Dambisa Moyo on a More Optimistic Outlook for Africa | Big Think

Dambisa Moyo on a More Optimistic Outlook for Africa

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Dambisa Moyo on why African success goes unreported

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Dambisa Moyo:

Dambisa Moyo is an economist and New York Times best-selling author of Dead Aid: Why Aid is Not Working and How There is a Better Way For Africa, published in 2009.

Moyo’s second book entitled How the West Was Lost: Fifty Years of Economic Folly - And the Stark Choices that Lie Ahead is scheduled for publication in August 2010.

Moyo was born and raised in Lusaka, Zambia. She holds a Doctorate in Economics from Oxford University. In 1997, Moyo earned a Master of Public Administration (MPA) in International Development from Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government. She also earned a Master of Business Administration (MBA) in Finance and Bachelor of Science (BS) in Chemistry from American University in Washington D.C. She worked for the World Bank as a Consultant and at Goldman Sachs where she worked in the debt capital markets and as an economist in the global macroeconomics team. Moyo's thoughts about ending aid to Africa are featured as part Big Think's "Dangerous Ideas" blog.Dambisa Moyo is an economist and New York Times best-selling author of Dead Aid: Why Aid is Not Working and How There is a Better Way For Africa, published in 2009.

Moyo’s second book entitled How the West Was Lost: Fifty Years of Economic Folly - And the Stark Choices that Lie Ahead is scheduled for publication in August 2010.

Moyo was born and raised in Lusaka, Zambia. She holds a Doctorate in Economics from Oxford University. In 1997, Moyo earned a Master of Public Administration (MPA) in International Development from Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government. She also earned a Master of Business Administration (MBA) in Finance and Bachelor of Science (BS) in Chemistry from American University in Washington D.C. She worked for the World Bank as a Consultant and at Goldman Sachs where she worked in the debt capital markets and as an economist in the global macroeconomics team. Moyo's thoughts about ending aid to Africa are featured as part Big Think's "Dangerous Ideas" blog.

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TRANSCRIPT:

Question: What is the future of Africa's contribution to the global economy?

Moyo: I think it’s time for dramatic innovation in Africa. Africa tends to be viewed under the guise of this, what I call the Four Horsemen of Africans Apocalypse and the four things being war, disease, poverty and corruption. And unfortunately, that has meant…Africa has been held back and suffers from most serious negative PR problem. I believed that going forward if African focused on building alliances with the regions of world who have looked past the negative perception and I’m actually looking at the continents as an opportunity to invest an opportunity to make money and to…seek commercial enterprise grow. Those are the type of alliances Africa should be focused on. For example, China has one 1.3 billion people 7% are blend. It means to feed its people. Africa’s got a lot of error blend. There’s obviously scope for an alliance there, whereas traditionally African produce…agriculture produce in particular has been locked out of US and European markets. Here’s a clear opportunity for African governments to find a relationship with a country that is very interested in African produce. So, that’s I think that it should be much more of that so much so that Africa can continue to…on a very strong solid developmental path.

Question: What is the future of media coverage in Africa?

Moyo: I think that there’s a lot more scope for it has been…to move the near towards a positive message if we start to listen to different messengers. I think the reason why it’s negative is that the traditional media tend to go…always go and interview the same kind of people very often people who have rarely been to Africa or maybe been to Africa a handful of times. They don’t know what it’s like living there. They don’t have families there. They don’t… have not had the experienced then, so, they have not come out pinpoint the positive aspects of the continent. There are many positive things happening. Africa got a female President. Africa has got, as I said, 15 stock markets now. It has…it shown some positive signs of growth. We’re seeing some improvements in the capital market growth and so on. And yet, if you asked the traditional sort of commentators on Africa, the one to…I have sort of self-imposed themselves as a spokespeople for Africa.

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