Editing Development aid (section)

== Discussion on unfavourable impacts ==
{{See also|Aid effectiveness|Aid#Criticism}}
=== Imposition of inappropriate strategies and technologies ===
According to [[James Ferguson (anthropologist)|James Ferguson]], these issues might be caused by deficient diagnostics of the development agencies. In his book [[The Anti-Politics Machine]], Ferguson uses the example of the [[Thaba-Tseka District|Thaba-Tseka]] project in [[Lesotho]] to illustrate how a bad diagnostic on the economic activity of the population and the desire to stay away from local politics, caused a livestock project to fail.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Ferguson|first=James|date=1994|title=The anti-politics machine: 'development' and bureaucratic power in Lesotho|url=http://www.colorado.edu/geography/class_homepages/geog_3682_f08/Articles/Ferguson%20-%20The%20Anti%20Politics%20Machine.pdf|journal=The Ecologist|volume=24|issue=5|access-date=12 April 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170129094236/http://www.colorado.edu/geography/class_homepages/geog_3682_f08/Articles/Ferguson%20-%20The%20Anti%20Politics%20Machine.pdf|archive-date=29 January 2017|url-status=dead}}</ref>

According to Martijn Nitzsche, another problem is the way on how development projects are sometimes constructed and how they are maintained by the local population. Often, projects are made with technology that is hard to understand and too difficult to repair, resulting in unavoidable failure over time. Also, in some cases the local population is not very interested in seeing the project to succeed and may revert to disassembling it to retain valuable source materials. Finally, villagers do not always maintain a project as they believe the original development workers or others in the surroundings will repair it when it fails (which is not always so).<ref name="momentum-media.nl">{{Cite web |url=http://www.momentum-media.nl/files/_articles/31/Gestrand_Ontwikkelingswerk.pdf |title=''Kijk Magazine''; October 2008, Gestrand Ontwikkelingswerk |access-date=22 April 2009 |archive-date=24 July 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110724161438/http://www.momentum-media.nl/files/_articles/31/Gestrand_Ontwikkelingswerk.pdf |url-status=dead }}</ref>

=== Conditional aid ===
A common criticism in recent years is that rich countries have put so many conditions on aid that it has reduced aid effectiveness. In the example of [[tied aid]], donor countries often require the recipient to purchase goods and services from the donor, even if these are cheaper elsewhere. According to a 1991 report for the OECD, tied aid can increase development aid project costs by up to 20 or 30 percent.<ref name=":18">{{Cite web |last=Jepma |first=Catrinus J. |date=1991 |title=The tying of aid |url=http://www.oecd.org/dev/pgd/29412505.pdf |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160413105346/https://www.oecd.org/dev/pgd/29412505.pdf |archive-date=13 April 2016 |access-date=26 January 2021 |website=OECD}}</ref>

Other conditions include opening up the country to foreign investment, even if it might not be ready to do so.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.globalissues.org/TradeRelated/Debt/USAid.asp|title=US and Foreign Aid Assistance|publisher=Global Issues|year=2007|access-date=21 February 2008}}</ref>

=== Contradictions between aid and other donor policies ===
There is also criticism because donors may give with one hand, through large amounts of development aid, yet take away with the other, through strict trade or migration policies, or by getting a foothold for foreign corporations. The [[Commitment to Development Index]] measures the overall policies of donors and evaluates the quality of their development aid, instead of just comparing the quantity of [[official development assistance]] given.

At the development level, anthropologist and researcher [[Jason Hickel]] has challenged the narrative that the rich countries of the OECD help the poor countries develop their economies and eradicate poverty. Hickel states that the rich countries "aren't developing poor countries; poor countries are developing rich ones."<ref>{{cite web|last=Hickel|first=Jason|date=14 January 2017|title=Aid in Reverse: How Poor Countries Develop Rich Countries|url=https://www.theguardian.com/global-development-professionals-network/2017/jan/14/aid-in-reverse-how-poor-countries-develop-rich-countries|work=The Guardian}}</ref>