Aid and Influence: Do Donors Help or Hinder? - Softcover

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1844072029 ISBN 13: 9781844072026

Publisher: Routledge, 2006

Synopsis

Aid is always a means of influence: political, commercial, military and security-related. Some influence is benign, but much of it is coercive, even 'imperialistic'. Given the nature of aid, its effectiveness should be judged not only in developmental terms, but in terms of international relations. Even donors agree that, on both counts, the returns are meagre.

This book, drawing on the author's 30 years of field experience, proposes two kinds of solution: donors should climb down from paternalistic central planning practices and support public goods that are neutral and beneficial � cancellation of debt, fair trade, responsible economic governance, vaccine production, peace-making and peace-keeping. For their part, developing countries should follow the example of the most successful among them: recognize the true costs of 'free' aid, exercise their prerogative to choose their development partners and start paying their own way.

About this title

About the Author

Stephen Browne is a Director at the UN with over 25 years' experience in international aid and development. His books include Beyond Aid (1999) and Developing Capacity through Technical Cooperation (2002).

Edition details

• Publisher: Routledge
• Publication date: 2006
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1844072029
• ISBN 13: 9781844072026
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 192
• Editor: Browne Stephen