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Dead Aid (09) by Moyo, Dambisa [Paperback (2010)]
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December 14, 2025
I found this much publicized book highly disappointing. Could such a complex subject be presented in a 150-page paperback? After reading Dr Moyo’s book my conclusion was a resounding no. Good thoughts and information are hidden within this book, but the books logic is often circular and makes frequent use of formal and informal fallacies. The poor organization of the book and the dependency on logical fallacies’ makes it confusing. The forward written by Niall Fergusson is a well-organized summary of the book which should have been used as an outline for the much needed second draft.
The remedies offered for the failures of aid are interestingly simplistic but for the most part are not new ideas but current events. Dr Moyo is credited with having worked at Goldman Sachs for 8 years and the world bank for 2.. One of her solutions is that African governments should reject support from the World Bank and IMF. The alternative means is to generate cash by issuing government bonds, African sovereign debt. Goldman Sachs her former employer through unethical but legal procedures helped misrepresent the sovereign debt of Greece so it could become part of the euro zone. Now Greece has had to take one trillion dollars in aid from the European Union and the IMF. This is ironic for several reasons. The figure of 1 trillion dollars the amount Dr Moyo says has been wasted on Africa over 50 years is the amount that is pledged to bail out this single European country. Greece is being moved from sovereign debt to IMF debt; the inverse of Dr Moyo’s solution for Africa. It might be a propositional fallacy on my part to argue that because Dr Moyo worked at Goldman Sachs that the African use of sovereign debt should be rejected but before her advice is taken by African countries or before the reader accepts her conclusions, it would be interesting to know if she was one of the economists who facilitated the Greek financial tragedy.
Moyo starts “Dead Aid” by excluding the charitable work of NGO’s and the relief of natural disasters. This is a major failing of the book as those who listen to her interviews and like me read the book assume she is discussing charity. She excludes the work of NGO’s and international organizations as too small to warrant discussions. As someone who has worked in this sector for 35 years I am skeptical of this assertion which is presented without any figures to support this conclusion. The statement that relief work is obvious, beyond reproach and therefore requires no critique is extremely naïve. So the sector of aid in which I participate as International Director of the Canadian Network for International Surgery was excluded from this book but tarred by the same brush as her criticism of other types of aid.
Her criticism is largely directed at of bilateral (government to government) and multilateral (eg. UN to government Aid) As an economist Moyo only looks at economic development. She does not address the issue of health, education and quality of life. Macroeconomic indicators do not correlate well with overall development. Advances in education and health have been made even in the face of poverty.
Military aid which can hardly be considered development aid is included in the failings of bilateral aid. Did anyone think that military aid to corrupt regimes during the cold war would result in economic development? There is nothing more contrary to all forms of development than war. She does not question or differentiate military and other political aid within the transfer of monies to African regimes. This lack of nuance is another major failing of this work.
Moyo effectively presents the problem of lack of accountability for aid and the fact that in spite of fraud corruption and theft western governments have continues to provide money to these regimes. Her point that accountability which is lacking should be required is clear. She also discusses the conflict of interest by the civil servants who work for the donors. To keep their jobs and to obtain promotion they allow their governments who have objectives other than development to continue to provide fund which they know will not promote development. .
Although the reviewers on the cover of the book talk about rigor and hard evidence Moyo’s solution is developed with a hypothetical country “Dongo”. This was unnecessary and unhelpful. Africa is not uniform, and the creation of this fictitious nation reinforces the stereotype that Africa is the same everywhere. Moyo supports the use of sovereign debt, direct investment to promote trade, the removal of subsidies from American and European goods and the promotion of local financial means including microfinance and land reform. All of these ideas have merit and certainly Africa should develop the diverse strategies that other continents use but none of these ideas are new.
She notes a few African countries have issued bonds, but most do not because Aid money is cheaper and does not come with enforceable conditions. Trade within Africa is miniscule and international trade, direct investment from non-Africans is hampered by bureaucracy and poor infrastructure Most of the strategies promoted are in the hands of African governments which Moyo correctly notes are with few exceptions corrupt and self-serving.
