{"id":20218,"date":"2021-12-01T11:18:30","date_gmt":"2021-12-01T16:18:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/africa\/?page_id=20218"},"modified":"2022-09-21T09:11:41","modified_gmt":"2022-09-21T13:11:41","slug":"international-development","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/africa\/outreach\/teachingresources\/international-development\/","title":{"rendered":"International Development"},"content":{"rendered":"

How do you teach about the post-world-war-II era and the era of decolonization and independence in Africa? International development and the aid industry are a crucial aspect of the global political economy of the post-war period and yet this topic is rarely talked about. The field of international development is often taken for granted and its assumptions are left intact.\u00a0<\/span>International development is defined\u00a0 as a benevolent flow of resources and expertise from \u201cdeveloped nations\u201d to \u201cdeveloping nations.\u201d Examples of international development programs and campaigns abound, and our students are often exposed to them. Students see media produced by International Non-Governmental Organizations (INGOs) such as World Relief, Oxfam, etc. which \u00a0often portray pictures of starving African children, refugee camps, disempowered people, and countries in political and social disarray. Conflict, poverty, lack of governance, dependency, and famine are often part of the heavy load of meanings that inform these images. <\/span><\/p>\n

Critical evaluation of this common narrative is necessary for our students.<\/strong> The way to do this is to <\/span>historicize<\/span><\/i> the \u201cstory of development\u201d to better understand how these relations between countries came to exist historically, and these labels \u201cdeveloped,\u201d \u201cdeveloping\u201d (among many others) came to be created. Some core concepts:<\/span><\/p>\n