ABSTRACT
The message from the Sierra Leone Government that greets visitors at Lungi airport sums up quite well the prevailing cynicism about outside assistance. It reads something like this: “If you can’t help us, at least please do not harm us.” And if you ask people in Sierra Leone what they think of development assistance you get pretty much the same answer as you will get in most parts of Sub-Saharan Africa and many other poor countries across the world. The dominant image of aid is of government, donor, and NGO Toyota 4x4s rushing around, begging the question whether the means have literally overshadowed the end. Talk to the people who ActionAid works with in remote places—those who are denied what most of us would consider as absolutely fundamental to human existence—and they say they rarely see the benefits of aid actually reach them. Talk to concerned citizens in the run-down capital cities, where most of the aid crowd hang out to discuss poverty in ridiculously over-priced hotels and restaurants. Aid, these people believe, is what keeps unaccountable governments, donors, consultants, and NGOs in business; it’s a gravy train. The thousands of abandoned buildings, machinery, dams, hand-pumps, and other failed projects and displaced people across the developing world bear mute testimony to this pessimistic view.
