Future Positive: International Co-operation in the 21st Century

This book on international cooperation is the product of the author's long experience in the development world and of his disillusionment with a system that "...interferes too much in the detail of other peoples' lives and not enough when it really matters." External assistance, he claims, can never be the decisive factor in creating internal change. He strongly supports the notion that, ultimately, citizens have to build their own societies but considers how assistance at various levels can provide the breathing space that makes this possible. Globalization, he argues, should not be viewed as a threat in this context but as an opportunity to move, effectively, from intervention to cooperation.

The first part of the book looks backwards at the history of international cooperation since 1945 and points to a number of systemic weaknesses - a lack of understanding of local realities, a lack of coherence in the overall policies that influence development, a lack of long-term continuity of support, a failure to engage with the forces that really change things, and a failure to support the reciprocity and legitimacy that comes from real democratic participation. The conditionalities attached to aid have been largely ineffective in
producing constructive change, in part because of the absence of local capacity to take constructive advantage of the kinds of opportunities presented.

The second part of the book discusses a range of measures (or perhaps, more precisely, a philosophical stance) that can be taken to make foreign aid a more effective support for development. For the author, this means primarily a system predicated on demand, not supply; one which trusts and supports the ability of people to design the most effective solutions for their own problems; and which negotiates conditions and targets rather than imposing them. Among donors, such a system implies an emphasis on learning, increased accountability and incentives for good practice. Among recipients, this kind of dialogue can be difficult without a basic level of security and equality of rights and, in many countries, redistribution is a necessary step - finding a balance between competition and cooperation, between self-interest and collective responsibility. Strong institutions are essential for promoting equitable development but, in order to flourish, such institutions require the legitimacy and vitality of local demand and support. The book also points to the need for a legitimate form of global governance that can support norms to regulate public and private behaviour across boundaries, and suggests that this can only be effective when it is rooted in democratically negotiated and consistently applied standards, a mixture of top-down and bottom-up action, authority and pressure.