There is no doubt: we want to help. The well-documented horrors of extreme poverty around the world have created a moral imperative that people have responded to in their millions. Yet the poverty persists. At a time of unprecedented global prosperity, children are starving to death. Are we not being generous enough? Or is the problem somehow insoluble, an inevitable outcome of historical circumstance? In this provocative and compelling book, Dambisa Moyo argues that the most important challenge we face today is to destroy the myth that Aid actually works. In the modern globalized economy, simply handing out more money, however well intentioned, will not help the poorest nations achieve sustainable long-term growth. "Dead Aid" analyses the history of economic development over the last fifty years and shows how Aid crowds out financial and social capital and feeds corruption; the countries that have 'caught up' did so despite rather than because of Aid. There is, however, an alternative. Extreme poverty is not inevitable. Dambisa Moyo shows how, with improved access to capital and markets and with the right policies, even the poorest nations can prosper. If we really do want to help, we have to do more than just appease our consciences, hoping for the best, expecting the worst. We need first to understand the problem.

Praise for Dead Aid Moyo is right to raise her voice, and she should be heard if African nations and other poor countries are to move in the right direction. --Jagdish Bhagwati, Foreign Affairs Moyo presents a refreshing view. --Lisa Miller, Newsweek A tightly argued brief . . . Vivid. --Matthew Rees, The Wall Street Journal An incendiary new book . . . Here is a refreshing voice . . . What makes Dead Aid so powerful is that it's a double-barrelled shotgun of a book. With the first barrel, Moyo demolishes all the most cherished myths about aid being a good thing. But with the second, crucially, she goes on to explain what the West could be doing instead. --Christopher Hart, The Daily Mail Dambisa Moyo is to aid what Ayaan Hirsi Ali is to Islam. Here is an African woman, articulate, smart, glamorous, delivering a message of brazen political incorrectness: cut aid to Africa. Aid, she argues, has not merely failed to work; it has compounded Africa's problems. Moyo cannot be dismissed as a crank . . . She catalogues evidence, both statistical and anecdotal . . . The core of her argument is that there is a better alternative [and it deserves] to be taken seriously. --Paul Collier, The Independent The wisdom contained here--if absorbed by African and global policymakers--will turn this chronically depressed continent into an inspiring miracle of dazzling economic growth. --STEVE FORBES, President and Chief Executive Officer of Forbes and Editor-in-Chief of Forbes magazine Dambisa Moyo makes a compelling case for a new approach in Africa. Her message is that Africa's time is now. It is time for Africans to assume full control over their economic and political destiny. Africans should grasp the many means and opportunities available to them for improving the quality of life. Dambisa is hard--perhaps too hard--on the role of aid. But her central point is indisputable. The determination of Afric

Dambisa Moyo is a Global Economist at an Investment Bank in London. She previously worked at the World Bank in Washington DC. A native of Zambia, Southern Africa, Dambisa holds a Doctorate in Economics from Oxford University and a Masters from Harvard University. Dambisa has spoken on issues of Aid, Debt and Poverty in developing countries at conferences including at the World Economic Forum in Davos Switzerland in 2005. Dambisa lives in London. Dead Aid is her first book.