(March 1, 2010) Soaring Chinese investment in Africa has placed the international aid community on high alert. While policymakers around the world debate whether China’s no-strings-attached approach to African investment is good for the continent’s economic development, many onlookers have failed to ask: how do Africans feel about it? A recent poll, "How do Africans see China after all?" by academic Loro Horta, suggests opinion is strongly divided.

(February 5, 2010) Africa’s fight against corruption is being blocked by gangsters at every level of administrations and the campaign is doomed to fail unless presidents themselves spearhead the battle, a top campaigner said.

(February 2, 2010) In a recent piece for Foreign Policy, Gerard Russell, a former British and U.N. diplomat and now a Fellow of Harvard’s Carr Centre for Human Rights Policy, looks at the disturbing effect foreign aid is having on Afghanistan. With over half of the country’s licit economy supplied by foreigners, Russell says—referencing Dambisa Moyo’s book "Dead Aid all too often "foreign aid undermines society, encourages rentier behaviour, siphons off talent, reduces pressure for reform, and undermines democracy. Does this sound familiar, Afghanistan-watchers?

(January 1, 2010) As the Zambian economist Dambisa Moyo argues, the concept of foreign aid is flawed — not just because corrupt dictators divert aid for nefarious or selfish purposes but also because even in reasonably democratic countries, aid creates perverse incentives and unintended consequences.