Dirk-Jan Koch. Foreign Aid and Its Unintended Consequences. Routledge, 2023. xiv + 219 pp. Photographs. Appendix. Notes. Glossary. Bibliography. Index. $44.79. Paperback. ISBN: 9781032412146.
Year: 2026
Type: book-review
Abstract: Foreign Aid and Its Unintended Consequences is a robust exploration of the promise and perils of international aid to recipient countries, particularly in the Global South.Combining autoethnography with critical analysis of evaluative reports, Koch provides contextual clarity on variegated theoretical and practical concerns regarding the unintended consequences of aid.The author intends the book as "a call to action for … students, evaluators, researchers, policymakers, practitioners, and communicators of international development" (2) to better understand and guard against the unintended and negative consequences of international aid.Although he cautions that the addressed consequences are by no means exhaustive, Koch is able to identify the most crucial "top ten effects" (9).The discussed effects are as follows: (1) backlash effects, (2) conflict effects, (3) migration and resettlement effects, (4) price effects, (5) marginalization effects, (6) behavioral effects, (7) negative spillover effects, (8) governance effects, (9) environmental effects, and (10) ripple effects.In the backlash effect (Chapter Three), Koch explains how aid can be demonized locally when perceived as an instrument of Western exploitation or control.Pointing to public reactions in Uganda against queer rights activism, amongst other examples, the author argues that policymakers and practitioners should pay closer attention to the "undercurrents in the society in which they are working" (38).In Chapter Four, Koch examines how services or products derived from aid create hostility between communities, if not between local and international aid workers.Chapter Five discusses the migration and resettlement effects of foreign aid, pointing out how aid funding induces resettlement due to land acquisition for building physical structures in communities.In Chapter Six, he explores the price effect of foreign aid, reckoning that the influx of aid items may drive down prices and local production capacity.Conversely, aid can also have unforeseen positive effects, which Koch conceptualizes as ripple effects in Chapter Twelve.Some illustrative frailties are seen in the latter sections of the book.For example, discussing the behavioral effects in Chapter Eight, Koch recalls an incident observed by his student on a food aid monitoring mission in northern Nigeria.While there, the student notes that "some mothers deliberately malnourished one of their children as to receive food aid for the entire family" (110).
Source: African Studies Review
Author: Mitterand M Okorie
Institution: Nelson Mandela University
Language: English
Subfield: Development
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: bronze
OpenAlex ID: W7131679019
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