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Economics Search Economics EconomicsDead Aid: Why aid is not working and how there is another way for Africa
Allen Lane Search Allen Lane by Dambisa Moyo Search Dambisa Moyo
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How can you argue with Western altruism?
The popular conception of Africa is not a pretty one. We are bombarded with images of civil wars, corruption, senseless ethnic/tribal violence and mass-scale poverty. Small wonder then that we are driven by compassion to help those "poor Africans" caught in the quagmire of misery; indeed, our celebrity-obsessed culture has taken up the cause with programmes like Make Poverty History, Live Aid, and Bono's endless solicitations on behalf of Africans. But does all this aid work? In this book, Ms. Dambisa Moyo, a Zambian-born economist, challenges the supposed efficacy of aid and demonstrates that aid has failed miserably to deliver economic growth.
Ms. Moyo differentiates among three types of aid:
- HUMANITARIAN/EMERGENCY AID. This is needed in the aftermath of a disaster such as during the Asian tsunamis in 2004;
- CHARITY AID. This type of aid is administered by organisations like Oxfam, and is targeted to delivering specific public goods like building a toilet for teenage girls in India; and
- DEVELOPMENT AID. This is bilateral (government to government) or multilateral (via the World Bank to African governments) aid, which is used for everything from government yearly budgets to building infrastructure.
Dambisa Moyo argues that though humanitarian aid and charity aid are problematic, they are a miniscule portion of the total aid flows to Africa; developmental aid forms the bulk share of total aid flows to Africa. Therefore, she focuses her criticism on development aid, and not humanitarian or charity aid.
She begins the book with a credible overview of the history of development aid--from its conception at the Bretton Woods conference in 1947 through the oil crises of the mid 1970s to the fall of the Berlin Wall. She argues that development aid was conceived as a means to spur economic growth in Africa. Showing growth statistics for Africa in the 1970s and 80s, she conclusively demonstrates that aid-receiving African countries have not grown in the two decades. Indeed, some aid-receiving countries like Niger, Benin, Liberia and Sierra are poorer today than there were thirty years ago. Therefore, on this metric, the aid-driven development model has spectacularly failed to deliver on its objectives.
Ms. Moyo then asks why aid has failed? Her answers are insightful. The reasons for the failure of aid include (but not limited to) the following:
- Aid to Africa is an open-ended commitment, unlike other historically successful aid interventions like the Marshall Plan;
- Aid corrodes the incentives system in many African countries (Ethiopia and Uganda, for example). Aid is essentially "free money"; therefore, governments do not see the need to generate revenue by growing their economies. Why work with local entrepreneurs when you can always go cap-in-hand to beg the white man?
- Aid engenders corruption because aid money is easy to steal.
What solutions does she propose? Ms. Moyo proposes tried-and-tested market mechanisms: that African countries wean themselves off aid and, instead, like China, South Africa and Botswana, look to the capital markets to raise money. Nothing radical there, right? She, however, proposes that aid be turned off in five years.
This proposal really got her critics' goats and drew their (Jeffrey Sachs and Bono's) derisive ire. How can you turn off the tap, they argue? Doing so would mean certain death for thousands of Africans. Ms. Moyo was subsequently criticised as a out-of-touch lackey of the aid-hating Right, while implying that she (Ms. Moyo) wants to deny the opportunities that she had to other poor African women (Sachs). Her critics also argue that her ideas are not new.
Such arguments, to my mind, are hopeless twaddle. Ms. Dambisa Moyo's proposal to cut all development aid to Africa is a hard one to swallow for people, like Bono and Sachs, who are used to speaking for Africa, but it is one that we need to seriously consider. As an African (a Nigerian), I don't know that all development aid should be cut in five years. However, I agree with Ms. Moyo that development aid cannot be an open-ended commitment; African governments must be incentivised to start seeking other alternatives to aid, as aid cannot deliver the sustained economic growth that African definitely needs.
There is much I like about the book that I will not rehash in this review. However, the book has significant shortcomings, chief of which is that it (the book) is not as well researched as I had hoped: she seemed to "shoot from the hip" and repeat herself inordinately. Also, Ms. Moyo takes a somewhat rosy view of the role that the Chinese want to play in Africa; I do agree with Ms. Moyo that the Chinese engagement model (business) in Africa is potentially more beneficial than the West's (pity, condescension), but I question China's sensitivity to human rights issue on the Continent.
