 The suspension of the Democratic Governance Facility in Uganda: the illusion of “politically smart aid”Nathan Vandeputte Development in Practice, 2024, vol. 34, issue 3, 336-350 Abstract: In 2021, the President of Uganda suspended the “Democratic Governance Facility” (DGF), which is a European basket fund aimed at providing financial support in areas such as democracy, human rights, and rule of law. Paradoxically, the DGF had explicitly adopted a new “politically smart framework”, which is a development approach that promises to deliver aid more effectively and sustainably in contentious environments. This raises the question: what went wrong? Informed by post-development theoretical arguments and through a discursive analysis of the DGF’s implementation of this new aid framework, this paper argues that this framework itself does not allow proper understanding of what makes aid “political”; in casu that it does not allow appreciation of local viewpoints of democracy, representation, and ownership. Then, rather than improving the status quo, this paper argues in favour of making aid “political” through a fundamental reconsideration of the very substance and infrastructure of aid itself. Date: 2024 Downloads: (external link) Related works: Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:taf:cdipxx:v:34:y:2024:i:3:p:336-350 Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from DOI: 10.1080/09614524.2023.2238915 Access Statistics for this article Development in Practice is currently edited by Emily Finlay More articles in Development in Practice from Taylor & Francis Journals |
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