Murdering Poverty: How to fix aid

by Arrey Elvis Ntui

How do we get the 150 billion dollars spent annually on development aid to rescue the 1.4 billion people wallowing in poverty around the world? A book that is critical of foreign aid to Africa and yet proposes new daring solutions to improving development aid effectiveness, Murdering Poverty goes beyond the faults to find innovative ideas for aid's renaissance. Giving aid is sexy as an idea. Who has time to bother whether aid is achieving sufficient ‘sexy’ returns? How do we fix aid? It is not sufficient to criticize the ‘third sector’. The book restores hope with ideas to overhaul the failure. And oh – Murdering Poverty ditches ‘development aid’ as a misnomer in favor of what it actually is ‘global aid’. It is not enough to run a scream and scare campaign against development aid. More is ideas to really make aid work. This is the premise of Murdering Poverty. The book challenges some of the theories and solutions on which aid has been founded and delivered up till now. The ideas address accessibility, transparency, sustainability, equity and effectiveness of development aid. You can be forgiven for thinking that with all the aid that has gone into Africa countries and other underdeveloped parts of the world for over 40 years now, significant progress should have been made. That has not been the case. Why does development aid fail? After picking out the 24 sins of aid, Murdering Poverty advances innovative solutions to addressing the issues in this 150 billion dollar industry. A new governance structure, new lease of life for recipient country civil society, community audits, liposuction therapy and identity surgery for mammoth multilateral aid agencies like the World Bank and the United Nations, a mechanism to manage the ‘international public goods’ which medical expertise has become or leveraging technology to administer all aid directly to beneficiaries. And then there is the big the Churchill-Fleming aid model – the rejection of all current aid in exchange for lifetime aid. Here is a brave appeal to development policy makers, aid agencies, charities, governments, think tanks, the frustrated aid recipient and the wondering donor. A book with ideas to start trying.

133 pages, Paperback

Published February 20, 2016

Reviews

[Glenn Lawrence · Rating 5 out of 5]

As the title clearly indicates this is certainly a "niche" book that deals with a very specific subject... development aid and poverty alleviation. (I simply highlight that for anyone who might be presently reading this review.) Having said that, I would start by emphasizing the book is a primer, i.e., "any book that presents the most basic elements of any subject." That is not to say that the book isn't thoughtful, engaging, and informative. It is indeed all of those things and much more. However, as the author states in the opening sections it is intended to be a "simple" book that gets straight to the heart of the matter with a form of language that can be readily understood by even the most novice reader. To that end, the author does a great job of maximizing the 130 pages at our disposal. It is packed full of valuable analysis and practical applications without all of the heavy terminology that so often accompanies more academic writings.

On a personal level, I have already begun a second reading of the book now that I have finished it the first time. My intent this time around is to spend more time meditating on the content and using it to further establish my own knowledge base. I highly recommend this quick but powerful book to anyone who is looking for a fantastic introduction to the world of development aid!!!