The anti-politics of development: Donor agencies and the political economy of governance

Third World Quarterly

Volumn 33, Issue 3, 2012, Pages 405-422

  Hout, Wil ^a  

^a INSTITUTE OF SOCIAL STUDIES   (Netherlands)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

AID FLOW; AID POLICY; DECISION MAKING; DEVELOPMENT AID; GOVERNANCE APPROACH; POLICY REFORM; POLITICAL ECONOMY; STRATEGIC APPROACH; WORLD BANK;

NETHERLANDS; UNITED KINGDOM;

EID: 84861112064     PISSN: 01436597     EISSN: 13602241     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1080/01436597.2012.657474     Document Type: Article

References (97)

1. World Bank, Building Institutions for Markets: World Development Report 2002, New York: Oxford University Press, 2002.
2. Cf R Robison, 'Strange bedfellows: political alliances in the making of neo-liberal governance', in W Hout & R Robison (eds), Governance and the Depoliticisation of Development, London: Routledge, 2009, pp 15-28.
3. W Hout & R Robison, Development and the politics of governance: framework for analysis', in Hout & Robison, Governance and the Depoliticisation of Development, pp 2-3.
4. This is a term used, among others, by K Harth & J Waltmans, 'Behind the façade: the informal reality in developing countries', in Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs, A Rich Menu for the Poor: Food for Thought on Effective Aid Policies, Essay 3, 2007, at http://www.minbuza.nl/dsresource?objectid1/4buzabeheer:48063&type1/4org, accessed 7 October 2011.
5. J Waltmans, 'Behind the façade: from analysis to action', in Ministry of Foreign Affairs, A Rich Menu for the Poor, Essay 15, 2008, at http://www.minbuza.nl/dsresource?objectid1/4buzabeheer:48075&type1/4org, accessed 7 October 2011.
6. Cf J Ferguson, The Anti-Politics Machine: 'Development', Depoliticization, and Bureaucratic Power in Lesotho, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1990.
7. C Lancaster, Foreign Aid: Diplomacy, Development, Domestic Politics, Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 2007, pp 12-18.
8. S Maxwell, The Washington Consensus is Dead! Long Live the Meta-narrative!, Working Paper 243, London: Overseas Development Institute, 2005, p 1.
9. S Unsworth, 'What's politics got to do with it? Why donors find it so hard to come to terms with politics, and why this matters', Journal of International Development, 21(6), 2009, pp 883-942.
10. A de Haan & M Everest-Phillips, Can New Aid Modalities Handle Politics?, Research Paper 2007/63, Helsinki: UNU-WIDER, 2007.
11. According to Haas, an epistemic community is 'a network of professionals with recognized expertise and competence in a particular domain and an authoritative claim to policy-relevant knowledge within that domain or issue-area'.
12. PM Haas, 'Introduction: epistemic communities and international policy coordination', International Organization, 46(1), 1992, pp 1-35.
13. Unsworth, 'What's politics got to do with it?', p 890.
14. Ferguson, The Anti-Politics Machine.
15. W Easterly, 'The cartel of good intentions: the problem of bureaucracy in foreign aid', Journal of Economic Policy Reform, 5(4), 2002, p 228.
16. Cf CC Gibson, K Andersson, E Ostrom & S Shivakumar, The Samaritan's Dilemma: The Political Economy of Development Aid, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005, pp 134-135, 154-156.
17. J Carlsson, G Köhlin & A Ekbom, The Political Economy of Evaluation: International Aid Agencies and the Effectiveness of Aid, New York: St Martin's Press, 1994, p 5.
18. J van Gastel & M Nuijten, 'The genealogy of the "good governance" and "ownership" agenda at the Dutch Ministry of Development Cooperation', in D Mosse & D Lewis (eds), The Aid Effect: Giving and Governing in International Development, London: Pluto Press, 2005, p 98.
19. Gibson et al, The Samaritan's Dilemma, pp 151-154.
20. Ibid, p 144 on the practices at SIDA.
21. B Cooke & S Dar, 'Introduction: the new development management', in S Dar & B Cooke (eds), The New Development Management: Critiquing the Dual Modernization, London: Zed Books, 2008, pp 1-17.
22. BS Frey, 'Evaluierungen, Evaluierungen... Evaluitis', Perspektiven der Wirtschaftspolitik, 8(3), 2007, pp 207-220.
23. Cf A Natsios, The Clash of the Counter-bureaucracy and Development, Center for Global Development Essay, Washington, DC: Center for Global Development, July 2010, p 5.
24. Cf A Saith, 'From universal values to Millennium Development Goals: lost in translation', Development and Change, 37(6), 2006, pp 1167-1199.
25. This section draws on L Schakel, W Hout, A Slob & D Smith, The Use of Political Economy Assessment Instruments in the Governance Sphere, ECORYS Research Programme Report, Rotterdam: ECORYS Nederland, 2010.
