The UN and British government – egged on by NGOs and activists – has bet the house on the daft idea that if western governments transfer enough money to governments in poor countries, health systems will magically improve and medicines will get to sick kids. As far as strategies go, this is a turkey.

HIV/AIDS is a high profile disease that has received a disproportionately high amount of funding and attention, relative to "silent killers" such as pneumonia and diarrhoea

Some claim that East Africa's looming famine is caused by drought, population or climate change, but the real cause is government policies which hinder subsistence farmers.