Aiding state building and sacrificing peace building? The Rwanda-UK relationship 1994-2011

Third World Quarterly

Volumn 32, Issue 10, 2011, Pages 1911-1930

  Beswick, Danielle ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF BIRMINGHAM   (United Kingdom)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 84865884191     PISSN: 01436597     EISSN: 13602241     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1080/01436597.2011.610593     Document Type: Article

References (112)

1. D Booth & F Golooba-Mutebi, Developmental Patrimonialism? The Case of Rwanda, Africa Power and Politics Programme, Working Paper 16, London: Overseas Development Institute, 2011.
2. Department for International Development (DFID), 'Building the state and securing the peace,' emerging policy paper, London, 2009.
3. 'Spending review 2010: overseas aid spared but there are pitfalls ahead,' Guardian, 20 October 2010.
4. The DFID website states: 'In 2008/09 we provided £5. 5 billion of aid to poorer countries. Our budget will increase to £7. 8 billion by 2010/11.' See http://www. dfid. gov. uk/About-DFID/Quick-guide-to-DFID/Who-we-are-and-what-we-do, accessed 20 July 2011.
5. 'Foreign aid: who gives the most?,' New Statesman, 23 June 2011.
6. T Porteous, 'British government policy in sub-Saharan Africa under New Labour,' International Affairs, 81(2), 2005, p 282.
7. See, for example, Commission for Africa, Report of the Commission for Africa, London: DFID, 2005, p 66.
8. UK Government, Securing Britain in an Age of Uncertainty: The Strategic Defence and Security Review, London, 2010, p 3.
9. M Duffield, Global Governance and the New Wars: The Merging of Development and Security, London: Zed Books, 2001.
10. R Abrahamsen, 'A breeding ground for terrorists? Africa & Britain's "war on terrorism",' Review of African Political Economy, 31(102), 2004, pp 677-684.
11. Hilary Benn, 'A shared challenge: promoting development and human security in weak states,' speech delivered at the Center for Global Development, Washington, DC, 23 June 2004.
12. 'The Global Conflict Prevention Pool: a joint UK Government approach to preventing conflict,' DFID, Foreign and Commonwealth Office and Ministry of Defence, London, 2003.
13. For a critical review of the joined-up approach, see AM Fitz-Gerald, 'The security-development nexus: implications for joined-up government,' Policy Matters, 5(2), 2004, pp 2-24.
14. HM Treasury 'Public Service Agreement, Delivery Agreement 30: Reduce the Impact of Conflict through Enhanced UK and International Efforts,' 2007, p 3, at http://www. hm-treasury. gov. uk/d/pbr_csr07_psa30. pdf, accessed 20 July 2011.
15. Particularly since the coalition government took power, the DFID secretary of state has emphasised value for money as a key requirement of UK aid. Reviews of UK bilateral and multilateral aid carried out in 2010-11, and the creation of an Independent Commission for Aid Impact, reflect this.
16. World Bank World Development Report 2011: Overview-Conflict, Security and Development, Washington, DC: World Bank, 2011, p 26.
17. DFID 'Building the state and securing the peace,' p 2.
18. OECD, Concepts and Dilemmas of State Building in Fragile Situations: From Fragility to Resilience, Discussion Paper, Paris: OECD-DAC, 2008.
19. DFID, 'Building the state and securing the peace,' p 4.
20. DIFD, 'Building the state and securing the peace,' p 3.
21. DFID, Poverty and the Security Sector, London, 1999.
22. DFID, Fighting Poverty to Build a Safer World: a strategy for security and development, London, 2005.
23. DFID, 'Building the state and securing the peace,' p 5.
24. Although not discussed here, primarily in an attempt to avoid concept overload, the term 'resilience' has become increasingly popular in donor literature. While related in some ways to 'stability,' the latter implies more of an emphasis on the status quo, whereas resilience signals the possibility of change so long as that change, be it in government, economic circumstances or external relationships, does not provoke violence and large-scale social upheaval. See, for example, OECD, Concepts and Dilemmas of State Building in Fragile Situations.