26. Department for International Development (DFID), Making Government Work for Poor People: Building State Capability, Strategy Paper, London: DFID, 2001, p 12.
27. M Moore & J Putzel, Thinking Strategically about Politics and Poverty, IDS Working Paper 101, Brighton: Institute of Development Studies, 1999, at http://www.ntd.co.uk/idsbookshop/details.asp?id1/4509, accessed 7 October 2011.
28. R Wilson, 'Promoting good governance: some lessons from history and recent experience', audio recording, 12 June 2002, London: Overseas Development Institute, part 3, at http://www.odi.org.uk/events/details.asp?id1/42132&title1/4promoting-good-governance-lessons#details, accessed 7 October 2011.
29. Wilson, Promoting Good Governance, part 6.
30. A Duncan, I Sharif, P Landell-Mills, D Hulme & J Roy, Bangladesh: Supporting the Drivers of Propoor Change, 2002, at http://www.gsdrc.org/docs/open/DOC7.pdf, accessed 7 October.
31. DFID, Drivers of Change, Public Information Note, 2004, p 1, at http://www.gsdrc.org/docs/open/DOC59.pdf, accessed 7 October 2011.
32. D Warrener, The Drivers of Change Approach, Synthesis Paper 3, London: Overseas Development Institute, 2004, p 1.
33. T Dahl-Østergaard, S Unsworth, M Robinson & RI Jensen, Lessons Learned on the Use of Power and Drivers of Change Analyses in Development Co-operation, review commissioned by the OECD DAC Network on Governance, 2005, p 4, at http://www.gsdrc.org/docs/open/DOC82.pdf, accessed 7 October 2011.
34. The overview of Drivers of Change country studies at the GSDRC (Governance and Social Development Research Centre) website mentions studies on Angola, Bangladesh, Bolivia, Cambodia, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Ghana, Kenya, Kyrgyzstan, Malawi, Mozambique, Nigeria, Pakistan, Peru, Tanzania, Uganda, Vanuatu and Zambia.
35. http://www.gsdrc.org/index.cfm?objectid1/4597A76DB-14C2-620A-2770D688963DF944#doc, accessed 7 October 2011.
36. DFID, Drivers of Change, p 1.
37. MH Khan, Review of DFID's Governance Target Strategy Paper, 2005, p 38, at http://mercury.soas.ac.uk/users/mk17/Docs/Review%20of%20Dfid%20Governance%20TSP.pdf, accessed 7 October 2011.
38. A Leftwich, Drivers of Change: Refining the Analytical Framework, Part 1, Conceptual and Theoretical Issues, 2006, pp 17-20, at http://www.gsdrc.org/docs/open/DOC103.pdf, accessed 7 October 2011.
39. Cf Khan, Review of DFID's Governance Target Strategy Paper, pp 5-6.
40. N Thornton & M Cox, Review of the Uptake of the Drivers of Change Approach, London: Agulhas Development Consultants, 2005.
41. Dahl-Østergaard et al, Lessons Learned on the Use of Power and Drivers of Change Analyses.
42. Dahl-Østergaard et al, Lessons Learned on the Use of Power and Drivers of Change Analyses, p 11.
43. Thornton & Cox, Review of the Uptake of the Drivers of Change Approach, pp 6, 22-23.
44. V Chhotray & D Hulme, 'Contrasting visions for aid and governance in the 21st century: the White House Millennium Challenge Account and DFID's Drivers of Change', World Development, 37(1), 2009, p 45.
45. Dahl-Østergaard et al, Lessons Learned on the Use of Power and Drivers of Change Analyses, pp 15-17.
46. Ibid, pp 26-27.
47. Ibid, p 19.
48. Ibid, p 7.
49. Minister for Development Cooperation, Brief met beleidsvoornemens inzake toepassing van criteria op het vlak van de structurele bilaterale ontwikkelingshulp (Letter to Parliament on the Application of Criteria Related to Structural Bilateral Development Assistance), Second Chamber, 1998-99 Session, 26200V, no 8, p 2 (author's translation).
50. AG Koenders, 'International cooperation 2.0: agenda for modern poverty reduction', lecture at the University of Amsterdam, 8 November 2008, p 9, at http://www.minbuza.nl/en/News/Speeches_and_Articles/2009/February/International_cooperation_2_0, accessed 7 October 2011.
51. AG Koenders, 'Democracy and development: thinking forward', lecture for the Society for International Development, 14 September 2007, p 9, at http://www.minbuza.nl/en/News/Speeches_and_Articles/2007/09/Democracy_and_Development_Thinking_Forward, accessed 7 October 2011.
52. Koenders, Democracy and Development, p 6.
53. Harth & J Waltmans, 'Behind the façade'.
54. Waltmans, 'Behind the façade'.
55. Personal communication by a staff member of the Department for Human Rights and Peace Building (DMH's predecessor), The Hague, 15 May 2006.
56. The track record, which was designed in the mid-1990s to assist the Ministry with decisions on macroeconomic support, has evolved into an instrument to judge whether countries qualify for particular aid modalities. The track record consists of four clusters: poverty reduction, economic order, good governance and policy dialogue. The Dutch embassies score the performance of partner countries on two criteria per cluster.
