase in enrollment and other extracurricular activities on campus after dark.

Note: The items in this paragraph will overlap with some of the benefits that will be mentioned later in the conclusion of the proposal. That’s fine. The repetition of ben-efits is helpful and even desirable in a proposal.

the Qualifications section: Describing who will Do the workIn a workplace proposal, the Plan section is often followed by a Qualifications section that describes who will carry out the plan and why they are qualified to do the work. In proposals written for college courses, your professors probably won’t ask you to include a Qualifications section, but let’s talk about how to write one in case you are asked for it.

A typical Qualifications section will offer the following kinds of information:

Description of personnel—Brief bios of the project’s management team and descriptions of the workforce of the company or organization.

Description of company or organization—A historical background on the company or organization that will do the work, as well as a description of its facilities and manufacturing capabilities.

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Previous experience—Brief descriptions of prior projects that the company or organization has completed.

Depending on the size of the project, the Qualifications section could be long (many pages) or brief (half a page). If your company or organization is familiar to the audience, a brief description of qualifications might be all that’s needed. However, your proposal’s Qualifications section could run several pages if your company is unfamiliar to the audience or you need to prove the credentials of your management team or organization.

conclusion: Discussing the costs and Benefits of the planProposals tend to conclude with a discussion of the costs and benefits of the plan. In your conclusion, you want to put the costs and benefits side by side so the audience can do a basic cost–benefit analysis. That way, they can decide if the project is worth the time and money.

The conclusion of a proposal will typically make six moves:

Signal the conclusion—Use a heading, transitional phrase, or transitional sentence to signal clearly that you are concluding. Proposals tend to be lon-ger arguments, so you want to alert your audience that you will be making your final points.

Restate your main point (thesis)—Again, tell your audience the main point or thesis of your proposal. Your main point first appeared in the introduc-tion, and you now want to restate it in the conclusion to bring your argument to a close.

State the costs of the plan—In a straightforward way, tell the audience what your project will cost. Don’t apologize (e.g., “We’re sorry to tell you that…), and don’t use any slick salesperson talk (e.g., “For the low, low price of…”). Just tell them your estimate of the money and time needed to put your plan into action.

Identify the major benefits of the plan—Immediately after the costs, list the major benefits of your plan (usually three to five). Proposal writers will often put these items in a bulleted list so the audience can see exactly what they receive if they agree to the proposal.

Restress the importance of the subject—Briefly, tell the audience again why this project is important. You want them to understand that this matter is important and needs action. If possible, stress the importance in positive terms by highlighting the benefits of saying yes.

Look to the Future—In a few sentences, describe the positive future that will happen if they say yes to your proposal. A positive look to the future leaves the audience with the sense that the future will be better than the present.

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using style and Design in proposals 293

These six moves tend to be made in the order listed above, but you can adjust them to fit your subject, audience, and the context of your argument.

Your conclusion should not be too long (one to three paragraphs). Basically, you want to leave the audience with the message, “Here is what you get if you say yes to this proposal, and here is why you will be better off.”

using style and Design in proposalsProposals are persuasive arguments, so your style and design need to reflect the emo-tions (pathos) and energy of your ideas.

using persuasive styleGenerally, your proposal’s style should be upbeat and action oriented. Attempting to frighten your audience is not a good way to persuade them to agree to your project. Instead, analyze the problem in plain terms and use a positive tone to explain your plan and its benefits.

Use active sentences—Generally, proposals are written in the active voice because you are trying to persuade people to take action. Active voice means putting people in the subjects of sentences and using active verbs to express what they are doing or will do. Where possible, avoid using passive voice.

Use metaphors and similes—Similes and metaphors are useful for explain-ing new ideas in a visual way. For example, using a simile like “our campus is like maze of shadows” is more visually persuasive than simply saying “our campus is dark.” Likewise, you could use a metaphor to call lighted paths “safety corridors” to create a stronger sense of security.

Minimize jargon—When writing a proposal, you might be tempted to rely on technical terminology and acronyms. Your audience, though, may not be ex-perts in area you are discussing. Even in the workplace, decision-makers are often not experts in the field. So you should keep jargon to a minimum and define any specialized terms that the audience might not be familiar with.

Proposals tend to be used in highly competitive and persuasive situations, so you want to make sure your style matches the importance of the problem you are trying to solve.

Designing your proposalThe design of your proposal should help the readers find the information they need, and it should make your proposal attractive. Let’s be honest. Nobody wants to read a proposal that looks like the one on the left in Figure 14.5. The stale design of this document signals, “This proposal is going to be boring and hard to read.” The design on the right, though, signals, “This proposal is forward thinking and you will quickly find the information you need.”

14.4 Ways to use style and design to make a proposal more visual and persuasive

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Design a look that matches your proposal’s tone—If you want your readers to get excited about your ideas, use fonts, titles, and images that reflect that excitement. For example, you could use sans serif typefaces like Arial or Futura in the title and headings. Add in some colorful images and graphs. You could widen one of the margins to create more whitespace.

Use meaningful, active headings—Your proposal’s headings should be active and descriptive, such as “Walking Our Campus at Night: A Maze of Shadows,” “Developing Safety Corridors,” and “Creating a Safer Tomorrow.”

Include relevant graphs and tables—Where possible, put data into charts and create graphs that show trends. These graphs will reinforce the major points in your argument. You can also use tables to organize and present factual information.

Effective style and design are important elements of a persuasive proposal. Your audience is much more likely to agree with your proposal if your style is lively and the design makes the text easy to read and attractive.

FIgure 14.5 Designing your proposalreaders prefer proposals that look attractive and appear easy to read. the proposal on the right has the same basic content as the one on the left, but it looks much more attractive and readable.

Sheila JohnsonGina Valvano

�omas YoungEnglish 110

Proposal: Making Campus Safer at Night

At 10:01 pm on November 5th, Jill Franklin was leaving her Marketing 354 class. She braced herself for the frightening walk to her car, which was in the Carson Street parking garage about a quarter mile away. �e sun was long gone. �e McCallister College campus, which is warm and welcoming during the day, now stood ominously like a maze of shadows. Jill started walking, cautiously looking into the dark areas where anyone could be hiding. A few students were walking on campus, but in the darkness just about anything could happen. Soon, she was walking by herself. As she walked past Agronomy Hall, a man came out from behind a tree and demanded her purse.

