It's nonsense to claim Bono's activism has silenced African voices

Our group has campaigned to give the continent's brightest minds more of a say, writes Edith Jibunoh
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Edith Jibunoh
The Guardian, Wednesday 25 February 2009
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Dambisa Moyo blames aid for Africa's ills, the subject of her new book Dead Aid ('Everybody knows it doesn't work', 19 February). I do not want to question Moyo's motivation; she argues from a sense of passionate conviction born of frustration at the poverty in our continent. But her polemic ignores or misrepresents many facts.
"Aid has been, and continues to be, an unmitigated political, economic and humanitarian disaster for most parts of the developing world," she says, while dismissing the campaigning efforts of Bono and Bob Geldof as "glamour aid".
We at One, the advocacy group founded by Bono, have never argued that aid is the only answer to Africa's development. Rather we have said that, managed properly with a clear exit strategy, aid has a useful role to play in some countries.
The evidence is out there to see: more than two million people in Africa on life-saving antiretroviral Aids drugs; 34 million more African children going to school for the first time; malaria deaths halved in Rwanda and Ethiopia. All this has happened within the past decade thanks to a combination of increasingly effective aid and improved African leadership.
Moyo argues for all aid to be cut off within five years: "I'm pretty sure most families would be willing to make the sacrifice." Well, I'd like to invite her to some of the villages I've visited recently to see if people there concur.
The irony is that we and many in the development community agree with Moyo on a great deal. Yes, "good governance" and "transparent institutions" in Africa are essential. Yes, trade is more important than aid in the long run. And yes, China is playing an important role in Africa. Moyo is also right to point out that the government aid system needs serious reform to make it more efficient and to give Africans more of a say. These are all things we have campaigned for.
The trouble is, none of Moyo's "alternatives" to aid are panaceas - they are complementary measures at best. She argues that African countries should look towards other sources of finance. "Where private capital trumps aid every time is on the question of governance," she says.
We can only assume that the ink on her manuscript dried before the global economic crisis. The Ghanaian finance ministry, for example, recently had to postpone its bond issue. There is no credit available in Africa. And even if there were, why would finance raised through bonds necessarily be used any more effectively than aid? It comes down to each country's governance.
Moyo goes seriously awry when she suggests that the activism of Bono and Geldof has displaced the voices of "well-spoken, smart African leaders". This is plain nonsense and has angered many Africans. She could talk to our advisory board, which includes some of Africa's brightest minds, including Kenyan anti-corruption campaigner John Githongo.
I wish Moyo could have used her whirlwind book tour to take on the real villains in this piece - such as the arms dealers fuelling Africa's civil wars, or the multinationals fostering corruption by paying massive bribes. Now that would be a polemic worth reading.
• Edith Jibunoh is an economist, and senior Africa manager for the campaign group One
edith.jibunoh@one.org