The time has come to put paid to what Duflo calls the three I’s of development aid: Ideology, Ignorance, and Inertia. “I don’t have many opinions to start with,” she said in an interview a few years ago. “I have one opinion – one should evaluate things – which is strongly held. I’m never unhappy with the results. I haven’t yet seen a result I didn’t like.”15 Many a would-be do-gooder could learn from this attitude. Duflo is an example of how to combine big ideals with a thirst for knowledge, for how to be idealist without becoming ideological.