If you have ever been on the McCallister campus at night, you know exactly what evening students like Jill are experiencing. Generally, everyone likes to believe that our campus is safe. And yet, according to the University Police, there were three assaults and eight robberies on our campus last year. Almost all of these crimes happened at night when students and faculty were trying to get home after class or after studying at the library.

Of course, the lack of safety is a problem for students and faculty. Even more importantly, though, McCallister University is missing out on opportunities to grow its evening programs that cater to working students. To make campus safer, we are proposing the “Light Campus, New Horizons Initiative,” that will make campus a safe place to work and study. By improving campus safety, we believe McCallister University

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are you ready to use proposals to persuade? here are the basics:

ten th

InG

s you

neeD

to Kn

ow

1 the purpose of a proposal is to explain a problem and offer a plan or strategy for solving that problem.

2 proposals are some of the most persuasive arguments you will write because their primary purpose is to convince people to say yes to your ideas.

3 a typical proposal has five sections: Introduction, Description of the problem, plan for solving the problem, Qualifications, and a conclusion with costs and benefits.

4 when analyzing the problem, first identify its three to five major causes and then figure out the three to five minor causes behind each major cause.

5 when describing your plan, identify the three to five major steps needed to solve the problem.

6 when describing your qualifications, offer biographical information about the people involved and a description of your organization’s facilities, manufacturing abilities, and previous experience.

7 the conclusion of your proposal should highlight the major benefits of the plan while stating the costs.

8 the style and design of your proposal should reflect the enthusiasm you want your audience to feel about your ideas.

9 your proposal’s style should be upbeat and action oriented.

10 the design of your proposal should be attractive and signal to the audience that important information will be easy to find.

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1. With your group, make a list of three situations in which people use proposals in their personal lives. For example, one person might “propose” to marry someone else. How are these proposals similar to and different from proposals like the ones described in this chapter?

2. Ask each person in your group to bring a sample proposal found on the Internet. To find proposals, simply type “proposal” and a topic of your choice. Usually, something will come up. Then, have each person use this chapter to analyze his or her proposal. How does each proposal reflect the strategies described in this chapter? What differences do you see? How might you improve the proposals your group found?

3. Have each person in your group bring a common household item to class. Then, using the proposal pattern shown at the beginning of this chapter, try to sell that item to your group. The trick is to figure out what problem your household item solves in their lives. Identify the causes and effects of that problem. Then show step by step how your product solves that problem. Conclude by arguing out the costs and benefits of purchasing the product. (Note: You do not need to describe your qualifications for this exercise—but you might anyway).

let’s TALK aBout thIs

let’s ARGUE aBout thIs 1. Find a problem on campus or in your community. Write a brief two-minute

proposal in which you explain the problem and offer a solution. End by arguing the costs and benefits of solving the problem that you are describing. This two- minute proposal may be the basis of a larger proposal that you will write for your instructor.

2. In the workplace, people are increasingly being asked to make “elevator pitches” to sell their ideas. An elevator pitch is a short one- to two-minute proposal that briefly explains the problem and offers a solution. Using YouTube or another video-sharing website, find a couple elevator pitch competitions in which people are proposing new ideas. Then write an analysis in which you highlight the strat-egies that make an elevator pitch effective and the strategies that don’t.

3. Find a boring-looking proposal on the Internet, preferably in a format that you can use on your computer (.doc or .docx). Do a design makeover of the pro-posal to make it more readable and attractive to its audience. Include a title and headings that highlight important sections. Add in photos or graphics where appropriate. Choose typefaces that reflect the tone of the proposal. Then write a one-page reflection in which you explain why you chose to make these specific design changes.

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R E A D I N G S

O N E S T U D E N T ’ S W O R K

In this student-written proposal, the authors have addressed a problem they feel institutions and ordinary people need to deal with—high energy costs and the depletion of non-renewable fossil fuels. As you read, notice how they first define the define the problem in terms of its causes and costs, then carefully offer a plan for dealing with the problem, and finally explain why the benefits outweigh the costs. Notice also, how they use common persuasive strategies (ethos, pathos, and logos) to stress the importance of the problem and the benefits of their plan.

Project Helios

Danny Crites, Jacob Field, Fred Garcia, Joshua Herrera, Stormy Molina

Introduction

Project Helios aims to reduce the carbon footprint of the University of

New Mexico (UNM) and reduce its energy costs by re-equipping three

buildings with solar power within 6 years. In addition to saving money, with

a well-designed public relations strategy, this effort will also create notable

awareness of alternative energy sources locally and even across the United

States, helping to effect widespread changes in attitudes about solar power.

The United States consumes 21% of the world’s energy, even though

the country makes up only about 4.5% of the earth’s population. On

average, New Mexico uses roughly 0.7% of energy in the United States,

accounting for 0.13% of the world’s energy consumption (U.S. Energy

Information Administration, 2010). UNM and its various branches

account for a significant percentage of population, land, and energy

usage in New Mexico.

By harnessing an alternative energy source that will eventually

serve all of UNM, this project will help reduce New Mexico’s energy use.

Additionally, it will lower energy costs, reducing the amount of funds

required by the university from sources such as tuition and grants. Finally,

by using well-planned promotional tactics, we will raise awareness of

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298 CHAPTER 14 Proposals—Arguing about the Future

the growing problem of excessive energy consumption. This, in turn, will

increase interest in solar technology, thereby inspiring more research on

solar energy and advancing the existing technology. These changes will

produce lower costs and more reliable and efficient designs in the future.

The Problem: More Consumption, More Costs

In the past two decades, the use of non-renewable fossil fuels—such

as petroleum, coal, and natural gas—has increased dramatically. High

consumption of these resources has not only aggravated problems such as

pollution and carbon dioxide emissions, but it has also increased the cost

of these resources on the local, national, and global levels.

Energy Consumption: The United States and New Mexico

Energy consumption in the United States is a growing concern, since

the country uses a disproportionate percentage of the world’s energy.

The majority of energy in the United States of America comes from

nonrenewable sources such as petroleum (37%), natural gas (24%), and

coal (23%) (U.S. Energy Information Administration, 2010). As of 2010, the

world’s population is over 6.8 billion people, with 309 million people living

in the United States (U.S. Census Bureau, 2010). The non-renewable energy

resources of this world are being depleted increasingly rapidly.

At this point, it may appear there is enough energy to meet America’s

needs, but developing countries, such as China and India, have large

populations that are growing along with their needs for energy to fuel their

residential, industrial, and transportation sectors. When our nation’s energy

use is evaluated alongside its global peers, it becomes clear that the United

States is grossly overusing these limited resources. Meanwhile, the energy

needs of other nations are growing quickly. As these trends continue, the

nation will either need to compete against growing countries for resources

or develop the capacity for utilizing alternative means of energy.

