Global issues: Poverty and Development : AID - Better dead or fed?

Does Aid work? This is a controversial topic. Over the past fifty years $1 trillion of aid has flowed from Western governments to Africa, with campaigns still waged for more. But has this helped or hindered helped Africa? A recent book on the subject by Dambisa Moya called Dead Aid: Why aid is not working and how there is another way for Africa reveals why millions are actually poorer because of aid, unable to escape corruption and reduced, in the West’s eyes, to a state of beggary. Moyo argues that with access to capital and with the right policies, even the poorest nations can turn themselves around. She is of the view that it is necessary to destroy the myth that aid works - and make charity history.

Linking in with the ‘Aid’ theme are two recent articles: 1. In the Newstatesman there is an interview with Dambisa Moyo where she states: “People need jobs and investment. There is no magic trick”.

1. There is an older polemical article by Sam Kiley [former Times African correspondent] entitled ‘Do starving Africans a favour. Don’t feed them!’, where he argues in relation to the impending famines in Ethiopia and Kenya that sending food and emergency relief will make things worse in the long run.

2. Paul Collier’s book ‘Wars, Guns and Votes - Democracy in Dangerous Places’ is a heavy read but carries a chapter ‘Better dead than fed’.