Dead Aid highlight why millions are actually poorer because of aid from Western countries
Dead Aid shows us another way. In the past fifty years, more than $1 trillion in development-related aid has been transferred. Sent from rich countries to the African continent. The question remains, has this assistance improved the lives of Africans? The simple answer to that question is no. In fact, across the continent, the recipients of this aid are not better off as a result of it, but actually worse—much worse.
The popular conception of Africa is not a pretty one. The images of civil wars, corruption, senseless ethnic violence and mass-scale poverty keep coming. 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. The question is, does all this aid work? In this book, Ms. Dambisa Moyo, a Zambian-born economist, challenges the supposed efficacy of aid. Moyo demonstrates that aid has failed miserably to deliver economic growth.
We all want to help. Of course we do. A vast amount of aid has flowed from Western governments to Africa, with rock stars and actors campaigning for more. But this has not helped Africa. It has ruined it.
Another Way
Using hard evidence to illustrate her case. Moyo shows how, with access to capital and with the right policies, even the poorest nations can turn themselves around. First we must destroy the myth that aid works – and make charity history.
Dead Aid is an unsettling yet optimistic work. A powerful challenge to the assumptions and arguments that support a profoundly misguided development policy in Africa. And it is a clarion call to a new, more hopeful vision of how to address the desperate poverty that plagues millions.
