Review: Financing Development
| Published date | 01 June 2009 |
| DOI | 10.1177/002070200906400220 |
| Date | 01 June 2009 |
| Author | Amiel Blajchman |
| Subject Matter | Review |
| International Journal | Spring 2009 | 595 |
| Reviews |
FINANCING DEVELOPMENT
The G8 and UN Contribution
Michele Fratianni, John J. Kirton, and Paolo Savona, editors
Burlington, VT: Ashgate, 2007.321pp, US $99.95 cloth(ISBN 978-0754646761)
Anyone who aims to assemble an overview of development finance—an
enormous subject—faces daunting challenges.One must examine problems
from the perspectives of both the governments and organizations doing the
lending and setting policy and of those on the ground who receive and spend
the money. One has to confront both global trends and geographically narrow
local realities.
Financing Development: The G8 and UN Contribution
attempts to navigate these treacherous waters, focusing on questions from
the top down and offering recommendations for government policy, largely
neglecting the role of grass-roots nongovernmental organizations in the
development process. And while many contributors suggest that the status
quo needs to change, most merely recommend rejigging reporting
frameworks and increasing government-to-government communication.
Trade reform receives close attention. Myles Wickstead, George von
Furstenberg, Sheil a Page, Sylvia Ostry, and Robert Fauver ar gue that
increasing market access for third-world agricultural products can be as
important to development as multilateral aid. As Fauver puts it, “nothing can
stimulate development as much as participation in the global trading system”
(237). This participation must include special and differential treatment
within the context of the Uruguay WTO round and the Doha development
round. Underlining this point, Princeton Lyman argues that “treating Africa
as an object of charity, rather than a po tential partner, does no service to
Africa” (126). While the contributors do not suggest that trade reform is a
panacea, they convincingly demonstrate that the opening of European and
American markets will encourage African governments to reform their
trading policies and help to attract needed foreign investment.
Students of governance will especially enjoy the critical examination of
the effects that the G8, Commonwealth, and Francophonie have had on
African governance. At times, G8 development efforts have contributed to
corruption (for instance when aid officers turn a blind eye to local officials’
overseas caches of stolen funds). As a solution to this problem, Ade Afuye
suggests that the G8 establish a mechanism to investigate the track records
of companies competing for development contracts (150).
Wickstead’s review of the UK’s Commission for Africa is one of the
book’s highlights. His review of the commission’s history, governance, and
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