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Aid and Other Dirty Business: How Good Intentions Have Failed the World's Poor
Do you know why Africa is so poor? What really happens to your charity money? Why do trade rules fail African countries and yet cost you too? We've heard it all the corrupt leaders, heartless global corporations, the wicked World Bank. But the answers are much closer to home... and so are the solutions When Giles Bolton began working in the world of aid and development, he travelled to Africa convinced that he could solve problems, save villages and sing songs with the locals under a shimmering sunset. The reality proved rather less romantic, and far more shocking... Aid and Other Dirty Business is a radical, brilliantly readable and totally original approach to the seemingly unending problem of poverty in Africa. It may change your life, but, more importantly, it will help you change the lives of others.
348 pages, Paperback
First published April 5, 2007
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455 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 27 of 27 reviews
September 9, 2022
Bolton’s book makes the argument that the lack of development in the Global South and particularly Africa has something to do with the poor quality of Aid, the Aid industry and the behaviour of richer governments (eg. tariffs). There is, no doubt, much in this analysis which makes it so sad that the analysis throughout this book is so poor. Instead of offering a well-researched counter proposition much of the book reads as a whiny and dogmatic complaint.
The writing is easily accessible and the book’s ability to summarise complex concepts relatively well is definitely a plus. However, it is often alongside attempts at humour which fall very flat and betray a Bolton’s strange ideas of what the public really think. For example, when discussing what sustainability means in relations to international development programming, he talks about the word invoking images of sandal wearing development workers. I was half expecting to read falafel eating lefties next to it. This has not aged well and I think is indicative of a wider naivete in Bolton’s writing which manifests throughout and makes him quite a bad person to write a book of such importance.
Equally, he approaches the work of organisations like the World Bank and IMF with an apologism which is disingenuous to the role played by these organisations in the destabilising of African economies and the dragging of massive populations into poverty. The effects of which are still being felt across the continent to this day. In contrast to his painting of development workers as lefty-types I think he exposes that the development sector in the modern day operates with a deep neo-liberalism. This is evident in his own writing where he favours a governance-based view on corruption advocated for by people such as Paul Collier, rather than a more in depth understanding of the relationship between corruption and global supply chains identified by Tom Burgis, Nicholas Shaxson, William Reno, and Jean-François Bayart. His apologism for corporations further contributes to this. He writes that the idea that multi-national corporation (MNC) actively try to shaft the poor has never been credible. This argument, briefly made, is not credible. MNC’s union breaking activities, involvement in corruptions, use of slave labour and participations in civil wars are not conspiracy theories but real occurrences across the continent. One just needs to look at how blood diamonds ended up getting into the global market to see MNCs callous disregard for African lives. I would say the evidence of MNCs shafting the poor in Africa is one of the most credible things that could be said about the relationship.
A real issue for me in this book is the bibliography. While there is a more comprehensive notes section a book of this length, that makes the claims it does should have a detailed and long bibliography. Instead, the bibliography lists about 10-15 books, many of which I have read and I struggle to see their relevance to this book. For example, Gil Courtemanche’s A Sunday at the Pool in Kigali is a excellent novel which details the experience of a Canadian journalist during the Rwandan genocide. He also cites Philip Gourevitch’s We Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow We Will Be Killed with Our Families another book that looks at the Rwandan genocide from the perspective of a journalist. Neither is an authoritative account of how the genocide came to happen and the aftermath of the genocide nor are they particularly relevant to the core argument of the book so their inclusion in the strange bibliography is a bit of an anathema. Furthermore, in the rudimentary bibliography Robert Guest’s The Shackled Continent: Africa's Past, Present and Future. Robert Guest gets a mention. A more appropriate book in the sense it deals with African political economy, but a flawed book in the sense it misquotes many authors throughout, including Gérard Prunier's The Rwanda Crisis: History of a Genocide (which would have been a much more appropriate book to cite on the Rwandan genocide even with it's flaws), and is very much a book written as an ideological manifesto rather than a good faith piece of research. I could go on about the strangeness of the book selection I the bibliography but I think the point has effectively been made.
This book is one of the problems with international development which is a failure to properly draw from academic research, a failure to check latent ideology and a strange anecdotal style which belays the complexity of the situations it seeks to address. I would recommend Jason Hickel's The Divide: A Brief Guide to Global Inequality and its Solutions as a much better book to understand the political economy of international development's failures.
