A01=Thomas W. Dichter
accountability in aid systems
adaptive strategies for communities
aid effectiveness debate
Author_Thomas W. Dichter
bureaucratic expansion in global aid
career paths in relief organizations
Category=GTP
Category=JPS
Category=JPWH
Category=KCM
critical perspectives on aid culture
cross-cultural project evaluation
dependency dynamics in aid
development sector reform
diminishing returns of large-scale aid
donor-driven agendas
effectiveness of development paradigms
eq_bestseller
eq_business-finance-law
eq_isMigrated=1
eq_isMigrated=2
eq_nobargain
eq_non-fiction
eq_society-politics
evidence-based international work
field-based storytelling
financial pressures in global work
foreign assistance critiques
global aid systems
global poverty discourse
grassroots fieldwork insights
grounded analysis from practitioners
historical patterns in foreign aid
human-centered development thinking
humanitarian funding structures
improving impact in struggling regions
institutional inertia in aid agencies
international program management
leadership failures in global aid
lessons from field practitioners
lived experience of aid workers
long-term resilience strategies
mission drift in nonprofits
money versus ideas in development
NGO project realities
organizational self-preservation
outcomes-focused interventions
policy-to-practice disconnect
pragmatic approaches to assistance
professionalization of aid careers
project-cycle limitations
public relations narratives in nonprofits
reevaluating donor strategies
reforming global institutions
rethinking global engagement
short-term project pitfalls
sustainability challenges in global projects
systemic critique
systemic inefficiencies in assistance
Product details
- ISBN 9781558493933
- Weight: 541g
- Dimensions: 153 x 244mm
- Publication Date: 16 Jan 2003
- Publisher: University of Massachusetts Press
- Publication City/Country: US
- Product Form: Paperback
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Since the 1960s, Thomas W. Dichter has worked in the field of international development, managing and evaluating projects for nongovernmental organizations, directing a Peace Corps country programme, and serving as a consultant for such agencies as USAID, UNDP, and the World Bank. On the basis of this experience, he has become an outspoken critic of what he terms the ""international poverty alleviation society"". He believes that efforts to reduce world poverty have been well-intentioned but largely ineffective. On the whole the development industry has failed to serve the needs of the people it has sought to help. To make his case Dichter reviews the major trends in development assistance from the 1960s through to the 1990s, illustrating his analysis with 18 short stories based on his own experiences in the field. The analytic chapters are therefore grounded in the daily life of development workers as described in the stories. Dichter shows how the development organizations have often become caught up in their own self-perpetuation and in public relations efforts designed to create an illusion of effectiveness. Tracing the evolution of the role of money (as opposed to ideas) in development assistance, he suggests how financial imperatives have reinforced the tendency to sponsor time-bound projects, creating a dependency among aid recipients. He also examines the rise of careerism and increased bureaucratization in the industry, arguing that assistance efforts have become disconnected from important lessons learned on the ground. Ultimately, Dichter calls for a more light-handed and artful approach to development assistance, with fewer agencies and experts involved. His stance is pragmatic, rather than ideological or political. What matters, he says, is what works, and he maintains that the current practices of the development industry are simply not effective.
