Homegrown Development in Africa

Okereke and Agupusi provide a refreshing and forceful critique of external meddling in Africa under the guise of development. Going far beyond aid agency doublespeak about "country ownership," they make clear that homegrown development is really about NOT having external agencies or experts in charge.

William Easterly, Professor of Economics at New York University, Co-director of the NYU Development Research Institute, and author of The Tyranny of Experts.

Okereke and Agupusi’s new book ‘Homegrown development in Africa’ is as timely as it is relevant. It comes at a moment of great deal of optimism surrounding development possibilities across Africa. A must read for development scholars and practitioners, the book speaks directly to those who value internally generated sustainable solutions through meaningful ownership of the national development agenda.

Yacob Mulugetta, Professor of Energy and Development Policy, and Director of the MPA programme at the Department of Science, Technology, Engineering & Public Policy (STEaPP) at University College London.

This volume is a must read for scholars and practitioners interested in international development programing in Africa. It provides a rigorous and balanced assessment of ‘homegrown’ development initiatives in Africa, set up as alternatives to externally sponsored development. The key finding that most national development programmes in the continent continue to retain "external character" through over inclination towards external expertise (rather than building endogenous capacity) is sobering, especially in the context of sustainable development in Africa. The observation that "no country has ever managed to achieve sustainable development through externally driven strategies" is a truism that sadly continues to be ignored in many development planning exercises around the world.

Professor Kevin Urama, Managing Director of Quantum Global Research Lab, Switzerland.

Despite repeated rebellions against external domination, from the colonial period to the present, Africa continues to stand as an exemplar of the ineffectuality of externally imposed development strategies. In Homegrown Development, Agupusi and Okereke pursue the search for an alternative that takes advantage of local institutional resources instead of undermining them and draws on local knowledge rather than suppressing it. It is an essential project, not just for improving developmental outcomes in Africa, but for creating better theoretical models of development in general.

Peter B. Evans, Senior Fellow at the Watson Institute Brown University, is also Professor Emeritus in sociology at the University of California, Berkeley.