The writing is easily accessible and the book’s ability to summarise complex concepts relatively well is definitely a plus. However, it is often alongside attempts at humour which fall very flat and betray a Bolton’s strange ideas of what the public really think. For example, when discussing what sustainability means in relations to international development programming, he talks about the word invoking images of sandal wearing development workers. I was half expecting to read falafel eating lefties next to it. This has not aged well and I think is indicative of a wider naivete in Bolton’s writing which manifests throughout and makes him quite a bad person to write a book of such importance.
Equally, he approaches the work of organisations like the World Bank and IMF with an apologism which is disingenuous to the role played by these organisations in the destabilising of African economies and the dragging of massive populations into poverty. The effects of which are still being felt across the continent to this day. In contrast to his painting of development workers as lefty-types I think he exposes that the development sector in the modern day operates with a deep neo-liberalism. This is evident in his own writing where he favours a governance-based view on corruption advocated for by people such as Paul Collier, rather than a more in depth understanding of the relationship between corruption and global supply chains identified by Tom Burgis, Nicholas Shaxson, William Reno, and Jean-François Bayart. His apologism for corporations further contributes to this. He writes that the idea that multi-national corporation (MNC) actively try to shaft the poor has never been credible. This argument, briefly made, is not credible. MNC’s union breaking activities, involvement in corruptions, use of slave labour and participations in civil wars are not conspiracy theories but real occurrences across the continent. One just needs to look at how blood diamonds ended up getting into the global market to see MNCs callous disregard for African lives. I would say the evidence of MNCs shafting the poor in Africa is one of the most credible things that could be said about the relationship.
A real issue for me in this book is the bibliography. While there is a more comprehensive notes section a book of this length, that makes the claims it does should have a detailed and long bibliography. Instead, the bibliography lists about 10-15 books, many of which I have read and I struggle to see their relevance to this book. For example, Gil Courtemanche’s A Sunday at the Pool in Kigali is a excellent novel which details the experience of a Canadian journalist during the Rwandan genocide. He also cites Philip Gourevitch’s We Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow We Will Be Killed with Our Families another book that looks at the Rwandan genocide from the perspective of a journalist. Neither is an authoritative account of how the genocide came to happen and the aftermath of the genocide nor are they particularly relevant to the core argument of the book so their inclusion in the strange bibliography is a bit of an anathema. Furthermore, in the rudimentary bibliography Robert Guest’s The Shackled Continent: Africa's Past, Present and Future. Robert Guest gets a mention. A more appropriate book in the sense it deals with African political economy, but a flawed book in the sense it misquotes many authors throughout, including Gérard Prunier's The Rwanda Crisis: History of a Genocide (which would have been a much more appropriate book to cite on the Rwandan genocide even with it's flaws), and is very much a book written as an ideological manifesto rather than a good faith piece of research. I could go on about the strangeness of the book selection I the bibliography but I think the point has effectively been made.
This book is one of the problems with international development which is a failure to properly draw from academic research, a failure to check latent ideology and a strange anecdotal style which belays the complexity of the situations it seeks to address. I would recommend Jason Hickel's The Divide: A Brief Guide to Global Inequality and its Solutions as a much better book to understand the political economy of international development's failures.
January 31, 2017
Excellent read on AID and its impact in Africa.
In depth analysis on how decisions taken by world powers to protect themselves and their markets have unintended negative consequences to others around the world.
Definitely a recommended read for anyone interested in foreign policy, trade and Non Governmental work
In depth analysis on how decisions taken by world powers to protect themselves and their markets have unintended negative consequences to others around the world.
Definitely a recommended read for anyone interested in foreign policy, trade and Non Governmental work
August 12, 2020
The first half of the book is excellent, it shed a light on startling facts and adds in some real life stories to make them hit home. However, when getting to solutions and what we in the west can do I found it to be very repetitive but lacking a real punch that makes the reader want to act
December 19, 2014
Aid and Other Dirty Business:An Insider Reveals How Good Intentions Have Failed the World's Poor deserves more attention than I will give it. The only appropriate amount of credit to give this is to read it, and that is mandatory. Giles Botton gives a distressing account of the troubles in Africa by presenting you, yes, you!, with your own African country for the duration of the book. Your country, Uzima, is blessed with natural resources and incoming tax revenues beyond the dreams of the president of, say, Uganda, but still squarely in the middle of sub-Saharan African economies. Your liabilities are massive, and you lack the most basic infrastructure. As well, you lack an educated workforce from which to hire more government functionaries to meet with all 90 or so governments and and NGOs who want to bestow aid upon you. Compounding that, many governments and NGOs only commit to project aid, rather than direct assistance. The USA only invests in project aid and spends a flipping 47% of aid money on consultants. Beyond that, our food aid resembles a combination of dumping agriculture surplus and propping up our wimpy shipping sector. Meanwhile, the US and Eurozone subsidize their own farm products to a point where no small farmer in the Ivory Coast can possibly break into the international market. Add unfunded Western promises and the new Chinese development with strings and then fix your country, Mr. President.
