guardian.co.uk, Sunday 23 August 2009 13.00 BST
Dambisa Moyo's
book
Dead Aid has received wide media
coverage and spurred a new debate on the
effectiveness and possible detrimental
effects of development aid. Moyo's main
message is simple: aid transfers are an
obstruction to development rather than a
lubricator, because they set the wrong
incentives, foster corruption and subsidise
and perpetuate underdevelopment. What is
notable about the book is not the arguments
presented, all of which have been made
before in decades of academic debate on
economic development by scholars such as the
late
Peter Thomas Bauer (to whom the book is
dedicated) and
William Easterly of New York University.
Rather, what is adding some excitement to
the discussion is the person who is making
the argument. A debate that had been
previously dominated by ageing rock stars
and economics professors has seen a young
energetic Zambian woman with degrees from
Oxford and Harvard and a successful career
in investment banking taking the lead....
.....More
