Foreign aid is about charity International development is about technical fixes At least that is what we as donor publics are constantly told The result is a highly dysfunctional aid system that mistakes short-term results for long-term transformation & gets attacked across the political spectrum
- those on the right claiming we don't spend enough those on the left that we don't spend enough The reality as Yanguas argues in this highly provocative book is that aid isn't
- or at least shouldn't be
- about levels of spending nor interventions shacked to vague notions of 'accountability' 'ownership' & 'harmonisation' Instead a different approach is possible one that acknowledges aid as being about struggle about taking sides about politics It is an approach that has been quietly applied by innovative development practitioners around the world providing political coverage for local reformers to open up spaces for change Drawing on a variety of convention-defying stories from aid practitioners across the world
- from Britain to the US; Sierra Leone to Honduras
- Yanguas provides an eye-opening account of what we really mean when we talk about aid