Dead aid to Africa's North-South Corridor?

DFID, the UK aid department, asked me to volunteer to come down here to Lusaka in Zambia to help “facilitate” the launch of the North-South Corridor project for which they and other donors have thus far raised $1.35bn.

It involved four presidents, the head of the WTO, a DFID minister, an EU commissioner, international banks, ministers from 26 countries in east, central and southern Africa (from Angola to Zimbabwe), and a thousand delegates.

Bit of a handful, you might say.

But as I have mentioned in my earlier blog, this is a huge endeavour promoted by three regional groupings: the East African Community (EAC), COMESA (central Africa), and SADC (southern Africa).

Presidents Banda of Zambia, Museveni of Uganda, Kibaki of Kenya, and Motlanthe of South Africa talked eternally of its merits – Museveni for 40 minutes, including an intriguing attack on donors.

The event coincided with the Zambian economist (and former World Bank and Goldman Sachs banker) Dambisa Moyo’s book Dead Aid. I shall be interviewing her at the Hay Festival, intrigued to know whether she regards this $1.35bn to this infrastructural endeavour a total waste of money.

Her book is a provocative and important read. I hope to make a film sometime on the subject of this blog.