Why Overseas Technical Assistance Is Ineffective

Loomis, Ralph A.

doi:10.2307/1237323

Cited by 7 publications

(1 citation statement)

References 3 publications

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“…By the 1960s and 1970s, the literature had moved to question the optimism of the 1950s literature, critiquing lessons learned over two decades. Case studies regularly focused on the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the pervasive problems of bilateral and multilateral assistance (Wolfle, ; Blasé, ; Loomis, ; Higgins, ). The 1980s and 1990s saw significant attention directed to the role of institutional development in the context of neoliberal policy reform (Buyck, ; Berg, ), while current research has demonstrated a consistent interest in the practical implementation and ontological shortcomings of capacity building initiatives (Eade, ; Girgis, ; Wilson, ; Smith, ; Brinkerhoff, ; Brinkerhoff and Morgan, ; Morgan et al, ; Watson and Khan, ).…”

Section: Technical Assistancementioning

confidence: 99%

World Bank Technical Assistance: The Relational Dynamics of Policy Movement

Bazbauers

2017

Public Admin & Development

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The World Bank has been widely critiqued as a global governance actor capable of coercing and persuading its developing member countries to accept its policy recommendations. This article contributes to academic discussion by drawing upon the policy transfer and policy mobilities literatures to analyse the World Bank's two main pillars of technical assistance (TA): TA components (advisory services contained within lending operations) and stand-alone TA projects (loans and credits that solely finance TA). Beginning from the constructivist position that 'development' is a social construct, the article argues that relational dynamics between TA provider and recipient affect the perception of the legitimacy of policy norms transferred from the 'international' to the 'domestic'. The value added of the article is thus that policy legitimacy is not simply conferred by whether advice is technically sound but moreover through the social and political interactions-the relationship-between TA provider and recipient.

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