I was convinced that aid given to governments without accountability does maintain corrupt regimes. Her complaint that Jeffery Sach’s and Bono’s promotion of aid increase without accountability will fail seems logical. The problem that Moyo presents is not the failure of AID but that much of aid is not aid. I would re-title this book “Fake Aid”. Fake aid is money that was not and is not intended for development but to bribe client regimes. This will only promote corruption and undermine development. Her conclusion that there are other modalities to development than aid is correct, but I was not convinced that aid should be cancelled just that it must be done better. The book concludes with a call for an end to corruption and an end to western governments turning a blind eye to the misuse of their taxpayer’s money. She also calls for a proactive economic approach by African governments who actually serve their people. The problem is that most Africa governments see their own survival and the greed of the cleptocrats as a higher priority than the wellbeing of their own people
I cannot recommend this book. However, you may want to read it to be aware of the books limitations to counter those who condemn all forms of development aid.
The remedies offered for the failures of aid are interestingly simplistic but for the most part are not new ideas but current events. Dr Moyo is credited with having worked at Goldman Sachs for 8 years and the world bank for 2.. One of her solutions is that African governments should reject support from the World Bank and IMF. The alternative means is to generate cash by issuing government bonds, African sovereign debt. Goldman Sachs her former employer through unethical but legal procedures helped misrepresent the sovereign debt of Greece so it could become part of the euro zone. Now Greece has had to take one trillion dollars in aid from the European Union and the IMF. This is ironic for several reasons. The figure of 1 trillion dollars the amount Dr Moyo says has been wasted on Africa over 50 years is the amount that is pledged to bail out this single European country. Greece is being moved from sovereign debt to IMF debt; the inverse of Dr Moyo’s solution for Africa. It might be a propositional fallacy on my part to argue that because Dr Moyo worked at Goldman Sachs that the African use of sovereign debt should be rejected but before her advice is taken by African countries or before the reader accepts her conclusions, it would be interesting to know if she was one of the economists who facilitated the Greek financial tragedy.
Moyo starts “Dead Aid” by excluding the charitable work of NGO’s and the relief of natural disasters. This is a major failing of the book as those who listen to her interviews and like me read the book assume she is discussing charity. She excludes the work of NGO’s and international organizations as too small to warrant discussions. As someone who has worked in this sector for 35 years I am skeptical of this assertion which is presented without any figures to support this conclusion. The statement that relief work is obvious, beyond reproach and therefore requires no critique is extremely naïve. So the sector of aid in which I participate as International Director of the Canadian Network for International Surgery was excluded from this book but tarred by the same brush as her criticism of other types of aid.
Her criticism is largely directed at of bilateral (government to government) and multilateral (eg. UN to government Aid) As an economist Moyo only looks at economic development. She does not address the issue of health, education and quality of life. Macroeconomic indicators do not correlate well with overall development. Advances in education and health have been made even in the face of poverty.
Military aid which can hardly be considered development aid is included in the failings of bilateral aid. Did anyone think that military aid to corrupt regimes during the cold war would result in economic development? There is nothing more contrary to all forms of development than war. She does not question or differentiate military and other political aid within the transfer of monies to African regimes. This lack of nuance is another major failing of this work.
Moyo effectively presents the problem of lack of accountability for aid and the fact that in spite of fraud corruption and theft western governments have continues to provide money to these regimes. Her point that accountability which is lacking should be required is clear. She also discusses the conflict of interest by the civil servants who work for the donors. To keep their jobs and to obtain promotion they allow their governments who have objectives other than development to continue to provide fund which they know will not promote development. .
Although the reviewers on the cover of the book talk about rigor and hard evidence Moyo’s solution is developed with a hypothetical country “Dongo”. This was unnecessary and unhelpful. Africa is not uniform, and the creation of this fictitious nation reinforces the stereotype that Africa is the same everywhere. Moyo supports the use of sovereign debt, direct investment to promote trade, the removal of subsidies from American and European goods and the promotion of local financial means including microfinance and land reform. All of these ideas have merit and certainly Africa should develop the diverse strategies that other continents use but none of these ideas are new.
She notes a few African countries have issued bonds, but most do not because Aid money is cheaper and does not come with enforceable conditions. Trade within Africa is miniscule and international trade, direct investment from non-Africans is hampered by bureaucracy and poor infrastructure Most of the strategies promoted are in the hands of African governments which Moyo correctly notes are with few exceptions corrupt and self-serving.
