Aid to Africa So Much to Do So Little Done or Marginal Gains

Aid to Africa: So Much to Do, So Little Done

Author: Carol Lancaster

Why, despite decades of high levels of foreign aid, has development been so disappointing in most of Sub-Saharan Africa, leading to rising numbers of poor and fueling political instabilities? While not ignoring the culpability of Africans in these problems, Carol Lancaster finds that much of the responsibility is in the hands of the governments and international aid agencies that provide assistance to the region. The first examination of its kind, Aid to Africa investigates the impact of bureaucratic politics, special interest groups, and public opinion in aid-giving countries and agencies. She finds that aid agencies in Africa often misdiagnosed problems, had difficulty designing appropriate programs that addressed the local political environment, and failed to coordinate their efforts effectively.

This balanced but tough-minded analysis does not reject the potential usefulness of foreign aid but does offer recommendations for fundamental changes in how governments and multilateral aid agencies can operate more effectively.

What People Are Saying

Anthony Lake
This is an informative blend of scolarship and analysis of and increasingly troubling problem: why development has lagged in Africa despite the relatively large flow of aid to the region. This is the first extended study to focus squarely on the performance of the governments and international institutions providing the aid as a key part of the answer.
— Anthony Lake, Former U.S. National Security Advisor

Oulid Abdallah
In this fresh and comprehensive contribution to the debate on official aid, Carol Lancaster presents us with a lucid and enlightening account of the hope, challenge, and reality of development assistance, one of the cold war era's greatest economic, political, and human adventures.
— Oulid Abdallah, Global Coalition for Africa

Books about: Kids Party Games and Activities or Pillsbury Best of the Bake Off Desserts

Marginal Gains: Monetary Transactions in Atlantic Africa

Author: Jane I Guyer

In America, almost all the money in circulation passes through financial institutions every day. But in Nigeria's "cash and carry" system, 90 percent of the currency never comes back to a bank after it's issued. What happens when two such radically different economies meet and mingle, as they have for centuries in Atlantic Africa?
The answer is a rich diversity of economic practices responsive to both local and global circumstances. In Marginal Gains, Jane I. Guyer explores and explains these often bewildering practices, including trade with coastal capitalism and across indigenous currency zones, and within the modern popular economy. Drawing on a wide range of evidence, Guyer demonstrates that the region shares a coherent, if loosely knit, commercial culture. She shows how that culture actually works in daily practice, addressing both its differing scales of value and the many settings in which it operates, from crisis conditions to ordinary household budgets. The result is a landmark study that reveals not just how popular economic systems work in Africa, but possibly elsewhere in the Third World.

Table of Contents:

	Foreword
	Preface
1	Introduction: Diversity, Bewilderment, and the Multiplicity of African Money	3
2	Conversions: Asymmetrical Transactions	27
3	Calculation: Number and Asymmetry	51
4	Rank: People and Money	68
5	Quality: Commodities and Price	83
6	Volatility: A Performance in Modern Nigeria	101
7	Institutions: Repertoires of Financial Option	115
8	Balance: Household Budgets in a Ghanaian Study	131
9	Formalities: Fixing Debt and Delay	155
10	Bewilderment Revisited	170
	Appendix	177
	References	181
	Index	197