So Much Aid, So Little Development

Since 1950, Pakistan has received more than $58 billion in development assistance from donors and international agencies, yet has achieved little socioeconomic improvement. Samia Altaf, a public health specialist, explains why, telling an eye-opening tale of how development really works -- or fails to work -- on the ground. So Much Aid, So Little Development follows one major initiative, the Social Action Program developed by the Pakistani government and funded by the World Bank. In an engrossing account that reads like a novel, Altaf relies on a series of eyewitness vignettes to tell the story of the program's successes and shortcomings. She begins with planning meetings in Islamabad, moves through layer after layer of Pakistani bureaucracy, and ends up in Washington, D.C., at the formal evaluation of the program's performance. At every stage, she finds skewed incentives, misplaced priorities, and inappropriate designs that diverted the project from its original intentions and ambitions. Throughout, Altaf introduces us to the colorful characters who work in the field, finally including the human dimension in the development conversation.