25. J Grä vingholt, S Gä nzle & S Ziaja, Policy Brief: Concepts of Peacebuilding and Statebuilding-How Compatible are They?, Bonn: German Development Institute (DIE), 2009.
26. G Harrison, The World Bank and Africa: The Construction of Governance States, London: Routledge, 2004, p 42.
27. On theories of positive and negative peace, and structural violence, see J Galtung, 'Violence, peace, and peace research,' Journal of Peace Research, 6(3), 1969, pp 167-191.
28. DFID, 'Building the state and securing the peace,' p 19.
29. M Bratton & ECC Chang, 'State building and democratization in sub-Saharan Africa: forwards, backwards, or together?,' Comparative Political Studies, 39(9), 2006, p 1071.
30. Bueno de Mesquita & Downs, cited in OECD, Concepts and Dilemmas of State Building in Fragile Situations, p 22.
31. DFID, 'Building the state and securing the peace,' pp 21-22.
32. For discussion of what might constitute 'inclusive enough' settlement, see World Bank, World Development Report 2011.
33. L Melvern, Conspiracy to Murder: The Rwandan Genocide, London: Verso, 2004.
34. L de Heusch, 'Rwanda: responsibilities for a genocide,' Anthropology Today, 11(4), 1995, pp 3-7.
35. Interview with Protais Musoni, Rwandan Minister of Local Government, Good Governance Community Development and Social Affairs, Rwandan Patriotic Front, Kigali, 8 March 2006. See also 'Strange UN Force in the DRC,' The New Times (Kigali), 14-16 November 2005, p 9.
36. 'VOA or voice of terrorists?,' The New Times, 14-16 November 2005, p 9.
37. J Pottier, Reimagining Rwanda: Conflict, Survival and Disinformation in the Late Twentieth Century, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002.
38. S Browne, Aid and Influence: Do Donors Help or Hinder?, London: Earthscan, 2006.
39. L Melvern & P Jackson, 'Britannia waived the rules: the Major government and the 1994 Rwandan genocide,' African Affairs, 103(410), 2004, p 18.
40. Interview with Judy Walker, Senior Social Development Advisor, DFID Rwanda, Kigali, 28 October 2005.
41. Browne, Aid and Influence, p 77.
42. DFID, Rwanda: Country Assistance Plan 2003-2006, London: DFID, February 2004, p 17.
43. Browne, Aid and Influence, p 65.
44. Pottier, Reimagining Rwanda.
45. For example, the 2011 World Development Report notes that 'in the aftermath of the Rwandan genocide, there was greater space for rapid announcement of long-term political, social and institutional change than exists today for... situations of negotiated reform.' World Bank, World Development Report 2011, p 22. Similarly Booth and Golooba-Mutebi argue that reform of civil administration was made significantly easier by the fact that 'to a significant extent, the RPF were drawing on a blank canvas.'.
46. Booth and Golooba-Mutebi, Developmental Patrimonialism?, p 16.
47. Z Marriage, 'Defining morality: DFID and the Great Lakes,' Third World Quarterly, 27(3), 2006, p 481.
48. Telephone interview with Clare Short, UK Secretary of State for International Development (1998-2003), 24 May 2007.
49. Interview with Arne Strom, Counsellor for Development Cooperation to the Swedish Embassy, Kigali, 3 March 2006.
50. This brief tenure reflects Short's resignation from her post following disagreement with the government's policy of support for military intervention in Iraq. Baroness Amos left to become leader of the House of Lords in a cabinet reshuffle six months later.
51. See Project Umubano briefing by Conservative MP Stephen Crabb, at http://www. conservatives. com/Get_involved/Project_Umubano. aspx, accessed 20 July 2011.
52. DFID, 'UK aid: changing lives, delivering results-summary report of the two aid reviews,' London, 2011.
53. DFID, Operational Plan for Rwanda 2011-2015, London: DFID, 2011, p 7.
54. DFID, Rwanda: Country Assistance Plan 2008-2012, London: DFID, 2008, p 3.
55. 'The UK is Rwanda's largest bilateral budget support donor.
