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- Sundberg, Molly, 1982-
(author)
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Donors dealing with ‘aid effectiveness’ inconsistencies : national staff in foreign aid agencies in Tanzania
- 2019
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In: Journal of Eastern African Studies. - : Informa UK Limited. - 1753-1055 .- 1753-1063. ; 13:3, s. 445-464
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- In the name of ‘aid effectiveness,’ public foreign aid is meant to bean equal partnership between donors and recipients of aid, while atthe same time proving its efficiency to taxpayers in donor countries.Moreover, as state institutions, public aid agencies are required tofollow their own bureaucratic regulations, and increasingly so alsothose of their partner institutions, while simultaneously managingaid in the most cost-efficient way. This article turns the spotlighton a category of aid workers who help foreign aid agenciesmanoeuvre through these conflicting objectives: the desk officersemployed locally by donor agencies in aid-recipient countries. Thearticle centres on Tanzania, a country at the forefront of the aideffectiveness agenda, illustrating well the tensions it embodies.Tanzanian desk officers advance donor conditionality andcircumvent heavy bureaucratic regulation by tapping into theirresources as locals. Such resources involve their identity ascitizens with a right to hold the Tanzanian governmentaccountable for how it spends development money. They alsoinvolve desk officers’ personal networks in the Tanzaniandevelopment industry, which help agencies expedite aid interventions – a resource important enough to be assessed bysome foreign managers in the recruitment of national staff.
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- Sundberg, Molly, 1982-
(author)
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For the Country, the Corporation and the Métier : Alternative Drivers Among Practitioners in Private Sector Aid
- 2024
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In: Progress in Development Studies. - 1464-9934 .- 1477-027X.
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- The financialization of development and the outsourcing of aid work to contracted businesses are strengthening the role of alternative drivers among practitioners engaged in international development work. These relate to but also transcend the dichotomy between altruism and personal self-interest, which often frames scholarly research on aid worker motivations. Focusing on consultants and development finance experts, this article highlights three institutional impetuses that guide practitioners’ work. They are concerned with the international competitiveness of donor operations, the stakes of one’s employer in cross-sectoral partnerships and the reputation and position of one’s professional sub-field. Consultants and development finance experts also highlight considerable staff movements across non- and for-profit institutions. In the increasingly complex architecture of aid interventions, such boundary-crossers operate in a new space of development brokerage, as mediators between public and private sector actors.
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- Sundberg, Molly, 1982-
(author)
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Local Recruits in Development Finance Institutions : Relocating Global North-South Divides in the International Aid Industry
- 2023
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In: Journal of Development Studies. - 0022-0388 .- 1743-9140. ; 59:11, s. 1635-1651
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- This text explores locally recruited staff within a growing category of organisations in the international aid industry: Development Finance Institutions (DFIs). DFIs are banks that offer risk capital to development projects in the global South, increasingly using tax-funded aid money. Based on interviews with 13 DFI investment managers, I show how Kenyan DFI staff challenge three of the signature attributes commonly assigned to local development professionals: their 'local' expertise does not contrast with or preclude international expertise, but rather overlaps with it; their formal authority and career ladders are not restricted to technical or support positions - many field offices are headed by local employees; and they rarely face job insecurity given their competitive qualifications and permanent employment contracts. Meanwhile, decisions on investments are rarely taken by these field office staff but by their colleagues at headquarters, and unlike the latter, even those local recruits who head their field offices usually lack a secure place in the global organisation of their DFIs. This suggests that structural inequalities between donor and recipient country staff - integral to the development industry - have not disappeared in DFIs but rather relocated: from within the walls of field offices to the relationship between these offices and headquarters.
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- Sundberg, Molly, 1982-
(author)
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National Staff in Public Foreign Aid : Aid Localization in Practice
- 2019
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In: Human Organization. - : Society for Applied Anthropology. - 0018-7259 .- 1938-3525. ; 78:3, s. 253-263
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- This article spotlights national desk officers working in technical positions in public foreign aid agencies. These locally recruited employees share with their posted colleagues the same qualifications, formal rank, and job descriptions. As such, they actualize the concept of aid localization, which is used in donor discourse and scholarly research to describe practices of employing host country staff in partner countries. However, while donors portray localization as an investment in and empowerment of “local” expertise, scholars have primarily used the concept to describe the diffusion of corporate or “international” expertise through the recruitment of locally based professionals to international jobs. Research of aid workers in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, suggests that national desk officers reflect this second definition of localization. They exemplify an anthropological critique of the parochialism yet universalizing ambitions of international aid, which are tied to processes of technicalization and professionalization of aid work. The article also investigates the link between aid localization and professional authority. Findings indicate that national desk officers enjoy less professional authority than their posted colleagues. An important explanation concerns the formal terms on which donor staff are employed, which distinguish between national and posted employees as mutually exclusive and hierarchically stratified categories.
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- Sundberg, Molly, 1982-
(author)
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Par le corps et pour l’État : l’ itorero et les techniques réflexives du corps au Rwanda
- 2017
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In: Politique Africaine. - : CAIRN. - 0244-7827 .- 2264-5047. ; 147:3
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- By one’s Body, for one’s State: Itorero and Reflexive Body Techniques in Rwanda When citizen bodies are targeted as objects of ideological instruction, what may this tell us about the relationship between political subjectivities and bodily techniques, and between a person’s immediate bodily performance and past political experiences ? This article is based on an ethnographic study of a civic education program in Rwanda. By exploring some Rwandan citizens’ participation in and experiences of the program, it enquires into the potency and limitations of government power of persuasion, exercised through and on citizen bodies.
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