http://www.ted.com/talks/ngozi_okonjo_iweala_on_aid_versus_trade.html
Here’s an interesting TED talk from Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, the former finance minister of Nigeria, speaking on the importance of using aid productively in Africa. In particular, she makes note of the donor coordination problem that is plaguing the aid world and leading to a good deal of aid misallocation on the continent. It’s interesting to note that what she’s saying doesn’t seem to run contrary to the arguments made by Dambisa Moyo; she argues that aid can currently be used in a productive way that will relatively quickly reduce reliance on it. Rather than being used as a humanitarian band-aid, aid can help alleviate the pathologies currently hindering African development until the ‘virtuous cycle’ positive feedback loop of economic development can cover for the aid and even reduce the need for funding allocations in those areas. She takes an infrastructure based approach to aid investment that also hints at the end about the utility to expanding business (presumably through means such as microfinancing or start-up grants), particularly among female Africans who are often neglected from the development agenda as active agents, and who can be viewed as a relatively untapped economic and social resource.
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