Canadian development assistance: The value framework and the field reality of an African country

Abstract

A high degree of consonance exists between officials designing Canadian foreign aid and the political elites of African countries. Both share a commitment to Official Development Assistance and both articulate the identical basket of values underlying current aid policies. These shared values, however, lack resonance once one moves closer to the ground within the current African condition. Drawing on field research in the East African country of Kenya, the distance between the value rhetoric of officials/leadership and the actual situation is addressed. The distance is so great as to undermine the credibility of both aid policies and of those who propagate them.