Aid and influence : do donors help or hinder? / Stephen Browne.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Browne, Stephen.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Economic assistance--Political aspects.

Economic assistance.

Physical Description:

xvii, 172 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm

Other Title:

Aids & influence

Place of Publication:

London ; Sterling, VA : Earthscan, 2006.

Summary:

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 many 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.

Contents:

The great mismatch

Aid origins

Evolving development fashions

Influence through conditionality

Aid to fragile states

Aid and imperialism

Donors from the south

New beginnings : a market for aid.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references ([151]-167) and index.

ISBN:

1844072029

1844072010

OCLC:

64335974

Publisher Number:

9781844072026

9781844072019