Aid and Reform in Africa [Paperback]

David Dollar (Editor), Shantayanan Devarajan (Editor), Torgny Holmgren (Editor)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0821346695 | ISBN-13: 978-0821346693 | Publication Date: April 1, 2001

Winner of Choice magazine's Outstanding Academic Title award! Since the early 1980s, virtually every African country has received large amounts of aid to stimulate policy reform. The results have varied enormously. Ghana and Uganda were successful reformers that grew rapidly and reduced poverty. Ethiopia and Cote d'Ivoire have shown significant reform in recent years, but it remains to be seen whether it will be sustainable. 'Aid and Reform in Africa' summarizes the findings from case studies that investigate whether, when, and how foreign aid has affected economic policy in Africa. The main findings are: • Policy formation is primarily driven by domestic political economy. • Large amounts of aid to countries with poor policies sustain those policies. • Overall, donors have not discriminated effectively among different countries and different phases of the reform process. The book concludes that donors have three basic instruments that they can use to encourage adoption of good economic policies in developing countries: money, conditionality, and technical assistance/policy dialog. The case studies in this project show examples in which each of these instruments helped countries' improve their policies.

Product Details

• Paperback: 712 pages
• Publisher: World Bank Publications (April 1, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0821346695
• ISBN-13: 978-0821346693
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.3 x 1.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #765,540 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars Answers for Economic Development Summiteers, August 22, 2002

By 

Richard McMullen (Danville, CA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Aid and Reform in Africa (Paperback)

An introduction to Aid & Reform in Africa by James Wolfensohn points out that for aid programmes to succeed they must have a country-owned development strategy. This point is reiterated throughout the ten case studies compiled in this book edited by Shanta Devarajan at the World Bank. This book offers a thorough review of the interrelationships involved in assessing the effectiveness of aid in Africa. It compares the degree of political and economic reform and their relationship to the success of aid programmes in the Ivory Coast, Congo, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Mali, Nigeria, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia. Given the relatively even distribution of aid amongst all the countries reviewed, there remains a wide disparity in the success of aid programmes. Each case study is written by nationals of the respective countries who offer first-hand evaluations of the respective aid situations. The conclusions derived from these studies offer excellent guidance for the future direction of aid to the African continent.