I was convinced that aid given to governments without accountability does maintain corrupt regimes. Her complaint that Jeffery Sach’s and Bono’s promotion of aid increase without accountability will fail seems logical. The problem that Moyo presents is not the failure of AID but that much of aid is not aid. I would re-title this book “Fake Aid”. Fake aid is money that was not and is not intended for development but to bribe client regimes. This will only promote corruption and undermine development. Her conclusion that there are other modalities to development than aid is correct, but I was not convinced that aid should be cancelled just that it must be done better. The book concludes with a call for an end to corruption and an end to western governments turning a blind eye to the misuse of their taxpayer’s money. She also calls for a proactive economic approach by African governments who actually serve their people. The problem is that most Africa governments see their own survival and the greed of the cleptocrats as a higher priority than the wellbeing of their own people
I cannot recommend this book. However, you may want to read it to be aware of the books limitations to counter those who condemn all forms of development aid.
December 29, 2025
"Dead Aid" was certainly an interesting read in hindsight, since it was originally published in 2009. Moyo writes very well and presents a convincing argument that sustained aid to Africa (she primarily focuses on the Sub-Saharan Africa) has done more harm than good, especially when partnered up with Structural Adjustment Programs (SAPs), Western extractive industry interests, corruption and perverse incentives on both sides of aid (the aid agencies and domestic governments), and the aims of that aid.
Where the book began to fall apart for me were her proposed solutions and lack of rigorous citations. Quite often Moyo would say "major studies have concluded" and fails to cite which studies those are (or were); sometimes she would cite figures both dazzling and dire and fail to mention that those figures were from 1990s - already outdated by the time the book came out in 2009. I'm not sure if that is malicious or lazy on her and her editor's part but it certainly did not present a very convincing argument to me.
Some of her solutions likewise rely on a lot of handwaving certain facts away (why yes, many developing countries that issued short-term international bonds have defaulted on those bonds, but surely this won't happen everywhere in Africa!) or fail to establish causation (coming back to issuing bond example: Moyo fails to explain why borrowing via issuing international bonds will be any better than borrowing money from the IMF at virtually zero interest, or whether developing countries that successfully developed did so because they issues international and domestic bonds or whether they successfully developed first and THEN issued said bonds). Of course many of her other solutions are very reasonable (and would have been either back in 2009 or now) but rely on first constructing a firm rule of law, fiscal transparency, and strong fiscal institutions; in regards to how this ought to happen Moyo is mostly silent. "Why Nations Fail" by Acemoglu and Robinson does a better job of tracing the history and methods of constructing said institutions.
It's very hard to argue with Moyo's diagnosis of the problem: she stands on very firm and very critical footing there, but her prescriptions leave much to be desired.
Where the book began to fall apart for me were her proposed solutions and lack of rigorous citations. Quite often Moyo would say "major studies have concluded" and fails to cite which studies those are (or were); sometimes she would cite figures both dazzling and dire and fail to mention that those figures were from 1990s - already outdated by the time the book came out in 2009. I'm not sure if that is malicious or lazy on her and her editor's part but it certainly did not present a very convincing argument to me.
Some of her solutions likewise rely on a lot of handwaving certain facts away (why yes, many developing countries that issued short-term international bonds have defaulted on those bonds, but surely this won't happen everywhere in Africa!) or fail to establish causation (coming back to issuing bond example: Moyo fails to explain why borrowing via issuing international bonds will be any better than borrowing money from the IMF at virtually zero interest, or whether developing countries that successfully developed did so because they issues international and domestic bonds or whether they successfully developed first and THEN issued said bonds). Of course many of her other solutions are very reasonable (and would have been either back in 2009 or now) but rely on first constructing a firm rule of law, fiscal transparency, and strong fiscal institutions; in regards to how this ought to happen Moyo is mostly silent. "Why Nations Fail" by Acemoglu and Robinson does a better job of tracing the history and methods of constructing said institutions.
It's very hard to argue with Moyo's diagnosis of the problem: she stands on very firm and very critical footing there, but her prescriptions leave much to be desired.
November 22, 2025
Moyo offers great explanations on why aid programs from the Global North have historically devastated communities in the Global South.
December 31, 2025
it took so long to finish bc of a historic and failed playoff run. but also sad that this book is 15 y/o and not much has changed (where things have actually gotten worse in many cases)
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews