A national best-seller, Dead Aid unflinchingly confronts one of the greatest myths of our time: that billions of dollars in aid sent from wealthy countries to developing African nations has helped to reduce poverty and increase growth. In fact, poverty levels continue to escalate and growth rates have steadily declined - and millions continue to suffer.

Debunking the current model of international aid promoted by both Hollywood celebrities and policy makers, Dambisa Moyo offers a bold new road map for financing the development of the world's poorest countries.

Much debated in the US and the UK on publication, Dead Aid is an unsettling yet optimistic work, a powerful challenge to the assumptions and arguments that support a profoundly misguided development policy in Africa. And it is a clarion call to a new, more hopeful vision of how to address the desperate poverty that plagues millions.

Listening Length

6 hours and 29 minutes
Author

Dambisa Moyo, see all
Narrator

Mike Chamberlain
Audible release date

January 22, 2019
Language

English
Publisher

Tantor Audio
ASIN

B07M6Z3JBX
Version

Unabridged
Program Type

Audiobook
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Product details

Listening Length	6 hours and 29 minutes
Author	Dambisa Moyo, Niall Ferguson - foreword
Narrator	Mike Chamberlain
Whispersync for Voice	Ready
Audible.com Release Date	January 22, 2019
Publisher	Tantor Audio
Program Type	Audiobook
Version	Unabridged
Language	English
ASIN	B07M6Z3JBX
Best Sellers Rank	#64,133 in Audible Books & Originals (See Top 100 in Audible Books & Originals) #77 in Economic Public Policy #142 in Development & Growth Economics (Books) #196 in Globalization & Politics

Customer reviews

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3 star		8%
2 star		2%
1 star		2%

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Priscilla Stilwell

Aid is bad!

Reviewed in the United States on January 18, 2018

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This is a must-read.

Granted, Moyo is doubtless receiving more press simply because she is a black African female giving a fairly conservative opinion of aid. Others have been saying this same thing for a long time, but it's often disregarded as an excuse for saving money or keeping help from the poor.

I live and work in Haiti, and this is completely as applicable to this country as it is to Africa, although the Chinese influence doesn't apply here.

I recommend this for all aid workers, and really anyone connected with emerging (or not) economies. Aid is a bad thing!

Of course, Moyo doesn't go quite that far, but I certainly do. She bases her findings on well documented data, and arranges it in quite an easy-to-read volume. I'm looking forward to more works by her.

27 people found this helpful

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Burton Adrian

The truth will set you free

Reviewed in the United States on December 29, 2021

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We all know the definition of insanity- doing the same thing the same way while expecting different results. This book explains how this insanity is hurting Africa. If you TRULY care about the plight of the world’s poor, read this book and be brave enough to handle the truth

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Very informative

Reviewed in the United States on April 10, 2012

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My Step daughter and her boyfriend have done charity work in Africa. I'm planning on sending them this book as it is a great outline of the problems created with Foreign Aid and very succinctly explains the evidence and reasons of why it doesn't work. I first heard this author interviewed on Dennis Prager's program and was inspired to buy the book as the charming author is such an obviously wise and well educated African woman. she is articulate and knowledgeable in presenting an excellent case of why Aid does the opposite of what it is intended to accomplish in Africa.

2 people found this helpful

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Repetitive

Reviewed in the United States on September 6, 2018

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I agree entirely with Dambisa Moyo. But the material in this book repeats and repeats itself. This should have been an in-depth magazine article rather than a book.

Excellent source material, top-notch notes section, great index.

Moyo lays out the cycle of dysfunction on page 6: Africa is unable to get on sound economic footing. & out of 10 failed nations are in Africa.

She explains three types of aid: emergency aid; charitable aid; and systemic aid. The first two types are plagued with distribution problems and come with strings attached. But it is the thrird type that the book addresses -- aid from one government to another that results in indebtedness and economic stagnation.

On page 11, she blames Maynard Keynes. Daring! And true! And this is probably the first reason why OxFam doesn't like this book. OxFam is all excuses for the failure of African aid:
1) it's the climate. It's the terrain.
2) it's the history of colonialism
3) Africans are genetically bad
4) Africans are culturally bad.
5) There is too much diversity in Africa. Tribalism and ethnic strife breed distrust between groups and prohibit consensus on policy.
6) Africans have poor governance.

Moyo addresses each of these excuses and turns attention back to the harms done by (possibly) well-intentioned westerners offering aid to Africa.

There's a problem on page 35: Moyo promises to look at 6 proofs that aidcan work, but she delivers only four:
1) the Marshall Plan
2) IDA graduates
3) conditional aid
4) democracy-dependent aid

Chapter 9 gets into Muhammad Yunus's breakthoroughs in microfinance. For more about this, I recommend the book "Banker to the Poor."

12 people found this helpful

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Kevin Blanchette

A Well Written Book

Reviewed in the United States on March 1, 2016

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The contents of this book are definitely academic, but it is all portrayed in a very conversational style. All of the ideas of the author are backed up with concrete evidence from what is already being done in other countries. This book is just as useful for people who are not directly working towards the ascension of African countries as it is for those who are.

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Cadet

great book.

Reviewed in the United States on August 11, 2015

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The author made a great analysis of the international aid from developed countries to the third world. She points out how and why this pseudo aid is killing instead of helping poor countries.

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Amazon Customer

Brillliant

Reviewed in the United States on September 3, 2016

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Dambisa Moyo is brilliant and anyone who criticizes her is severely ill informed. She has definitely opened my eyes and this is a book many people should read.

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Brienna

Five Stars

Reviewed in the United States on June 29, 2017

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Great and informative book!

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Top reviews from other countries

Legal Vampire

Short but important book

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on October 15, 2020

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Short, interesting book about why the
$£€ billions Aid given to sub-Saharan Africa fail to lift the bulk of the population of that Continent out of poverty (exception, of course, for the often fabulously wealthy African rulers) and, the authoress suggests, aid may even keep Africa poor.

Dambisa Moyo comes from Zambia but is not poor herself. She has worked for international banks and financial institutions based in the USA. It is worth searching for videos of her speaking on the internet.

While not the subject of this book, Ms Moyo recently served on the Sowell Commission on racial disparities in Britain, whose mostly black or Asian, members had the courage to incur the inevitable abuse as 'Uncle Toms' (one Labour MP absurdly likened them to the Ku Klux Klan; the disgraceful Professor P Gopal of Cambridge University likened them to Hitler's Propaganda Minister Goebbels) by questioning whether Britain is really institutionally racist and whether it is really mostly due to white racism that some minorities in Britain are less successful economically.

While her book is easily readable and not technical, to fully understand her arguments it helps to have a basic understanding of how price is determined by supply and demand, such as one would get from an introductory course in economics e.g. to understand how inflows of aid money to an African country can cause the value of its currency to rise and so make its products less competitively priced and harder to sell in international markets.

Ms Moyo believes that aid money lets African governments survive without developing a proper tax base and therefore without a local tax-paying educated Middle Class to demand a say in how efficiently public money is spent.

She is a little cynical about the rise of 'glamour aid' based on emotional appeals by multi-millionaire Western Pop stars, who we would never think qualified to decide economic policies for our own countries.

Sending goods e.g. mosquito nets to prevent the spread of malaria, provided free through aid, even if useful, can drive local producers of mosquito nets out of business.

Although Western donors can threaten to cut off aid where much of it is wasted through corruption or misgovernment, in practice those who administer aid are reluctant to turn off the flow of money. Too many thousands of them have jobs in foreign aid that would be threatened if aid stopped.

By contrast, Chinese involvement in African development is purely self-interested. However, for that reason, the authoress believes, it is more effective than Western do-gooders. If the Chinese, in their own interest, help to build a port and railway to speed up the movement of food and raw materials that China wants, the Chinese will not tolerate embezzlement, incompetence or disorder that disrupts this supply. Thus, as incidental consequences, the local authorities have to learn habits of reliability, and local people and businesses have the use of a new port and railway.

Such thoughts upset do-gooders convinced that their campaigning for development aid will Save the World. When the authoress has given speeches about her ideas to Western audiences she has had objects as well as abuse thrown at her.

Her arguments may provide excuses for some who would be happy for racist or nationalist reasons to let starving black Africans go to Hell. That does not mean Ms Moyo is wrong, however.

She has little to say here about the legacy of the colonial Empires in Africa. I have seen a video of Dambisa Moyo speaking in which white, Western members of the audience criticise her for not putting enough blame for the current state of Africa on European colonialism. Ms Moyo replies that she is getting bored with blaming Colonialism for Africans' current problems, when Colonialism ended more than 50 years ago, and in the same period many Asian countries who also experienced Colonialism have prospered.

This does not mean Ms Moyo has no criticisms of Europe: she says that every cow in the European Union (or strictly the farmers who own them) receives $2.50 per day. A billion people in the World have to live on less.

While it will be a relief for some readers that this little book is not a vast tome of exhaustive detail, others will probably say that the argument would be more convincing supported by more detailed examples. If you are of the latter view, you may prefer Paul Collier's longer, slightly less lively but still interesting 'The Bottom Billion'. I personally prefer this book 'Dead Aid', which confirms my previous suspicions.

6 people found this helpful

estuff

Fog-clearing and a warning about the EU

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on September 28, 2018

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Chapter 8. 'Let's Trade' switched on the light. I've always wondered why despite rivers of money flowing from developed countries to Africa; most of the sub-Saharan nations always seem on their knees despite superior land size, people numbers and minerals in demand by the world. The EU tariff wall of more than 300 percent on imports shocked me but helped me understand why aid from developed countries is preferred by governments and 'kind-hearted' over investment by developed countries in Africa. As long as Africa is kept on its knees begging for aid rather than standing strong as a world competitor; the greedy get the money back in tariffs and the 'kind-hearted' get to 'feel' good about how 'good they are. So they win-win while Africa loses. I'm investing in a few more copies to give as gifts and pray that the lights come on in others.

6 people found this helpful

00Mochalatte

Didn't learn anything from this book, very boring

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on November 17, 2018

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I had high hopes for this book, but it basically just repeats that there has been a lot of aid given to Africa yet most African countries are still poor - with really no deeper insight, a continuous generalisation of "Africa" as a continent rather than giving any depth to any individual country and what feels like a lot of selective choices of information to support the writer's argument. The second half of the book proposes some solutions for Africa's development but the one-sided argument again gives a feeling of lacking any real depth of analysis. The book is also written in quite a dry and uninteresting way, it reads a little like a high school geography textbook and I struggled to finish it.

7 people found this helpful

Thought provoking and relealing book

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on April 11, 2015

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I thought this book did an excellent job of exposing the dark world of overseas aid. It worked through all the issues in an ordered way, describing in detail so many of the problems which, instead of being relieved by aid funding, are in fact being mostly created by it. The author puts her points across very well to give a convincing argument against blindly pouring aid into the developing world. As she points out, aid has been one of the biggest hurdles these nations have been forced to deal with, giving rise to corruption on a massive scale.

Later in the book she points out how China has become very active in Africa. This is seen by many in the west as purly an excersize in self interest, but realistically the way the Chinese operate is giving real tangible benefits to a lot of these developning nations. Overal, I enjoyed reading this book as it trashed an awful lot of the general accepted viewpoints so popular in the western nations. I have lived and worked in several West African nations and have seen of a lot of the waste, incompentence or just outright corruption which is endemic once aid money comes pouring in.

Read this book and you will see that aid, in the present form favoured by the west, is not the massive boost so many people claim it to be, but more of a shackle holding back so many nations.

6 people found this helpful

Amazon Customer

Should be compulsory reading for Aid Donors

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on April 5, 2021

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Well written book that should be compulsory reading for all the woke luvvies who assuage their guilt (and reveal their ignorance) by giving endless amounts of aid to Africa in the hope that it is doing good; it actually does the opposite. This is an excellent book written by an “African” woman (with a mega-brain) who really understands and cares about Africa. Great suggestions on what really could work ......

2 people found this helpful

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