Western aid, given from a sense of pity, is very difficult to challenge. How can you fault someone who tries to help you? But the aid-driven development model, as Ms. Moyo argues, has not and cannot deliver economic growth. In this sense, the message in Dead Aid is not new; it has already been delivered--with greater analytical depth--by Paul Collier (The Bottom Billion) and Bill Easterly (The Elusive Quest for Growth and The White Man's Burden). Dead Aid's strongest selling point, however, is the messenger: an articulate, intelligent, well-educated African woman. As an African, I want to hear hard-headed proposals for Africa's development from African leaders, and not unworkable, bleeding heart solutions from Bono, Bob Geldof, Bill Gates, and Jeffrey Sachs. For content and delivery alone, Dead Aid deserves three stars; however, for content, delivery and messenger, Dead aid deserves a heart-felt four stars.
If you've ever tossed a coin into a Live Aid bucket, this is mandatory reading. 
The moment I heard this book annoyed Bono and Geldof, I knew I had to read it! Some of the negative reviews intrigue me, especially some of the long, rambling blog posts again this book. So many words and so few facts.
Which part of the meticulously referenced 16 page bibliography was "poorly researched"? Which part of history would they like to deny? Quick quote from the book:
"After President Reagan met Mobutu Sese Seko of Zaire and agreed to his request to reschedule a $5 billion debt in the late 1980s, Mobutu promptly leased Concorde to fly his daughter to her wedding."
She writes what must be uncomfortable truths for some - fact is, most of Africa's current woes aren't the "white man's burden" - and to cross over into another book, "What's Left" by Nick Cohen, why do we remain virtually silent on the self-styled "black Hitler" (Mugabe's own words) while we pour aid in so his henchmen can carry on the genocide?
More money will just mean more pain for more time - the only people to benefit from aid to Africa are those misguided people who think a clear conscience is a coin in a bucket, and Geldof and Bono's massive egos.
Make Poverty Histroy...Make Geldof history!
Poorly researched 
This is an interesting book, in that her angle is a good one: aid isn't working and may even have made the situation much worse in Africa by creating dependency and corruption. Indeed, it's becoming increasingly clear that the traditional model of development aid, as promoted by government agencies and NGOs, is seriously problematic. Instead, there is a need to move to more enterprise based models that promote and build healthy economies and create jobs.
The problem with the book is that it is so badly researched. There is no evidence quoted for her argument, which is a real shame. It reads like it was written in a hurry as a polemical piece, not as a serious piece of work.
Hence there is still a need for a book that takes up the general argument on Dead Aid, but that backs it up with strong research and evidence.
Poorly argued 
This book has spectacularly caught the headlines but is an extremely disappointing read. That aid can cause problems is not a new idea (William Easterly does a much better job of describing them in his book "The White Man's Burden") but Ms Moyo's book attempts to demonstrate that aid is necessarily harmful and she totally fails to do that. Simply showing that there can be problems is NOT the same as there must be problems. The weakness of her case is best demonstrated when she tries to dismiss countries such as Korea and Malaysia (and indeed Botswana) by claiming that they don't count because they used aid differently. She doesn't move to the obvious conclusion that the problem then isn't aid itself but the way that some recipients have used it.
Worth reading but quite 'technical' 
I found the title of the book more provocative than the content. The author does have a point! I too believe that trade and getting the economy going in Africa would be the only long-term cure for the continent. However, it all sounds a bit too easy here and I don't think the proposed solutions go far enough. If African countries abandon aid, they will have to be able to set something against it. For that, first of all trade barriers need to be removed and investment needs coming into the country. China is being praised as doing exactly that. And perhaps they do. I don't know enough about it to comment. All in all, the last G8 summit seems to have adopted her approach in demanding more accountability on the African part and we will see whether they stick to it. Worth reading but quite 'technical'.
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Buchempfehlung
... sie die Entwicklungshilfe und beschreibt weitere Alternativen. Du willst es haben? Dann klick hier: http://www.amazon.de/Dead-Aid-working-another-africa/dp/1846140064/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books-intl-de&qid=1242379676&sr=8-1 ...
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貧困の仕組みの続き アフリカも同じ
http://www.amazon.co.jp/dead-aid-working-another-africa/dp/1846140064. という本を出した（2009年1月）。 援助はアフリカの貧困を救わない，むしろ深刻にする，というものだ。 彼の主張はthe wall street journal，march 21，2009の記事に出ていた。 ...
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„entwicklungshilfe ist tödlich“
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http://alberik.posterous.com/entwicklungshilfe-ist-todlich
