Customer Reviews

Does Foreign Aid Really Work?

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Riddell has done an excellent job to update his earlier work - Foreign Aid Reconsidered (a seminal work) to include the massive changes in aid that have occurred in the past 20 years, especially the shift to NGOs.

His depth of knowledge, both firsthand and theoretical, of development is clear from the very start. It is clearly a very, very well researched book.

The question he aims to answer is obviously huge, and he makes it quite clear that there are no yes/no answers. He deftly avoids over-generalizing, but does an incredible job to work with the limited and biased data that exists on development.

The greatest strength of the book is really as a massive, 500 page literature review. He is able to sum up, in a very readable way, the major debates on development's efficacy. In the end, he presents a very well thought out normative set of suggestions on how to fix many of the problems he highlights about aid - a refreshing piece of concrete steps (which he admits readily are only the framework, and subject to much debate). Yet I think it's very important to point out that, despite his catchy title, this is not your run of the mill, "How to End Poverty in 10 Years With MicroHydro" book. This is a scholarly work that looks at all aspects of aid, even though it seems aimed at a wider audience. There are no easy answers, but Riddell's analysis is penetrating.

Overall, its an excellent piece of critical development scholarship, and comes highly recommended for anyone interested or involved in development, from NGOs to academia. He plows through the numerous, unfounded myths that go both for and against aid through detailed reasoning and evidence. He avoids the trivial, surface level problems and goes straight to the systemic contradictions of aid.

If I was to sum up the message of the book in a few words - and answer the question of the title - it would be that, to Riddell, aid is working, but not nearly as well as it could.