Aid as Handmaiden for the Development of Institutions A New Comparative Perspective

Through comparative studies of aid supported infrastructure projects in East Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa, the book examines how aid could assist development processes by facilitating development of local endogenous institutions, which are both pro-growth and pro-poor. Applying comparative institutional analyses based on the concept of endogenous institutions and institutional changes, and exploring the model of 'development cooperation', the book examines aid effectiveness in a broader context of institution development in the two regions. It offers a new perspective on the institutions-development nexus, alternative to the conventional one with its emphasis of an inevitable institutional convergence to a monolithic universal model. It argues that socially and politically sustainable development involves institutional innovation by developing endogenous institutions, firmly embedded in a local social-political system. The book offers policy lessons from the East Asian experiences with aid-supported infrastructure projects to governments in sub-Saharan Africa, the international aid community, including emerging development partners.

Machiko Nissanke is Professor of Economics at School of Oriental and African Studies, UK. She previously worked at University of Oxford, Birkbeck College, University College London, and was Research Fellow of Nuffield College and the Overseas Development Institute. She has published numerous books and articles on financial, international and development economics, and served many international organisations as adviser and co-ordinator of research programmes.


Yasutami Shimomura is Professor Emeritus at Hosei University, Tokyo, Japan. He has served as Dean of the Graduate School of Environmental Management at Hosei University, and Board Member at Japan Bank for International Cooperation. He has MBA from Columbia University. His publication includes The Rise of Asian Donor (with Jin Sato).

1. Institutional Evolution through Development Cooperation: An Overview; Machiko Nissanke and Yasutami Shimomura
2. Shifting Grounds in Aid Relationships and Effectiveness Debate: Implications for Economic Development in Sub-Saharan Africa; Machiko Nissanke
3. The Eastern Seaboard Development Plan and Industrial Cluster in Thailand: A Quantitative Overview; Fumiharu Mieno
4. The Eastern Seaboard Development Plan of Thailand: Institutional Aspects of the Challenges and Responses; Yasutami Shimomura
5. ODA and Economic Development in Vietnam: An Assessment on the Transfer of Intangible Resources; Tran Van Tho and Nguyen Anh Duong
6. Brantas River Basin Development Plan of Indonesia; Koji Fujimoto
7. Institutional Comparative Study of Brantas and Kilimanjaro Development Programmes and its Policy Implications; Kazuto Tsuji
8. China: From an Aid Recipient to an Emerging Major Donor; Takaaki Kobayashi