ABSTRACT
Foreign aid has often been portrayed by multi- and bilateral aid agencies as being apolitical. However, it is clear that, in reality, foreign aid is always political in nature. The acknowledgement of the realpolitik of foreign aid challenges the technocratic, top-down approach to design, delivery and evaluation of aid interventions. This chapter analyses the politicisation of foreign aid. Although PEA was the first endeavour to bring to the fore a political focus, a review of the PEA literature clearly defines PEA from the donor perspective as being deeply rooted in the economic paradigm. This chapter therefore argues that PEA must be abandoned as a technical exercise and must be re-politicised, in other words, a shift in focus from an efficiency-focused agenda to more nuanced notions of ‘best fit’, which require a much deeper engagement with political economy, and particularly with power relations between donor and recipient, and other vested interests. This provides a significant challenge to the existing organisational culture.
