Dead Aid: Dead Wrong
Dead Aid: Dead Wrong
Ben Hubbard is Chief of Staff at ONE, a global advocacy and campaigning organization dedicated to fighting extreme poverty and preventable disease, particularly in Africa.
It’s hard keeping up with the avalanche of inaccuracies and misinformation coming from Dambisa Moyo, the Zambian-born banker turned aid critic and now author of “Dead Aid.” You can see the growing catalogue that ONE has compiled here.
Yesterday, we caught wind of a Q and A she did with Fast Company magazine where she confirmed what we’ve long suspected: that Moyo has little understanding of the health and poverty fighting programs she routinely criticizes. This time it was PEPFAR, the US anti-AIDS program, which has put over 2 million Africans on life-saving treatment. Here’s what she had to say:
Let’s talk about Pepfar. They’ve increased it to $30 billion for 15 countries. Say every country roughly gets $2 billion. Zambia has 10 million people, so that’s roughly $200 a person. That’s approximately the per-capita income of Zambia — you’re roughly doubling the per capita income. But that has had no meaningful impact on the health sector. $2 billion and you can’t overhaul the system? That seems to me completely absurd. African governments have completely abdicated their responsibility.
If Ms. Moyo had any basic knowledge of the program – or had done a simple Google search — she’d know that last summer the U.S. Congress approved $39 billion in funding over five years for HIV/AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis programs under both PEPFAR and the Geneva-based Global Fund to fight AIDS, TB and Malaria. Together, these two programs fund projects in over 137 countries.
PEPFAR is not a perfect program and its supporters have historically been its loudest critics, but no one with any basic knowledge of the program would doubt its groundbreaking (and lifesaving) achievements in just five years. By the end of 2008, PEPFAR was supporting treatment for more than 2 million people in Africa; care for more than 10 million people with HIV worldwide, including more than 4 million orphans and vulnerable children; and providing antiretroviral treatment for pregnant women, allowing nearly 240,000 infants to be born HIV free.
Furthermore, consider that just 10 years ago it cost $10,000 per person per year to treat a patient with AIDS. Treatment is now available for $140 per person per year, a breathtaking improvement in efficiency.
Moyo goes on to say that only a fifth of PEPFAR money reaches the ground.
The dollar amount [of PEPFAR] that hits the individual is 20 cents on the dollar if you’re lucky.
We tend to agree with Ms. Moyo that not enough aid money is hitting the ground, but her suggestion that only 20 cents on the dollar in PEPFAR money is hitting the ground has no basis that we are aware of. We challenge Ms. Moyo to provide evidence of her assertion. Where is the evidence? Rather than making up numbers and misleading the public, we wish Ms Moyo would join us in supporting the new aid transparency initiative we’re backing called Publish What You Fund.
Moyo’s comments would be laughable if the subject matter wasn’t AIDS and the question wasn’t whether the United States and others should continue these successful, life saving programs.
8 Responses to “Dead Aid: Dead Wrong”
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One might ask YOU, where is YOUR evidence that Ms. Mayo’s estimate is wrong? I challenge you to provide evidence that her assertion is not true. Where are the rigorous program evaluations for PEPFAR? Where is the accounting for all the money spent? Exactly HOW much of every dollar IS “hitting the ground” then?
I don’t know the answer to that question and apparently neither do you. Your post is arrogant and offensive and your characterization of someone whose concerns are legitimate shouldn’t be called “laughable” unless you can provide evidence with links that her assertions aren’t true. You fail to mention, I note, whether the other 2/3 of PEPFAR funding is as effective as the provision of HIV drugs. How about the ABC prevention programs funded under PEPFAR? How effective are those programs? Has massive PEPFAR funding actually reduced the incidence of malaria and TB in funded countries, or not? I see on your website that you make some assertions to that effect, but provide no evidence in the form of official prevalence trends.
Furthermore, consider that just 10 years ago it cost $10,000 per person per year to treat a patient with AIDS. Treatment is now available for $140 per person per year, a breathtaking improvement in efficiency.
Please explain how this advance in reducing the cost of HIV treatment has anything to do with PEPFAR. It is indeed a breathtaking improvement, but it isn’t germane to your point at all. The fact of reduction in cost has enabled PEPFAR to expand the number of people treated, but wasn’t instrumental in the actual reduction in cost.
