"Our way" : responding to the Dutch aid in the District Rural Development Programme of Bukoba, Tanzania

This book is about the relationship between donors and aid recipients in bilateral development cooperation programmes. Using the example of the Dutch District Rural Development Programmes (DRDPs) in Bukoba, Tanzania, it examines the processes in which the aid beneficiaries are engaged, so that they can appropriate opportunities that accrue from the donors' projects. Carried out from 1987 until 2004, the programmes have not been evaluated as successful. However, instead of being guided by the pessimism of a perspective of failures, this thesis focuses on the processes in which aid is made relevant by the recipients. Aid recipients engage in organizing practices, that is, manoeuvre in a power-charged relationship in order to access and make use of the opportunities in an aid fabric. The overall conclusion of the study is that even though donor-funded development projects may not have achieved the donors' objectives, the resources (material and financial) that have come along with the projects have proven useful to the beneficiaries through the use of organizing practices with respect to livelihoods promotion. [ASC Leiden abstract]

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