The
FT Interviews Dambisa Moyo author of
Dead Aid she suggests:
...a telephone call from every donor nation to every aid-dependent government in Africa, warning that in five years the taps will turn off. This, she believes, would trigger the search for alternative financing on a commercial basis, and force governments to create conditions in which business would thrive.
On
Celebrities:“Most Brits would be irritated if Michael Jackson started offering advice on how to resolve the credit crisis. Americans would be put out if Amy Winehouse went to tell them how to end the housing crisis. I don’t see why Africans shouldn’t be perturbed for the same reasons,”...[continue reading]
The FT Interviews Dambisa Moyo author of Dead Aid she suggests:
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21 comments:
I'm so glad to read about Dambisa Moyo's 'Dead Aid'. When I was in Tanzania in 2007 I saw that on a very basic, everyday level Western Aid is not working. When I returned to Toronto and said throwing your money at 'African problems' is not an answer no one was ready to listen. I don't believe our presence there in any way (building schools, wells, teaching or training- except perhaps to respond to humanitarian crises) is desireable or necessary. Leave Africa to the Africans and they will make it a better place. I can't wait!
Robin Browne, Toronto
Rehashing this tired 90's rhetoric is at best irritating. African challenges will not be solved by pseudo- intellectual rhetoric’s. African needs to grow and put an end to poverty and backwardness. Aid is an additional resource, we will need it until such time we have mobilized adequate domestic resources to finance our development.
I agree with anonymous. Her general conclusion is a consensus but I think her approach says a lot. She seems to me one of those silver spoon fed elite Africans who are comfortable with suffering only because they have not experienced it.
True. Aid is not effective and it could even become a problem for African states but at least it works small miracles. What we should advocate for instead is concentrated aid- for example we can put all the money the west gives us into providing the best education to Africa's brightest kids-or something along those lines.
I remember what Jefferey Sachs did to my family in the 90's. God knows he was trying to help but I still can't forgive him.
I learnt about Dambisa today on her interview with BBC - Hard Talk. Brilliant mind I would say. I have not read her book yet, but its certainly a must do.
I don't completely disagree with Ms.Dambisa Moyo.
The obvious problem with aid, is that at some point people don't bother to use their brains anymore.
On a deeper level,once a country is donor dependant it becomes complicated for governments to make policies or even basic decisions without taking into account the reactions of donor countries and other international institutions.
This is a reason why Africa is like a crippled old man limping along...
One of the problems in Africa is that, most of our education is not relevant to our immediate environment.
In my opinion, it is best to learn something that teaches us how to utilise the surrounding resources and develop our communities from that level upwards.
Africa should be able to ask for ''aid'' to support such initiatives.
We are all living in the same planet, and it is our responsibility to learn from past mistakes and assist each other towards a common goal, development.
African countries are suffering from multi dimensional effects of poverty which are deeper than what meets the eye.
We, as Africa, can not separate ourselves from the rest of the world.
Therefore, I don't entirely agree with Ms.Dambisa Moyo.
I Fully agree with Dambisa Moyo; finally somebody who understands it. I haven't read her book yet but will buy it soon and read it.
In fact all donor aid and especially worldbank aid is designed to corrupt governments sothat their countries cannot develop in a sustainable way; and getting them in a debt trap which they never will come out....unless the donations stop.
You might think why would donors do that? The answer is: to ensure that natural resources can continue to be cheaply exported. Would thos countries develop in a sustainable way they would start needing the resources themselves.
The rich countries are highly dependent on cheap resources that underdeveloped countries can supply.
Please read (http://www.kajul.org/EnergyBlogEN.php?Art=13) where I explain the whole model in detail.
The world needs many more people like Dambisa Moyo
I wonder how her parents (who are obviously both well educated and well off) got their start that enabled Ms Moyo to earn the vast education she has. How unfortunate she chooses to use it to the detriment of Africa in her attempt to become a celebrity herself. Africa does need aid. Yes it does need to use it better, but as with all other things in Africa, why should the general population suffer for the sins of their leaders. As a former banker, why does she not advocate Western banks stop accepting the billions stolen by Africa's leaders; why does she not push for compensation for the African doctors, nurses and teachers enticed to the west?
My dear lady i read your article in WSJ sat edition. i was so glad to see it done with evidance and proof. this is what i knew to be always true based on logic and common sense. look forward to a day that logic will beat feel good mentality.
Mohammad Gholizadeh
Well said, Dambiso! I lived in the Central African Republic for two years in the late 80's/early 90's. I was appalled to see bags of rice donated by hardworking American taxpayers of goodwill sitting on the shelves of merchants to be SOLD to the poor African people. Any type of Aid to any country without accountability on the other end will soon be commandeered by theives in corrupt governments.
