The Political Economy of Aid and Accountability

’This pioneering book explores the often troubled relationship between donor concepts of accountability for development assistance and the way African leaders respond to their various domestic constituencies. Expertly dissecting the experience of budget support to Tanzania, Helen Tilley lifts the cloak of rhetoric and miscomprehension that obscures the place of aid in that country’s development.’ David Booth, Overseas Development Institute, UK 'Drawing on insights from economics, sociology, anthropology and political theory, this detailed case study of aid and accountability contributes significantly to the growing critique of the democratisation and good governance discourses that still underpin many aid programmes across Africa. As well as providing an original read for university teachers and students of African political economy, this book should also have an audience in aid agencies grappling with still unanswered questions of how to improve aid effectiveness.' Brian Cooksey, Tanzania Development Research Group, Tanzania 'Drawing on an in-depth study of the Tanzanian government’s "dance" with donors, Tilley explains how aid providers must avoid a purely box-ticking procedural approach to accountability. Instead they should add a relational component that sees the interaction between aid and domestic politics as critical to its success or failure, rather than an annoying interruption to technocratic delivery.’ Duncan Green, Senior Strategic Adviser, Oxfam UK ’This is a carefully analyzed and well documented study of the problems associated with implementing the Paris Declaration and its tenets like General Budget Support in Tanzania, a country that more than most has been a beneficiary of the OECD cartel of donors. It shows above all how simplistic notions of procedural accountability limit understanding of how aid money flows and is distributed through dominant power relations inside the country. As a call for a new aid paradig