Cost of Energy: New Mexico and the University of New Mexico

The utility needs of UNM, such as water, natural gas, electricity, etc., are

provided by Power New Mexico (PNM), New Mexico Gas Company,

and UNM’s own district energy system. Utilities for UNM’s campuses are

controlled mainly by UNM’s Physical Plant Department. UNM, of course,

5

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has little control over rising energy prices. For instance, even with a large

amount of natural gas available in New Mexico, the price of the gas has

risen 180% in the past ten years (Zumwalt & Vosevich, 2009). Because

natural gas is one of the resources used to make electricity, the cost of

electricity has also increased.

The University of New Mexico’s Albuquerque campuses require

considerable energy resources. Four energy-generating facilities on UNM

campuses can provide up to 8,300 kilowatts of electricity, 202,000 pounds

of steam, and 2,000 gallons of water a minute, which helps control the cost

of energy on UNM’s campuses. It is estimated that in one year, UNM can

consume 130,379,000 kilowatt hours of electricity, 388,572,279 pounds of

steam, and 256,669,128 gallons of water.

Although UNM produces roughly 25% of its own energy, the

remaining 75% is purchased from PNM (Zumwalt & Vosevich, 2009).

This strains UNM’s budget. With a total annual budge of about

$2 billion a year, UNM currently pays $300 million (about 15%) of its

total budget on utilities (University of New Mexico, 2008). Because

of PNM’s increases in natural gas and water costs, UNM’s utility bill

will rise substantially, an increase estimated at $30 million for 2010

(Zumwalt & Vosevich, 2009).

Because energy costs drive up tuition and other fees that are paid for

by UNM students and the citizens of New Mexico, it is essential that UNM

manage these costs while looking for ways to become less dependent on

high-cost forms of energy.

Project Plan: Harnessing Solar Energy and Talking About It

Project Helios challenges the University of New Mexico to harness

alternative and renewable sources of energy, starting with the installation

of solar panel systems on Dane Smith Hall, the Student Union Building

(SUB), and Popejoy Hall. This will result in two desirable outcomes. First,

the University’s overall budget and carbon footprint will decrease. Second, it

will enhance public awareness about the growing problems associated with

using fossil fuels and about the advantages of solar energy. This in turn will

result in more widespread interest in and demand for solar energy as well

as more solar-technology research and innovation.

crites: project helios 299

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To allow UNM and the State of New Mexico achieve these goals, we

will purchase solar panel systems, and we will install and integrate them

into the buildings. In addition, we will publicize Project Helios and expand

the project to other UNM buildings and campuses.

Phase 1: Purchasing Solar Panel Systems

The first phase involves purchasing solar panel systems (Figure 1). First,

we will compare the solar technology vendors in the Albuquerque area.

Our staff will research the vendors to find reviews and basic information

about their solar panel products and related services. We will also conduct

interviews with the vendors to obtain estimates and assess the quality of

their products and services. The vendors’ estimates will be compared with

the allotted funding in our budget. A vendor will be chosen after about six

to eight weeks of research and discussion. We will then place our orders

with the chosen company and work out any logistics needed to bring the

solar panels to UNM’s main campus.

Phase 2: Installing and Integrating the Systems

The second phase is to install and integrate the solar technology into

Dane Smith Hall, the Student Union Building (SUB), and Popejoy Hall.

The solar panels will be “on-the-grid,” which means that these buildings

FIgure 1: solar panel systems like this one are especially effective in sunny places like new Mexico.

M14_PAIN9675_01_SE_C14.indd 300 1/16/14 12:26 PM

will receive energy from the panels as well as PNM. Surplus energy will be

sold back to PNM. We will begin integrating Dane Smith Hall, then follow

up with the SUB and Popejoy Hall. These three buildings have ample roof

space and are used more than others by UNM students, staff, and faculty

and by visitors to UNM (Figure 2).

Professional solar technicians will begin the process of installing the

solar technology. After the initial setup, UNM has various campus resources

that can complete the integration. These resources include the respected

and informed minds of the engineering faculty, as well as engineering

fellows and students who want to gain experience working with solar

technology.

Phase 3: Promoting Project Helios with a Public Relations Campaign

By publicizing Project Helios, we can send a positive message not

only about renewable energy but also about UNM. We will provide

project updates through a website and a printed annual publication.

These resources will inform the UNM community and the public about

this project, highlighting sustainability and energy cost reduction. These

publications will demonstrate how solar technology has resulted in reduced

fossil fuel consumption.

Additionally, we will foster dialogue with the community regarding

Project Helios and incorporate the ideas of community leaders and activists.

This too will stimulate the community’s interest in developing a “green”


FIgure 2: rooftop solar panels like this one would be ideal for larger unM buildings.

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university. We plan to begin public relations before the purchase of our

first solar panel, as good publicity will help to promote awareness. Public

relations efforts will continue throughout the project. With each step of

purchasing and integrating solar technology at UNM, public awareness

will grow.

Phase 4: Expanding Project Helios

The final, long-term goal of Project Helios is to expand solar technology to

all of UNM and its satellite and branch campuses, paving the way for more

integration after Project Helios is complete. When it has been demonstrated

that solar technology actually saves money over the long term, UNM will

be in a good position for further integration on the main campus and

on branches such as Valencia, Los Alamos, and the West campus. We are

confident about the promise of such expansion because solar energy will

inevitably become even more affordable and efficient.

Costs and Benefits: Investing in the Future

The costs of this project are far outweighed by its benefits. As explained

here, the project is an investment that will easily pay for itself. Just as

important, Project Helios is an investment in our students and their futures,

as the project provides them with genuine experiential learning about solar

technology, an industry that is sure to be a mainstay of the U.S. economy

and especially important in sunny New Mexico. By publicizing Project

Helios through print and web publications, we will publicize how the

project aligns with the goals of the UNM and Albuquerque communities.

Public relations efforts will also heighten UNM’s national profile as a “green”

university, thus attracting prospective students and bringing prestige to the

institution.

The projected cost of Project Helios is $2,497,905 as shown in

Appendix A. The project is divided into three segments each consisting

of two years each. We will be requesting funds at the beginning of each

two-year period. For Segment 1 we are requesting $759,635. For

Segment 2, we will request $832,635. Segment 3 will cost an estimated

$905,635.

