Must Read for the Weekend.

Dead Aid: Why Aid is Not Working and How There Is Another Way For Africa by Dambisa Moyo.

I ran across this book in my local Barnes and Noble and suggested that my fiancée take a look at it. Her field of study is sociology and she focuses on development. After taking a brief look she walked up to the counter and purchased it immediately. She had it read in two days and then proceeded to hand it to me and told me that I had to read this book.

The book's author is Dambisa Moyo who was born in Lusaka, Zambia. When she was younger she chose to come to the United States for college. She studied at Harvard, where she got her Master's. From there she got her Ph.D in economics from Oxford. She worked for the World Bank and then Goldman Sach's.

The question Ms. Moyo raises is, "why is Africa, after over $1 trillion in aid, no better or even worse off than it was prior?" She does not stray away from the controversial argument that aid simply does not work and in fact makes Africa worse off. Instead of helping, it creates a society that becomes dependent on aid with no incentive to innovate. It also creates a society in which the government is rife with corruption. Essentially, aid does not work and it has been proven.

The first half of the book focuses on why aid fails; while the second half offers up possible solutions to the issues that currently face the continent of Africa. The only issue I had with this book was that these ideas are at times not fully developed and the author takes for granted that they will work. Overall, though this is a good read on a controversial subject.

You can buy this book here.