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9781788534123

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'Through lived experience, Ian Smillie shows what is practically possible, with patience and determination, in alleviating poverty and spreading fairness and justice.' St�phane Fischler, former president World Diamond Council and current Board of Trustees, Resolve.ngo 'Ian Smillie has written a spellbinding memoir of a life's journey that, beginning when he was a diffident 22-year-old Canadian just out of university, takes him through newly-independent Africa - hopeful in parts but already showing signs of corrosive fissures - to Asia and the Caribbean, during which he grows into a grizzled, wise, and venerable warrior. Like his hero Graham Greene, Ian really seems to have lost his heart to Sierra Leone, returning there again and again, even amidst a civil war fuelled by a warlord, Liberia's Charles Tayor, who he finally helped put behind bars. I am proud to have worked with him in this effort, and to call him a friend. No-one reading this rich, penetrating and deeply moving personal record can fail to appreciate the depth of Mr. Smillie's commitment to that elusive and protean thing, 'development'.' Lansana Gberie (PhD), Ambassador of Sierra Leone to Switzerland, author of A Dirty War in West Africa (Hurst) 'Weaving anecdote, insight and incomparable breadth of experience, Ian's memoire navigates a development labyrinth. There are pathways to unviable projects, to messy aid politics, to personal risk, to justice happening. From decades of travel, here is an explorer's guide for the developmentally curious.' Professor Alan Fowler is a pracademic: a co-founder of INTRAC and of the Centre on African Philanthropy and Social Investment at the University of Witwatersrand Under Development describes the amazing adventures of a remarkable development practitioner, thinker and author - who lived and worked in Sierra Leone, Nigeria, Bangladesh and Canada gaining technical-cum-political expertise on diamonds, jute, concrete and so much more. Ian Smillie tells his real-life adventures with the narrative and descriptive skills of a novelist while also challenging the international development community to reimagine and transform development.' Marty Chen, Harvard University, WIEGO and BRAC Global

'Through lived experience, Ian Smillie shows what is practically possible, with patience and determination, in alleviating poverty and spreading fairness and justice.' Stéphane Fischler, former president World Diamond Council and current Board of Trustees, Resolve.ngo 'Ian Smillie has written a spellbinding memoir of a life's journey that, beginning when he was a diffident 22-year-old Canadian just out of university, takes him through newly-independent Africa - hopeful in parts but already showing signs of corrosive fissures - to Asia and the Caribbean, during which he grows into a grizzled, wise, and venerable warrior. Like his hero Graham Greene, Ian really seems to have lost his heart to Sierra Leone, returning there again and again, even amidst a civil war fuelled by a warlord, Liberia's Charles Tayor, who he finally helped put behind bars. I am proud to have worked with him in this effort, and to call him a friend. No-one reading this rich, penetrating and deeply moving personal record can fail to appreciate the depth of Mr. Smillie's commitment to that elusive and protean thing, 'development'.' Lansana Gberie (PhD), Ambassador of Sierra Leone to Switzerland, author of A Dirty War in West Africa (Hurst) 'Weaving anecdote, insight and incomparable breadth of experience, Ian's memoire navigates a development labyrinth. There are pathways to unviable projects, to messy aid politics, to personal risk, to justice happening. From decades of travel, here is an explorer's guide for the developmentally curious.' Professor Alan Fowler is a pracademic: a co-founder of INTRAC and of the Centre on African Philanthropy and Social Investment at the University of Witwatersrand Under Development describes the amazing adventures of a remarkable development practitioner, thinker and author - who lived and worked in Sierra Leone, Nigeria, Bangladesh and Canada gaining technical-cum-political expertise on diamonds, jute, concrete and so much more. Ian Smillie tells his real-life adventures with the narrative and descriptive skills of a novelist while also challenging the international development community to reimagine and transform development.' Marty Chen, Harvard University, WIEGO and BRAC Global

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Ian Smillie has lived and worked in Sierra Leone, Nigeria and Bangladesh. He was a founder of the Canadian NGO, Inter Pares, Executive Director of CUSO and he was a leader in the campaign to end “blood diamonds.” He has worked as a development consultant with many Canadian, British, American and European organizations and he is the author of several books.

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