An important voice on African development
Fraser Nelson 8:02pm
Ever noticed how the debate on African development is colonised by white men? I've just finished a book on the subject by Dambisa Moyo, an African woman, and it's a brilliant indictment of the aid industry which, she agues, does more harm than good in her native continent. Moyo is Zambian born, bred and educated and has worked for the World Bank and then as an economist for Goldman Sachs. Her book, Dead Aid, argues that the $billions the West has ploughed into Africa have simply led to a new sort of corruption; have served in a disincentive to economic development; and are more geared to make politicians and pop stars feel good about themselves than actually help Africa transform itself as South East Asia has.
Almost as striking as the book is the reaction to it. The Independent hired her old tutor, to say that she "cannot be dismissed as a crank" - as if her argument is a self-evident absurdity of the flat-earth variety. In The Times, Parminder Bahra - now its poverty and development correspondent - denounces her "blind faith in the market". Yet this is a book in the same vein as those by Hernando De Soto and William Easterly. Even Kofi Anan says it is a "compelling case for a new approach to Africa". Niall Ferguson, in the introduction, says the reader is left wanting "more Moyo and less Bono" - a bit unfair to Bono, I thought, who does actually say corruption is a greater problem to Africa than Aids or poverty.
The idea that cash solved problems was the central failure of the Blair-Brown era. Cameron needs to move on, nationally and internationally. At a time when the Tories are still planning to raise taxes to meet Ted Heath's old target of having 0.7% of GDP devoted to aid, Moyo has written a punchy, 154-page book that deserves a place on Cameron's next reading list for his team.
Here's an extract:
"Has more than $1 trillion in development assistance over the last several decades made African people better off? No. In fact, across the globe, the recipients of aid are much worse off. Aid has helped make the poor poorer, and growth slower. Yet aid remains a centrepiece of today's development policy and one of the biggest ideas of our time. The notion that aid can alleviate systematic poverty, and has done so, is a myth. Millions in Africa are poorer today because of aid. It has been, and continues to be, an unmitigated political, economic and humanitarian disaster for parts of the developing world."
P.S. Interview with Moyo on Sky here, if you can stomach the 15-second ad.
P.P.S. I found that 2005 Bono quote: "This is the number-one problem facing Africa, corruption; not natural calamity, not the AIDS virus. This is the number-one issue and there´s no way around it. That´s what was so clever about President Bush´s Millennium Challenge. It was start-up money for new democracies. It was giving increases of aid flows only to countries that are tackling corruption"
Hat-tip: Simon Mayo, who pushed the book in my direction.
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Austin Barry
February 8th, 2009 8:26pm Report this commentWelfare Britain. Handout Africa. Both doomed by unthinking largesse. Cut funding to both. See what happens.
Nick Kaplan
February 8th, 2009 8:29pm Report this commentAnother great book for those actually interested in the problems Africa faces (rather than self-gratification)is Paul Collier's 'The Bottom Billion.'
Austin Barry
February 8th, 2009 9:03pm Report this comment"..Ted Heath's old target of having 0.7% of GDP devoted to aid."
This is the UN's target rather than Grocer Heath's. If we cut aid to Africa's kleptocracies so what? A lot of self-bemedalled, mohair-suited oafs will have to curtail their Harrods shopping trips, and anguished Hampstead bien pensants will cluck their tongues over their usual dish of self-loathing and hypocrisy served with a compot of steaming bullshit.
Verity
February 9th, 2009 12:08am Report this commentAustin Barry - I am shocked ... SHOCKED ... that you are typecasting African dictators and their families with your "Harrods shopping" jibe!
Robert Mugabe's wife shops only in Paris! If you really had any interest in the Mugabe family as the loving, inclusive human beings they really are - rather than using them as symbols - you would know that!
Nick Kaplan
February 9th, 2009 1:11am Report this commentI agree Verity, we might have to get George Laird to head on over so that he may lecture us about Mugabe's right not to be offended.
Paul Samways
February 9th, 2009 9:21am Report this commentWe always forget the "Teach a man" concept....and money doesn't do that! Sign up to my petition: http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/Grad-Aid/
bmc3186
February 9th, 2009 9:33am Report this commentDoes the book say anything new that Easterly hasn't already been repeating like a broken record for years?
Telling us that aid won't solve Africa's problems is fairly standard. What makes these books interesting is what solutions they propose - so what does Moyo say is the way forward?
James Strachan
February 9th, 2009 9:46am Report this commentAs Professor Bauer put it,
"Foreign aid is taking money from poor people in rich countries to give to rich people in poor countries".
Aidan
February 9th, 2009 11:29am Report this commentAndrew Mitchell's speech to the Conservative Party conference last year seems to promise that a Conservative Government will move towards a "bottom-up" approach to aid, giving support to local initiatives rather than the traditional "top down" approach. See http://www.conservatives.com/News/Speeches/2008/10/Andrew_Mitchell_No_aid_for_China_more_for_the_poorest.
I think the best hope for helping Africa pull itself out of poverty lies with organisations such as http://www.myc4.com which allow the mobilisation of Western capital to support African entrepreneurs.
Ian C
February 9th, 2009 12:31pm Report this commentAid has become to be seen as the totem of our colective conscience for the richer nations. And we must heed what Moyo is telling us. Disaster relief is one thing (where are the campaigns for those who have lost everything in SE Australia) but anything else needs to be in the hands of many more than the 'do-gooders' and hand-wringing politicians.
Fergus Pickering
February 9th, 2009 12:53pm Report this commentYou don't need to ARGUE it, Good Lord. It's a self-evident truth.
Wilhelm
February 9th, 2009 1:05pm Report this commentShouldnt Saint Bono and Sir Bob '' give us the f**king money'' Geldof do a Mercedes Benz Aid to Africa cos Mugabe and the rest of the tin pots seem to like Mercedes Benz cars.
NorthernJohn
February 9th, 2009 4:13pm Report this commentThis is an article from the Speccie in June 2005, just before the Live8 concerts. It's stuck in my mind ever since:
http://www.spectator.co.uk/the-magazine/features/13831/how-african-leaders-spend-our-money.thtml
James Strachan
February 9th, 2009 5:20pm Report this commentWilhelm,
They are a new tribe called the Wahbenzi because they all drive round in Mercedes Benz cars.
Simon Denis
February 9th, 2009 6:21pm Report this commentAs usual with hand outs the real force behind them is the bureaucracy which administers them - the "Lords of Poverty". I attended an IQ2 debate on aid and noted the personal venom and moralising innuendo with which its chief spokespersons defended it. The facts, of course, all spoke loudly for the other side.
bmc3186
February 10th, 2009 9:35am Report this comment"Lords of Poverty" eh? I hope you haven't read that book by Graham Hancock. It's one of the most dishonest pieces of populism ever published on "the aid industry"
Simon Denis
February 10th, 2009 1:51pm Report this commentAnd there we are - another accusation.
bmc3186
February 10th, 2009 5:00pm Report this commentAh I see, one of those situations where the defenders of the aid industry make 'accusations' whereas the assertions of the critics are 'self-evident'.
The likes of Naomi Klein, John Pilger, John Perkins and (the lesser known) Hancock are all very 'compelling' in their books. But if you actually do some digging behind their claims you quickly see how specious they are.
It may be nice to think of the World Bankers, IMFers and other "Lords of Poverty" as part of an evil conspiracy designed to benefit rich countries, in fact the vast majority of these people have huge passion for development .
Luckily some critics such as Easterly (and by the looks of things Moyo) actually use some intelligence and research when it comes to criticising the aid industry.
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