CIDA - False Prophets
A political observer once stated that if you're holding a hammer in your hand, every problem looks like a nail. For the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA), it must seems as if there are too many ball peen hammers and not nearly enough builders. Following three years of fending of repeated attacks, it now must deal with an international phenomenon that has gained instant credibility though the evidence is sorely lacking.Dambisa Moyo, a Zambian economist, came seemingly out of nowhere to publish a bestselling book titled Dead Aid - a frontal assault on all things concerning foreign aid. Part of the book's success is based on a series of staggering claims concerning the uselessness of foreign aid. In reality, it is more akin to the Da Vinci Code, Dan Brown's mega-bestseller about corruption in the Vatican that became a sensation in part because thousands believed its assertions were true. When church officials and historians countered by claiming he was playing fast and loose with the truth, Brown remained strangely mum. The controversy, and Brown's overall reticence to assist in separating fact from fiction, only sold more books and resulted in a worldwide clamour against the church.Moyo has achieved something similar, though on a much smaller scale. Her claims are intended to capture the imagination and indeed they do:
- more than a trillion dollars has been spent in aid to Africa over the past 60 years, most of it wasted
- aid has failed to lift Africans out of poverty
- foreign aid has only kept poorer nations from developing
There is more, but you get the drift. Her credible claims of large amounts of aid money being wasted through corruption by African dictators are more than undermined by her inability to admit that, since 2000, aid to Africa has met with considerable success. Moyo's one-sided ideological approach has caused former George W. Bush's chief speechwriter, Michael Gerson, to claim she is simply "dead wrong." and the Economist magazine to liken her book to a "caricature." Her unwillingness to help us separate fact from fiction is likely caused by two key influences. The first might well be she has become a creature of instant fame and refuses to burst the bubble of her own success. And then there is the issue of her sponsors. Both Steve Forbes (of Forbes magazine fame) and the Cato Institute are both right wing influences and have a lot to gain by supporting and peddling Moyo's success. They have led wholesale attacks on governments of any kind and increasingly call for a wholesale "free market" solution to the words greatest difficulties.Sadly, such sponsorship, and Moyo's own ability to sell herself in the media, has greatly clouded the merits and efficacy of foreign aid. One American writer has commented that Moyo's call to do away with aid is like saying that because there has been corporate abuse in contracts over military hardware, we should do away with the military.For those of us who have worked on the ground in Africa, a new narrative has been emerging in the past decade that provides great hope and a certain evidence-based credibility for international development. Unfortunately, Moyo's arrival on the scene and the media's infatuation with her startling claims has greatly complicated CIDA's fate at a time when it is already under assault. Moyo's success isn't based on her proof or credibility, but rather on the innate prejudice that exists within many concerning the worth of investing in Africa - it feeds on it. One hates to give much time to Moyo's claims, but her popularity has made it necessary. And so for the next number of posts we'll examine her assumptions and contrast them with CIDA's own success to the contrary.