Involuntary guest post by Ben Ramalingam

I'm currently reading Aid on the Edge of Chaos by Ben Ramalingam, which attempts to apply complexity theory, i.e. the next big thing about five years ago (hate it when I get there late), to aid policy and practice. You should read it. Just finished Part 1, which dances lightly through the thinking and implicit theories behind the aid industry over the last sixty years and rips them apart, with wit, cartoons, punny chapter titles (Chapter 4 - 'The Goats in the Machine') and occasional classical references. The attack is directed at the linear, simplistic view of reality (cause and effect, rational actors, closed systems) derived from Newtonian physics, which underpins much of aid thinking and is totally inadequate for addressing the complex problems of development. There were some great passages which articulate, much more lucidly, elements of the frustration which underpinned my last post. Sharing is caring.

The problem with the aid industry:

"Despite the grander claims of some recent movements, development and humanitarian work is not a knowledge industry - except in the most idealistic interpretation. It is an export industry, and an exceptionally blunt, supply-oriented one at that. It gathers up poverty, vulnerability, and suffering from the South, packages them for sale in the West, and exports off-the-peg solutions back in relentless waves of best-practicitis"

And the traditional response:

"In the face of widespread institutional inertia, the resilient cookie cutters and travelling orthodoxies of foreign aid, the strategy most commonly found is to simply give up on trying to find a good solution. Just follow orders, do your job, and try not to get in trouble. Let the system do what it will."

The message:

"[A]id agencies are increasingly dealing with a world for which their learning, strategic, performance, and organizational frameworks were not designed"

If you fancy learning what more appropriate frameworks would be, take your pick from the following links on complexity in development, or, better, read the book. If I had to go for one (other than the book) I'd recommend the Owen Barder podcast (not that I've read all of these myself).

Papers/books (for the brave):

A (long) one by Ramalingam and others

A book on systems thinking by Donella Meadows

Podcasts (for the bus):

From Humanosphere with Owen Barder (short)

From Owen Barder himself (longer and better)

Blog posts (for the time-pressed):

From Ramalingam on his blog

Various from Duncan Green on his blog

From the Center for Global Development