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Britain's international development policies : a history of DFID and overseas aid
\"Barrie Ireton tells the unique history of Britain's international development efforts from colonial times to the present day set in a global context. He brings together original research material as well as his personal knowledge over a 40 year career in government. He argues that the Department, led by successive Ministers, continued to pursue its basic mission of poverty reduction in the poorest countries. He also acknowledges important deviations from this trend, particularly during the 1980s when the Aid and Trade Provision became an aggressive use of aid to win export orders at the behest of the interventionist Department of Trade and Industry under an otherwise not interventionist conservative government\"-- Provided by publisher.
Book
The Politics and Economics of Britain's Foreign Aid
The Pergau dam in Malaysia was the most controversial project in the history of British aid. Because of its high cost, it was a poor candidate for aid funding. It was provided in part to honour a highly irregular promise of civil aid in connection with a major arms deal. After two parliamentary inquiries and intense media coverage, in a landmark judgement the aid for Pergau was declared unlawful.
Tim Lankester offers a detailed case study of this major aid project and of government decision-making in Britain and Malaysia. Exposing the roles played by key politicians and other stakeholders on both sides, he analyses the background to the aid/arms linkage, and the reasons why the British and Malaysian governments were so committed to the project, before exploring the response of Britain's Parliament, and its media and NGOs, and the resultant legal case. The main causes of the Pergau debacle are carefully drawn out, from conflicting policy agendas within the British government to the power of the business lobby and the inability of Parliament to provide any serious challenge. Finally, Lankester asks whether, given what was known at the time and what we know now, he and his colleagues in Britain's aid ministry were correct in their objections to the project.
Pergau is still talked about as a prime example of how not to do aid. Tim Lankester, a key figure in the affair, is perfectly placed to provide the definitive account. At a time when aid budgets are under particular scrutiny, it provides a cautionary tale.
eBook
Make Poverty History : political communication in action
Make Poverty History was a major episode of protest that took place in 2005 in the UK, with the aim of influencing the G8 meeting in July of that year in Edinburgh. This book follows the campaign throughout its lifetime and unpacks the tensions that developed around the branding of Make Poverty History, particularly the conflict between campaigners and marketers over the content of messages. Looking at how attitudes towards government and political opportunities influenced the negotiation of communications, it analyses how these communications were understood by the campaign's three audience segments: the mass public, the interested and the activists. It looks at public stereotypes on global poverty and whether the campaign managed to modify them. It maps out Make Poverty History's frame on economic justice and confronts it with audience reactions. The book ends by looking at the campaign's troubled relationship with celebrities.
eBook
Britain and Africa Under Blair
Africa was a key focus of Britain’s foreign policy under Tony Blair. Military intervention in Sierra Leone, increases in aid and debt relief, and grand initiatives such as the Commission for Africa established the continent as a place in which Britain could ‘do good’. Britain and Africa under Blair: in pursuit of the good state critically explores Britain’s fascination with Africa. It argues that, under New Labour, Africa represented an area of policy that appeared to transcend politics. Gradually, it came to embody an ideal state activity around which politicians, officials and the wider public could coalesce, leaving behind more contentious domestic and international issues. Building on the story of Britain and Africa under Blair, the book, now available in paperback, draws wider conclusions about the role of ‘good’ and idealism in foreign policy. In particular, it discusses how international relationships provide opportunities to create and pursue ideals, and why they are essential for the well-being of political communities. It argues that state actors project the idea of ‘good’ onto idealised, distant objects, in order to restore a sense of the ‘good state’. The book makes a distinctive and original contribution to debates about the role of ethics in international relations, and will be of particular interest to academics, policy-makers and students of international relations, Africa and British foreign policy, as well as anyone interested in ethics in international affairs.
eBook
Cultivating development
What if development agencies and researchers are not driven by policy? Suppose that the things that make for 'good policy' - policy that legitimises and mobilises political support - in reality make it impossible to implement?
