I've been reading some articles by Steve Sailer on race. He has some very good points that are politically incorrect stances on race and intelligence. In his opinion race is one determining factors of intelligence. That is why according to him the East Asian countries are developing but the sub-Saharan African countries are not.
I don't agree with everything he says but I do believe the educationally level of a country can make develop of modern infrastructure and facilities infeasible. This is why even though many countries are becoming democratic they are still not developing. There is no easy way for a country to rise out of poverty. But there are two things that if lacking will doom a country to perpetual poverty. These two factors are a reasonably free economic system and a populous that is not lacking in basic education.
Today we have the classic examples of China and Mexico. Both countries have reasonably free economic systems. But the Chinese population has rapidly become more educated and is today powers the Chinese economy whereas in Mexico education is not something that people strive for and hence practically none of the population has the technological knowledge to make new innovations. This difference in values has made China a producer of technology and Mexico a consumer and this I believe is why Mexico today is a perpetual second world country and China is rapidly developing.
This is why instead of only trying to change the political systems of poor countries we should also try to change the state of education in those countries.