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Give And Take: What's the Matter with Foreign Aid?
Foreign aid is a global endeavour with a huge turnover. But it is a troubled industry with few successes to its name, yet expected to respond to new and very complex problems. Can it do so? Supposed to be benign and selfless, it often harms more than it helps, and benefits givers more than receivers. Can it stop doing so? Can we create a system of genuine help -- democratic in its execution, effective in its impact, adequate in scale, just in its consequences? Give and Take grasps these questions.
Foreign aid is an issue that concerns us all, financially and morally. This thoughtful book argues that aid must be made less of a problem, more of a solution.
Foreign aid is an issue that concerns us all, financially and morally. This thoughtful book argues that aid must be made less of a problem, more of a solution.
- GenresNonfiction
192 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2002
75 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
August 9, 2011
A comprehensive analysis about the origin and trends in aid. A must read for anyone interested in the politics of aid.
September 15, 2023
A superb criticism of foreign aid that underlines foreign aid and its institutions as vehicles of foreign policy couched against the doctrine of market fundamentalism, which has driven the aid regime since 1980 such that the aid system and industry has played a major role in coercively re-engineering of economic and political life in lower-income countries according to market fundamentalism
The failures of the conventional aid system are well-highlighted in the book with numerous well researched examples and the book offers different and effective modes of solidarity as a viable pursuit in place of foreign aid. These would be girded by the ethical principles of non-deception, non-coercion, doing no harm, liability for damage, and obligations to respect capacities and promote talents; all severely lacking in the conventional aid system. Then following a public action approach (Dreze and Sen), focal points for the overhaul of the aid system would include: financial disarmament; good governance for donors; transformation of the IFIs; move towards bloc transfers; redistribution downwards, not upwards
Essential reading for anyone working in or interested in the foreign aid
The failures of the conventional aid system are well-highlighted in the book with numerous well researched examples and the book offers different and effective modes of solidarity as a viable pursuit in place of foreign aid. These would be girded by the ethical principles of non-deception, non-coercion, doing no harm, liability for damage, and obligations to respect capacities and promote talents; all severely lacking in the conventional aid system. Then following a public action approach (Dreze and Sen), focal points for the overhaul of the aid system would include: financial disarmament; good governance for donors; transformation of the IFIs; move towards bloc transfers; redistribution downwards, not upwards
Essential reading for anyone working in or interested in the foreign aid
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews