Endogenous Development : Naive Romanticism or Practical Route to Sustainable African Development

Western ideas, worldviews, actors, tools, models, and frameworks have long dominated development theory and practice in Africa. This book gives a platform for thirteen African voices, academics and practitioners, to turn this Western-led theory around, and talk about an endogenous development process rooted in African philosophy, traditions and experience, and shaped by African decision-makers. This book was originally published as a special issue of Development in Practice.

Western ideas, worldviews, actors, tools, models, and frameworks have long dominated development theory and practice in Africa. The resulting development interventions are too rarely locally rooted, locally driven, or resonant with local context. At the same time, theories and practices from developing countries rarely travel to the Western agencies dominating development, undermining the possibility of a beneficial synergy that could be obtained from the best of both worlds. There are many reasons why the experiences of locally driven development are not communicated back to global development actors, including, but not limited to, the marginal role of Southern voices in global forums.

This volume gives a platform to authentic African voices and non-African collaborators, to explore what endogenous development means, how it can be implemented, and how an endogenous development approach can shape local, national and global policies. This book was originally published as a special issue of Development in Practice.