Perhaps Moyo misses the point. Of course, we went African countries to be more independent, but a lot of her assumptions about the state of the world don't hold water. Kileken ole-MoiYei a casewriter at Harvard's School of Public Health suggests a different approach to restructuring foreign aid from Dambisa Moyo, in his recent piece at Foreign Policy Digest
In her book "Dead Aid: Why Aid Is Not Working and How There Is a Better Way for Africa", Dambisa Moyo cites entrepreneurship and job promotion as solutions toward a better way for Africa. An example of this is in Rwanda where two businesswomen who own salons have come together to start a beauty school to provide a vocation and a future for Rwandans. Go to this site to learn more about the school and how you can help get it opened www.rwandabeautyschool.org. The two entrepreneurs, Jeanne and Sylvie, are being helped by the Business Council for Peace (Bpeace) - a New York based international network of business volunteers that help women entrepreneurs in post-conflict countries expand their businesses, create employment, and build a peaceful future for their communities. For more information on Bpeace, go to www.bpeace.org.
Dambisa Moyo's book could not have come at a better time, when we are seeing a resurgence of new mechanisms of control by donor countries over recepient countries. The financial crisis is now seeing western banks and industries being bailed out by government funds and are now in a better position to take over assets in developing countries who do not have the money to rescue their banks and industries.
Another book authored by the Ugandan Intellectual and the former Executive Director of the South Centre, Dr. Yash Tandon, titled "Ending Aid Dependence" talks of how developing countries reliant on aid want to escape this dependence, and yet they appear unable to do so.
The book then provides 7 steps for countries to liberate themselves from the aid that pretends to be developmental but is not.
http://fahamubooks.org/catalog/?category_id=198
Dombisa Moyo's book is a blue print to economical emancipation for all poor countries on earth that AID has turned into perpetual beggars.There is no other way to turn around from this AID syndrome, and people should just be emotionally strong enough to accept and handle truth. Well said daughter of Africa. The truth sinks even more deeper especially that Dombisa herself has witnessed first hand the untold poverty in Africa.
Dambisa Moyo's assertion deserves serious consideration in light of the fact that billions of dollars of aid has done little to improve the plight of Africa as a whole. Moreover, she cites the success of Botswana and South Africa - two countries that have embraced a non-aid, free market model to sustained economic growth and have, indeed, flourished amidst its implementation. Although there are still parts of China and India that live in abject poverty, have they not made significant progress vis-a-vis free market participation over the last 30-50 yrs? Weren't these countries as impoverished as Africa just 30 years ago?
Dambisa Moyo is absolutly right and she is really fresh air in the aid debate. Why can't all you "experts" in this field who probably never has seen how corruption is working in Africa find something else to discuss. Corruption is like a cancer and it starts when aid is being misused. She has taken on a huge assignment to fight all the people from the western wold who are working with aid programs and not to forget all the corrupt people in Africa who build huge houses and live in a life of luxary after stealing from the poor people in their countries. Miss Moyo has a lot of courage I admire her work.
Keep up the good work Moyo.
Regards
Rino Solberg
Have made several attempts to contact Ms. Dambis Moyo regarding the economic development potential and opportunities of African countries.
Is there a preferred contact site?
clayjohnsonusa@gmail.com
Try contacting her on Facebook or at http://www.dambisamoyo.com/
What Dambisa Moyo is saying is totally right, what Africa needs is to take out the corrupted government that is taking the aid for themselves and that aid is directly managed by the aid foundations or banks to reach the needy without passing to the corrupted hands of the leaders
I am glad someone is speaking out about this for many years I have been trying to tell people that Aid in Africa is just not working and the sad commercial on television just instill guilt in North American to blindly send money to a cause that does nothing to solve the problem Africans face. Sure they are no simple solutions and Rome was not built in a day but the Continent of Africa has to be built from withing if change is going to take place. Tony Robbins should be sent as Aid to lift the spirits of the people and Awaken the Giants within them. Now that change in direction that people in Africa can use.
An African Expart..
Saw her at the Munk Debate in Toronto. Her argument has clout and to a degree, Aid cannot be seen as the only solution. And as an Economist, she is choosing focusing on whats convinient.
I was born and raised in Africa, spent 14 years receiving an education that had no grounding on the reality of my country. We learned about the freakin French revolution but Nkwame Nkurumah's philosophy, the Saint Lawrence Sea way but not different methods of irrigation and farming practices.
We are still stuck with a colonial model education system that produces thousands of "white colllar" graduates in economies that cannot absorb them. Technical institutions are too few and trades are frowned upon by many..so in my opinion thats a bigger problem than aid, coz we are not giving Africans the right trianing to begin with.
love your work, Miss. Moyo, your voice is refreshing to this debate. Africa has to develop from within.
May the spirits of our ancestors be with you.
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