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Segment 1 will cover the installation, insurance, security, and

maintenance of the solar panel system on Dane Smith Hall for the first two

years. Segment 2 will cover Dane Smith Hall and the SUB for the second

two-year segment. Lastly, Segment 3 will cover Dane Smith Hall, the SUB, and

Popejoy Hall for the final two years. The cost of insurance and maintenance

increases with each segment as more systems are installed and maintained.

The maintenance will be conducted by UNM students under the

supervision of UNM faculty with expertise in solar technology and electrical

systems. This will help motivate UNM’s student body to research alternative

energy, and it will also provide students with meaningful on-campus work,

which has been shown to increase student engagement.

In addition to the installation, security, and maintenance of the panels,

public relations costs accrue in each segment. The yearly advertisements in

the Daily Lobo, at $300 per segment, will allow us to directly promote the

project to the UNM community. One publication will be available every two

years, costing $5,000 per segment, and will detail the progress the solar

panels have made in lowering the energy costs for the building they are

associated with as well as how they helped UNM become more sustainable.

These publications will be sent to UNM’s administrators, local press,

investors in UNM, local, state, and national legislators, and throughout the

State of New Mexico.

Conclusion

Thank you for considering our proposal. The problem of fossil-

fuel depletion and global warming grows with every light turned on,

every computer started up, and every student registering for a class. By

integrating solar technology, the University of New Mexico will provide an

example that illustrates why investment in renewable energies pays off and

why projects like this one are needed.

Project Helios will benefit the university by reducing the energy usage

of nonrenewable resources and decreasing the precious revenue dedicated

to the utility budget. Additionally, the University will raise awareness and

promote research in the field of solar technologies.


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This project will advance the technology’s efficiency and

affordability. When you have finished considering this proposal, you

can contact Albuquerque Environmental, Inc. at (505) 555-6347 or at

[email protected]. We look forward to beginning Project Helios in

the near future.

References

American Petroleum Institute. (2009, January 21). Facts about fossil fuels. Retrieved April 6, 2010, from http://www.api.org/classroom/tools/facts-fossil-fuels.cfm

The College Sustainability Report Card. (2009). University of New Mexico. Retrieved April 8, 2010, from http://www.greenreportcard.org/report-card-2009/schools/ university-of-new-mexico

Landry, C. (2010, March 17). February gasoline demand, production rise to record levels. API. Retrieved April 5, 2010, from http://www.api.org/Newsroom/feb-10- record-demand.cfm

National Geographic News. (2007, June 14). Global warming fast facts. Retrieved April 7, 2010, from http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/pf/73625218.html

PNM. (2009, May 28). New PNM electric rates will be phased in. Retrieved April 10, 2010, from http://www.pnm.com/news/2009/0528_rates_approved.htm

University of New Mexico. (2008). Funding New Mexico’s flagship university. Retrieved April 10, 2010, from http://www.unm.edu/annualreport/2008/ connect_foundations/ finances.html

U.S. Energy Information Administration. (2010, April 14). U.S. energy facts explained. Retrieved April 17, 2010, from http://tonto.eia.doe.gov/energyexplained/index.cfm?page=us_energy_home

U.S. Department of Energy. (2011, July 25). Buildings Database: Toyota South Campus Office Development. Retrieved July 13, 2013, from https://buildingdata.energy.gov/content/toyota-south-campus-office-development

U.S. Department of Energy. (2010, November 6). Solar Multimedia: Denver Museum of Nature and Science goes solar. Retrieved July 13, 2013, from https://www.eeremultimedia.energy.gov/solar/photographs/denver_museum_nature_and_science_goes_solar

Zumwalt, J. & Vosevich, M. (March, 2009). Utilities at the University of New Mexico. Albuquerque, NM: Physical Plant Department. Retrieved from http:// www.unm.edu/~budget/guidelines/glpresentation/Utilities.pdf

M14_PAIN9675_01_SE_C14.indd 304 1/16/14 12:27 PM

Appendix A: Budget Table

This table shows how the project costs were calculated. The project is divided into three segments.

Budget Item DescriptionCost for Segment 1

Cost for Segment 2

Cost for Segment 3 Total Cost

Solar Panel

System

Each system contains

all the panels, wires,

connections, and

installation for one

building.

$675,000 $675,000 $675,000 $2,025,000

Insurance Insurance for the

solar panel systems

$60,000

($1000/ month

× 60 months

for 1 system)

$120,000

($1000/

month ×

60 months for

2 systems)

$180,000

($1000/

month ×

60 months for

3 systems)

$360,000

Security A keypad and alarm

door lock

$185 $185 $185 $555

Security A security camera

system

$150 $150 $150 $450

Maintenance One student needed

to maintain panels for

each building.

$13,000

($50/week ×

260 weeks ×

1 student)

$26,000

($50/week ×

260 weeks ×

2 students)

$39,000

($50/week ×

260 weeks ×

3 students)

$78,000

Advertising Daily Lobo

advertisement once

a year

$300

($60 × 5

years)

$300

($60 × 5

years)

$300

($60 × 5

years)

$900

Advertising Webmaster $6,000

($100/ month

× 60 months)

$6,000

($100/ month

× 60 months)

$6,000

($100/ month

× 60 months)

$18,000

Advertising Create and disperse

a publication to the

UNM community

every segment.

$5,000

($5000/

publication)

$5,000

($5000/

publication)

$5,000

($5000/

publication)

$15,000

TOTAL $759,635 $832,635 $905,635 $2,497,90


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A C L O S E R L O O K A T

Project Helios 1. The authors contend that their proposal offers

a variety of benefits. What are those benefits? Which of the benefits do you think is stressed above the others?

2. The authors supplement their proposal’s argu-ment with photographs and a table. They also use figure captions that explain the point of each of these visual elements. Explain how these vi-suals serve as more than just “eye candy” but also clarify and reinforce the main points they want their readers to grasp. What other visuals

can you think of that could help the proposal make its case even more powerfully?

3. Proposals are among the most persuasive of arguments. Readers understand that propos-als aim to persuade them to some belief or ac-tion. Read the document and identify the places where the author use logical statements and ex-amples (logos), appeals to authority and exper-tise (ethos), and emotions (pathos) to persuade. Which kinds of appeals are most effective in this proposal?

I D E A S F O R

Arguing 1. Imagine that you work for a firm that wrote the

Project Helios proposal and have been tasked with creating a ten- to fifteen-minute presen-tation that summarizes the proposal. Turn this proposal into a slideshow. Use PowerPoint or other presentation software to create a presen-tation that includes ten to fifteen slides.

