Adventures in the Aid Trade: Forty Years Practising Development in Forty Countries

by Richard Holloway

Overview

Adventures in the Aid Trade takes us on a fascinating journey through 40 years of work at the coalface of international development. Drawing on his experiences from long periods in the field, the author reflects on what has worked, what has not and why, and considers how these experiences relate to students and practitioners today.

Looking beyond high-level policy matters and international relations, this book focuses instead on the author’s actual experiences in the field and the inspired local people he encountered. The narrative traces how these people, working through their own organisations, make a difference to the lives of their contemporaries, and learn how to generate the income to do it. Chapters draw on the author’s experiences of working with local practitioners from 40 countries across sub-Saharan Africa, the Caribbean, South, South East and Central Asia, and the South Pacific. Peppered with lively stories and anecdotes, Adventures in the Aid Trade provides valuable lessons from the shifting aid landscape and reflects on where the industry is likely to go next.

Whether you are a current development practitioner or a student just starting out in your understanding of the development and humanitarian sectors, this book provides an invaluable snapshot of the world of civil society organisations, governance and the voluntary sector, and the lived lives of ordinary people in extraordinary times.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780367434038
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis
Publication date:	02/20/2020
Pages:	246
Product dimensions:	5.44(w) x 8.50(h) x (d)

About the Author

Richard Holloway is an international development professional with more than 40 years’ experience managing social development projects and programmes in Africa, Asia, the Caribbean and the South Pacific. He has extensive experience of working with non-state and state actors to strengthen processes of citizen–state engagement, and over 20 years’ experience of implementing and managing large donor-funded projects (USAID, DFID, UNDP, EU, World Bank). He is currently an independent consultant after many years as a long-term project manager. His notable books are Beyond NGOs: CSOs with Development Impact, Doing Development: Governments, CSOs and the Rural Poor in Asia and Towards Financial Self-Reliance: Handbook on Resource Mobilization for CSOs in the South.

Table of Contents

Introduction 1 Addis Ababa, Ethiopia and street children, 1966–69: trying hard to keep a welfare institution going 2 Maun, Botswana, 1970–72: making technical education pay for itself 3 South Sudan, 1973–75: reconstructing the country in its one short period of peace 4 LSE and Patchwork Community, 1970–76: keeping in touch with the UK 5 Dominica, West Indies, 1976–78: demanding assistance from the State or the joys of self-help 6 South Pacific, 1979–80: appropriate technology, ideologues and small gains 7 Java, Indonesia, 1979–84: more AT ideologues and people’s technology 8 The far east of Indonesia, 1979–84: Oxfam, famine in East Timor and the amazing growth of Leucaena leucocephala in NTT 9 Positive deviance, 1980–81 and 1984–85: nutrition in Indonesia and rice/fish farming in north-east Thailand 10 Bangladesh, 1989–95: NGOs, CSOs, dependence on aid and independence from aid 11 Zambia, 1995–99: moving into advocacy from service delivery 12 CSOs everywhere, 1990 to the present: trying fundraising and resource mobilisation, not donor dependence 13 Indonesia, 1999–2004: never again, neither Suharto nor his corruption 14 East Timor, 2002–04: moving from relief and human rights to development and civil rights 15 Tajikistan, 2005–10: persuading ex-apparatchiks that citizens can do good without the State 16 Different countries in Africa, 2005–10: building integrity and CSO standards as an alternative to fighting corruption 17 Nepal, 2010–13: the birth of social accountability, digging down into corruption and half-hearted efforts to control it 18 Myanmar, 2015–16: watching a country become aid-dependent and doing nothing about corruption 19 East Africa, 2018–19: social accountability neutered by corruption 20 Reflections: bringing it all together Index

Editorial Reviews

"Adventures in the Aid Trade is at once memoir, 'how to’ manual, reflexive critique, and globe-trotting polyptych. Full of insight, humour and heart, Richard Holloway has produced an essential text for students, scholars and practitioners of development alike. It is also a great read." — Larry Swatuk, Professor at the School of Environment, Enterprise and Development, University of Waterloo, Canada

From the Publisher