Dambisa Felicia Moyo, Baroness Moyo (born 2 February 1969)[2] is a Zambian-born economist and author, known for her analysis of macroeconomics and global affairs.[3] She has written five books, including four New York Times bestsellers: Dead Aid: Why Aid Is Not Working and How There Is a Better Way for Africa (2009), How the West Was Lost: Fifty Years of Economic Folly – And the Stark Choices that Lie Ahead (2011), Winner Take All: China's Race for Resources and What It Means for the World (2012), Edge of Chaos: Why Democracy Is Failing to Deliver Economic Growth – and How to Fix It (2018), and How Boards Work: And How They Can Work Better in a Chaotic World (2021).
Early life and education
Moyo was born in 1969 in Lusaka, Zambia.[4] She spent some of her childhood in the United States, while her father was pursuing his post graduate education, then returned to Zambia.[5]
Following her MBA, Moyo worked at the World Bank from May 1993 to September 1995.[10] She was a consultant in the bank's Europe, Central Asia and Africa departments,[11] and was one of the 20 contributing authors to the World Bank's 1994 annual World Development Report.[12]
After pursuing her MPA and PhD, Moyo joined Goldman Sachs as a research economist and strategist in 2001.[13] She was with the company until November 2008, working mainly in debt capital markets, hedge funds coverage, and global macroeconomics.[11][14] Part of her tenure at Goldman Sachs was spent advising developing countries on the issuing of bonds on the international market.[15] She was also head of economic research and strategy for sub-Saharan Africa.[10]
Moyo is a public speaker, commentator, and columnist. She has written for international financial and economic journals, periodicals, and publications, including The Wall Street Journal,[34]Financial Times,[35][36]The New York Times,[37] and Time.[38]
Moyo's first book, Dead Aid: Why Aid Is Not Working and How There is Another Way for Africa (2009), became a New York Times bestseller.[69] It argues that government-to-government foreign aid has harmed Africa and should be phased out. In the book she states that in the past 50 years, more than $1 trillion in development-related aid has been transferred from rich countries to Africa, and questions whether anything has changed.[70]
The book suggests that official development assistance (ODA), as opposed to humanitarian aid, perpetuates the cycle of poverty and hinders economic growth in Africa.[71][72][73] It offers developing countries proposals for financial development instead of relying on foreign government-to-government aid.[73]
The Financial Times summarized the book's argument, stating "Limitless development assistance to African governments, [Moyo] argues, has fostered dependency, encouraged corruption and ultimately perpetuated poor governance and poverty."[74]
How the West Was Lost
Moyo's second book, How the West Was Lost: Fifty Years of Economic Folly – And the Stark Choices that Lie Ahead (2011), became a New York Times bestseller, debuting at No. 6.[75]
In a review in The Observer, Paul Collier wrote that "her diagnosis of the recent disasters in financial markets is succinct and sophisticated".[76]The Guardian stated, "How the West Was Lost is more interesting, wider in scale and more important than Dead Aid." It went on to state, "Moyo is a very orthodox thinker, unable to consider a world beyond free markets and underpriced resources and blind to the social effects of what she proposes and celebrates"."[77][78]
Similarly, Alan Beattie of the Financial Times wrote, "The challenges it identifies are for the most part real, if not original. But the huge flaws of the emerging economies are ignored."[79]The Economist said "these arguments need much better supporting material than the book provides".[80][81]
Winner Take All
Moyo's third book, Winner Take All: China's Race for Resources and What It Means for the World (2012), examines global commodity dynamics over the next several decades, specifically China's massive global rush for natural resources including hard commodities (metals and minerals) and soft commodities (timber and food). It predicts the financial and geopolitical implications of a world of diminishing resources,[82] and argues that China is already well on the way to gaining the upper hand in world economic dominance.[83]
Winner Take All became a New York Times bestseller.[84] A review in the Financial Times stated that "If Dambisa Moyo is right, the demands of the world's most populous state are bad news for the rest of us. ... One cannot accuse Moyo of failing to do her homework."[85]The Telegraph commented "Moyo thinks [China's impact on the global commodity market] will go on and on, powered by an unstoppable Chinese economy. Perhaps she is right, but the grounds for doubting whether the future will be a straight line from the past deserve a hearing."[86]
Edge of Chaos: Why Democracy Is Failing to Deliver Economic Growth – and How to Fix It
In Edge of Chaos,[87] the author crafts a compelling argument that "the global failure to achieve sustained, inclusive growth underpins the rampant political turmoil" increasingly prevalent in the 21st century.[88] Moyo identifies improvements to worker efficiency as key to economic growth,[88] and discusses the need to overhaul democratic capitalism, with potential solutions.[89] The book outlines a 10-point "Blueprint for a New Democracy",[89] designed to encourage the growth of capitalism.[88]
How Boards Work: And How They Can Work Better in a Chaotic World
Moyo's fifth book, How Boards Work: And How They Can Work Better in a Chaotic World was released in 2021.[90] It provides an insider's perspective of corporate boards, reassesses the three-part board mandate, and calls for more transparent, knowledgeable, and diverse boards to steer companies through 21st-century challenges. The Financial Times stated that the book would be "highly instructive for aspiring non-executives" and provided "thoughtful analysis and reform proposals against which boardroom sophisticates can usefully test their assumptions".[90]
Personal life
In December 2020 Moyo married billionaire Jared Smith, co-founder of Utah-based cloud computing company Qualtrics.[91]
Bibliography
Dead Aid: Why Aid Is Not Working and How There Is a Better Way for Africa (2009) ISBN978-0374139568
How the West Was Lost: Fifty Years of Economic Folly – And the Stark Choices that Lie Ahead (2011) ISBN978-0374533212
Winner Take All: China's Race for Resources and What It Means for the World (2012) ISBN978-0465028283
How Boards Work: And How They Can Work Better in a Chaotic World (2021) ISBN978-0349128405
References
^ ab"Baroness Moyo". MPs and Lords. UK Parliament. Archived from the original on 8 November 2022. Retrieved 8 November 2022.
^Moyo showed a copy of an official document with her date and place of birth as part of a lecture she gave at TEDGlobal 2013, Edinburgh, Scotland. Moyo, Dambisa (June 2013). "Is China the new idol for emerging economies?". TED. Archived from the original on 11 November 2013. Retrieved 13 November 2013.
^ abMoyo, Dambisa. "Preface"Archived 19 March 2017 at the Wayback Machine. Excerpted from DEAD AID: Why Aid Is Not Working and How There Is a Better Way for Africa. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2009. Reprinted in The Wall Street Journal, 20 March 2009.
^ ab"Dambisa Moyo". Encyclopædia Britannica. Archived from the original on 2 April 2019. Retrieved 2 March 2019.
^"College welcomes new Honorary Fellows". queens.shorthandstories.com. Queens' College Cambridge University. 10 March 2023. Archived from the original on 18 October 2023. Retrieved 26 March 2024.