I have long been very curious about foreign aid in Spain. Though virtually all my academic and professional exchanges about aid have happened in the DFID ecosystem, with brief stops in the World Bank, a lot of my foundational biases about the aid system and the ethos of development cooperation come from Spain. That is why I tried really hard to add a sliver of the Spanish aid experience to Why We Lie About Aid.
I hoped that some people back there would find the book interesting, a new tool in their ongoing struggle to improve Spain’s aid system. So I decided to send a few copies to the old country, including to Gonzalo Fanjul, one of the most passionate and articulate Spanish voices on humanitarianism and aid. Yesterday he published a post/review of the book in his 3500 Millones blog for major left-of-centre newspaper El País, under the apt title “Orphan aid“. Continue reading ‘Orphan Aid’: Review of WWLAA in El País