Review: 'The Trouble with Aid: Why Less Could Mean More for Africa' by Jonathan Glennie

That Jonathan Glennie’s contribution to the ‘African Arguments’ series is considerably more coherent than some of its companion pieces is impressive, given the complexity of the topic that he has tackled.

The volume adds its voice to a growing body of literature criticising the global aid architecture and its agents, the rich country donors. What is interesting in Glennie’s account, however, is that included in his analysis is the role of aid advocacy groups and campaigners. This is a bold step, considering his own campaigning background. The message, that blanket calls for more aid should be replaced by calls for less, is consequently all the more poignant, coming from one of their own. Detractors will dub the book as the rambling of a jaded campaigner, however, it would more usefully rather be seen as the insights of an aid practitioner who desperately wants to see the way aid is given changed (wryly admitting that aid activists have supposedly wanted this for years).

An important but simple point, the author notes that whereas some aid organisations admit that the results of aid are not perhaps as positive as they might have hoped, no one admits the possibility that aid might actually have had a net negative effect. The author sets out, in very clear terms, the effects that aid has had on African economies, laying particular emphasis on the indirect impacts, all the more deadly because they are often overlooked in other assessments. Indeed, whether by accident or design, it is the conditions rather than the aid money itself that has the most long-lasting effect on the recipient economy, seldom to its benefit.

Few of Glennie’s arguments are new; the author freely admits that much of what he propounds seems logical except to those in charge of designing aid apparatus. What makes this book unique is the attempt to collect and synthesize the entire range of arguments for and against aid, in a way that lays bare the complexities of the issue. This is no easy task and Glennie is painstaking in his effort to capture the nuances of arguments. That the author, an aid practitioner himself, reaches the conclusion that much aid has been deleterious and should in fact be reduced is compelling. This is particularly given the politics of aid. Denouncing aid means less aid to go around, even to the charities that are doing some good.

Glennie does not for one moment deny that there are aid activists and charities out there with good intentions. He singles out for criticism the bilateral donors, laying bear the ugly Realpolitik of aid and the reason that it is seen as a cheap alternative by developed world governments to making the hard decisions that would effecting long-lasting change in the developing world.

This is a difficult subject to remain objective about, due to its emotive nature and the strength of the hidden agendas involved. Glennie has done an admirable job in keeping the tone of the book balanced, recognising that the importance of conveying a message in a way that, albeit hard to swallow, has a hope of being digested.

Nevertheless, he makes some choice observations (which are ironically nothing new to the African civil society that has been campaigning to be taken seriously for decades). That donors propound the strengthening of institutions and democratic practices, then ride rough-shod over parliamentary processes should they not conform to the donor agenda would be laughable if the consequences were not so serious. The heavy involvement of these donors in the functioning of the state therefore means that a large part of government decision-making is done by rich-country representatives not elected to office in the African country in question. In a further example of a lack of representativeness, donors often set up parallel structures within the host governments in order to see their agendas fulfilled. It seems that donors are convinced of the righteousness of their actions, purely by virtue of the fact that it is they who are executing them. In Glennie’s description of donors’ parallel structures and preferred channels in government, he could easily be describing clientelism.

This is set against the hypocrisy of demanding that developing countries adopt free-market principles for the ‘good of the economy’ while the countries of the donors in questions sustain billions of dollars worth of agricultural subsidies. Such practices are thrown into further relief, in the aftermath of the global economic crisis. Tellingly, rather than practicing fiscal austerity, the dogma of the Bretton Woods institutions, Washington and London has decided to spend their way out of the financial downturn with economic stimulus packages and the nationalisation of many of their banks. Contrast this with the strait-jacketed approach of forced privatisations that many of Africa’s economies, in similar financial situations were obliged to undergo.

The dilemmas surrounding aid are not easy to solve, and will not melt away if enough money is thrown at them. Of key importance is that this message gets to the right people, which is presumably why the author directed his message at the campaigners in a bid to inform their lobbying. If their egos can stand it, this is one book Bob Geldof and Bono should definitely read.

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* The Trouble with Aid: by Jonathan Glennie is published by Zed Books. Hardback: £40 (ISBN: 9781848130395), paperback: £12.99 (ISBN: 9781848130401)
* Lucy Corkin is the Macau Hub analyst for Fahamu's China in Africa programme and a research associate at the Africa Asia Centre, SOAS, University of London.
* Please send comments to [email protected] or comment online at Pambazuka News.