Foreign assistance and development in a small‐island economy: The case of Fiji
| Author | Randall Baker |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1002/pad.4230100404 |
| Date | 01 October 1990 |
| Published date | 01 October 1990 |
PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION AND DEVELOPMENT, Vol.
10,405-412
(1990)
Foreign assistance and development in a small-island
economy: the case
of
Fiji
RANDALL BAKER
Indiana University
SUMMARY
In many works on comparative public administration and development management the argu-
ments put forward are often presented within the framework
of
comparing developed and
less-developed countries. However, within the latter category there are fairly substantial differ-
ences, usually categorized within the context of system of government, or degrees of per
capita income. Rarely is the question of scale addressed head on. One dimension of this,
for instance, is the nature and operation of public administration where the proliferation
of
traditional ministries, and the impartiality of the administration, become very problematic
in
terms of the extremely limited resources and the very personal nature
of
public life-
especially in the microstates. In this paper the question of scale is addressed in the context
of the relationship between one island state, Fiji, and its bilateral and multilateral partners.
This is considered not
just
in terms
of
aid and loans, but in terms of such issues as the
‘critical mass’
of
skilled professional people, and the problems of functioning in a system
where the rules for such things as overheads seem to have been evolved in the context of
the Third-World giants. It is shown that the scale variable
is
a very powerful one in both
the effectiveness and efficiency
of
governments working in tandem with major external sources
of capital assistance.
INTRODUCTION
This paper, while by no means definitive, offers some conclusions derived from
a period of immersion in the planning and budgetary process in Fiji. It often appears
that little allowance has been made, in the operation
of
many donors and lenders,
for the problems arising from the scale and isolation of small island economies.
This dysfunction results in the problem of relating the scale
of
new capital expenditure
to the real needs of the population once major infrastructural priorities have been
met. Furthermore, the small island states suffer from their inability to hold on to
trained, mid-level people in the context of their marketable skills and the limited
capacity of these micro-economies to pay such people at the world market rate.
Randall Baker is Director
of
International Programmes at the School
of
Public and Environmental
Affairs, Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana
47405,
U.S.A.
027
1-2075/90/040405-08$05.00
0
1990 by John Wiley
&
Sons, Ltd.
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