Aid and development by design: local solutions to local problems

ABSTRACT This article makes a case for a reconceptualisation of aid and development programme design. Specifically, it questions the role of the international “development expert” in the design and implementation process. We argue that by employing “design thinking” as a guiding principle, the way in which aid programmes are envisaged and delivered can be radically overhauled, resulting in dramatically improved outcomes for the users of aid. We argue that practical improvements in delivery are achievable through locally rooted, “user-driven” development solutions that originate from the beneficiaries themselves. Design thinking as applied here goes significantly further than other programme design and implementation methodologies that champion locally owned, needs-driven assistance. Furthermore, we make a case for this approach addressing wider problems within the sector, namely the perception, in some quarters, that aid is intrinsically “neo-imperialist” in design and ideologically driven.

[1]  Andrew Peter Wallace McCarthy.  E DITOR ’ S C OMMENTS Diversity of Design Science Research , 2022 .

[2]  Stanley Moore,et al.  The Political Economy of Growth , 1957 .

[3]  M. Turshen.  Development as Freedom , 2001 .

[4]  D. Mosse,et al.  Cultivating Development: An Ethnography of Aid Policy and Practice , 2004 .

[5]  G. Mohan.  Beyond participation: strategies for deeper empowerment , 2019 .

[6]  Bono,et al.  The End of Poverty: How we can make it happen in our lifetime , 2007 .

[7]  Lucas Wexler,et al.  The White Mans Burden Why The Wests Efforts To Aid The Rest Have Done So Much Ill And So Little Good , 2016 .

[8]  Andre Gunder Frank,et al.  Capitalism and Underdevelopment in Latin America , 1967 .

[9]  W. Easterly,et al.  The White Man's Burden: Why the West's Efforts to Aid the Rest Have Done So Much Ill and So Little Good , 2006 .

[10]  Y. Tandon.  Aid without Dependence: An alternative conceptual model for development cooperation , 2009 .

[11]  Paulette Goudge.  The power of whiteness : racism in third world development and aid , 2003 .

[12]  Robert Calderisi,et al.  The Trouble with Africa: Why Foreign Aid Isn't Working , 2006 .

[13]  V. Durairaj.  The bottom billion: why are the poorest countries failing and what can be done about it , 2007 .

[14]  Immanuel Wallerstein,et al.  The Rise and Future Demise of the World Capitalist System: Concepts for Comparative Analysis , 1974 .

[15]  Jonathan Glennie,et al.  The Trouble with Aid: Why Less Could Mean More for Africa , 2008 .

[16]  U. Kothari,et al.  Critical Perspectives on Development: An Introduction , 2002 .

[17]  D. Moyo.  Dead Aid: Why Aid Is Not Working and How There Is a Better Way for Africa , 2009, Ethics & International Affairs.

[18]  Adrian Flint,et al.  Ownership and Participation , 2014 .

[19]  L. E. Wa-ku-Mikishi,et al.  Dead aid: why aid is not working and how there is another way for Africa , 2010 .

[20]  W. Easterly,et al.  The White Man's Burden , 2006, The Lancet.

[21]  Bill Cooke,et al.  The case for participation as tyranny , 2001 .

[22]  Tim Brown,et al.  Change by Design: How Design Thinking Transforms Organizations and Inspires Innovation , 2009 .