The Penguin Podcast is back! Listen Now
Aid and Other Dirty Business

Aid and Other Dirty Business

How Good Intentions Have Failed the World's Poor

Summary

Do you know why Africa is so poor? What really happens to your charity money? Why do trade rules fail African countries and yet cost you too? We've heard it all before: the corrupt leaders, heartless global corporations, the wicked World Bank.

But the answers are much closer to home... and so are the solutions

When Giles Bolton began working in the world of aid and development, he travelled to Africa convinced that he could solve problems, save villages and sing songs with the locals under a shimmering sunset. The reality proved rather less romantic, and far more shocking...

Aid and Other Dirty Business is a radical, brilliantly readable and totally original approach to the seemingly unending problem of poverty in Africa. It may change your life, but, more importantly, it will help you change the lives of others.

Reviews

  • Superbly lucid and readable
    Guardian

About the author

Giles Bolton

Born in London in 1973, Giles Bolton has been closely involved in Africa and it's development for more than ten years as civil servant, diplomat and aid worker. From 1996 until 2004 he worked for the British Government's Department for International Development (DFID), in countries such as Kenya, Rwanda and Iraq.
Learn More

Sign up to the Penguin Newsletter

For the latest books, recommendations, author interviews and more