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Dead Aid: Why Aid Is Not Working and How There Is a Better Way for Africa (2009)

by Dambisa Moyo

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7872528,129 (3.56)1 / 27
In "Dead Aid," Dambisa Moyo describes the state of postwar development policy in Africa that has channeled billions of dollars in aid but failed to reduce poverty and increase growth. He offers a new, more hopeful vision of how to address the desperate poverty that plagues millions.
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 All Books Africa: Thoughts on Dead Aid?3 unread / 3zebedeejr, May 2010

» See also 27 mentions

English (23)  Dutch (1)  Spanish (1)  All languages (25)
Showing 1-5 of 23 (next | show all)
Finally! A book written about Africa by an African woman. This is an excellent book for anyone who is interested in international development, development aid, and nonprofits. Moyo examines the role these play and the global institutions who on the surface seem to have great intentions yet the implications of their good will can frequently do more harm than good.

If you're looking for a critical and knowledgable book about our global aid system, this is an incredibly insightful read written by a brilliant African author. ( )
  ChelCreads | Apr 6, 2020 |
Hard to argue with anything about this book. Author clearly has domain knowledge and the solutions make sense. In fact it could have even been a smaller book without losing anything important. Still well worth the read. ( )
  Skybalon | Mar 19, 2020 |
"Dai un pesce a un uomo e lo nutrirai per un giorno; insegnagli a pescare e lo nutrirai per tutta la vita." Lo ha detto Confucio qualche millennio fa. E, infatti, l'autrice di questo interessante e documentato libro lo conferma. Ecco cosa dice dei Cinesi e di cosa hanno fatto, o stanno facendo in Africa:

"Ma invece di conquistare l’Africa con la canna del fucile, la Cina sta usando la leva del denaro. Secondo le sue stesse statistiche, a fronte dei 20 milioni di dollari investiti in Africa nel 1975, nel 2004 ne ha investiti 900, sui 15 miliardi complessivi ricevuti dal continente. Strade in Etiopia, oleodotti in Sudan, ferrovie in Nigeria, energia elettrica in Ghana… sono solo una parte del fiume di progetti miliardari con cui la Cina ha inondato l’Africa negli ultimi cinque anni, e ognuno è parte di un piano ben orchestrato ...".

Poi ancora: "L’errore compiuto dall’Occidente è stato dare qualcosa in cambio di nulla. Il segreto del successo della Cina è che la sua penetrazione in Africa è solo affaristica. L’Occidente ha mandato aiuti in Africa e in definitiva non si è curato del risultato; questo ha creato una cricca d’élite che ha escluso dalla ricchezza la maggioranza della popolazione causando instabilità politica. La Cina, all’opposto, manda in Africa denaro e in cambio pretende di guadagnare; grazie a questo atteggiamento, gli africani ...".

Non c'è bisogno di aggiungere altro. Il nostro "umanismo-mielismo-pietismo" uccide l'Africa e gli africani. Ma questo non lo si può dire perchè non è "politicamente corretto", specialmente dalle parti del ... Vaticano. Non aggiungo altro. ( )
  AntonioGallo | Nov 2, 2017 |
"Dai un pesce a un uomo e lo nutrirai per un giorno; insegnagli a pescare e lo nutrirai per tutta la vita." Lo ha detto Confucio qualche millennio fa. E, infatti, l'autrice di questo interessante e documentato libro lo conferma. Ecco cosa dice dei Cinesi e di cosa hanno fatto, o stanno facendo in Africa:

"Ma invece di conquistare l’Africa con la canna del fucile, la Cina sta usando la leva del denaro. Secondo le sue stesse statistiche, a fronte dei 20 milioni di dollari investiti in Africa nel 1975, nel 2004 ne ha investiti 900, sui 15 miliardi complessivi ricevuti dal continente. Strade in Etiopia, oleodotti in Sudan, ferrovie in Nigeria, energia elettrica in Ghana… sono solo una parte del fiume di progetti miliardari con cui la Cina ha inondato l’Africa negli ultimi cinque anni, e ognuno è parte di un piano ben orchestrato ...".

