How the Aid Industry Works : An Introduction to International Development

International development is big business. Official global aid flows from North to South are over $100 billion annually. China and India, former aid recipients, are rapidly entering the field as aid providers themselves, and international charity is being redefined with the resources of private donors like the Gates Foundation, for example, outstripping the annual budget of long-time donors like the UK, Canada or the World Health Organization.

Lacking in the literature on international development is an introductory text that provides an overview of the practices of the “business” of development. How the Aid Industry Works provides a basic description of what aid practices are and how they evolved. The arguments of both proponents and opponents of aid are presented and analyzed, along with real-life examples of projects and programs in context. Ideal for undergraduate and graduate students encountering the subject of development for the first time, the book also serves as an overview for development practitioners who want a handy reference covering the universe they inhabit.

Arjan de Haan has worked for the UK Department for International Development since 1998. He was social development adviser at DFID’s headquarters in London, and in the programmes in India and China. During this period, he wrote on social policy and social protection, the role of migration in development, and social exclusion. During 2005-6 at the University of Guelph, he taught undergraduate courses in International Development, focusing on current aid practices. In April 2009, he joined the Institute of Social Social Studies in The Hague as Senior Lecturer, Social Policy.