2. Write a counterargument to the Project Helios proposal. Whether you agree or disagree, make an argument highlights its weaknesses and of-fers a better way to lower energy costs on a col-lege campus.

The End of PovertyJeFFrey D. sachs

In this proposal, Columbia University economics professor Jeffrey D. Sachs explains the problem of global poverty and offers a nine-step plan for making a difference. As you read, notice how Sachs frames the problem with narrative and other evidence to motivate his readers into caring about this problem and agreeing with him about the best solution.

We can banish extreme poverty in our generation—yet 8 million people die each year because they are too poor to survive. The tragedy is that with a little help, they could

even thrive. In a bold new book, Jeffrey D. Sachs shows how we can make it happen

It is still midmorning in Malawi when we arrive at a small village, Nthandire, about an

M14_PAIN9675_01_SE_C14.indd 306 1/16/14 12:27 PM

hour outside of Lilongwe, the capital. We have come over dirt roads, passing women and chil-dren walking barefoot with water jugs, wood for fuel, and other bundles. The midmorning temperature is sweltering. In this subsistence maize-growing region of a poor, landlocked country in southern Africa, families cling to life on an unforgiving terrain. This year has been a lot more difficult than usual because the rains have failed. The crops are withering in the fields that we pass.

If the village were filled with able-bodied men, who could have built rainwater-collecting units on rooftops and in the fields, the situa-tion would not be so dire. But as we arrive in the village, we see no able-bodied young men at all. In fact, older women and dozens of chil-dren greet us, but there is not a young man or woman in sight. Where, we ask, are the work-ers? Out in the fields? The aid worker who has led us to the village shakes his head sadly and says no. Nearly all are dead. The village has been devastated by AIDS.

The presence of death in Nthandire has been overwhelming in recent years. The grand-mothers whom we meet are guardians for their orphaned grandchildren. The margin of sur-vival is extraordinarily narrow; sometimes it closes entirely. One woman we meet in front of her mud hut has 15 orphaned grandchildren. Her small farm plot, a little more than an acre in all, would be too small to feed her family even if the rains had been plentiful. The soil nutrients have been depleted so significantly in this part of Malawi that crop yields reach only about a half-ton per acre, about one-third of normal. This year, because of the drought, she will get almost nothing. She reaches into her apron and pulls out a handful of semi-rotten, bug-infested millet, which will be the basis for the gruel she will prepare for the meal that eve-ning. It will be the one meal the children have that day.

I ask her about the health of the children. She points to a child of about 4 and says that the girl contracted malaria the week before. The

woman had carried her grandchild on her back for the six miles to the local hospital. When they got there, there was no quinine, the antimalarial medicine, available that day. With the child in high fever, the two were sent home and told to return the next day. In a small miracle, when they returned after another six-mile trek, the quinine had come in, and the child responded to treatment and survived. It was a close call though. More than 1 million African children, and perhaps as many as 3 million, succumb to malaria each year.

As we proceed through the village, I stoop down to ask one of the young girls her name and age. She looks about 7 or 8 but is actually 12, stunted from years of undernutrition. When I ask her what her dreams are for her own life, she says that she wants to be a teacher and that she is prepared to study and work hard to achieve that. I know that her chances of surviv-ing to go on to secondary school and a teachers college are slim under the circumstances.

The plight of Malawi has been rightly de-scribed by Carol Bellamy, head of UNICEF, as the perfect storm of human deprivation, one that brings together climatic disaster, impov-erishment, the AIDS pandemic and the long-standing burdens of malaria, schistosomiasis and other diseases. In the face of this horrific maelstrom, the world community has so far displayed a fair bit of hand-wringing and even some high-minded rhetoric, but precious little action. It is no good to lecture the dying that they should have done better with their lot in life. Rather it is our task to help them onto the ladder of development, to give them at least a foothold on the bottom rung, from which they can then proceed to climb on their own.

This is a story about ending poverty in our time. It is not a forecast. I am not predict-ing what will happen, only explaining what can happen. Currently, more than 8 million people around the world die each year because they are too poor to stay alive. Every morning our newspapers could report, “More than 20,000 people perished yesterday of extreme poverty.”

sachs: the end of poverty 307

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How? The poor die in hospital wards that lack drugs, in villages that lack antimalarial bed nets, in houses that lack safe drinking water. They die namelessly, without public comment. Sadly, such stories rarely get written.

Since Sept. 11, 2001, the U.S. has launched a war on terrorism, but it has neglected the deeper causes of global instability. The nearly $500 billion that the U.S. will spend this year on the military will never buy lasting peace if the U.S. continues to spend only one-thirtieth of that, around $16 billion, to address the plight of the poorest of the poor, whose societies are destabilized by extreme poverty. The $16 bil-lion represents 0.15% of U.S. income, just 15¢ on every $100 of our national income. The share devoted to helping the poor has declined for de-cades and is a tiny fraction of what the U.S. has repeatedly promised, and failed, to give.

Yet our generation, in the U.S. and abroad, can choose to end extreme poverty by the year 2025. To do it, we need to adopt a new method, which I call “clinical economics,” to underscore the similarities between good development economics and good clinical medicine. In the past quarter-century, the development eco-nomics imposed by rich countries on the poor-est countries has been too much like medicine in the 18th century, when doctors used leeches to draw blood from their patients, often killing them in the process. Development economics needs an overhaul in order to be much more like modern medicine, a profession of rigor, in-sight and practicality. The sources of poverty are multidimensional. So are the solutions. In my view, clean water, productive soils and a func-tioning health-care system are just as relevant to development as foreign exchange rates. The task of ending extreme poverty is a collective one—for you as well as for me. The end of pov-erty will require a global network of cooperation among people who have never met and who do not necessarily trust one another.

One part of the puzzle is relatively easy. Most people in the world, with a little bit of prodding, would accept the fact that schools,

clinics, roads, electricity, ports, soil nutrients, clean water and sanitation are the basic neces-sities not only for a life of dignity and health but also to make an economy work. They would also accept the fact that the poor may need help to meet their basic needs. But they might be skeptical that the world could pull off any effec-tive way to give that help. If the poor are poor because they are lazy or their governments are corrupt, how could global cooperation help?