http://surfeitofbooks.blogspot.com/20...
http://surfeitofbooks.blogspot.com/20...
December 20, 2017
This is eye opening! Written by a guy who worked for the British Government in Rwanda and so knows both sides of the story. It not only tells what's going wrong (basically that those who know what's going wrong have no power and those with the power (i.e. us!) don't know what's going wrong and in the majority don't care!
One of Africa's problems is that it has no terrorists and just gets on and quietly dies without causing us too much hardship. It ruins our breakfasts occasionally to see distressing photos in the newspapers, but then we can turn over and get on with the REAL problems in our lives, like, well like what? Like the problems they don't get in Africa. Protecting property, helping kids with the homework (for that the kids have to have survived and be in school - unlikely!)
As a welcome change he goes on to tell what we can actually do in practical terms so I didn't feel like slashing my wrists through sheer impotence at knowing far too much without the power to change it! Well worth a few hours of anyone's time, particularly if they're of the opinion that change is vital.
One of Africa's problems is that it has no terrorists and just gets on and quietly dies without causing us too much hardship. It ruins our breakfasts occasionally to see distressing photos in the newspapers, but then we can turn over and get on with the REAL problems in our lives, like, well like what? Like the problems they don't get in Africa. Protecting property, helping kids with the homework (for that the kids have to have survived and be in school - unlikely!)
As a welcome change he goes on to tell what we can actually do in practical terms so I didn't feel like slashing my wrists through sheer impotence at knowing far too much without the power to change it! Well worth a few hours of anyone's time, particularly if they're of the opinion that change is vital.
Read
December 20, 2017I learned a lot from this book, which takes an honest look at international aid and why it just isn't working. The author focuses on what he knows, Africa, and provides amazing insight into where programs fall short and what money can really do. The consequences are international. Read the part about American government subsidizing their farmers who are then (and thus) able to sell their products in countries (including Africa) cheaper than African products. When Africa can't buy local, you have a corrupt system! (Not corrupt as in conspiracy, corrupt as in not able to function as intended.) So many interesting dynamics and ramifications!
July 26, 2016
A useful book on the issues and challenges of international aid. Bolton covers most issues in 'broad strokes' but his analysis and suggestions are clear. I read this too late for the statistics to be of use and I would love to see how the optimism (and some of the pessimism) contained here from 2006 has modified in the intervening ten years. I'll certainly 'check up' on Bolton's recent work to see whether his view has changed.
Want to read
December 20, 2017"Written by a guy who worked for the British Government in Rwanda and so knows both sides of the story"
someone mentioned "aid & dirty business" by the same author
someone mentioned "aid & dirty business" by the same author
August 28, 2022
This is a beginner's guide to the problems with development aid and trade. The first 150 pages or so are largely informative, while the last are largely repetitive and based on some misplaced optimism. The author is currently working for Tesco and seems to be trying to solve now some of the structural problems he talks about in his book...sell-out or realist? I would enjoy a book on this in any case as "ethical jobs" in big companies are trendy but largely fail to deliver. In any case, I read the book as a former aid worker, who left for largely the same reasons the author did, so I can say his analysis is largely accurate. If anything however, he did not go into detail of the problems of international charities, from problems of leadership, nepotism, huge inequalities in salaries particularly in terms of gender...if anything the aid system has become more bureaucratic in recent years, with more funding by projects and over-reliance on Western NGOs who know nothing about the country but know how to follow EU/DFID/USAID rules and subcontract to local NGOs and activists who know how to cater to them...getting rich in return, causing brain drain from governments as they are better paid, get to travel or live abroad, etc. Anyway, an updated edition would be nice, including much more research on this developing problem...as with more money, there is not only little change, but in some places aid has helped make things worse...
