Development Without Aid: The Decline of Development Aid and the Rise of the Diaspora

"Development Without Aid" aims to opens up perspectives about foreign aid to the world's poorest countries. Growing up in Africa the author developed a sense of the limitations of foreign assistance and from this evolves a critique of aid as an alien resource unable to provide the dynamism that could propel the poorest countries out of poverty. The book aims to help move the discussion beyond foreign aid. It examines the rapid growth of the world's diasporas as a resource of increasing strength in terms of both financial and human capital, and considers how far such a resource might supersede aid. The key point is that diaspora initiatives are a type of indigenous resource flowing through private initiative, not an alien resource flowing through public bureaucratic organizations. The book uses extensive research evidence to explore the possibilities for a resumption of sovereignty by poor states, especially in Africa, over their own development with the assistance of the world's diasporas.