"Koop één, geef gratis één weg"

Jullie kennen het waarschijnlijk wel, de strategie van "voor elk [vul een item in] dat je koopt, geven wij er een aan de kindjes in [vul een of ander arm land  in]". Compleet met fotos van lachende kindjes met het dito item in dito land. Een goed idee? Ik las de volgende interessante commentaar (over een één-voor-één schoenencampagne):

"But the real question all these stuff-for-free programmes need to answer is simple: if you calculated the dollar amount it costs you to make and distribute these shoes and just gave it to your beneficiaries as cash, how many of them would turn around and use that cash to buy those shoes?

The answer, of course, is “a vanishingly small number”. Which is just another way of saying that very poor people value other things they could buy with that money more than they value a nice pair of shoes. And yet, you’re not giving them that choice.You’re telling them, in effect:

I have decided which, out of all the millions of things that $20 might buy in this world, is the one thing that costs $20 that you’re going to have. You’re welcome."

The campaign for boring development - blog entry 14/03/2014

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