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AEGIS European Conference on African Studies
11 - 14 July 2007
African Studies Centre, Leiden, The Netherlands
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Rationale and policy in development cooperation: contradictions in Guiné-Bissau and Mozambique
| Panel |
81. Contradictions along the path to development: International co-operation, elites and entrepreneurs
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| Paper ID | 371 |
| Author(s) |
Costa, Ana Bénard
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| Paper |
No paper submitted
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| Abstract | This paper examines certain questions of development cooperation in two countries with diverse and, in some ways, diametrically opposed characteristics. One of these countries, Mozambique, is seen as a success story in the international media and by international agencies; the other, Guiné–Bissau, occupies the very lowest reaches of the rankings of these same agencies. In an attempt to critically assess the accuracy of these images and rankings, this paper analyses data on development in the two countries before passing to an examination of some of the contradictions arising from development cooperation policy and the rationales which underlie it.
The author proposes to analyse these contradictions from two inter-related perspectives. In the first, macroanalytical perspective, within the dual framework of an Aid-driven rationale (on which cooperation development is based) and a profit-driven rationale (on which are based the economic and entrepreneurial dynamics which cooperation is supposed to encourage), she examines the implications of these contradictions in terms of the conduct, strategy and practices of the elites of each country (entrepreneurs, politicians and development experts). In the second, microanalytical, perspective, she examines the same contradictions and implications in terms of the strategies pursued by a) the development actors who implement projects at local level and b) the strategies pursued by the beneficiaries of these projects.
The comparative analysis of the contradictions thrown up by “development” in the life strategies of the various social actors draws on data from diverse levels in two countries between which significant differences exist.
This paper draws on data collected both in scientific research projects (Mozambique) and in development cooperation projects (Guiné-Bissau) to examine some of the issues proposed by the panel. These issues include interaction between international/Western development agencies and national development agencies/agents, and the contradictions between scientific research and consultant services on the one hand, and the respective rationales of development and economy on the other.
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