By focusing in detail on the unfolding activities of a development project in western India over more than ten years, as it falls under different policy regimes, this book takes a close look at the relationship between policy and practice in development. David Mosse shows how the actions of development workers are shaped by the exigencies of organisations and the need to maintain relationships rather than by policy; but also that development actors work hardest of all to maintain coherent representations of their actions as instances of authorised policy. Raising unfamiliar questions, Mosse provides a rare self-critical reflection on practice, while refusing to endorse current post-modern dismissal of development.
eBook
Aid and Inequality in Kenya
This reissue, first published in 1976, considers the rapid rate of economic growth in Kenya, combined with its apparent political stability, to determine whether or not this is indeed a case of ‘growth without development’ and, if so, where the responsibility for aid lies in this situation.
The book concludes that while Kenyan growth has not been to an ideal pattern, accompanied by an increase in inequality, there is little or no reason to believe that living standards have not improved. It examines the impact of aid on Kenya’s progress at both the microeconomic and macroeconomic level and provides an institutional study of the impact of aid on Kenyan Government policy formation and administration and a discussion of British aid’s political purposes and influence in Kenya.
The authors conclude that some of the effects predicted by the critics of aid are visible, but that the net effect on general living standards has been strongly positive, concluding that the problems constitute a case for improving aid procedures, but not against aid itself.
1. The Background 2. Aims and Achievements Since Independence 3. The Facts of Aid 4. British Aid Policy and Administration in Kenya 5. Aid in Action 6. The Influence of Aid 7. Policy Implications for British Aid 8. Controversies Over Aid
eBook
Transformational Diplomacy after the Cold War
This book examines the 'Know How Fund', Britain's bilateral technical assistance programme in post-communist central and eastern Europe, devised in response to the end of the Cold War.
The Know How Fund (KHF) was the technical assistance programme which Margaret Thatcher's government launched in the spring of 1989 to encourage Poland's transition from communism to democracy and free-market capitalism. It was subsequently extended to other countries of central and eastern Europe and might be considered a novel experiment in what the US secretary of state, Condoleezza Rice, would later term 'transformational diplomacy'.
Drawing upon still-closed records of the Cabinet Office, the Department for International Development (DFID) and the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, this book explores the political origins of the KHF. In particular, the author examines its influence upon the transitional process in the lands of the former Soviet bloc; its part in attenuating the potentially destabilising effects of revolutionary change in Europe; the interdepartmental cooperation and rivalry to which its administration gave rise in Whitehall; and the links forged between officials and the worlds of business, finance and academe in project design and implementation. The volume offers new insights into Britain's reactions to the collapse of communism in central Europe and the Soviet Union; the role of aid in the making and conduct of British foreign policy; and the significance of New Labour's establishment of DFID as a separate government department.
This book will be of much interest to students of British Foreign Policy, Diplomacy Studies, European history, Post-Communist Transitions and IR in general.
eBook
Cultivating Development
'A superb book, one of those rarities that can change entire ways of thinking. David Mosse is the first social scientist in a generation who can successfuly take cutting-edge insights from academic anthropology and use them to explain practical problems in development. ... For anyone interested in development, \"Cultivating Development\" is a do-not-miss experience.' Scott Guggenheim, Lead Social Scientist, The World Bank '[Mosse's] provocative thesis challenges the received wisdom of that world and compels us to examine afresh the politics and ethics of engaging with development. Amid the profusion of literature in this field, this book stands apart as an insider's account that is consistently critical yet steadfast in respecting its subjects. Highly recommended.' Amita Baviskar, Visiting Professor, Department of Cultural and Social Anthropology, Stanford University Development agencies and researchers are preoccupied with policy; with exerting influence over policy, linking research to policy and with implementing policy around the world. But what if development practice is not driven by policy? Suppose that the things that make for 'good policy' - policy that legitimises and mobilises political support - in reality make it impossible to implement? By focusing in detail on the unfolding activities of a development project in western India over more than ten years, as it falls under different policy regimes, this book takes a close look at the relationship between policy and practice in development. David Mosse shows how the actions of development workers are shaped by the exigencies of organisations and the need to maintain relationships rather than by policy; but also that development actors work hardest of all to maintain coherent representations of their actions as instances of authorised policy. Raising unfamiliar questions, Mosse provides a rare self-critical reflection on practice, while refusing to endorse current post-modern dismissal of development.
eBook