Dambisa Moyo Dead Aid Summary

Dambisa Moyo is a woman born and raised in the heart of Africa, in the small country of Zambia. She wrote the novel “Dead Aid.” In her novel, she discusses Africa and the root causes of its underdevelopment. With its main focus being on foreign aid, she discusses the pros and cons to African nations receiving monies from developed countries. Moyo begins her novel by addressing aid throughout each decade. She describes the ways in which foreign aid has changed and developed starting post-World War II till modern day. Economists focused on different problems throughout each decade. They focused on a wide range of different things, from poverty and the individual to the corruption of governments and setting up democracy and even to political …show more content…
Millions and millions of dollars are poured into Africa, however, they have nowhere to put this money and cannot use the funds efficiently. Moyo describes in much detail the events that took place between the US and much of Europe following World War II. After World War II, much of western European was war torn and their economies were suffering. The United States enacted a plan to give countries aid for an allotted time with expectations of being paid back. This policy was extremely successful. European nations were able to use this money to fix/improve their damaged economies and pull themselves out of a recession caused by war. Because of this success, economists and government leaders thought the same policy would work in Sub-Saharan Africa. However, major differences in European countries and their African counterparts exist, specifically the lack of infrastructure in Africa. Africa does not have necessary capital or the means to create capital. The foreign aid given to the different countries in Africa essentially has no purpose. Corrupt government officials then take the money and keep the cash for …show more content…
More civil wars are occurring in Africa alone than the rest of the world. Civil unrest and corrupt politicians run rampant in African nations. Throughout her novel, Moyo draws a strong correlation between corruption and foreign aid. She describes how the millions of dollars sent annually to Africa cannot be invested and floods domestic markets because of the lack of capital. This phenomenon encourages rent-seeking behaviors in debase government officials. Government officials do not focus on economic prosperity or the wellbeing of their nation. They focus on their own person profit or gain. They take directly from the donated funds because the money is fungible and easy to steal with limited to no balances or checks. This causes a lack of focus from governments on stable economic growth. Rent-seeking behavior leads to increased civil unrest and even civil war. People will start wars to be in direct control of the foreign aid accounts. Men and women know that control of the government means gaining wealth. Rent-seeking not only damages the economy, but puts the lives of thousands at