Book review: Peter Burnell, Foreign Aid in a Changing World, Buckingham: Open University Press, 1997, ISBN 0335-19524-5, 268 pages (no price given). Melakou Tegegn, introduction Development and Patronage, Oxford: Oxfam Publications, 1997, ISBN 0-85598-376-0, 111 pages (no price given).
✍ Scribed by Susan B. Rifkin
- Book ID
- 101295458
- Publisher
- John Wiley and Sons
- Year
- 1999
- Tongue
- English
- Weight
- 53 KB
- Volume
- 14
- Category
- Article
- ISSN
- 0749-6753
No coin nor oath required. For personal study only.
✦ Synopsis
As we approach the millennium, we live in a world radically dierent from the one which existed a half a century ago. Our present world is characterized by a rapidly expanding information base, a globalization of ideas and products made possible by this base and a shift from State responsibility for welfare to a market driven economy with a prominent place for the private sector. It is in this context in which foreign aid is reviewed and analysed by the two books considered in this review.
Burnell's book is a comprehensive, well written and well argued study of the topic of foreign aid beginning with a review of its history in the 20th century as a moral responsibility for the victor nations of World War II. He details the path from these origins to the present day against the history of economic development aid and its concern for the poor. Noting that it has moved from charity to a market concern, he also highlights the reduction of the money available for foreign aid, both in military aid and welfare assistance with the end of the cold war.
Burnell begins by looking at de®nitions of aid, highlighting the de®nition given by the DAC (Development Assistance Committee) which says aid is a transfer of resources on concessional ®nancial terms with the purpose of promoting economic development and social welfare in developing countries. He then examines how this de®nition was translated in both theory and practice. He gives details about its application, the objections to aid, the major donor countries, the various actors both government and NGOs (nongovernment organizations). He looks at the politics of aid and the radical changes in the justi®cation and patterns of aid after the disintegration of the Soviet Union.
His conclusions are not optimistic. He emphasizes the decreasing political concern for nations which no longer are pawns in the Cold War, the `donor fatigue' syndrome in which money given seems only to make poverty worse (witness the case of sub-Saharan Africa), and the concern of donors that aid be tied to meet donor objectives which are increasingly linked to the development of the market economy. He questions whether aid is still relevant and shows how if it is to be, there is increasing talk about a holistic approach and the building of true partnerships between donors and recipients. He concludes that poverty has not been radically reduced. The question is whether and how foreign aid is able to contribute in this radically and rapidly changing environment.
The Oxfam reader is a collection of articles published in their journal, Development in Practice. Responding, like Burnell, to a world radically dierent from when `development' and aid were ®rst conceptualized, these pieces re¯ect critically examined responses of NGOs as aid givers in the present context. Contributors are chosen from a wide range of people from academics to practitioners, from both North and South. The emphasis, however, is not on experience but rather on examining some fundamental issues of development and of the relationship between NGOs and those who they seek to help. The variety of topics makes the reader interesting. There is an article on the role of information technology and libraries in development using examples from Africa.