![]() ![]() ![]() One factor which makes Dead Aid less relevant than it could be to an organisation like 80,000 Hours is that it concentrates solely on ‘official aid’ (from international organisations and the governments of international organisations to recipient governments) it does not take into account private international philanthropy or humanitarian relief, or the work of most NGOs. ![]() While Dead Aid is interesting insofar as it challenges certain development clichés and received wisdom, it has several major flaws. Moyo proposes that we remove the distorting force that is foreign aid, and allow governments to find other sources of finance – most notably by opening their countries to foreign capital markets. Aid functions as a ‘moral hazard’ for recipient governments, incentivising corruption and civil war – for whoever reaches power will have access to an unending fount of foreign funding. Moyo’s basic argument is that foreign aid is actually counter-productive precisely because we are so willing to give it: because leaders are virtually guaranteed to receive foreign aid, they do not attempt to use it to benefit their populations. It stands, along William Easterly’s The Elusive Quest for Growth and The White Man’s Burden, as the central work of foreign aid scepticism. ![]() Dambisa Moyo’s best-selling 2009 book Dead Aid caused a considerable stir upon its release written by a young African woman, it stood out in a field dominated by ageing, white academics. ![]()
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