Dambisa Moyo, Author of "Dead Aid" Gives In-Depth C-Span Interview

Dambisa Moyo, author of “Dead Aid” is working on a new book “How the West Was Lost”If there’s one book buzzing about, it’s a young Goldman Sachs London-based banker Dambisa Moyo’s read “Dead Aid”. With most of the world converging on New York this week for the opening of the UN, the Clinton Global Summitt and the G-20 meeting in Pittsburg, aid is a big topic in town.

In the case of Africa, even Noble-prize winner Dr. Muhammad Yunus acknowledges that it’s a fair question to ask regarding Africa: after a trillion dollars in aid, why is Africa worse off?

Q&A: Dambisa Moyo on C-Span

In our bullet-point, short-attention-span world, there seems to be quite a lot of debate about what Moyo does and doesn’t say in “Dead Aid”. According to Wired — a nonpolitical, relatively neutral party in this discussion — Moyo doesn’t argue that all aid be cut off.

Specifically Dambisa Moyo condemns aid to corrupt African governments not all organizations. She argues for business investments in Africa — which is challenging with the abundance of corrupt governments. Clearly, Moyo is trying to establish an economic base and not a perpetual caretaker relationship in Africa.

She is criticized for overlooking deals made by China with governments like Sudan, citing China as a good business partner when in fact they support a government like Sudan, known for curtaining human rights.

A question I have about the aid into Africa was triggered by yesterday’s post concerning statements made at the Clinton Global Initiative that women and girls have received only 1 cent of every aid dollar. We’re working to better understanding this staggeringly implausible “fact” about global aid.

One of the most successful economic development programs in the world is the Grameen Fund microlending programs, which go almost exclusively to women. Administrators of the fund acknowledge that when money goes to men, the vast majority do not put it to good use.

One wonders if the world had take the trillion dollars and invested it in educating women and sponsoring their businesses, where Africa and other countries would be. Of course, most men in those countries don’t allow women to have access to money and fiscal responsibility in the household.

I can assume that at least the American administrations and Congress — led 90% by men — probably didn’t even seriously consider making women a priority until Dr. Yanus has created such wild success with women’s microloans.

According to her website DambisaMoyo.com, the author has also been offered a contract for another book, entitled How the West Was Lost, scheduled for publication with Penguin and Farrar, Straus & Giroux in 2010. This book examines the policy errors made in the US and other Western economies which culminated in the 2008 financial crisis. And discusses why financial and economic experts missed the signs of the credit crunch. It also explores the policy decisions that have placed the emerging world- China, Russia and the Middle East, in pole position to become the dominant economic players in the 21st century.

Dambisa Moyo was born and raised in Zambia, Southern Africa. She completed a PhD in Economics at Oxford University and holds a Masters from Harvard University. She completed a Bachelors degree in Chemistry and MBA in Finance at the American University in Washington D.C..