I’m sorely disappointed that Wonk Room would allow a post like this, short on facts and heavy on personal attacks, to be published. I don’t know whether Moyo is wrong. Maybe she is. But your fact-free personal attacks don’t do much to enlighten us.
April 3rd, 2009 at 11:01 amIronic, then, that WTF’s entire rant is itself free of any facts or attributions, simply attacking Wonk Room’s well-researched post. WTF is apparently unable to distinguish between fact-based criticism and personal attacks. One wonders if there’s an agenda behind this post.
April 3rd, 2009 at 12:19 pmThis piece is not well-researched. You tell me what is “well-researched” about it. It is nothing but a personal attack. You give a couple of quotes and then go on to personally attack her without demonstrating that what she is asserting is wrong. You haven’t presented any facts or data to support what you are saying, nor have you told us why this woman’s numbers are wrong. In other words, your rant is fact-free. Sure, get up on your high horse about being called on the shortcomings of your post, but it is not worthy of appearing on Wonk Room. Instead, you proceed to attack me, and make silly insinuations about why I am critical of your post. Grow up. It isn’t incumbent on ME to provide YOU with data, it is incumbent on YOU to provide data that demonstrates what YOU say is true, or at least what this woman says is false.
April 3rd, 2009 at 3:33 pmWTF,
Here are the facts you ask for, per ONE:
It’s quite clear that Mr. Hubbard’s argument is backed up with facts, all sited and attributed to reputable sources.
April 3rd, 2009 at 4:13 pmUnfortunetely, Moyo’s facts collapse under closer scrutiny.
I’m sorry. A fact-checking piece whose only references go to the person’s own organization is not convincing. Real program evaluation is performed by reputable, independent researchers. The fact is that there are no reputable program evaluations of the expenditure of PEPFAR funds (I’ve looked), whether they have been spent in accordance with fiduciary duty or whether they are meeting their program goals. I’m sure your organization is a worthy one, but the recipient of massive government funding is hardly in a position to credibly evaluate the effectiveness of how they are meeting their goals. Saying “We are doing great! It’s a great program!” doesn’t mean that those funds are effective in reducing incidence or prevalence of HIV, malaria, and TB. That is what PEPFAR purports to accomplish and no one that I’ve asked can demonstrate that it actually does that.
Personal attacks and character smears, which you have engaged in, upon people who are asking those kinds of questions doesn’t help your credibility. I hope this kind of “research” isn’t typical of Wonk Room. I had in the past been impressed with the quality of their policy briefs, on subjects with which I am less knowledgeable.
April 3rd, 2009 at 5:13 pmInteresting critiqu, but isn’t one of the main arguments by Dr. Moyo the fact that aid has seriously allowed African governments to be non-responsive to their citizens when it comes to basic responsibilities like healthcare, clean water, education etc. When will these governments be helad accountable? What happens if the US government can’t subsidize African governments anymore? Shouldn’t organizations like ONE be actively pushing the same agenda as Dr. Moyo, which is to ensure Africans can stand on their on two feet and be productive members of the global society. Or is their something I’m missing?
April 6th, 2009 at 1:40 pmI agree with #6 Veras as I watched the CSPAN interview with Moyo on her new book. However, anyone publishing a book that is quoting statistics should be held accountable for making sure that the statistics are correct and source them. Anyone can make an argument that Foreign Aid to Africa could be improved. I suggest that the larger problem that Moyo should look at are the governments of Africa that create the greater problems with the aid rather than the aid programs themselves. Lets put Moyo in a village, give her little or no education, government violence and social unrest, AIDS and TB, and see if she does not want any foreign aid to help herself live. I do not see her work as any significant comment on progress to an improved Africa for Africans.
April 8th, 2009 at 2:34 pmAll valid points, but all of Dr. Moyo’s statistics are sighted. Do you honestly think she’d risk whatever small reputation she may have on false data? Thats risky, if not stupid I’d say. And its probably not wise to engage her on the merits of her experience since she was born and raised in Zambia, so who knows what she has experienced. Maybe this is the breath of fresh Africa needs and it can pull itself out of being the only second class continent
April 9th, 2009 at 1:09 pm