56. 'In 2008, this represented around 6% of the Rwanda Government's annual budget.' DFID, PSA Country Report: Rwanda, 2009, London: DFID, 2009, p 1.
57. Telephone interview with Clare Short.
58. interview with Arne Strom.
59. Grävingholt et al, Policy Brief, p 10.
60. OECD, Concepts and Dilemmas of State Building in Fragile Situations, p 26.
61. See also 'Government, donors killing civil society in Rwanda,' Newsline (Kigali), 7-12 March 2006, p 12.
62. Two observers note: 'Under Kagame, the government of Rwanda has been quite strongly committed to the private sector as the engine of development, and it has adopted much of the international "best practice" thinking in this regard.' Booth & Golooba-Mutebi, Developmental Patrimonialism?, p 12.
63. Interview with Mohamed al-Houssayni Toure, Country Manager, World Bank Rwanda, Kigali, 17 November 2005.
64. Booth & Golooba-Mutebi, Developmental Patrimonialism?, p 14.
65. DFID, Operational Plan for Rwanda, p 3.
66. DFID, 'Building the state and securing the peace,' p 26.
67. Interview with Judy Walker.
68. DFID, Rwanda: Country Assistance Plan 2003-2006, p 5.
69. Telephone interview with Clare Short.
70. Booth & Golooba-Mutebi, Developmental Patrimonialism?, p 3.
71. G Harrison, The World Bank and Africa, p 128.
72. G Hesselbein, F Golooba-Mutebi & J Putzel, Economic and Political Foundations of State-making in Africa, Crisis States Research Centre Working Paper 3, London: LSE, 2006, p 3.
73. Personal comment, Hilary Benn, UK Secretary of State for International Development, Leeds, 29 January 2007.
74. R Hayman, 'Rwanda: milking the cow-creating policy space in spite of aid dependence,' in L Whitfield (ed), The Politics of Aid: African Strategies for Dealing with Donors, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008, pp 156-184.
75. Interview with Arne Strom. See also R Hayman, 'The complexity of aid: government strategies, donor agendas and the coordination of development assistance in Rwanda 1994-2004,' unpublished PhD Thesis, 2006.
76. P Uvin, Aiding Violence: The Development Enterprise in Rwanda, West Hartford, CT: Kumarian, 1998, p 40.
77. For example, Sweden and the Netherlands suspended some aid to Rwanda in 2008 after a UN report accused it of aiding rebels in the DRC. See 'Rwanda dismisses aid suspensions over UN report,' Reuters Online, 17 December 2008, at http://uk. reuters. com/article/2008/12/17/idUKLH482423, accessed 20 July 2011.
78. 'Disappearances, arrests, threats, intimidation and co-option of human rights defenders 2001-2004,' Dublin: Frontline, 2005.
79. F Reyntjens, 'Rwanda, ten years on: from genocide to dictatorship,' African Affairs, 103(4), 2004, pp 177-210.
80. The RPF won 40 of 53 seats in the 2003 parliamentary elections, and 42 in 2008. Their candidate, Kagame, was elected president in 2003 and re-elected in 2010 with 95 per cent and 93 per cent of the vote, respectively. See Report of the Commonwealth Observer Group: Rwanda Presidential Elections, August 2010, London: Commonwealth Secretariat, 2010.
81. See European Union Election Observation Mission for Rwanda, Final Report on Legislative elections 15-18 September, Brussels: EU, 2008.
82. Reyntjens, 'Rwanda, ten years on'.
83. D Beswick. 'Managing dissent in a post-genocide environment: the challenge of political space in Rwanda,' Development and Change, 41(2), 2010, pp 225-251.
