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The contradictions of foreign aid
Book
Reviews
237
was neatly and sadly repackaged to provide separate zones for separate functions: housing here, workplace there, recreation somewhere else and urban motorways everywhere. All neatly arranged to be comprehensible to the average person in the street. Except that there were no streets and no average people. Having got it wrong at home, the planning theories were exported to the Third World to get it wrong again, and ride roughshod over whatever culture happened to be around. At this stage of MS Ravetz’ book, having seen the proliferation of inappropriate planning models and locations we are allowed to see a light at the tunnel’s end which proves to be none other than a train coming the other way. The illumination offered is that power can actually rest in the strength of public opinion. The vastly unmined seam of sound common sense which, until recently, was largely ignored in the name of ‘good’ planning practice could begin to lead the way in the future remaking of our cities. ‘Experts’ - architects, planners, sociologists, geographers - need not be isolated in their urban theories and opinions. The imagination they need in dealing with urban problems is to have the will to communicate, not to plan and design for people but with people. Professionals have disabled society through ill-considered policies; people may be enabled to achieve better quality in their environments through being allowed to participate in the decision making process. The community’s perception of itself, the space it occupies, and its potential may be the missing link in developing an urban planning approach suitable for the late 20th Century. For this link to be joined into the chain of progress MS Ravetz advocates “a revolution in consciousness”. Such a revolution, if undergone by planning professionals, might enable us all, in the words of E.F. Schumacher “to see the world in a new light”. Gerry Cahill London and Dublin
DESMOND McNEILL, The Contradictions of Foreign Aid. Croom Helm Ltd, Beckenham, 1981, 114 pp. The Contradictions of Foreign Aid is an analytical account of the giving and receiving of foreign aid to developing countries and the contradictions at every stage of the process. Aid, Desmond McNeil1 argues, is in principal a good thing. but its decision-making machinery has embodied in it a=,sumptions and interests which mean that aid is rarely based on a rational analysis of the problems of the poor in any country, region, or sector. The book examines the criteria by which projects are identified; the ambiguous motives behind leverage; the bureaucratic and political structures through which aid is channelled and the management of projects, from the perspectives of all the parties involved - the multi-, bilateral and sectoral agencies and the agencies in the recipient country. The issues are discussed on the basis of the author’s experience, using welldefined concepts, but at the same time achieving a level of generality which makes the complex web of relationships and perspectives easily accessible to the reader. One of the most striking contradictions is that aid agencies in any period are unable to identify enough projects on which to spend all of their funds. They can even be in competition with one another to fund the minority of projects which meet their specifications. Clearly the donors hold the trump card in the process and can use it in ways which beg the definition ‘aid’. Conversely, they are also concerned to guard against corruption and to supervise the implementation of projects so that they meet the best possible standards of efficiency. However, the standards practised by the Western donors may not be the ones which benefit the poor or the indigenous institutions which are supposed to be helping them. Similarly, the recipient agencies are locked into a series of contradictions which mitigate against the best possible use of aid. This can result in the manipulation of aid by politicians to win elections or by civil servants to enhance the power of their Ministry. HAB 8:3/4-P
Having described a myriad of contradictions, Desmond McNeil1 proposes a number of alternatives, most of which are based on a much broader concept of aid. These include a move away from the present preference for aiding capital projects to funding the recurrent and local costs of a project; the relaxation of import controls in order that developing countries can enter more world markets with their manufactured goods; and the builing by donor agencies of long-term relationships commmitted to studying and understanding the problems more thoroughly. The Contradictions of Foreign Aid is intended for students and professionals new to the aid field who might be bemused by the complexities of what is supposed to be a benevolent arrangement. This book will certainly be useful to them and to anyone else needing a straightforward account of a process where things turn into their opposites. Mary Williams
Development Planning Unit University College, London
IBRD
(World
Development, The World
Bank),
Leaming
by Doing:
Wovld Bank
Lending ,for Urhm
1072--82.
Bank,
Washington,
DC.
1983, 55 pp.
