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

by David Sims

This book analyses the shortcomings of the Western development aid programme. Through exploring the evolution of aid over more than seven decades, development is examined as an industry with a variety of motives and actors. The driving forces and dynamics in the relationship between aid and economic development are highlighted in relation to faulty development structures and misaligned aims. With a particular focus on Egypt, radical questions are posed on how global aid and development can be improved, including how it can respond to the COVID-19 pandemic. This book aims to present an alternative aid framework to help overcome the dysfunctionality of the current international development system. It will be of interest to researchers and policymakers working within development economics and development policy.

425 pages, Hardcover

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.