The Failing Aid Complex in Uganda’s Northeast

Matteo Caravani ()
Additional contact information
Matteo Caravani: Tufts University

The European Journal of Development Research, 2024, vol. 36, issue 6, No 8, 1573-1592

Abstract: Abstract Every year about thirty billion dollars are spent on aid across Africa, yet recurrent crises followed by a blame game amongst different actors, and a poor understanding of the failures encountered, result in ambiguous assessments and unclear paths for reforms. Through the extended case study of the village of Lojom, this article examines the historical unfolding of a failing aid system in the Karamoja region of northeastern Uganda. The article traces a nexus between the agrarian crisis, the protracted humanitarian regime and social protection, in a regional context of structural underdevelopment. It argues that at the core of failing aid in Karamoja lies a manufactured agrarian crisis that dates back to colonial times. The article concludes that if aid policies and programmes remain inscribed in an enduring agrarian crisis, they will only continue to exacerbate exploitative dynamics of patronage, clientelism and subversion that characterize what is called here “the failing aid complex”.

Keywords: Failing aid; Agrarian crisis; Social protection; Karamoja; Uganda; O17 - Formal and Informal Sectors; Shadow Economy; Institutional Arrangements (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://link.springer.com/10.1057/s41287-024-00651-y Abstract (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:pal:eurjdr:v:36:y:2024:i:6:d:10.1057_s41287-024-00651-y

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.springer.com/journal/41287/PS2

DOI: 10.1057/s41287-024-00651-y

Access Statistics for this article

The European Journal of Development Research is currently edited by Spencer Henson and Natalia Lorenzoni

More articles in The European Journal of Development Research from Palgrave Macmillan, European Association of Development Research and Training Institutes (EADI) Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().