Poi ancora: "L’errore compiuto dall’Occidente è stato dare qualcosa in cambio di nulla. Il segreto del successo della Cina è che la sua penetrazione in Africa è solo affaristica. L’Occidente ha mandato aiuti in Africa e in definitiva non si è curato del risultato; questo ha creato una cricca d’élite che ha escluso dalla ricchezza la maggioranza della popolazione causando instabilità politica. La Cina, all’opposto, manda in Africa denaro e in cambio pretende di guadagnare; grazie a questo atteggiamento, gli africani ...".

Non c'è bisogno di aggiungere altro. Il nostro "umanismo-mielismo-pietismo" uccide l'Africa e gli africani. Ma questo non lo si può dire perchè non è "politicamente corretto", specialmente dalle parti del ... Vaticano. Non aggiungo altro. ( )
  AntonioGallo | Nov 2, 2017 |
Why aid is not working and how there is a better way for Africa
  jhawn | Jul 31, 2017 |
Showing 1-5 of 23 (next | show all)
Interview, not so much about the content of the book:
Dambisa Moyo is having her moment. … Moyo believes this dependency relationship is perpetuated by Western governments and glorified by the celebrities who have made Africa their cause du jour. … The question—for Moyo and for Bono, for governments and for celebrities—is not really about whether to help. It's how to help better.
added by baumgartner | editNewsWeek, Lisa Miller (Mar 30, 2009)
 
The danger is that this book will get more attention than it deserves. It has become fashionable to attack aid to Africa; an overdose of celebrity lobbying and compassion fatigue have prompted harsh critiques of what exactly aid has achieved in the past 50 years.
 
I doubt that many of Africa's problems can be attributed to aid. It is, in my view, something of a sideshow.

I think that Moyo's message is over-optimistic. She implies that, were aid cut, African governments would respond by turning to other sources of finance that would make them more accountable. I think this exaggerates the opportunity for alternative finance and underestimates the difficulties African societies face.

African societies face problems deeper than their dependence on aid. Divided by ethnic loyalties, they are too large to be nations. Yet with only tiny economies, they lack the scale to be effective states. As a result the vital public goods of security and accountability cannot adequately be provided. In their absence the valuable natural assets that many countries possess become liabilities instead of opportunities for prosperity.
 
Critics of Dambisa Moyo's Proposal Paul Collier, professor of economics at Oxford, and one of Moyo's teachers, believes that her message is overly optimistic. He suggests that donors must insist on transparent budgeting and accountability on the receiving side. African societies don't need predominantly money but help with peacekeeping,security guarantees, trade privileges and promoting good governance. Other critics fear that Moyo's harsh judgment of aid will encourage Western governments to cut back on their aid promises, while there are no other solutions in place. Whether one agrees with her argument or not, Dambisa Moyo offers an accessible summary of anti-aid arguments based on statistics and anecdotal evidence bolstered with an extensive bibliography. She deeply wishes for a better outcome on both sides: for those desperate to survive on less than a US$1 a-day in sub-Saharan Africa and those who want to help.
 
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Epigraph
To the Excellencies and officials of Europe: We suffer enormously in Africa. Help us. We have problems in Africa. We lack rights as children. We have war and illness, we lack food . . . We want to study, and we ask you to help us to study so we can be like you, in Africa.

Message found on the bodies of Guinean teenagers Yaguine Koita and Fode Tounkara, stowaways who died attempting to reach Europe in the landing gear of an airliner.
The best time to plant a tree is twenty years ago. The second-best time is now.

African proverb
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For Peter Bauer
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We live in a culture of aid.
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(Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)
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In "Dead Aid," Dambisa Moyo describes the state of postwar development policy in Africa that has channeled billions of dollars in aid but failed to reduce poverty and increase growth. He offers a new, more hopeful vision of how to address the desperate poverty that plagues millions.

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