ABSTRACT
This chapter introduces the theoretical framework for the authors' analysis of the new architecture of aid being promoted by the International Financial Institutions (IFIs) in Africa and other regions of the global South. It explores Foucault's concept of govern mentality, examining how it helps us to understand the operations of power in the modern era. The concept of developmentality has been used in recent times by different scholars from disparate academic backgrounds, who like me have drawn on the work of Michel Foucault for their analysis. Lie draws on Foucault's govern mentality to analyze recent aid policies including the Comprehensive Development Framework (CDF) and the Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP) framework. The chapter focuses specifically on how this new form of governing rationality in the form of neoliberalism has uniquely different ramifications for postcolonial societies. Foucault's concept of biopower is also useful in understanding the racialized aspect of recent aid policies.