Fortunately, these common beliefs are misconceptions—only a small part of the expla-nation of why the poor are poor. In all corners of the world, the poor face structural challenges that keep them from getting even their first foot on the ladder of development. Most societies with the right ingredients—good harbors, close contacts with the rich world, favorable climates, adequate energy sources and freedom from ep-idemic disease—have escaped extreme poverty. The world’s remaining challenge is not mainly to overcome laziness and corruption, but rather to take on the solvable problems of geographic isolation, disease and natural hazards, and to do so with new arrangements of political re-sponsibility that can get the job done. We need plans, systems, mutual accountability and financing mechanisms. But even before we have all of that apparatus in place—what I call the economic plumbing—we must first under-stand more concretely what such a strategy means to the people who can be helped.

Nearly half the 6 billion people in the world are poor. As a matter of definition, there are three degrees of poverty: extreme (or absolute) poverty, moderate poverty and relative pov-erty. Extreme poverty, defined by the World Bank as getting by on an income of less than $1 a day, means that households cannot meet basic needs for survival. They are chronically hungry, unable to get health care, lack safe drinking water and sanitation, cannot afford education for their children and perhaps lack rudimentary shelter—a roof to keep rain out of the hut—and basic articles of clothing, like shoes. We can describe extreme poverty as “the

10

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poverty that kills.” Unlike moderate or relative poverty, extreme poverty now exists only in de-veloping countries. Moderate poverty, defined as living on $1 to $2 a day, refers to conditions in which basic needs are met, but just barely. Be-ing in relative poverty, defined by a household income level below a given proportion of the national average, means lacking things that the middle class now takes for granted.

The total number of people living in ex-treme poverty, the World Bank estimates, is 1.1 billion, down from 1.5 billion in 1981. While that is progress, much of the one-sixth of human-ity in extreme poverty suffers the ravages of AIDS, drought, isolation and civil wars, and is thereby trapped in a vicious cycle of deprivation and death. Moreover, while the economic boom in East Asia has helped reduce the proportion of the extreme poor in that region from 58% in 1981 to 15% in 2001, and in South Asia from 52% to 31%, the situation is deeply entrenched in Africa, where almost half of the continent’s population lives in extreme poverty—a proportion that has actually grown worse over the past two decades as the rest of the world has grown more prosperous.

A few centuries ago, vast divides in wealth and poverty around the world did not exist. Just about everybody was poor, with the exception of a very small minority of rulers and large land-owners. Life was as difficult in much of Europe as it was in India or China. Your great-great-grandparents were, with very few exceptions, poor and living on a farm. The onset of the In-dustrial Revolution, supported by a rise in ag-ricultural productivity, unleashed an explosive period of modern economic growth. Both pop-ulation and per-capita income came unstuck, rising at rates never before imagined. The global population rose more than sixfold in just two centuries, while the world’s average per-capita income rose even faster, increasing around ninefold between 1820 and 2000. In today’s rich countries, the economic growth was even more astounding. The U.S. per-capita income increased almost 25-fold during this period. In beholding that success, many people embrace

faulty social theories of those differences. When a society is economically dominant, it is easy for its members to assume that such dominance re-flects a deeper superiority—whether religious, racial, genetic, ethnic, cultural or institutional—rather than an accident of timing or geography.

Such theories justified brutal forms of ex-ploitation of the poor during colonial rule, and they persist even today among those who lack an understanding of what happened and is still happening in the Third World. In fact, the failure of the Third World to grow as rapidly as the First World is the result of a complex mix of factors, some geographical, some historical and some political. Imperial rule often left the conquered regions bereft of education, health care, indigenous political leadership and ad-equate physical infrastructure. Often, newly independent countries in the post–World War II period made disastrous political choices, such as socialist economic models or a drive for self-sufficiency behind inefficient trade bar-riers. But perhaps most pertinent today, many regions that got left furthest behind have faced special obstacles and hardships: diseases such as malaria, drought-prone climates in locations not suitable for irrigation, extreme isolation in mountains and landlocked regions, an absence of energy resources such as coal, gas and oil, and other liabilities that have kept these areas outside of the mainstream of global economic growth. Countries ranging from Bolivia to Ma-lawi to Afghanistan face challenges almost un-known in the rich world, challenges that are at first harrowing to contemplate, but on second thought encouraging in the sense that they also lend themselves to practical solutions.

In the past quarter-century, when poor countries have pleaded with the rich world for help, they have been sent to the world money doctor, the International Monetary Fund. For a quarter-century, and changing only very re-cently, the main IMF prescription has been budgetary belt-tightening for patients much too poor to own belts. IMF-led austerity has fre-quently resulted in riots, coups and the collapse


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of public services. Finally, however, that ap-proach is beginning to change.

It has taken me 20 years to understand what good development economics should be, and I am still learning. In my role as director of the U.N. Millennium Project, which has the goal of helping to cut the world’s extreme poverty in half by 2015, I spent several eye-opening days with colleagues last July in a group of eight Kenyan villages known as the Sauri subloca-tion in the Siaya district of Nyanza province. We visited farms, clinics, hospitals and schools. We found a region beset by hunger, AIDS and ma-laria. The situation is grim, but salvageable.

More than 200 members of the community came to meet with us one afternoon. Hungry, thin and ill, they stayed for 3 1/2 hours, speaking with dignity, eloquence and clarity about their predicament. They are impoverished, but they are capable and resourceful. Though struggling to survive, they are not dispirited but are de-termined to improve their situation. They know well how they could get back to high ground.

The meeting took place on the grounds of a school called the Bar Sauri Primary School, where headmistress Anne Marcelline Omolo shepherds hundreds of schoolchildren through primary education and the travails of daily life. Despite disease, orphanhood and hunger, all 33 of last year’s eighth-grade class passed the Kenyan national secondary-school exams. On a Sunday last July, we saw why. On their “day off” from school, this year’s class of eighth-graders sat at their desks from 6:30 a.m. until 6 p.m. preparing months in advance for this year’s national examinations in November. Unfortu-nately, many who will pass the exams will be unable to take a position in a secondary school because of lack of money for tuition, uniforms and supplies. Nonetheless, to boost the forti-tude of the eighth-graders during the critical ex-amination year, the community provides them with a midday meal, cooked with wood and water the students bring from home. Alas, the community is currently unable to provide mid-day meals for the younger children, who must fend for themselves.

When our village meeting got under way, I canvassed the group and got very perceptive ac-counts of the grim situation. Only two of the 200 farmers at the meeting reported using fertilizer at present. Around 25% are using improved fallows with nitrogen-fixing trees, a scientific farming approach developed and introduced into Sauri by the World Agroforestry Center. With this novel technique, villagers grow trees that naturally re-turn nitrogen to the soil by converting it from the atmosphere, thus dramatically improving yields. The new method could be used throughout the village if more money were available for planting the trees alongside their maize crops.

