Knowledge for Development?: Comparing British, Japanese, Swedish and World Bank Aid

In 1996, the World Bank President, James Wolfensohn, declared that his organization would henceforth be "the knowledge bank." This statement marks the beginning in earnest of a new discourse of knowledge-based aid, which has spread rapidly across the development field. This book is the first detailed attempt to analyze this new discourse and practice. Through an examination of four agencies--the World Bank, the British Department for International Development, the Japan International Cooperation Agency and the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency--the book explores what this new approach to aid means in both theory and practice. It argues that too much of the emphasis of knowledge-based aid has been on developing capacity within agencies rather than addressing the expressed needs of Southern "partners." Moreover, it questions whether knowledge-based aid leads to greater agency certainty about what constitutes good development.

Kenneth King and Simon McGrath, are both at the Centre of African Studies, University of Edinburgh.