Development Delusions and Contradictions: An Anatomy of the Foreign Aid Industry

by David Sims

Part I Inside the Donor World.- 1. A Sketch of the Development Industry.- 2. The Imperative to Spend.- 3. Product Development.- 4. Control, Compliance, and More Control.- 5. Procurement.- 6. Numbers, Indicators, and Technical Objectivity.- 7. Chronic Ills of the Industry.- 8. Acts of Congregation.- 9. Texts and Documentation.- 10. Herd Instinct.- 11. Plus Ça Change.- 12. Responses to Covid-19.- Part When the West Meets the Rest.- 13. Governments in the Rest.- 14. Donor Overload.- 15. Partnerships?.- 16. Country Ownership.- 17. Pay Scales.- 18. The Rest Strikes Back.- 19. Blind Support for the Private Sector.- 20. Informality.- Part Conclusions.- 21. Summing Up.- 22. Peering into the Future.

428 pages, Paperback

Published December 13, 2022

About the author

David Sims is an economist and urban planner with forty years of experience in Arab, African and Asian countries. He is the author of Understanding Cairo: The Logic of a City Out of Control.