A critical book review on Dead Aid written by Dambisa Moyo

Dambisa Moyo’s book Dead Aid, first published in 2009, is a book that can still be seen as an eye-opening pamphlet. Covering how aid given by the ‘rich’ west is not always hitting its target in Africa, the book provides food for thought. The book is divided into two parts. One of them describing the world of aid, how aid has been arranged through time, why it is not working and how it slows down growth. The other part covers what a world without aid would look like. It discusses how dependency and individual growth of a country provides a climate in which a country can develop itself, and in addition it describes how grasping trade opportunities with countries going through their industrial revolution could bring forth economic growth in Africa. It is important to note that there are two types of aid, one of them being aid given during times of crisis and the other being ongoing aid. The book criticizes this second form of aid.

Taking a comprehensive look into the first part of the book, this part describes how provided aid had hampered development in Africa. The book provides well explained and substantiated arguments and examples how western-aid and -ideals have negatively contributed to its development. The book for example describes the ‘vicious circle of aid’ which is intelligibly described as follows: “Foreign aid props up corrupt governments providing them with freely usable cash. These corrupt governments interfere with the rule of law, the establishment of transparent civil institutions and the protection of civil liberties, making both domestic and foreign investment in poor countries unattractive. Greater opacity and fewer investments reduce economic growth, which leads to fewer job opportunities and increasing poverty levels. In response to growing poverty, donors give more aid, which continues the downward spiral of poverty.” (Moyo, 2010, p.49). In my opinion this passage clarifies well how western aid interferes with growth. It also shows how many countries in Africa have become dependent on their aid due to misdistribution of given aid. In the book Moyo shifts the blame for this to the west, and with the provided argumentation I do agree with her. There has been a long-lasting neglect of numbers and figures which show that aid has not been implemented well throughout the past decade.

Looking more closely at the second part of the book, this is the part which provides insights in how reducing aid can contribute to growing rates of development. To achieve the proposed no aid, a global shift must take place in how governments think about aid. Moyo suggests that by abruptly stopping the aid flow, there would be a large shock forcing the economies in Africa to create new strategies, incorporating in alternative financing mechanisms such as: foreign direct investment, increased trade with emerging markets such as China, India and Brazil, entrance to international capital markets and through using microfinance. In the second part of the book all these alternative strategies are widely discussed and substantiated with examples of how they have worked in other rising economies. The examples given are very much appealing, but I am skeptical if it is justifiable that Moyo directly assumes that solutions that have worked in other emerging markets will have the same outcomes in Africa. I do not agree on how Moyo generalizes the situation in all of Africa. I think Moyo is on the right track with her book, but I think that the situation is more complex than she makes it seem in the second part of the book. In my opinion and with the reasoning Moyo gives to using alternative financing mechanism, they will contribute to development, but they should still be tailored precisely to the countries in which they are implemented.

With her book, Dambisa Moyo is aiming to touch on what Africa would look like without aid. She has proven correlation between aid and development. From my point of view, she however does not give enough evidence in the book to say that the aid given throughout the years is the cause of lacking development of Africa. I think Dead Aid is a good read in which Dambisa Moyo forces us to rethink how the aid framework is organized. In a new framework I do agree with Moyo that greater involvement of Africans in their own development process should be established. Moyo ends her book with the African proverb: “The best time to plant a tree is twenty years ago. The second-best time is now.” (Moyo, 2010, p.155) Let us not waste more time but instead start to rethink how aid should be implemented now.

Sources:

- Moyo, D. (2010). Dead Aid: Why Aid Makes Things Worse and how There is Another Way for Africa. Penguin Books.