August 5, 2025
Pretty damn good. Even though it was written twenty years ago right on the heels of some pretty important anti-poverty initiatives by the west, with many references to Tony Blair and Bill Clinton, much of the content is still relevant. I feel further entrenched in my opinion that developed countries are just not doing enough in quantity and quality of aid, which is further exacerbated by unfair trade arrangements that have been basically continuous for the last sixty years. To think that if the G8 had actually followed through on its 2005 commitments of ending debt, raising aid expenditure to 0.7% of GNI and creating more equitable trade rules much of sub-Saharan Africa would by and large be lifted out of poverty by now.
May 29, 2021
Highlights: insightful overview of the poverty issues in developing countries and the role of aid in addressing them. (Sections 1 and 2)
Lowlights : somewhat superficial and repetitive discussion of globalization and consumer role in affecting change (Sections 4 and 5). Featuring advice such as "mention to the cashier it'd be nice of they stocked more African products".
Lowlights : somewhat superficial and repetitive discussion of globalization and consumer role in affecting change (Sections 4 and 5). Featuring advice such as "mention to the cashier it'd be nice of they stocked more African products".
May 21, 2019
A good introduction to the world of official aid from the view of a civil servant who was involved in managing aid. An easy and fun read, with a short section on trade (the other dirty business)
March 31, 2020
It was tough reading nearly 90% of the book which is replete with plenty of figures / numbers / statistical data. However, the final part with its pragmatic recommendations makes it a worthy read
May 20, 2020
Not really what I expected! Packed with statistics and lacking the anecdotes that would have made it more readable - from a layperson's perspective.
July 16, 2020
Prose/Readability: 5
Author’s Commitment to Objective Truth: 4
Interesting Content: 5
Perspective Shift: 5
Author’s Commitment to Objective Truth: 4
Interesting Content: 5
Perspective Shift: 5
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December 14, 2014Yeah, yeaaayh, yeah heh, yeah heh, yeah heh... [Lauryn Hill:Mr Intentional]
See the road to hell is paved with good intentions
Can't you tell the way they have to mention
How they've helped you out; you're such a hopeless victim
Please don't do me any favors, Mr. Intentional
All their talk is seasoned to perfection
The road they walk, commanding your affection
They need to be needed, deceived by motivation
An opportunity, to further situation
Why they so important, is without explanation
Please don't patrionize me, Mr. Intentional
Oh, ohhh, ohh ohhh
We give rise to ego by being insecure
The advice that we go desperatly searching for
The subconscious effort to support our paramour
To engage in denial, to admit we're immature
Validating lies, Mr. Intentional
Open up yours eyes, Mr. Intentional
Stuck in a system that seeks to suck your blood
Held emotionally hostage by what everybody does
Counting all the money that you give them just because
Exploiting ignorance in the name of love
Stop before you drop because that's just the way it works
Please don't justify me, Mr. Intentional
Oh one dimensional, Mr. Intentional
Ohhh, oh don't you do me any favors
Ohhh, ohhhh, ohh ohhhh
Wake up you've been sleeping
Take up your bed and walk
Stop blaming other people
Oh it's nobody else's fault
Accept the truth about you
You know that life goes on without you
And your expensive misinventions
Disguising your intentions
Don't worship my hurt feelings, Mr. Intentional
Oh, oh oh oh
See I know you can't help me, Mr. Intentional
The only help I need to live, is unprofessional
The only wealth I have to give, is not material
And if you need much more than that, I'm not available
Please don't entertain me, Mr. Intentional
Oh I dont need your sympathy, Mr. Intentional
Stay away from me, Mr. Intentional
So one dimensional, Mr. Promotional, Mr. Emotional, Mr. Intentional
Ohhh ohhhh, ohhhh
See the road to hell is paved with good intentions
Can't you tell the way they have to mention
How they've helped you out; you're such a hopeless victim
Please don't do me any favors, Mr. Intentional
All their talk is seasoned to perfection
The road they walk, commanding your affection
They need to be needed, deceived by motivation
An opportunity, to further situation
Why they so important, is without explanation
Please don't patrionize me, Mr. Intentional
Oh, ohhh, ohh ohhh
We give rise to ego by being insecure
The advice that we go desperatly searching for
The subconscious effort to support our paramour
To engage in denial, to admit we're immature
Validating lies, Mr. Intentional
Open up yours eyes, Mr. Intentional
Stuck in a system that seeks to suck your blood
Held emotionally hostage by what everybody does
Counting all the money that you give them just because
Exploiting ignorance in the name of love
