Overview

Poverty Reduction Strategies (PRSs) are the new buzzwords in development aid. Some seventy developing countries have already elaborated a PRS in response to the requirements of the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank and bilateral aid agencies and as a precondition for rolling over past debts or obtaining new assistance. While it may be premature to reach conclusions as to their ultimate economic and social impacts, implications for local policy making and political processes, as this book explains, are already becoming clear. PRSs, as with the Structural Adjustment policies that they have ostensibly replaced, run up against a central paradox: in vesting decisive policymaking powers in external agencies, the very process of drawing up development strategies to prioritize reducing poverty can undermine the consolidation of democratic forces, structures and ideas in developing countries. While the nuanced conclusions of these field studies show that the political terrain and the specific impacts of PRSs in different countries are highly variegated, serious questions arise about the long-term political consequences of this new generation of contemporary development practices.

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9781842775226

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Reviews

'The great value of this book comes from seeing aid as profoundly political, that is, the new poverty reduction consensus is not dismissed as pure rhetoric, nor endorsed as an unquestionable good, but instead analysed in terms of its actual impact and reconfiguration of domestic political arenas. Most revealingly perhaps, the book shows how partnerships can undermine democratic accountability, promoting a distinctively technocratic approach to development. For anyone seeking to understand the contemporary aid relationship, this is both crucial and exciting reading.' - Rita Abrahamsen, author of Disciplining Democracy: Development Discourse and Good Governance in Africa 'A fascinating ground-level exploration of the current development mantras 'civil society participation' and 'country ownership'. The case studies pull no punches in arguing that international institutions, including some international NGOs, have entrenched their places at the policy-making table and helped marginalise independent national civil society formations and indigenous institutions. The analysis shows the dangers of a new generation of one size fits all thinking, but also the importance of national political circumstances in determining outcomes.' - Alex Wilks, Coordinator, European Network on Debt and Development 'The arguments presented in this book are thought-provoking and, at times, extremely provocative. The forensic approach to some of the country case material makes the book an important contribution to the growing academic literature that offers a critique of the politics of 'post-conditionality'. - Alison Evans, Institute of Development Studies, University of Sussex, Brighton, UK 'The strength of the book is its emphasis on the role of civil society in the aid relatioship, a topic infrequently studied.' - Diana Cammack, Overseas Development Institute, London 'This wonderful contribution...captivating...carefully written, with first-hand experience at the local level; this book is a fascinating account about the current situation of the politics of international aid. The book is a useful complementary book for undergraduate or graduate courses in development studies.' - Carlos F. Liard-Muriente, Central Connecticut State University, Progress in Development Studies

A fascinating ground-level exploration of the current development mantras 'civil society participation' and 'country ownership'. The case studies pull no punches in arguing that international institutions, including some international NGOs, have entrenched their places at the policy-making table and helped marginalise independent national civil society formations and indigenous institutions. The analysis shows the dangers of a new generation of one size fits all thinking, but also the importance of national political circumstances in determining outcomes. * Alex Wilks, coordinator of the European Network on Debt and Development * The arguments presented in this book are thought-provoking and, at times, extremely provocative. The forensic approach to some of the country case material makes the book an important contribution to the growing academic literature that offers a critique of the politics of post-conditionality. * Alison Evans, Institute of Development Studies, University of Sussex * This wonderful contribution...captivating...carefully written, with first-hand experience at the local level; this book is a fascinating account about the current situation of the politics of international aid. The book is a useful complementary book for undergraduate or graduate courses in development studies. * Carlos F. Liard-Muriente, Central Connecticut State University * The strength of the book is its emphasis on the role of civil society in the aid relatioship, a topic infrequently studied. * Diana Cammack, Overseas Development Institute, London * The great value of this book comes from seeing aid as profoundly political, that is, the new poverty reduction consensus is not dismissed as pure rhetoric, nor endorsed as an unquestionable good, but instead analysed in terms of its actual impact and reconfiguration of domestic political arenas. Most revealingly perhaps, the book shows how partnerships can undermine democratic accountability, promoting a distinctively technocratic approach to development. For anyone seeking to understand the contemporary aid relationship, this is both crucial and exciting reading. * Rita Abrahamsen, author of Disciplining Democracy *

'The great value of this book comes from seeing aid as profoundly political, that is, the new poverty reduction consensus is not dismissed as pure rhetoric, nor endorsed as an unquestionable good, but instead analysed in terms of its actual impact and reconfiguration of domestic political arenas. Most revealingly perhaps, the book shows how partnerships can undermine democratic accountability, promoting a distinctively technocratic approach to development. For anyone seeking to understand the contemporary aid relationship, this is both crucial and exciting reading.' - Rita Abrahamsen, author of Disciplining Democracy: Development Discourse and Good Governance in Africa 'A fascinating ground-level exploration of the current development mantras 'civil society participation' and 'country ownership'. The case studies pull no punches in arguing that international institutions, including some international NGOs, have entrenched their places at the policy-making table and helped marginalise independent national civil society formations and indigenous institutions. The analysis shows the dangers of a new generation of one size fits all thinking, but also the importance of national political circumstances in determining outcomes.' - Alex Wilks, Coordinator, European Network on Debt and Development

Author Information

Jeremy Gould is an anthropologist whose work deals with politics, development aid and the post-colonial state in Africa. The bulk of his fieldwork has been in Zambia where he is currently working on an ethnographic account of the legal domain. Among his publications are Localizing modernity. Action, interests and association in rural Zambia (1997) and Ethnographies of aid. Intimate explorations of development texts and encounters (2004). Gould is a fellow of the Academy of Finland, based at the Institute of Development Studies, University of Helsinki.

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