Building Trust, Gaining Truth
The Relational Work of National Staff in Foreign Aid Agencies
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 2227896 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Molly Sundberg (0000-0002-0801-7451, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2020 |
| Volume | 61 |
| Issue | 5 |
| Pages | 563-582 |
| Publication date | 2020-10-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Current Anthropology (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0011-3204 • E-ISSN: 1537-5382 |
| Publisher | University of Chicago Press (PUBLISHER • US) |
| DOI | 10.1086/711234 |
| OpenAlex | W3034202853 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 7 |
| References cited | 31 |
This article centers on a particular category of foreign aid workers: the national or local desk officers employed by public foreign donors to run the daily administration of development cooperation in aid recipient countries. These professionals transcend the socio-professional binary between donor and foreign and recipient and local that is often constructed in anthropological research on foreign aid and its individual actors. While officially representing foreign donor agencies, national aid workers enjoy multiple ties to the domestic development industry-personal, civic, cultural, and professional. Given the high turnover of staff sent out from donor headquarters, national employees are often important for donor agencies' ability to build and stabilize relations in the host country and gain the trust (and truth) of their partner organizations. Meanwhile, their ties to the host country also expose national employees to suspicions of "local bias" and the risk of personally losing the trust of their foreign employers. On the basis of the testimonies of donor agency employees in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, the article explores the relational work of national staff and how they bring to the fore questions of trust, power, and individual relationships in foreign aid
Agency (philosophy · Business · Desk · Political science · Power (physics · Public relations · Socioeconomics · Sociology · Tanzania · Work (physics · International Development and Aid · Law · Peacebuilding and International Security · Religion, Society, and Development
The Art of Reception
Local Recruits in Development Finance Institutions
The Political Economy of Receiving Aid
From non- to for-profits, expats to locals, and the personal to the professional
For the Country, the Corporation and the Métier
In Pursuit of Epistemic Justice
Fundermediaries' in Nairobi, Kenya
Foreign Aid
The Network Inside Out
Life in Crisis
An Integrative Model of Organizational Trust
Not So Different After All
Encounters at the Interface
The Anthropology of International Development
Inside the Everyday Lives of Development Workers
Host country nationals as socializing agents
The Politics of Aid
Adventures in Aidland. The anthropology of professionals in international development
Fellow Travellers in Development
The Personal and the Professional
Existing at the Interface
Far-Fetched Facts
National Staff in Public Foreign Aid
Befriending the Field
Foreign Aid after the Cold War
Trust, accountability, and face-to-face interaction in North-South NGO relations
Thinking through the Anthropology of Experts
Learning from the Outsider Within
Beyond the looking glass? 'Aidland' reconsidered
Paired Opposites
Local in Practice
Donors dealing with 'aid effectiveness' inconsistencies
| Unique citing works | 7 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 2,33 |
| Citation span | 2023 - 2026 (4) |
| Citation velocity | current |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 7 |