Lead editorial of The Guardian, the UK's broadsheet newspaper, features ISS Professor Andrew Fischer's research into wealth extraction from Zambia.
The Guardian editorial argues that the corruption cited by the US government as a reason for cutting aid to Zambia is dwarfed by the billions extracted from the country by multinational corporations.
Fischer argues that Zambia is a textbook example of a low-income commodity exporter shaped by foreign capital, where export booms enrich multinationals rather than the country itself. Zambia is the second-largest copper producer in Africa, with the mineral accounting for approximately 70% of the country's export earnings. Yet most of its foreign exchange earnings flow straight back out of the country.
He points out that although part of this outflow may involve wealthy Zambians, it most likely occurs through the large mining corporations that dominate the economy. The real blame lies with the global economic system, which wilfully closes its eyes to these financial discrepancies.
Read the editorial in today's Guardian - 'The Guardian view on Zambia's Trumpian predicaments: US aid cuts and dwarfed by a far bigger heist'. The Guardian, 11 June 2025.
- Assistant professor