Interest Groups and Development Assistance: The Case of Bangladesh

Summary Eirik G. Jansen, ‘Interest Groups and Development Assistance: the Case of Bangladesh’, Forum for Development Studies, No.2, 1992, pp, 181–193. The article discusses how requests for development projects are generated in the collaboration between a donor government and a recipient government. The article emphasizes the important role played by national and international consultancy and construction firms, their agents and middlemen, in influencing the requests which are forwarded to a donor government. Examples are provided of how these groups with vested interests in specific project proposals push requests for capital equipment, construction tasks and consultancy services. The article argues that NORAD's new principle of ‘recipient responsibility’ must be practiced in a flexible manner.