The rest of the community is farming on tiny plots, sometimes no more than one-quarter of an acre, with soils that are so depleted of nutrients and organic matter that even if the rains are good, the households still go hungry. If the rains fail, the households face the risk of death from severe undernutrition. Stunting, meaning low height for one’s age, is widespread, a sign of pervasive and chronic undernutrition of the children.

The real shocker came with my follow-up question. How many farmers had used fertiliz-ers in the past? Every hand in the room went up. Farmer after farmer described how the price of fertilizer was now out of reach, and how their current impoverishment left them unable to purchase what they had used in the past.

As the afternoon unfolded, the gravity of the community’s predicament became more apparent. I asked how many households were home to one or more orphaned children left behind by the AIDS pandemic. Virtually every hand in the room shot up. I asked how many households were receiving remittances from family members living in Nairobi and other cities. The response was that the only things coming back from the cities were coffins and orphans, not remittances.

I asked how many households had some-body currently suffering from malaria. Around three-fourths of the hands shot up. How many use antimalarial bed nets? Two out of 200 hands went up. How many knew about bed nets? All hands. And how many would like to use bed

20

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nets? All hands remained up. The problem, many of the women explained, is that they cannot af-ford the bed nets, which sell for a few dollars per net, and are too expensive even when partially subsidized by international donor agencies.

A few years back, Sauri’s residents cooked with locally collected wood, but the decline in the number of trees has left the area bereft of sufficient fuel. Villagers said that they now buy pieces of fuel wood in Yala or Muhanda, a bundle of seven sticks costing around 30¢. Not only are seven sticks barely enough to cook one meal, but for a lack of 30¢, many villagers had in fact reverted to cooking with cow dung or to eating uncooked meals.

The dying village’s isolation is stunning. There are no cars or trucks owned or used with in Sauri, and only a handful of villagers said they had ridden in any kind of motorized transport during the past year. Around half of the individu-als at the meeting said that they had never made a phone call in their entire lives.

This village could be rescued, but not by itself. Survival depends on addressing a series of specific challenges, all of which can be met with known, proven, reliable and appropriate technologies and interventions. (Thanks to a grant from the Lenfest Foundation in the U.S., the Earth Institute at Columbia University will put some novel ideas to work in Sauri.) Sauri’s villages, and impoverished villages like them all over the world, can be set on a path of devel-opment at a cost that is tiny for the world but too high for the villages themselves and for the Kenyan government on its own. African safari guides speak of the Big Five animals to watch for on the savannah. The world should speak of the Big Five development interventions that would spell the difference between life and death for the savannah’s people. Sauri’s Big Five are:

Boosting Agriculture

With fertilizers, cover crops, irrigation and improved seeds, Sauri’s farmers could triple their food yields and quickly end chronic hun-ger. Grain could be protected in locally made storage bins using leaves from the improved

fallow species tephrosia, which has insecti-cide properties.

Improving Basic Health

A village clinic with one doctor and nurse for the 5,000 residents would provide free anti-malarial bed nets, effective antimalarial medi-cines and treatments for HIV/ AIDS opportu-nistic infections.

Investing in Education

Meals for all the children at the primary school could improve the health of the kids, the qual-ity of education and the attendance at school. Expanded vocational training for the students could teach them the skills of modern farming, computer literacy, basic infrastructure mainte-nance and carpentry. The village is ready and eager to be empowered by increased informa-tion and technical knowledge.

Bringing Power

Electricity could be made available to the vil-lages either via a power line or an off-grid diesel generator. The electricity would power lights and perhaps a computer for the school; pumps for safe well water; power for milling grain, refrigeration and other needs. The vil-lagers emphasized that the students would like to study after sunset but cannot do so without electric lighting.

Providing Clean Water And Sanitation

With enough water points and latrines for the safety of the entire village, women and chil-dren would save countless hours of toil each day fetching water. The water could be pro-vided through a combination of protected springs, rainwater harvesting and other basic technologies.

The irony is that the cost of these services for Sauri’s 5,000 residents would be very low. My Earth Institute colleagues and I estimated that the combined cost of these improvements, even including the cost of treatment for AIDS, would total only $70 per person per year, or around $350,000 for all of Sauri. The benefits


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would be astounding. Sooner rather than later, these investments would repay themselves not only in lives saved, children educated and com-munities preserved, but also in direct commer-cial returns to the villages and the chance for self-sustaining economic growth.

The international donor community should be thinking round-the-clock of one question: How can the Big Five interventions be done on a larger scale in rural areas similar to Sauri? With a population of some 33 million people, of whom two-thirds are in rural areas, Kenya would need annual investments on the order of $1.5 billion for its Sauris, with donors filling most of that financing gap, since the national government is already stretched beyond its means. Instead, donor support for investment in rural Kenya is perhaps $100 million, or a mere one-fifteenth of what is needed. And Kenya’s debt service to the rich world is several hundred million dollars per year. Kenya’s budget is still being drained by the international community, not bolstered by it. This is all the more remarkable since Kenya is a new and fragile democracy that should be receiving considerable help.

The outside world has pat answers con-cerning extremely impoverished countries, especially those in Africa. Everything comes back, again and again, to corruption and mis-rule. Western officials argue that Africa simply needs to behave itself better, to allow market forces to operate without interference by cor-rupt rulers. Yet the critics of African governance have it wrong. Politics simply can’t explain Africa’s prolonged economic crisis. The claim that Africa’s corruption is the basic source of the problem does not withstand serious scru-tiny. During the past decade I witnessed how relatively well-governed countries in Africa, such as Ghana, Malawi, Mali and Senegal, failed to prosper, whereas societies in Asia perceived to have extensive corruption, such as Bangla-desh, Indonesia and Pakistan, enjoyed rapid economic growth.

What is the explanation? Every situation of extreme poverty around the world contains

some of its own unique causes, which need to be diagnosed just as a doctor would a patient. For example, Africa is burdened with malaria like no other part of the world, simply because it is unlucky in providing the perfect conditions for that disease: high temperatures, plenty of breeding sites and particular species of malaria-transmitting mosquitoes that prefer to bite humans rather than cattle.

