#deadaid

"Now, the question comes for our donors and partners: having spent so much money, what difference did it make? In the last 50 years, you've spent US $400 billion to Africa. But what is there to show for it? And the donors should ask: What are we doing wrong, or, what are the people we are helping doing wrong? Obviously somebody's not getting something right. Otherwise, you'd have something to show for your money. The donors have also made a lot of mistakes. Many times they have assumed they are the ones who know what countries in Africa need. They want to be the ones to choose where to put this money, to be the ones to run it, without any accountability. In other cases, they have simply associated with the wrong people and money gets lost and ends up in people's pockets. We should correct that."

"Rethinking foreign aid requires reconsideration of a theory of aid and its administration better suited to taking on board radical criticisms without giving up on the necessity for action and engagement upon which reformist arguments are predicated. Foreign aid needs to be informed by both a radical’s sensitivity to aid’s latent potential to do harm and a reformist’s conviction in its potential to be made more effective. Minding, and then bridging, the gap between radicals and reformers is thus an important first step for moving towards a truly more effective aid."