Economist to examine destructive aid dependency in Africa

Dambisa Moyo, a global economist and author of the New York Times bestseller Dead Aid: Why Aid is Not Working and How There is a Better Way for Africa, will give a free public lecture on Monday, Sept. 13, at 4:10 p.m. in the Zoellner Arts Center’s Baker Hall.

Moyo was named one of 20 “remarkable visionaries” by TV host Oprah Winfrey and one of the 100 most influential people in the world in 2009 by Time Magazine, which described her as part of a generation of Africans who “know how the private sector works and have seen how millions of people have escaped poverty thanks to economic growth and the jobs it has created.”

Dead Aid, said Time, “indicts the ‘development industry’ for creating destructive aid dependency in Africa” and raises the question “Why is Africa so much poorer after receiving billions of dollars in assistance?”

Moyo will tackle those questions and assess the long-term impact of aid in a number of underdeveloped countries. Her 30-minute presentation will be followed by a Q&A session.

According to her website, Moyo will soon be releasing her next book, How the West Was Lost: Fifty Years of Economic Folly and the Stark Choices Ahead. The book explores the failure of policy-making in the world’s leading industrialized economies.

Moyo holds a doctorate in economics from Oxford University and a master’s degree from Harvard University. She completed an undergraduate degree in chemistry and an MBA in finance at the American University in Washington, D.C.

Her speech is sponsored by the Speaker Series of the College of Business and Economics, the Martindale Center for the Study of Private Enterprise and the Visiting Lecturers Committee.