Another myth is that the developed world already gives plenty of aid to the world’s poor. Former U.S. Secretary of the Treasury Paul O’Neill expressed a common frustration when he remarked about aid for Africa: “We’ve spent trillions of dollars on these problems and we have damn near nothing to show for it.” O’Neill was no foe of foreign aid. Indeed, he wanted to fix the system so that more U.S. aid could be justified. But he was wrong to believe that vast flows of aid to Africa had been squandered. President Bush said in a press conference in April 2004 that as “the greatest power on the face of the earth, we have an obligation to help the spread of freedom. We have an obligation to feed the hungry.” Yet how does the U.S. fulfill its obligation? U.S. aid to farmers in poor countries to help them grow more food runs at around $200 million per year, far less than $1 per person per year for the hundreds of millions of people living in subsistence farm households.

From the world as a whole, the amount of aid per African per year is really very small, just $30 per sub-Saharan African in 2002. Of that modest amount, almost $5 was actually for con-sultants from the donor countries, more than $3 was for emergency aid, about $4 went for servic-ing Africa’s debts and $5 was for debt-relief oper-ations. The rest, about $12, went to Africa. Since the “money down the drain” argument is heard most frequently in the U.S., it’s worth looking at the same calculations for U.S. aid alone. In 2002, the U.S. gave $3 per sub-Saharan African. Tak-ing out the parts for U.S. consultants and techni-cal cooperation, food and other emergency aid, administrative costs and debt relief, the aid per African came to the grand total of perhaps 6¢.

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The U.S. has promised repeatedly over the decades, as a signatory to global agreements like the Monterrey Consensus of 2002, to give a much larger proportion of its annual output, specifically up to 0.7% of GNP, to official devel-opment assistance. The U.S.’s failure to follow through has no political fallout domestically, of course, because not one in a million U.S. citizens even knows of statements like the Monterrey Consensus. But we should not underestimate the salience that it has abroad. Spin as we might in the U.S. about our generosity, the poor coun-tries are fully aware of what we are not doing.

The costs of action are a tiny fraction of the costs of inaction. And yet we must carry out these tasks in a context of global inertia, procliv-ities to war and prejudice, and understandable skepticism around the world that this time can be different from the past. Here are nine steps to the goal:

Commit to The Task

Oxfam and many other leaders in civil society have embraced the goal of Making Poverty His-tory. The world as a whole needs now to em-brace the goal.

Adopt A Plan of Action

The U.N.’s Millennium Development Goals, approved by all of the world’s governments at the start of the millennium, are the down payment on ending poverty. The MDGs set out specific targets for cutting poverty, hun-ger, disease and environmental degradation by 2015 and thereby laid the foundation for elimi-nating extreme poverty by 2025. The rich and poor countries have solemnly agreed to work toward fulfilling the MDGs. The key is to follow through.

Raise The Voice of The Poor

Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr. did not wait for the rich and powerful to come to their rescue. They asserted their call to justice and made their stand in the face of official arro-gance and neglect. It is time for the democracies

in the poor world—Brazil, India, Nigeria, Sen-egal, South Africa and dozens of others—to join together to issue the call to action.

Redeem The U.S. Role in The World

The richest and most powerful country, long the leader and inspiration in democratic ideals, is barely participating in global efforts to end poverty and protect the environment, thus un-dermining its own security. It’s time to honor the commitment to give 0.7% of our national in-come to these crucial goals.

Rescue The Imf and World Bank

They have the experience and technical sophis-tication to play an important role. They have the internal motivation of a highly professional staff. Yet they have been used like debt-collec-tion agencies for the big creditor countries. It’s time to restore their role in helping all 182 of their member countries, not just the rich ones, in the pursuit of enlightened globalization.

Strengthen the U.N.

It is no use blaming the U.N. for the missteps of recent years. Why are U.N. agencies less op-erational than they should be? Not because of “U.N. bureaucracy,” though that exists, but be-cause the powerful countries fear ceding more authority. Yet U.N. specialized agencies have a core role to play in the ending of poverty. It is time to empower the likes of the U.N. Children’s Fund (UNICEF), the World Health Organization (WHO), the Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO), and many others to do the job—on the ground, country by country.

Harness Global Science

New technology has led directly to improved standards of living, yet science tends to follow market forces as well as to lead them. It is not surprising that the rich get richer in a continu-ing cycle of growth while the poorest are often left behind. A special effort should be made by the powerhouses of world science to address the unmet challenges of the poor.


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Promote Sustainable Development

Ending extreme poverty can relieve many of the pressures on the environment. When impover-ished households are more productive on their farms, for example, they face less pressure to cut down neighboring forests in search of new farmland. Still, even as extreme poverty ends, we must not fuel prosperity with a lack of con-cern for industrial pollution and the unchecked burning of fossil fuels.

Make A Personal Commitment

It all comes back to us. Individuals, working in unison, form and shape societies. The final

myth I will debunk here is that politicians are punished by their constituents for support-ing actions to help the poor. There is plenty of experience to show that the broad public will accept such measures, especially if they see that the rich within their own societies are asked to meet their fair share of the burden. Great social forces are the mere accumulation of individual actions. Let the future say of our generation that we sent forth mighty currents of hope, and that we worked together to heal the world.

A C L O S E R L O O K A T

The End of Poverty

1. This article follows the organization of a proposal fairly closely. Look through the article and iden-tify the places where the following elements are addressed (a) the problem, (b) the author’s plan for addressing the problem, and (c) the costs and benefits of his plan. Come up with a lively and descriptive heading for each of these elements.

2. Sachs begins by grabbing the audience’s atten-tion with compelling narratives about the lives of poverty-stricken people and his experience

with them. What other strategies does he use to convince readers that poverty is an important problem they should care about? In all, how ef-fectively does Sachs allow readers identify with the problem?

3. Sachs’s plan for addressing world poverty in-cludes nine steps. In your opinion, which of these steps would be most effective for solving the problem? Which steps are you most skepti-cal about?

I D E A S F O R

Arguing 1. Choose a problem at your college or in your com-

munity that you have experienced or care about. Write a narrative argument (Chapter 9) that would help readers understand the nature and serious-ness of the problem. Be sure to set the scene and to introduce, evaluate, and resolve the complication. At the end of your narrative argument, offer a les-son or make a call to action.

2. Write a rhetorical analysis of Sachs’s proposal argument. Use one or two of the analytical methods described in Chapter 4 to examine how his argument works and to explain why it is effective or not.

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Proposals— Arguing 14 - Pearson Education...Inventing the content of your proposal 287 researching: Gathering support Now that you have mapped out the problem, sketched out your

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