Journal article
Development effectiveness and the politics of commitment
Third World Quarterly, Vol.33(1), pp.17-36
2012
Abstract
International aid agencies have experienced a ‘political turn’ over the past decade, with political economy analyses becoming increasingly numerous as a means to drive development effectiveness. Yet aid agencies have so far failed to shift their aid modalities in response. The problem lies in an inadequate conceptualisation of ‘politics’. Most donors continue to see development as a public good, rather than as the focus of contestation in a context of societal struggle, and consequently fail to take oppositional forces sufficiently seriously. This facilitates the misapplication of terms such as ‘partnership’ and ‘ownership’, contributing to failures in efforts to promote reform. A more truly political analysis of aid intervention entails two innovations: the use of structural analysis to distinguish between interests in reform; and the use of this distinction, in turn, to inform the practice of taking sides in political struggles. Case studies of international aid programmes in Cambodia and the Philippines illustrate how the failure of donors to take sides with particular reformers has resulted in lost opportunities to achieve concrete outcomes from development projects.
Details
- Title
- Development effectiveness and the politics of commitment
- Authors/Creators
- C. Hughes (Author/Creator)J. Hutchison (Author/Creator)
- Publication Details
- Third World Quarterly, Vol.33(1), pp.17-36
- Publisher
- Routledge
- Number of pages
- 17
- Identifiers
- 991005543545107891
- Copyright
- 2012 Southseries Inc., www.thirdworldquarterly.com
- Murdoch Affiliation
- Asia Research Centre
- Language
- English
- Resource Type
- Journal article
UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)
This output has contributed to the advancement of the following goals:
Source: InCites
Metrics
614 File views/ downloads
157 Record Views
InCites Highlights
These are selected metrics from InCites Benchmarking & Analytics tool, related to this output
- Citation topics
- 6 Social Sciences
- 6.27 Political Science
- 6.27.1609 Foreign Aid Dynamics
- Web Of Science research areas
- Development Studies
- ESI research areas
- Social Sciences, general