The Opposition…

Dead Aid: Why Aid Is Not Working and How There Is a Better Way for Africa

Dambisa Moyo,

Niall Ferguson (Foreword)

Discussion: 2009-Apr-May-Jun

Why we're reading this: April 1, 2009
[close] April 1, 2009

Find A Copy At

Libraries

Group Discussions About This Book

Showing 2 of 3 topics — 3 comments total

2009-Apr-May-Jun

This topic has been closed to new comments.

* June 2009
By Tiffany , WristStrong · 1 post · 5 views

last updated Nov 27, 2010 06:07PM

* May 2009
By Tiffany , WristStrong · 1 post · 6 views

last updated Nov 27, 2010 05:26PM

What Members Thought

May 20, 2019 Letitia rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: 2019-to-read

Dambisa Moyo is by far my favorite economist (and if you're in your mid-30s without a favorite economist, what are you even doing with your life?). Not because I agree with everything she says, but because she grew up in Zambia, met all the European, patriarchal metrics of success, and then spun around and told the European patriarchy that they were doing everything wrong. And she looked like she stepped off the set of Sex And The City while she did it. She's my hero.

Moyo goes back to basics whe Dambisa Moyo is by far my favorite economist (and if you're in your mid-30s without a favorite economist, what are you even doing with your life?). Not because I agree with everything she says, but because she grew up in Zambia, met all the European, patriarchal metrics of success, and then spun around and told the European patriarchy that they were doing everything wrong. And she looked like she stepped off the set of Sex And The City while she did it. She's my hero.

Moyo goes back to basics when it comes to international development and political economy. She dives straight to the center of white saviorism and eviscerates it. She is not, as some claim, an exclusively neoliberal economist. She advocates emergency aid and microloans. She wants female students to receive tuition support. But she criticizes, quite convincingly, the easy, thoughtless wads of cash that the US and EU have been throwing at an entire continent for decades, never considering whether or not such a lazy attempt at international development is going to be effective or not.

What most people overlook when discussing Moyo, and what is yet probably the most interesting thing about her assertions, is the emphasis on non-democratic systems in the development of nascent economies. Literally no one else at Goldman Sachs is arguing the efficacy and long-term wisdom of socialist practices in order to achieve freedom and stability. This is my favorite part about Dead Aid and her TED talk.

This book is not perfect, though. Her criticisms and claims give me pause in a few different areas. For one, the citation is rare to be found in Dead Aid. It's not that she did not do her research or back up her claims, it's just that we go pages upon pages without me knowing which studies she is pulling her data from, and I am unable to go to the original source.

Secondly, she doesn't quite make a definitive case that aid has caused widespread war, and that reforming it will end mass violence. She may very well be right about this, but the argument is not fully fleshed out here, and therefore not ultimately convincing.

Thirdly, her firm endorsement of Chinese economic imperialism is, in my opinion, entirely misguided. I have worked in Kenya and I know there is broad support for Chinese investment and the infrastructure it is bringing. There are also many skeptical individuals with strong foresight who are looking ahead to Africa's future and seeing a colonialism redux not so far off. While Moyo acknowledges China's insidious power play and why the US should feel threatened by it, she brushes this off as an American concern, and advocates for stronger Sino-African relationships.
Moyo does what economists are meant to do: crunches the numbers. What she doesn't do, and where most economists fall flat, is consider the social and human cost inherent to sweeping economic endeavors, not to mention the world-changing potential of soft power.

Where Moyo has always shone, and will continue to do so as long as people actually understand her argument, rather than mischaracterizing it, is in the analysis of aid as cultural commodity. From White Man's Burden to African Corruption, she illustrates a more thorough understanding of what lazy charity can do than any other economist I've read. Easterly does a notable job analyzing the social cancer of aid, as well, but Moyo's take is purely economics. This book will stretch the non-economist but I still highly recommend for anyone who has even a casual interest in international development or political economy. ...more

1 like · Like · see review

Nov 09, 2012 Ted Magnuson rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: future-studies, current-events

The author argues that the current aid model is not working for Africa. It encourages corruption, does not alleviate poverty, and dependency is a more likely outcome than economic growth.
The modern aid formula is modeled on the Marshall Plan which simply explained is "Give devastated Europe a wad of money and they will put it to good use." But the author argues, while infrastructure was blown apart in Europe, the methodologies, the tradition, the ‘can do spirit’ was in place.
Examples of inapp ...more

Like · see review

Mar 25, 2013 Liz Murray rated it liked it · review of another edition

I admit that I skimmed over parts but this is a book I'll hold on to to help me understand the financial realities affecting sub-Saharan Africa. Moyo writes clearly so that non-economists, like myself, can understand the underlying principles. She makes important points in regards to trade/investment not aid. ...more

Like · see review