The African Environment and the Aid Process
| Author | Brian W. Walker |
| DOI | 10.1177/002070208604100402 |
| Date | 01 December 1986 |
| Published date | 01 December 1986 |
| Subject Matter | Article |
BRIAN
W.
WALKER
The
African
environment
and
the
aid
process
The
longer
I
work
in
the
field
of
aid
and
development,
the
more
I
appreciate
the
complexities
of
the
process.
In
particular,
field
practitioners
and
their
Third
World
partner
communities
seem
plagued
by
what
we
might
call
the
'unintended
effects'
of
development
assistance
-
those consequences
which
flow
from
apparently
rational
and
well-intentioned
policies
whose
imple-
mentation
produces
effects
not
intended
and generates
results
contrary
to
expectations.
When
policies
are
directed
towards
securing
advances
in
multidisciplinary
areas,
these
unintended
effects
seem
to escalate.
All
development
assistance
touches
at
least
four
areas
of
human
experience
-
the
human and
social
development
of
communities,
the
creation
of
wealth,
the
en-
hancement
of
the environment, and the
stabilization
or
im-
provement
of
the
political
framework
of
the
community
in
question.
Merely
to
list
those interlocking
elements
is
to
under-
line
the
deepening
complexity
of
aid,
and the
inevitable
con-
tradictions
which
flow
from
it.
The
use
of
high
technology,
for
instance,
can
exacerbate
a
problem
and
give
rise
to
massive
and
costly
mistakes.
The
more
primitive
the
community,
or
the
more
extreme
its
needs,
the
more
difficult
it
is
to
use
high
technology
with
impunity.
This
is
not
to
argue
that
we
cannot
or
should
not
use such
technology
-
but
to
caution
against
the
instinctive
assumption
that
high
science
or
technology
automatically
resolves
complex
problems
President,
International
Institute
for
Environment
and
Development
since
1985;
previously
director
of
the
Independent
Commission
on
International Humani-
tarian
Issues
(Geneva)
and
director-general
of
Oxfam
in
the
United
Kingdom.
International
Journal
XLI
autumn
1986
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