From the Back Cover
Anthropology / International Development / Current Affairs
Where do all the millions of dollars of aid money go?
Drawing on his many years as a development anthropologist, Glynn Cochrane shows how the flashy “Festival Elephants” of development aid are wasting time and money instead of helping to solve poverty. He demolishes the myth of one kind of global poverty and one single solution to it.
His work experience in the Solomon Islands, Papua New Guinea, Sri Lanka, the Cook Islands, and Tanzania, illustrates how poverty is locally experienced and contextually variable. In addition, Cochrane’s ten years as Social Advisor to Rio Tinto, one of the world’s largest mining companies, demonstrates that fieldwork-based community relations, following a “Worker Elephant” or anthropological model, are a better way to alleviate poverty.
He challenges global aid agencies, civil society organizations, and corporations to retire “Festival Elephants” and reinvent “Worker Elephants.” If his plan succeeds, you might someday hear a different story about where all the millions of dollars aid go—they just might go to the poor.
Glynn Cochrane is a development anthropologist with forty years of experience in academia and in the public and private sectors. Trained at Oxford University, he then taught at Syracuse University and other institutions worldwide. He has worked for development agencies in the Solomon Islands, Papua New Guinea, Sri Lanka, the Cook Islands, and Tanzania. His books include Big Men and Cargo Cults, What We Can Do for Each Other, Development Anthropology, and The Cultural Appraisal of Development Projects.
About the Author
Glynn Cochrane, a renowned development anthropologist, was trained at Oxford University. He taught at Syracuse University and other institutions worldwide. He has worked for development agencies in the Solomon Islands, Papua New Guinea, Sri Lanka, the Cook Islands, and Tanzania. As Senior Social Advisor for Rio Tinto, he developed the company’s community relations approach. His books include
Big Men and Cargo Cults,
What We Can Do for Each Other, Development Anthropology, and
The Cultural Appraisal of Development Projects. He is currently Senior Advisor to Rio Tinto on Community Relations.
