Aid Is Not Obvious. Thoughts on Aid and Development
Charmillot, Maryvonne
Aid Is Not Obvious. Thoughts on Aid and Development - 2008.
98
This paper deals with development aid in the West African context. It discusses the ambiguities of aid, starting from the fact that aid, on the whole, can be qualified as a massive failure, whether public development aid or aid offered by NGOs according to a more humanistic framework. This paper is based on in-depth interviews with three figures from Burkina Faso civil society, a country the international community thinks of as one of the “least developed” and the African country receiving the most aid. How is “aid” viewed by insiders? What does the notion of aid mean for endogenous social organization? What alternatives to traditional “aid” might be proposed? These issues are tackled from two vantage points: (a) the problems and difficulties linked to aid, especially when aid projects are rooted in a vision of the world based on economic growth and the accumulation of goods; (b) the link between helping and giving (to help is not to give). Alternatives to the current system that emerge from the interviews underscore the need to place a self-other relation based on recognition at the heart of aid approaches. An example of what this dynamic could look like is provided in Moré, the language of the Mossi, the main ethnic group in Burkina Faso. The arguments put forward are based on the epistemological paradigm of understanding.
Aid Is Not Obvious. Thoughts on Aid and Development - 2008.
98
This paper deals with development aid in the West African context. It discusses the ambiguities of aid, starting from the fact that aid, on the whole, can be qualified as a massive failure, whether public development aid or aid offered by NGOs according to a more humanistic framework. This paper is based on in-depth interviews with three figures from Burkina Faso civil society, a country the international community thinks of as one of the “least developed” and the African country receiving the most aid. How is “aid” viewed by insiders? What does the notion of aid mean for endogenous social organization? What alternatives to traditional “aid” might be proposed? These issues are tackled from two vantage points: (a) the problems and difficulties linked to aid, especially when aid projects are rooted in a vision of the world based on economic growth and the accumulation of goods; (b) the link between helping and giving (to help is not to give). Alternatives to the current system that emerge from the interviews underscore the need to place a self-other relation based on recognition at the heart of aid approaches. An example of what this dynamic could look like is provided in Moré, the language of the Mossi, the main ethnic group in Burkina Faso. The arguments put forward are based on the epistemological paradigm of understanding.
Réseaux sociaux