The Politics And Abuse Of Foreign Aid To Africa

A new book called The Bottom Billion by Oxford economist Paul Collier shows that Bono is half blind in calling the nations of West to pour huge new sums of cash into Africa. As the Economist reports: "Take Nigeria. Over the past 30 years or so, it has received some $280 billion 'with depressingly little to show for it.' Plainly, vast dollops of aid have gone down the drain. In one of many statistical cameos, he cites a study showing that only 1% of 20 million British pounds of aid sent to Chad actually reached the rural health clinics that were its intended target."