84. Frontline, 'Disappearances, arrests, threats.'.
85. Reyntjens, 'Rwanda, ten years on'.
86. O Olsson & H Congdon, 'Congo: the prize of predation,' Journal of Peace Research, 41(3), 2004, pp 321-366.
87. UN Office of the High Commissioner of Human Rights, 'Report of the mapping exercise documenting the most serious violations of human rights and international humanitarian law committed within the territory of the Democratic Republic of the Congo between March 1993 and June 2003,' New York, August 2010.
88. See Hayman, 'Rwanda.'.
89. A Baare, D Shearer, P Uvin & C Scherrer, The Limits and Scope for the Use of Development Incentives and Disincentives for Influencing Conflict Situations-Case Study: Rwanda, Paris: OECD, 1999, pp 33-34.
90. F Reyntjens, 'Constructing the truth, dealing with dissent, domesticating the world: governance in post genocide Rwanda,' African Affairs, 110(438), 2011, pp 1-34.
91. Telephone interview with Clare Short.
92. DFID, 'Fighting poverty to build a safer world.'.
93. Telephone interview with Clare Short.
94. Interview with Judy Walker.
95. telephone interview with Vijay Pilai, Acting Head of DFID Rwanda, 3 May 2007.
96. Interview with Andrew Butare, Country Representative, Christian Aid, Kigali, 16 February 2006.
97. J-F Bayart, The State in Africa: The Politics of the Belly, London: Longman, 1993.
98. DFID, 'Building the state and securing the peace,' p 6.
99. Report of the Commonwealth Observer Group, p 42.
100. Human Rights Watch, 'Rwanda: end attacks on opposition parties,' 10 February 2010, at http://www. hrw. org/en/news/2010/02/10/rwanda-end-attacks-opposition-parties.
101. United States Government Department of State, Rwanda: Country Report on Human Rights Practices 2004, February 2005, at http://www. state. gov/g/drl/rls/hrrpt/2004/41621. htm, both accessed 20 July 2011.
102. OECD-DAC, Statebuilding in Situations of Fragility: Initial Findings, Paris: OECD, 2008, p 1.
103. J Burnet, 'Gender balance and the meanings of women in governance in post-genocide Rwanda,' African Affairs, 107(428), 2008, pp 361-386. Reyntjens suggests that the emphasis on women's empowerment, particularly enshrining a 30 per cent female quota in parliament, is another mechanism which disguises RPF dominance, emphasizing the gender of these representatives rather than party affiliation.
104. Reyntjens, 'Constructing the truth, dealing with dissent, domesticating the world,' p 17.
105. This was reflected in author interviews conducted with human rights NGOs in Rwanda, 2005-06. See also submission by Human Rights Watch to the UK International Development Committee, criticising DFID for not prioritising human rights and responsive governance in relations with Rwanda, arguing: 'The unstated rationale for this approach is that Rwanda is a country that has made great strides since the genocide of 1994 and that to "rock the boat" by pushing human rights concerns would put this progress at risk.' Human Rights Watch, 'Submission to the International Development Select Committee: working effectively in fragile and conflict-affected states-DRC, Rwanda and Burundi,' May 2011, p 2.
106. P Uvin, & S Unsworth, 'A new look at civil society support in Rwanda,' unpublished draft DFID report, 2002, at http://fletcher. tufts. edu/faculty/uvin/pdfs/reports/civilsociety. pdf, accessed 20 July 2011.
107. Canada dropped Rwanda as a bilateral aid partner in 2009. The Netherlands has reduced the proportion of aid delivered as budget support to concentrate more on civil society. See 'Rwanda may see Dutch aid cuts,' Devex Online, 10 November 2010, at http://www. devex. com/en/blogs/49/blogs_entries/70855, accessed 20 July 2011.
108. Booth & Golooba-Mutebi, Developmental Patrimonialism?, p 15.
109. T McConnell, 'An uncivil partnership,' New Statesman, 18 November 2010.
110. DFID, 'Building the state, securing the peace,' p 28.
111. DFID, Operational Plan for Mozambique 2011-2015, London: DFID, 2011, p 5.
112. M Bratton & E Gyimah-Boadi, Public Opinion, Democracy, and Market Reform in Africa, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005, p 323.