57. W Hout, The Politics of Aid Selectivity: Good Governance Criteria in World Bank, US and Dutch Development Assistance, London: Routledge, 2007, pp 58-61.
58. Interview, staff members at ECORYS Nederland, Rotterdam, 22 September 2009. It is remarkable that two papers by DEK staff members (Harth & Waltmans, 'Behind the Façade' and Waltmans, 'Behind the façade') on the need for political economy analyses of the reality 'behind the façade' do not mention SGACA even once.
59. Details of interviews and interviewees are included in Schakel et al, The Use of Political Economy Assessment Instruments in the Governance Sphere, Annex II.
60. Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Framework for Strategic Governance and Corruption Analysis (SGACA): Designing Strategic Responses towards Good Governance, The Hague: Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 2008, p 10.
61. The similarity between Drivers of Change and SGACA is the result, in part, of the involvement of Sue Unsworth, former Chief Governance Advisor at DFID, as a consultant in the process of setting up the SGACA framework.
62. Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Framework for Strategic Governance and Corruption Analysis, pp 6-7.
63. Ibid, p 27.
64. Interviews with staff members at ECORYS Nederland, Rotterdam, 22 September 2009; and with staff members/consultants at Clingendael Institute, The Hague, 2 October, 10 November 2009.
65. Interview with staff members at ECORYS Nederland, Rotterdam, 22 September 2009.
66. ECORYS Nederland, Strategic Governance and Corruption Analysis: Draft End-of-Project Review, Rotterdam: ECORYS Nederland, 2009, p 28.
67. Telephone interview, senior consultant, 20 January 2010.
68. Personal communication from a staff member of the Human Rights, Good Governance and Humanitarian Aid Department, The Hague, 2 September 2010.
69. World Bank, Managing development: the governance dimension-a discussion paper', mimeo, Washington, DC, 1991, p 3.
70. World Bank, Building Institutions for Market, p 3.
71. Cf B Fine, Neither the Washington nor the Post-Washington Consensus: an introduction', in B Fine, C Lapavitsas & J Pincus (eds), Development Policy in the Twenty-First Century: Beyond the Post- Washington Consensus, London: Routledge, 2003, p 14.
72. World Bank, Building Institutions for Market, p 99.
73. World Bank, Economic Growth in the 1990s: Learning from a Decade of Reform, Washington, DC: World Bank, 2005, p 298.
74. Ibid, pp 262-265.
75. World Bank, The Political Economy of Policy Reform: Issues and Implications for Policy Dialogue and Development Operations, Report 44288-GLB, Washington, DC: World Bank, 2008.
76. V Fritz, K Kaiser & B Levy, Problem-Driven Governance and Political Economy
77. S Unsworth, Focusing Aid on Good Governance: Can Foreign Aid Instruments be Used to Enhance 'Good Governance' in Recipient Countries?, GEG Working Paper 2005/18, 2005, p 8, at http://www.globaleconomicgovernance.org/wp-content/uploads/Unsworth%20-%20Focusing%20Aid%20on%20Good%20Governance.pdf, accessed 7 October 2011.
78. World Bank, The Political Economy of Policy Reform, p 10.
79. Ibid, pp 11-13.
80. Ibid, pp 11, 43-50.
81. Ibid, p 16.
82. Fritz A. et al, Problem-Driven Governance and Political Economy Analysis, p vii.
83. Ibid, p 1.
84. Ibid, pp 40-44.
85. Ibid, p 7.
86. Ibid, p 12.
87. Ibid, p 23.
88. Ibid, pp 17-21.
89. Unsworth, Focusing Aid on Good Governance, p 8.
90. A good summary of the criticism has been provided by N Alexander, Judge and jury: the World Bank's scorecard for borrowing governments', in Social Watch, Social Watch Report 2004: Fear and Want, Obstacles to Human Security, Montevideo: Instituto del Tercer Mundo, 2004, pp 17-23, at http://www.socwatch.org/sites/default/files/pdf/en/judgeandjury2004_eng.pdf, accessed 7 October 2011.
91. International Development Association, IDA: The Platform for Achieving Results at the Country Level, Report from the Executive Directors of the International Development Association to the Board of Governors, 28 February 2008, pp 43-45, at http://siteresources.worldbank.org/IDA/Resources/Seminar%20PDFs/73449-1172525976405/FinalreportMarch2008.pdf, accessed 7 October 2011.
92. Ferguson, The Anti-Politics Machine.
93. J Harriss, Depoliticizing Development: The World Bank and Social Capital, New Delhi: LeftWord, 2001.
94. Unsworth, What's politics got to do with it?'.
95. Raymond Apthorpe, quoted in R Eyben, Labelling people for aid', in J Moncrieff & R Eyben (eds), The Power of Labelling: How People are Categorized and Why it Matters, London: Earthscan, 2007, p 22.
96. De Haan & Everest-Phillips, Can New Aid Modalities Handle Politics?, p 15.
97. Ferguson, The Anti-Politics Machine.