Interview, not so much about the content of the book:
Dambisa Moyo is having her moment. … Moyo believes this dependency relationship is perpetuated by Western governments and glorified by the celebrities who have made Africa their cause du jour. … The question—for Moyo and for Bono, for governments and for celebrities—is not really about whether to help. It's how to help better.

The danger is that this book will get more attention than it deserves. It has become fashionable to attack aid to Africa; an overdose of celebrity lobbying and compassion fatigue have prompted harsh critiques of what exactly aid has achieved in the past 50 years.

I doubt that many of Africa's problems can be attributed to aid. It is, in my view, something of a sideshow.
…
I think that Moyo's message is over-optimistic. She implies that, were aid cut, African governments would respond by turning to other sources of finance that would make them more accountable. I think this exaggerates the opportunity for alternative finance and underestimates the difficulties African societies face.
…
African societies face problems deeper than their dependence on aid. Divided by ethnic loyalties, they are too large to be nations. Yet with only tiny economies, they lack the scale to be effective states. As a result the vital public goods of security and accountability cannot adequately be provided. In their absence the valuable natural assets that many countries possess become liabilities instead of opportunities for prosperity.

Critics of Dambisa Moyo's Proposal Paul Collier, professor of economics at Oxford, and one of Moyo's teachers, believes that her message is overly optimistic. He suggests that donors must insist on transparent budgeting and accountability on the receiving side. African societies don't need predominantly money but help with peacekeeping,security guarantees, trade privileges and promoting good governance. Other critics fear that Moyo's harsh judgment of aid will encourage Western governments to cut back on their aid promises, while there are no other solutions in place. Whether one agrees with her argument or not, Dambisa Moyo offers an accessible summary of anti-aid arguments based on statistics and anecdotal evidence bolstered with an extensive bibliography. She deeply wishes for a better outcome on both sides: for those desperate to survive on less than a US$1 a-day in sub-Saharan Africa and those who want to help.