The World Bank is to be congratulated on the publication of this document. After briefly summarising its contents 1 will examine one or two of the issues which I regard as most important; particularly what the Bank has sought to achieve in the decade 1972-l9S2, and what should be its policies in the urban sector in the next decade. My criticisms are. however, of the Bank’s performance rather than the document under review, which is clear, comprehensive and about as self-critical as one can realistically expect such a publication to be - especially if one is prepared to read between the lines. The initial objectives of the Bank’s Urban Projects Department, set up in 1972, are stated as: ./ . . . to assist member governments and develop approaches for the efficient and equitable provision of urban services and empl(~ynlent~‘. (p. 3) I will discuss at some length below the accuracy and adequacy of this stated objective. Suffice it to say, at this stage, that it was, in the Bank’s words, translated into concrete secondary objectives, including: - “to demonstrate low-cost technical solutions for shelter. infrastructure and transport . . .; - to demonstrate that it was possible to provide services for most of the urban poor on a non-subsidised basis; - to demonstrate the feasibility of comprehensive urban planning and investment procedures suitable to rapidly changing urban conditions; - to demonstrate the replicability of these projects . . ._’ (p. 4) Although the document distinguishes four different types of project (urban shelter projects, urban transport projects, integrated urban projects and regional development projects) it is evident that a large proportion of the effort. and a rather larger proportion of the achievement, has been in the field of urban shelter. The experience of the Bank in these different fields is summarised and a number of specific problems are described (the institutional framework; delays in acquisition of land and problems of tenure; unwillingness of beneficiaries to pay costs, especially in slum upgrading projects; shifts in standards; project management; ‘special components’, such as health. nutrition and community development). The management of urban operations is then assessed, and compared with other
Reviews
237
was neatly and sadly repackaged to provide separate zones for separate functions: housing here, workplace there, recreation somewhere else and urban motorways everywhere. All neatly arranged to be comprehensible to the average person in the street. Except that there were no streets and no average people. Having got it wrong at home, the planning theories were exported to the Third World to get it wrong again, and ride roughshod over whatever culture happened to be around. At this stage of MS Ravetz’ book, having seen the proliferation of inappropriate planning models and locations we are allowed to see a light at the tunnel’s end which proves to be none other than a train coming the other way. The illumination offered is that power can actually rest in the strength of public opinion. The vastly unmined seam of sound common sense which, until recently, was largely ignored in the name of ‘good’ planning practice could begin to lead the way in the future remaking of our cities. ‘Experts’ - architects, planners, sociologists, geographers - need not be isolated in their urban theories and opinions. The imagination they need in dealing with urban problems is to have the will to communicate, not to plan and design for people but with people. Professionals have disabled society through ill-considered policies; people may be enabled to achieve better quality in their environments through being allowed to participate in the decision making process. The community’s perception of itself, the space it occupies, and its potential may be the missing link in developing an urban planning approach suitable for the late 20th Century. For this link to be joined into the chain of progress MS Ravetz advocates “a revolution in consciousness”. Such a revolution, if undergone by planning professionals, might enable us all, in the words of E.F. Schumacher “to see the world in a new light”. Gerry Cahill London and Dublin
DESMOND McNEILL, The Contradictions of Foreign Aid. Croom Helm Ltd, Beckenham, 1981, 114 pp. The Contradictions of Foreign Aid is an analytical account of the giving and receiving of foreign aid to developing countries and the contradictions at every stage of the process. Aid, Desmond McNeil1 argues, is in principal a good thing. but its decision-making machinery has embodied in it a=,sumptions and interests which mean that aid is rarely based on a rational analysis of the problems of the poor in any country, region, or sector. The book examines the criteria by which projects are identified; the ambiguous motives behind leverage; the bureaucratic and political structures through which aid is channelled and the management of projects, from the perspectives of all the parties involved - the multi-, bilateral and sectoral agencies and the agencies in the recipient country. The issues are discussed on the basis of the author’s experience, using welldefined concepts, but at the same time achieving a level of generality which makes the complex web of relationships and perspectives easily accessible to the reader. One of the most striking contradictions is that aid agencies in any period are unable to identify enough projects on which to spend all of their funds. They can even be in competition with one another to fund the minority of projects which meet their specifications. Clearly the donors hold the trump card in the process and can use it in ways which beg the definition ‘aid’. Conversely, they are also concerned to guard against corruption and to supervise the implementation of projects so that they meet the best possible standards of efficiency. However, the standards practised by the Western donors may not be the ones which benefit the poor or the indigenous institutions which are supposed to be helping them. Similarly, the recipient agencies are locked into a series of contradictions which mitigate against the best possible use of aid. This can result in the manipulation of aid by politicians to win elections or by civil servants to enhance the power of their Ministry. HAB 8:3/4-P
Having described a myriad of contradictions, Desmond McNeil1 proposes a number of alternatives, most of which are based on a much broader concept of aid. These include a move away from the present preference for aiding capital projects to funding the recurrent and local costs of a project; the relaxation of import controls in order that developing countries can enter more world markets with their manufactured goods; and the builing by donor agencies of long-term relationships commmitted to studying and understanding the problems more thoroughly. The Contradictions of Foreign Aid is intended for students and professionals new to the aid field who might be bemused by the complexities of what is supposed to be a benevolent arrangement. This book will certainly be useful to them and to anyone else needing a straightforward account of a process where things turn into their opposites. Mary Williams
Development Planning Unit University College, London
IBRD
(World
Development, The World
Bank),
Leaming
by Doing:
Wovld Bank
Lending ,for Urhm
1072--82.
Bank,
Washington,
DC.
1983, 55 pp.
The World Bank is to be congratulated on the publication of this document. After briefly summarising its contents 1 will examine one or two of the issues which I regard as most important; particularly what the Bank has sought to achieve in the decade 1972-l9S2, and what should be its policies in the urban sector in the next decade. My criticisms are. however, of the Bank’s performance rather than the document under review, which is clear, comprehensive and about as self-critical as one can realistically expect such a publication to be - especially if one is prepared to read between the lines. The initial objectives of the Bank’s Urban Projects Department, set up in 1972, are stated as: ./ . . . to assist member governments and develop approaches for the efficient and equitable provision of urban services and empl(~ynlent~‘. (p. 3) I will discuss at some length below the accuracy and adequacy of this stated objective. Suffice it to say, at this stage, that it was, in the Bank’s words, translated into concrete secondary objectives, including: - “to demonstrate low-cost technical solutions for shelter. infrastructure and transport . . .; - to demonstrate that it was possible to provide services for most of the urban poor on a non-subsidised basis; - to demonstrate the feasibility of comprehensive urban planning and investment procedures suitable to rapidly changing urban conditions; - to demonstrate the replicability of these projects . . ._’ (p. 4) Although the document distinguishes four different types of project (urban shelter projects, urban transport projects, integrated urban projects and regional development projects) it is evident that a large proportion of the effort. and a rather larger proportion of the achievement, has been in the field of urban shelter. The experience of the Bank in these different fields is summarised and a number of specific problems are described (the institutional framework; delays in acquisition of land and problems of tenure; unwillingness of beneficiaries to pay costs, especially in slum upgrading projects; shifts in standards; project management; ‘special components’, such as health. nutrition and community development). The management of urban operations is then assessed, and compared with other