Stop before you drop because that's just the way it works
Please don't justify me, Mr. Intentional
Oh one dimensional, Mr. Intentional
Ohhh, oh don't you do me any favors
Ohhh, ohhhh, ohh ohhhh
Wake up you've been sleeping
Take up your bed and walk
Stop blaming other people
Oh it's nobody else's fault
Accept the truth about you
You know that life goes on without you
And your expensive misinventions
Disguising your intentions
Don't worship my hurt feelings, Mr. Intentional
Oh, oh oh oh
See I know you can't help me, Mr. Intentional
The only help I need to live, is unprofessional
The only wealth I have to give, is not material
And if you need much more than that, I'm not available
Please don't entertain me, Mr. Intentional
Oh I dont need your sympathy, Mr. Intentional
Stay away from me, Mr. Intentional
So one dimensional, Mr. Promotional, Mr. Emotional, Mr. Intentional
Ohhh ohhhh, ohhhh
January 28, 2015
Meh... I had high hopes for this book but found it incredibly repetitive. The first 100 pages were great but after that the author presented the same information over and over just from different focus points but it was still the same. I am impressed that he drove from Rwanda to London though and think that would have been an interesting travel adventure book! Even his section at the end of what we as "common folk" can do had to repeat all the previous points before getting to the "do this" action points. If this was the first African Aid book someone read, i am not sure they would actually get to the list of actions to take. "Damned Nations' was much more powerful.
February 22, 2010
A simplistic book marketed as a sensationalist cure all for the problems in the aid industry. This book suffers from all the problems of the aid industry itself. Simplistic approaches to radically complex problems. The international trade regime is certainly a detriment to the development of Africa, however solving this problem is not a panacea. If you want a real assessment of the state of the aid industry see "The Trouble with Aid: Why Less Could Mean More for Africa" by Jonathan Glennie, and for SOME answers on how to fix it see "The White Man's Burden" by William Easterly.
November 5, 2023
I've been working in the humanitarian field for over a decade and found this book a useful read. I first saw it because one of my bosses recommended it, along with Dead Aid. Despite all the efforts (time, money, skills) that have been devoted towards positive change, and the successes that have been achieved, there is still a long way to go - and books like these help us reflect on how to best move forward. However, much more extensive reading is still required...
October 29, 2007
The Cover is as ugly as the title. If it depends on the cover I wont buy the book in the first place. But the book is good. Really.
He wrote a lot on Africa, but the issue is so applicable with Indonesia. He talk about humanitarian work, aid, trade. In short: about the business of "making poverty history".
He wrote a lot on Africa, but the issue is so applicable with Indonesia. He talk about humanitarian work, aid, trade. In short: about the business of "making poverty history".
November 12, 2015
Interesting insight into how aid actually works and how trade and aid can be improved. I wonder how much has changed since this book was originally written 11 years ago?
I thought there was some repetition in the later chapters but it took a difficult subject and made it easy to understand. I also found the solutions suggested at the end quite empowering.
I thought there was some repetition in the later chapters but it took a difficult subject and made it easy to understand. I also found the solutions suggested at the end quite empowering.
August 9, 2011
A very good and userfriendly book on aid politics. The examples and the anecdotes, backed up by solid research are very useful for any concerned citizen who wants to see a better world and is ready to play his/her part. Highly recommended for development practitioners and responsible citizens.
December 20, 2017
This was written by a friend so I am biased but it gives a great insight into how taxpayers' money is being wasted and how the problem of poor countries is so much bigger than we think. If you are interested in the world of aid, then read this book!
January 8, 2011
I loved this purely because it made me realise how ignorant I was of the issues it spoke about. It does get slightly facty in the middle, but the beginning and the end make up for this.
June 12, 2015
An easy, interesting book. I think it might underplay the complexities and doesn't deliver much in the way of solutions, but a decent introduction, nonetheless.
November 28, 2014
Makes me want to read more and do more. It may have over simplified the way international aid works but then we spend so much time complicating everything and ending up not taking any action at all.
May 6, 2014
brilliant literature of how the west failed Africa and why poverty there never ends
Displaying 1 - 27 of 27 reviews