Despite hundreds of billions of dollars spent on foreign aid to sub-Saharan Africa, a sure path to growth and development has not been found. An understanding of the critical link between misgovernance and stalled development is no longer restricted to academic circles, but is now regularly reflected in official policy pronouncements. Yet we still lack compelling strategies for generating modes of governance in Africa that would build and sustain key public and private institutions rather than erode them. An indigenous development dynamic has eluded the continent. As a result, the massive aid flows committed by international donors merely replace the continuing drainage of African financial and human capital out of Africa.

 

The authors of Smart Aid for African Development believe that part of the solution to Africa’s development conundrum lies in identifying forms of international cooperation with Africa that go beyond anything previously attempted. Starting from a robust, research-based understanding of politics and governance in Africa, they investigate how aid can be put to 'smarter' uses. By identifying a set of concrete proposals of their own, they hope to stimulate debate on a new model of development cooperation that could work for Africa.

 

Smart Aid for African Development. Edited by Richard Joseph and Alexandra Gillies. Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner Publishers. Published October 2008. Paperback ISBN 978-1-58826-632-3.

 

Professor Richard Joseph - Professor of International History and Politics, Northwestern University 
Alexandra Gillies - Cambridge University
Paolo De Renzio - Oxford University / ODI

David Booth - Research Fellow, Africa Power and Politics Programme, ODI