Aid as an encounter at the interface: the complexity of the global fight against poverty

Abstract

Abstract: International development discourse has recently shifted its focus from top\u2010down economic adjustment to participative anti\u2010poverty policy. This shift hints at an acknowledgement of the local complexities within the poverty process and at a need to listen to and develop actions with the poor. But, whereas the mainstream argument remains couched in a technical framework, we argue that the fight against poverty is inevitably political. Conceptualising the aid industry as a set of globallocal interfaces, it follows that a closer look at participation in anti\u2010poverty interventions is needed to come to grips with the political issues involved. Four issues are discussed: the complexity of local participation, given the polycephalous character of third world societies; the power biases in the aid chain; the potential problem of false consciousness; and the ambiguities of the role of local development brokers. We conclude that anti\u2010poverty policy is in need of interface experts, who, through provocation can beget participation