About the Book:

Would you give aid to a government that kills its own people? Ellen Goldstein’s thought-provoking memoir explores difficult questions about doing right as democracies teeter and the rule of law erodes.

Goldstein goes to Myanmar (formerly Burma) to lead one of the world’s fastest-growing aid programs amid great optimism for the country’s future. Within weeks of her arrival, the military razes villages, kills members of the Rohingya minority, and sends three-quarters of a million refugees fleeing.

As Goldstein searches for ways to help the Rohingya, she is caught in the crosshairs of an indifferent government, a risk-averse bureaucracy, and outraged activists. With her career in jeopardy, and haunted by the Holocaust lessons of her childhood, she strives to do right even as her hopes for democracy in Myanmar are dimmed and then brutally crushed. Damned If You Do is a cautionary tale for aid workers, diplomats, and everyone committed to making our world a better place.

About the Author:

Ellen Goldstein is an award-winning former senior executive at the World Bank with a forty-year career on the front lines of foreign aid delivery. She provided billions of dollars in aid to some of the poorest, most fragile, conflict-ridden countries, advising presidents and prime ministers on growth and poverty reduction while reaching out to the most marginalized in society. She served as director of the World Bank in Myanmar in 2017 as the country clung to a flawed democracy amid increasing human rights abuse. She is a global leadership coach, author, and speaker on foreign aid policies and fragility.

Reviews

“A revealing insider account of international aid in Myanmar at a time of enormous dynamism, upheaval, hope, and violence. International aid was a big part of both the country’s historic success as well as catastrophic failures from 2011 to 2021, with many lessons to be learned not just for Myanmar but for our increasingly fragile world.”
- Thant Myint U, renowned historian and author of The Hidden History of Burma: Race, Capitalism, and Democracy in the 21st Century, a New York Times Critics Top Book of 2019

“In this honest account, Goldstein brilliantly describes her efforts to use foreign aid to promote better treatment for the Rohingya minority in Myanmar. Public opinion, political paralysis, and enormous pressure from within the World Bank conspired against her. Damned If You Do is essential reading for everyone interested in Myanmar, foreign aid, and the moral dilemmas we face in dealing with an imperfect world.”
- Scot Marciel, former US ambassador to Myanmar and fellow at the Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center at Stanford University

“A must-read for students and practitioners of international development. Goldstein documents in heartbreaking detail how the best of intentions falls short within an obsolete aid paradigm. Damned If You Do is a clarion call for change in foreign aid to grapple simultaneously with global threats and localized conflicts.”
- Mary P. Callahan, expert author on civil-military relations and foreign aid, and associate professor of international studies at the University of Washington

“Damned If You Do is a long-overdue perspective on foreign aid in Myanmar. Ellen has written a story that no one else could write—a raw and unabashed narrative about the unwinnable position in which we find ourselves as both foreign and national aid workers in Myanmar.”
- Shwe Kyar, Senior Specialist for the World Bank Group Myanmar

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