The Trouble with Africa: Why Foreign Aid Isn't Working [Hardcover]

"'... boisterous, entertaining and highly accessible. [Calderisi] challenges the shibboleths of the aid industry with courage, compassion and humour. A timely and bracing read.' Michela Wrong, author of In the Footsteps of Mr. Kurtz 'This is a timely, intriguing and provocative book.' Baroness Lynda Chalker, former Minister of Overseas Development for the United Kingdom 'The Trouble with Africa is a blast of fresh air over a continent that has for decades been suffocating under a blanket of well meant concern, ineffectual at best, and harmful at worst.' Michael Holman, former Africa editor, Financial Times"

A brilliant, striking book.

'The Trouble with Africa debunks widely held myths, and will stimulate an important, ongoing debate.'
--This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Frustrated by years of political correctness surrounding discussions of Africa, this book cuts through the conventions. Long time World Bank official Robert Calderisi reveals how most of Africa's misfortunes are self-imposed, and why the world needs to help the continent in a different way. Calderisi shows that Africa has steadily lost markets by its own mismanagement; that corrupt, dictatorial regimes have hobbled agriculture, enterprise and foreign investment; that African family values and fatalism are more destructive than tribalism; and that African leaders prey intentionally on Western guilt. Calderisi exposes the shortcomings and indulgences of foreign aid and debt relief, and proposes his own radical solutions. Drawing on many years of first hand experience, "The Trouble with Africa" highlights issues which have been ignored by Africa's leaders but have long worried ordinary Africans, diplomats, academics, business leaders, aid workers, volunteers, and missionaries. It ripples with stories which only someone who has talked directly to African farmers - and heads of state - could recount. Calderisi's aim is to move beyond the hand-wringing and finger-pointing which dominates most discussions of Africa. Instead, he suggests concrete steps which Africans and the world can take to unlock the talent and enterprise of the continent.

Robert Calderisi studied at the Universities of Montreal, Oxford, Sussex and London. He has had a thirty-year career in international development, principally at the World Bank, where between 1997 and 2000 he was the Bank's international spokesperson on Africa.